Two hours ago I got back from attending the LA Times Festival of Books and I want to tell you all about it before I forget it all. Because apparently the fact that I jokingly say I have the memory of a goldfish is totally true (apparently it’s a myth that goldfish have a 3 second memory, but I’m all about selective belief, so I’m going to believe, for purposes of my story, that goldfish have a 3 second memory).

(I had actually forgotten a really fun night last year during the LA Times Festival of Books when I hung out with Jill, Amy, and Natasha. Seriously.)

I forgot to grab my camera before I left for Southern California which is a 7 hour drive from where I am. I thought about getting a disposable camera but decided that no pictures aren’t the end of the world.

The festival started off, for me, with one of the best, if not The Best, panel of the weekend: Fiction: Life Stories, moderated by David Kipen, who I ended up loving to fangirl proportions (see picture below) for his enthusiasm and preparation and general awesomeness.

To be fair, Kipen had quite the panel with Paul Harding (Pulitzer Prize winning author of Tinkers), Colson Whitehead, and Rafael Yglesias. I ended up buying both Whitehead’s Sag Harbor and Yglesias’ A Happy Marriage. The panel was quite entertaining with Colson’s humor, Harding’s self-deprecating manner, and Yglesias’ fascinating story about how he ended up writing A Happy Marriage (he wanted to write a book about the ups and downs of a long-term marriage, but he knew he would want to include many of his personal experiences, and a couple of years after his wife passed away, he realized he had that opportunity). I’d wanted to get Harding to sign my copy of Tinkers, but I left the freaking book at home. Gah.

One thing all three authors have in common is that not a lot happens in any of their books, so they all talked about what it’s like to keep a story interesting when nothing is really happening. Whitehead has the gift of humor, though his humor is subtle and easy to miss in Sag Harbor.

I think everyone, from the panelists to the audience, was jealous of Yglesias because his first book was published when he was 17, and he’s been writing ever since. He makes the art of getting published look like child’s play, while Harding relayed how Tinkers was rejected over and over.

I made a point to go to the Fiction: Writing the Fantastic panel because *coughLevGrossmancough* was on that panel. I don’t want Mr. Grossman to know what a freaking huge crazy fan I am, though I DID accost him after the panel and told him what a freaking huge crazy fan I am, but I don’t want him to find me just in case he Google Alerts his name.

(I read all his reviews and even watch these podcasts he does with this other dude about technology. I love it because he is such a nerd about technology. But I have to admit I picked up his book *coughTheMagicianscough* and read 78 pages then abandoned it. So when I accosted him I made sure not to lie and I said, “I love almost everything you’ve written.”)

The Writing the Fantastic panel largely went over my head because the moderator asked such involved and convoluted questions, but I was able to catch when Grossman, talking about his upbringing (lived in the suburbs, middle class, video game geek), said that he realized one day that his history is just that he’s a HUGE NERD.

To round off Saturday, I saw Michael Silverblatt interview Yann Martel, author of The Life of Pi and Beatrice & Virgil, which is his latest. I loved the interview and thought Martel provided some great insights into writing and reading, though I found him rather aloof when I had him sign my copy of Beatrice & Virgil. One of the audience members asked Martel if his use of animals, with their general lack of gender in literature, was purposeful. Martel denied that, but the question really made him think.

(I know I should have more specifics about what was said, but I didn’t have my notebook with me and, well, I’m lame. Sorry.)

When the festival was over, I almost lost my car. I was hobbling around in shoes that were comfortable for the first, oh, 6 hours, but at this point, around 5:30pm, I was ready to gnaw off my feet at the ankles because surely that would have been less painful. The reason I almost lost my car was because when I arrived at UCLA, I didn’t know where the hell I was going so I just pulled into a garage. I was stoked when I realized how close I was to the actual festival, but I only wrote down P3 East, which is what the sign said in the garage where I parked. Little did I know that UCLA has 12 parking garages, numbered P1-P12, and P3 was merely referring to the level I was on. MY CAR COULD HAVE BEEN ANYWHERE. After hobbling around for 30 minutes, I was starting to panic because a quick assessment of the position of the sun (using my fingers as a guide) showed I had an hour and a half to find my car. With a campus the size of UCLA, I figured I better HURRY THE HELL UP. I ended up finding my car directly across from where I was having my melt down.

After my car fiasco, I met up with some really inspiring and amazing bookish folk. While enjoying drinks with my new friends, I spotted *coughLevGrossmancough*! Are you starting to see a theme? I was able to stalk that guy all weekend.

The panels I saw on Sunday were largely ho hum (though I did tweet quite a bit from the Publishing: The Editors Speak Out panel, but that’s because it was a fairly straightforward panel). The one panel that was amazing was Fiction: Unstoppable Voices, with Susan Straight as the moderator. One of the panelists, Maile (pronounced like Miley) Meloy, author of Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, I was particularly excited to see because I’ve been meaning to read her book for a few months now. When the panelists were asked advice on how to make yourself write, Jane Smiley replied with something along the lines of, “Have lots of kids and lots of horses so that when you do get a chance to write, you take it.”

I almost forgot that the panel The Art of the Critic was particularly exciting because *coughLevGrossmancough* ended up being added to the panel at the last minute. He really took that panel to another level, because I didn’t think David Ulin was a particularly good moderator. Grossman talked about how reviewers are in the business of entertaining people, and ultimately reviewers are writing for the reader, not the writer.

I was surprised to see that *coughLevGrossmancough* doesn’t write negative reviews anymore because I didn’t think his review of Beatrice & Virgil was particularly complimentary. In fact, I got the distinct impression he didn’t like it. I’ll never know, though, because I ended up rushing from this panel so I could go meet Jen from Jen’s Book Thoughts.

I was really stoked to hook up with Jen, even though we only were together for 30 minutes tops. In that 30 minutes, she managed to get me to buy:

I hate to paint Jen as this crazy amazing book pusher (which, is really not a lie. I know she’s never steered me wrong on a book, and I know she’s wracking up quite the body count of bloggers to whom she’s all, If you liked this, you’ll like that. I feel like a junkie around her. “TELL ME WHAT TO BUY!”), because it’s not like I didn’t totally fuel my own habit myself:

Not too bad, huh?

The best part of the festival was seeing so many people excited about books. It doesn’t matter if these folks read a book a month, a book a year, or 500 books a year. They all made a point to be at a festival that focused purely on books. Reading is such a solitary experience, and to feel the excitement from all these folks was really amazing. It made me excited to be a reader.

Here’s some other LATFOB recaps (more will be added as more become available):

• Thea
• Amy
• Mark
• Florinda
• Ti
• Leah

Did your jaw drop open when you read the title? I know just how you feel. Let me tell you the backstory.

Heather from Age 30+… A Lifetime of Books asked me, I don’t know, back in January, to be on a panel she was doing at the Baltimore Book Festival about book clubs. I’m no expert on book clubs, but my journey to starting my own book club was long and arduous, and now that I have my own I’ve been obsessively interviewing other book clubs to figure out how they work, so while I’m no expert, I actually kinda am. I told Heather I would absolutely do it if I had the money to make it out there. Well, things fell into place and before I knew it I was confirming with her that I’d be able to come. And I was totally stoked! I was going to be on a panel! In front of people! With a microphone! At a book festival!

And then.

Heather emailed me and was like, Respond within 10 seconds of my sending this or you will hate yourself forever! Luckily, I had my email open so I saw it as soon as it came in (oh, who am I kidding? My email is practically a fifth appendage.), and Heather explained that the folks running the Baltimore Book Festival had asked her to moderate a panel…an author  panel, but she couldn’t do it, so she wanted to know if I was interested?

::blink::

::blink::

Umm…am I interested in MODERATING AN AUTHOR PANEL AT A BOOK FESTIVAL? Where do I sign, because I’ve already talked to my husband about promising my first born child to you?

So the day of the Baltimore Book Festival rolls around. There’s a ton of bloggers in the DC area, but everyone, I mean EVERYONE, was going to the National Book Festival. So I’m wondering if my panel really happened, since none of my friends were there to see it, but since the shirt I wore still has sweat stains from that day, I’m pretty sure it happened.

But before I can tell you about MY panel, I have to tell you about the panel I was on with Heather, because that happened first.

First, this is Heather’s graphic for her panel. Isn’t it awesome?

Heather found great people for this panel. One panelist teaches librarians how to moderate book clubs, and another panelist who is a native English speaker is in a book club that discusses in Spanish books that are written in Spanish. Freaking amazing.

Anyway, Heather’s panel went perfectly! She allowed time for questions, she had books to give away, she had an outline of points she wanted to cover, she kept the panelists on track, and she looked beautiful. There was easilty 25-30 people who attended the panel, which was perfect! Basically, she filled the seats she was allotted.

I can’t say enough nice things about Heather.

Then. THEN. It was time for MY panel. The panel was entitled Fabulous Females of Fiction: Four NY Times Bestselling authors dish about their writing, their characters, and their lives. The authors were:

• Donna Andrews, author of Swan for the Money
• Mary Monroe, author of God Ain’t Blind
• Lyah Beth LeFlore, author of Wildflowers
• Margot Berwin, author of Hothouse Flower and the 9 Plants of Desire

And then I found out that my panel was on the main stage. THE MAIN STAGE. I think I fainted when I found out.

There was bright lights on us, we had snazzy directors’ chairs, and someone introduced ME! As if I was important and didn’t end up being the moderator on a total fluke!

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to report after this. I ultimately asked 3 questions, but with 4 authors, that’s all we had time for. The time flew by and I did my best not to look like a grinning idiot, but I think I failed at that. I hope I can moderate a panel again in the future. It was so fun, so exhilerating, and so…ADULT.

Also, there was 50+ people in the audience. Pretty cool.

That’s all. That’s all the story I’ve got about my panel. Sorry there’s no pictures! Not only had I left my own camera at home (which was 3,000 miles away), but none of my friends were there to take pictures. But I swear it happened!

Speaking of pictures, I’m going to lift some pictures off other blogs to show you what a great time we had. I couldn’t possibly mention everyone, but I did want to mention a few special people I met (or already knew from another event and was excited to see them again).

Heather, me, and Amy.

Heather, Nicole, and Michelle.

Garret Freymann-Weyr and me. We geeked out over each other, and she made my day by saying how cute I was. She and I would be so fun together!

These are the only pics I have, and they’re thanks to Heather.

Rebecca is…amazing. She’s hilarious, fun, and smart. Pretty much I want to be her friend, but being across country is frustrating!

I could go on and on about how fun it was to share a hotel room with Nicole, about how Amy is always so fun to hang out with and chat with, about how I couldn’t wait to meet Michelle because she and I spend a lot of time chatting on gmail, about how I got to see Swapna’s house…but I won’t bore you with all of that!

Each blogger meet-up is more fun than the last! The next event I’ll be attending is the LA Times Festival of Books on April 24 & 25, 2010. You should come!

A long time ago I had visions of a book blogger retreat in Portland, Oregon. Those plans never panned out (but have instead morphed into a book blogger convention to take place either right before or right after Book Expo America in New York in May 2010), but since I still wanted to visit Portland, I planned to go up there and have a fun weekend with other book bloggers.

The weekend was more fun than I can even tell you.

From left to right: Suzi from Whimpulsive, Gabe from Reading Local, Wendy from Caribousmom, Gilion from Rose City Reader, Ali from Worducopia, Kristen from We Be Reading, Teddy from So Many precious Books, So Little Time, Bethany (in front) from Dreadlock Girl, and Trish (ME!).

So the nine of us decided to have the BEST. WEEKEND. EVAR. Okay, maybe we didn’t say that in our emails, but that’s how it turned out. At least for me.

We met on Friday night at McMenamins Ringlers Pub in downtown Portland. I was nervous because the only person I actually knew in person was Wendy from Caribousmom. Everyone was really nice and we talked about…wait for it…wait for it…blogging. Betcha couldn’t guess that, couldya?

So I insisted that Bethany stay with me (I pay things forward! Hi, Jenn!) and I knew thought I would love her AND OH MY GOD if I lived near her I would INSIST we be best friends.

Side story that relates to the whole weekend: I guess I should tell you that I love donuts. I love donuts with a passion. I used to eat three donuts for breakfast (and would wash them down with a cold Pepsi) at least once a week if not 2-4 times a week. Also, I can’t just eat any donut. Having eaten that many donuts, I can pretty much tell the good from the bad just by looking at them.

Bethany and I met Teddy and her husband on Saturday morning at SweetPea, a vegan bakery. I’m not a vegan, but SweetPea has fresh donuts Saturday mornings and WHO AM I TO PASS UP FRESH DONUTS? They were still warm. They were pretty good, but they *were* vegan, and while I’m trying to be healthier and live a greener lifestyle, I still like my fried dough to have eggs and butter. I was definitely out of my element, and I think my eyes got as wide as saucers when I ordered a latte and the girl said, “Do you want soy, almond, or rice milk?” I’m just glad I didn’t blurt out, “You mean you don’t have REAL milk?”

Our first appointment was at Powell’s for a private tour. Holy books! I think there is a heaven for book lovers and it is called Powell’s. Here’s some facts about Powell’s:

• Powell’s was established 38 years ago by Walter Powell.
• He decided that instead of separating new and used books, he would put them all together.
• It only took him a year and a half before he had to move to a different location, which is where they are now located.
• Powell’s has 27 used book buyers.
• There are 9 “rooms” at Powell’s. Each room has a specific kind of book. For example, the blue room has fiction, and there’s a green room, an orange room, etc.
• Powell’s used to be four stories tall, but it’s currently only two stories. They plan on tearing down the green and blue room and using that space to build a three story building.
• They can fit 350 people in the room where they have author events.
• Per week, 35,000 books are bought at the main Powell’s location, and the same amount of books are being purchased online.
• 1 MILLION books sit on Powell’s shelves.
• Powell’s employs about 190 people just in their main location.

There’s a really cool pillar outside one of the entrances to Powell’s.

The employees helped pick which books would appear on the pillar. The title of each book is written in the language in which the book was written. The books chosen were what the employees considered to be the best books of all time. They are:

• Moby Dick
• Hamlet
• War & Peace
• Mahabharata
• 1,000 Nights & a Night
• Tao te Ching
• The Odyssey
• Psalms

The bottom of the pillar, the four sides, say in Latin, Buy the Book, Read the Book, Enjoy the Book, Sell the Book.

Our tour guide showed use Powell’s rare book room, which was really cool. We got to see this old book from (I believe) 1814 that still had the map attached. It’s a book about the Lewis & Clark expedition.

We got to see a book with fore edge painting.

See how it looks like a regular book?

Now look at the edges when someone fans them out:

Cool, huh?

Unfortunately, we only had about an hour between our tour at Powell’s and our tour of the rare book room at the Portland library, so I didn’t get to browse the books at Powell’s as much as I would have liked. That’s probably a good thing, though, since I *shouldn’t* be bringing more books into my house.

I thought the tour of the Multnomah County Library’s rare books collection would probably be cool but now BLOW-MY-MIND-and-leave-me-wanting-more cool. Jim Carmin was the best kind of host: nice, funny, enthusiastic, and totally cool. And how could he know that I love Geek Love and Katherine Dunn? He couldn’t, and yet he brought out a rare copy of Geek Love that has a cover that was illustrated by a friend of Katherine Dunn. Bethany was kind enough to take a picture of me holding the book, so here I am geeking out:

Needless to say, Jim had my devotion after showing us this rare copy of Geek Love.

The only complaint I have is that our time with Jim just wasn’t long enough. If I ever go back to Portland, I will be sure to schedule an appointment with Jim so we can geek out over all the cool books residing at Portland’s library.

After seeing all these cool books, we got to talk more about books with Molly Gloss. It’s so rare to get to sit and chat with an author and ask all the questions you ever wanted to know! We talked to her for almost an hour and a half, and she’s really piqued my curiosity in her works. I plan on reading The Hearts of Horses and The Dazzle of Day.You can see a picture of all us bloggers with Molly Gloss over at Teddy’s blog.

After talking to Molly Gloss, most people had to break off and go do their own thing, so Bethany and I went back to Powell’s, browsed a little bit, then went out to dinner where we talked and talked and talked. The food was only so-so, but I absolutely loved talking with her and only wish we lived closer. You know how you sometimes meet someone, and you think, “How could I have gone through life and NOT KNOWN THIS PERSON? My life is so much RICHER by knowing this person.” That’s how I felt with Bethany.

So the trip was FANtastic. But I was determined to go to Voodoo Doughnut for breakfast on Sunday before I had to catch my plane. I left my hotel at around 6:30am so I would have plenty of time to get my donuts and still catch my plane. When I finally found Voodoo Doughnut, I was like ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME. The place is a tiny hole-in-the-wall, and supposedly their donuts are really good…SO good that they’re able to stay open 24 hours. So I go in and basically all it is is a counter and space for about 5 people. More than five people and it would be crowded. And there was a rotating display case that showcased their donuts and I was like, Gross, I’m getting donuts that aren’t even FRESH! GAH! So I order my donuts, and instead of pulling them out of the display case, the lady pulls them off of the racks used to transport mass quantities of baked goods. This is a good sign, I thought. I waited until I got through the airport and to my boarding gate before I ventured into what would be awesomeness or grossness. I even picked up a cold Pepsi along the way. I needn’t have worried. My maple bar and raised glazed were the best donuts I’ve had in a long time. I licked my fingers and promised myself that Voodoo donuts are the only donuts I will eat if I’m ever in Portland again.

Check out these other recaps:

Reading Local: Portland

We Be Reading

Caribousmom

So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

Dreadlock Girl

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross has been on my Favorite Books of All-Time since…well, since I read it. I read it long before I had a blog, so I have no review for you. You’ll just have to take my word for it. What’s it about? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Pope Joan takes a very small piece of unknown Catholic history and imagines how the story actually happened. According to the author, for hundreds of years (up until the middle of the 17th century), this woman’s papacy was believed and taught as truth. Why is that interesting? Because Pope Joan is a WOMAN. The Catholic Church would have never knowingly installed a female pope, so how did it happen? This is the story that the author tells and imagines.

Do I have you intrigued yet?

There’s some great questions and answers on the author’s website, such as “How would it have been possible for a woman to pass herself off as a man for so long and under such circumstances?” These Q&As are really fascinating; you should go check them out!

Pope Joan has been made into a movie (though there’s no release date for the United States, yet)! To celebrate this, the author is having a fantastic contest! You can join the author and her family as they walk the red carpet on the night of the Pope Joan movie premiere! Get all the details from the author’s website, but here’s how you can enter:

Simply buy a new, Three Rivers Press/Crown Publishing paperback edition of Pope Joan by August 9 and send me the original receipt. In August, I’ll pick randomly from the pile of receipts to select someone and their guest to join me at the U.S. movie premiere in the fall (exact date still to be determined).

The author has graciously offered a book to give away here, and I have decided to match her offer. That means I have TWO copies of Pope Joan to give away. Unfortunately, neither copies will get you entered to possibly go to the movie premiere, so I suggest you buy a copy and THEN enter for the giveaway, because surely you’ll be able to find someone to pass along your extra copy to.

(for you lazy bums, you can buy Pope Joan from Powell’s, Amazon, or any local independent bookstore)

To enter the contest, simply answer this question: What’s one book you’ve read that you think is great but no one seems to have even heard about? If you don’t answer this question, your entry will be removed.

Extra entries:

+1 for Twittering, Stumbling, or otherwise doing whatever you can to let others know about this fantastic giveaway (blog posts, sidebars, emails to friends with me cc’d, etc). Please leave a comment for each additional entry. You should know I check each additional entry and read each and every comment, so no cheating!

This contest will be open through August 1, 2009 and is open internationally.

Rules strictly enforced under the threat of tickling.

My friend Amy from *gasp* My Friend Amy’s Blog (does that joke ever get old? I didn’t think so) is having a party for the release of Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart. This past week she’s been encouraging people to buy Nothing But Ghosts and on June 30th, the actual party will happen with Beth Kephart doing a reading and then at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST, Beth will do a live chat at Amy’s blog. Check out Amy’s post, “A Nothing But Ghosts Party With Beth Kephart“, for more details.

Did you notice that Amy’s encouraging people to buy Beth’s book, Nothing But Ghosts? Now why would Amy want people to buy Beth’s book RIGHT NOW? One reason is because first week sales for a book are very important. Often, the buzz created in the first week of a book’s release will dictate the kind of momentum the book will have.

Another reason is because an author has to sell A LOT of books to make a living. Even if we assume all authors have the same deal and they get 15% of each book sold**, that’s A LOT of books to reach, oh, say $2,000 a month, in which case you could probably afford to live with your mom. (JOKING! I’ve made less than that and still lived on my own, but you get the idea. And the joke. Right?)

I know, you’re like, “Um, why should I buy this book?” GOOD QUESTION.

First of all, what’s the book about? Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

Ever since her mother passed away, Katie’s been alone in her too-big house with her genius dad, who restores old paintings for a living. Katie takes a summer job at a garden estate, where, with the help of two brothers and a glamorous librarian, she soon becomes embroiled in decoding a mystery. There are secrets and shadows at the heart of Nothing but Ghosts: symbols hidden in a time-darkened painting, and surprises behind a locked bedroom door. But most of all, this is a love story–the story of a girl who learns about love while also learning to live with her own ghosts.

Can I get a WOO HOO for a good love story? And yes, the book is a young adult book, but this genre is HOT right now, and by no means unrelatable to those of us of drinking age.

Is the book any good? I haven’t read the book yet, but I know a couple of people who have.

Lenore from Presenting Lenore said this in her review of Nothing But Ghosts: “Beth has done a beautiful thing here – she takes us to the truth of what it’s like to deal with loss (the too-big house that feels empty, the withdrawing from friends, the keeping busy to dull the pain) and then lets her characters (and her readers) find comfort and a renewed sense of purpose.”

Amy from My Friend Amy said this in her review of Nothing But Ghosts: “But what I loved most about this book is the simple truth that we are all a bunch of people who have loved and carry around aching loss in our hearts, and yet there is hope to be found somewhere, often in each other.”

Sounds good, no? Head on over to the Amy’s book drive to see about buying the book. And there’s even prizes for each tier she reaches up to 200. Prizes, people, prizes! Also, you need to buy the book by July 3rd to be qualified for the prizes.

I bought the book for my Kindle. Will anyone else go buy the book? Bueller? Bueller?

**I just pulled 15% out of thin air. I don’t know what Beth’s contract is, or what any author’s contract is. But I saw somewheres on the intarnets that some authors get 15% of each book sold. Dunno if that’s true, but hey, I saw it on the Internet, so it MUST be true! Right?