BookExpo America 2016

I had the opportunity to attend BookExpo America, and while I have been to various book events before, none were as big as BEA, and certainly none as commercial. The 2016 Expo took place May 11 to 13 at McCormick Place, Chicago. I went on the last day of the Expo and could not have been more pleased about the fantastic books and ARCs I picked up! It was a smorgasbord of book totes, engaging discussions with book industry folks, and bookish swag (like artistic literary postcards from Obvious State).

One of my favorite takeaways from the meeting was a journal. I do not journal (despite best attempts), but this is a notebook that I just could not resist: it is a novel journal. The lined journal pages actually contain all the lines from classical literary favorites. Available from Thunder Bay Press's Canterbury Classics imprint, these journals are a clever concept and also struck me as well made, with covers soft to the touch. I picked up the Great Expectations journal.

I was also quite excited to learn about a relatively new book app from the same folks that founded the Out of Print clothing company. Their app is called Litsy, and I think think their tagline sums it up best: "Where books make friends." While I've only been using Litsy for the last 2 days since I first learned about the app, it is a bit like if Twitter and Instagram had an adorable little bookish social networking baby. Find me on Litsy with the username @ReadosaurusText, and learn more about Litsy from their engaged Twitter feed @getlitsy.

I cannot understate how incredibly enthusiastic I am about the stack of new books I picked up to read! My first objective was to find the Europa Editions booth--they are one of my favorite publishers because they consistently publish high quality literary fiction from international authors. When I found Europa Editions, I was delighted to discover they were having a signing! In addition to getting a copy of Sergio Y. signed by author Alexandre Vidal Porto, I was also given a copy of Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth. Northwestern University Press had hot-off-the-press copies of The Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of Biography of a Runaway Slave. I picked up a copy of Redskins: Insult and Brand by C. Richard King from University of Nebraska Press. And yes, in the background of the picture, that is a t-shirt for University of Georgia Press's new book, Blood, Bone, and Marrow: A Biography of Harry Crews by Ted Geltner.

I received a number of advance review copies, which I am listing here along with their release dates. Stay tuned for posts about these books!



August 2016

Ulitskaya, Ludmila. The Kukotsky Enigma. Trans. Diana Nemec Ignashev. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

September 2016
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Here I Am. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
Gray, Sarah. A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Gift of Thomas Ethan Gray. New York: HarperOne.
Mazzeo, Tilar J. Irena's Children: A True Story of Courage. New York: Gallery Books.

October 2016
Bennett, Britt. The Mothers. New York: Riverhead Books.
Günday, Hakan. More. Trans. Zeynep Beler. New York: Arcade Publishing.
Szalay, David. All That Man Is. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.
Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad. New York: The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Sprouts: My New Favorite Bookmarks, Naturally

If you had asked me last year what my favorite bookmark was, the answer would have been easy: my Phoenix Suns bookmark circa 1994 from the Charles Barkley era of the Suns. I mean, the bookmark had Dan Majerle AND the Phoenix Suns gorilla, so how could it have not been my favorite? Used to mark my page in many a book, I had to retire the beloved place holder many years ago as it started to deteriorate, but without a doubt it remained my favorite because of sentimentally attached.

If you ask me now what my favorite bookmark is, I would have no choice but to tell you my favorite bookmark has changed, thanks to a gift I got from a dear friend. These bookmarks are adorable. They are little green silicone rubber sprouts that shoot out of the top of the book. Here is a shot of the bookmark in action.

How cute is that? The sprout bookmarks are from Fred & Friends. They come in a pack of six, so no worries if you read multiple books at a time and need a marker for each. Another bonus is that they are synthetic, and so I'll never have to worry about the wear and tear of a paper bookmark. They also give a little touch of nature to your book, which just makes me happy. 

In sum, if you are looking for a gift for a bookworm friend, or if you are in the market for some sturdy bookmarks to replace the random things you're using to mark your place now (I am guilty of using hair ties, receipts, even a Kleenex from time to time), then I would recommend these, my new favorite bookmarks, naturally.