Book Expo America 2K15: The Recap and The Books

Posted June 11, 2015 by shooting in Uncategorized / 17 Comments

Random shot of the Javits Center floor (near the autographing area)

I attended Book Expo America 2015 this past May. I’m just now a bit more settled in since returning from NYC, so I thought I would share my adventures with you all. I have been to BEA once before, but I didn’t get to attend more than one day (and even that was about half a day) so it was really exciting to go this time around. I hope to make it back next year when it’s in Chicago because it’s closer to where I live and we could probably just drive there instead of dealing with flying.

My sister and I were supposed to fly out of Louisville on Wednesday, May 27 and go through Detroit to make it to NYC. Well, due to bad weather, our flight kept getting delayed and then our new flight straight to NYC was canceled around 9 that night. They put us in a hotel and we left around six the next morning, going straight to NYC. What really sucks about this is that we got there late and by the time we found our hotel and checked in, I had missed the Harlequin Teen breakfast. This was the only fun event I was invited to so I was really bummed to have missed out. Anyway, the rest of the day went well. My feet were killing me, but I had a couple meetings and met some fun authors, etc. throughout the day.

We attended BEA again on Friday and I don’t know how I was able to walk (I have bad feet in general, but somehow I got blisters all over them so it was tough…). Again, I met some cool authors and was able to get a ton of fantastic sounding books. My sister had a really good time too and she found quite a few books she hopes to read/review for the blog sometime in the future. There are also plenty of books we both want to read like These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly.

My sister, Kari, and I at Dylan’s Candy Shop (I’m in the red shirt)

I was in NYC on Saturday, May 30 but it was my birthday so neither my sister nor I attended Book Con. Instead, we did some other fun tourist things and generally just had a nice, relaxing day. We went to Ellen’s Stardust Diner for dinner where the waiters and waitresses are all Broadway type singers who take turns singing the whole time. It was great! Then a friend of mine from Brooklyn picked us up and we got some ice cream at Dylan’s Candy Shop and just had a great time hanging out.

Waiting for Disenchanted!

Other things I did in NYC this time around was visit Magnolia Bakery (great cupcakes) and see the amazing, hilarious off-Broadway musical, Disenchanted. I highly recommend it! It’s about the Disney princesses and how their lives are quite different from the Disney versions.

Anyway, back to BEA. Here are some of my highlights, as well as pictures of MOST of the books I got while there.

These two photos are Kunal Nayyar from The Big Bang Theory. I was late that day but my sister was able to take a couple good photos of him meeting with fans for his upcoming memoir, Yes, My Accent is Real.

*On Thursday, I hurried to Kate Scelsa’s signing. Scelsa wrote Fans of the Impossible Life, which I’m so excited to read. I told her she was my first for BEA and she wrote that in my book!

*The only other signing I waited in line for on Thursday was for Will Walton, author of Anything Could Happen. It was really cool to meet him – he seems super sweet and I love the sound of his novel. Authors Julie Murphy and Adam Silvera were also in line to say hello, so it was cool to be right behind them as well!! The above photo is Will Walton (blue plaid, glasses on the left) and David Levithan – who is the publisher and therefore he was there to help support Will and he was the one going around with post-it notes so that Will knew how to spell your name.

While I was there a bit longer on Thursday, I feel like more happened on Friday for me. I got more books signed (random in-booth signings for the most part) and I received more books to take home. I didn’t take a suitcase so my sister and I shared carrying totes of books around and then we shipped it all home at the end of the day. I paid for two boxes, and yeah, it’s expensive, but I think it was worth it and it all came in the mail nice and neat the next week.

My sister and I waiting for the shuttle on Friday afternoon at BEA

What I liked about BEA was that there were books in piles on the floor so it makes it easier to see what is available to take. I did ask people if certain books were allowed to be taken though, when they were on a desk or something. Every time I asked, the answer was yes, so that was cool. I also liked when books were being dropped at certain times. I came across a couple of these by random and jumped in the line. One of these is where I got These Shallow Graves (score!) It seemed like everything was well organized and I honestly spent most of my time walking around, visiting booths, and having conversations with publishing companies, etc than worrying too much about making a certain signing.

*When we arrived on Friday morning, my sister joined the Kelley Armstrong signing for The Masked Truth and got a copy signed. I was going to try and join the line for Black Widow but it was way too long. However, later that day I got in the line for Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld which was awesome and the wait wasn’t too long, so that’s even better.

Another waiting for the shuttle shot

And now…a look at most of the books I got while at BEA. Anything Could Happen and Fans of the Impossible Life are not included here, nor is These Shallow Graves and a few others my sister brought to her house. This is most of it though!

The above books are June, July, and August ARCS. I’m excited about The Gratitude Diaries – that was an in-booth signing I randomly came across and I’m really excited I did. So that one is autographed.

These are my September ARCS- The Story of My Tits is a graphic memoir about breast cancer (it’s signed – random in-booth signing). Dream Things True was a galley drop and the author happened to be in the booth so that one is signed as well.

These are the October ARCS and it’s full of some good titles. City on Fire is one I’m excited about – the author had an in-booth signing, but I missed it, so it’s cool they had extra copies later. Nine Lives is another in-booth signing I attended. I’m also really excited about Illuminae. The floors leading up to the main floor of BEA were designed to look like the cover. Photo below:

These are my November ARCS, and it’s slowed down a bit, which is nice. September and October are some busy months! I’m excited about D.C. Trip in particular.

This is my one and only December ARC but I’m really pumped. I read an excerpt from this one and it sounds great – by the way, the main character is blind if you didn’t already know!

And these are January 2016 ARCS – it will be difficult not to read these sooner since I have so many other titles to get through. I was excited that my sister was able to get a copy of The Expatriates since I didn’t make it to the author’s in-booth signing. I’m also excited for The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend.

And finally, these last two photos are books that are finished copies. I assume that means that all of them have already been released, but I hope to read some of these in-between reading the various ARCS I got. The Ables sounds great and it’s one that I got signed as well.

My other final copies! I’m excited to read Emergency Contact, which is an M/M romance I had seen online before. Point Hollow and The Dead Hamlets are both thrillers that sound awesome.

So that’s about it! If you have any questions about BEA or these novels or my time in NYC, please let me know and I can do another post answering them!

17 responses to “Book Expo America 2K15: The Recap and The Books

  1. This looks like it was so much fun and look at all those amazing books you got! Thanks so much for sharing these pics. It is my goal to one day make it there. 😀

  2. I just finished reading Stone Rider by David Hofmeyr and I loved it! So different from anything I've ever read and it got me really excited about reading again after this weird slump that I've been in! You should definitely pick that one up soon!!!

  3. I hope I can go next year to meet you, Lauren! 🙂 Keeping my fingers crossed for us both!

    So sorry you missed the Harlequin Teen Breakfast, especially since you were really looking forward to it. 🙁 Next year, perhaps?

    And yay for getting These Shallow Graves! So excited for it as well. I also really want to read Dream Things True (I couldn't resist requesting it from the publisher when I saw it in people's hauls), We'll Never Be Apart, Illuminae (my jealousy is off the charts!) and Not If I See You First!

  4. Oh man. I promise myself I'm going to make an effort to go next year. I went last year, but I'm so incredibly shy that I ended up not having any fun at all. Looking forward to reading your reviews on these amazing books!

  5. Wow! It looks like you had a wonderful time! I can't believe the amount of books this convention gives! You're so incredibly lucky, and I personally cannot wait to read your thoughts on all of them 🙂

  6. I love looking at other people's BEA piles, because it's like we weren't even at the same event! I am equally excited about These Shallow Graves.

    I'm most likely skipping BEA next year, just because it would mean flying, which I hate, but if it's in Chicago in 2017 too, maybe I'll suck it up and attend. I do want to see Chicago someday, instead of just flying through it.

  7. It looks like you had so much fon! I'd love to go to BEA one day, not only for the books but everything looks amazing. I loved the stairs and meeting the authors sounds amazing.

  8. It looks and sounds like you had a great time. Look at all those books! I think the only one in those piles that I've heard of is The Heartbreakers by Ali Novak, which I'm reading now.

    I didn't know that Kunal Nayyar has a book coming out! I'm a big Big Bang Theory fan so I think I'll check that out.

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