Holy smokes, people. BEA has officially ended, Ana has officially left for the UK, and I am exhausted. In a good way. Mostly. This week we return to our regularly scheduled programming – meaning more reviews! Plus a recap of BBC and BEA! But now I’m getting ahead of myself…
Book Expo America: 2013
Once a year, we Book Smugglers get the opportunity to meet up in person as Ana trades the chilly UK for the muggy, sticky heat of NYC. We eat a ton of amazing food, we drink a lot of coffee and wine, and – most of all – we buy and pick up a TON of books. This year, we bought books by the armful at The Strand and B&N (before BEA even began, we had already purchased an ungodly amount of new books), and at BEA itself we picked up a number of highly coveted ARCs. And we were restraining ourselves this year.
We had an amazing/amusing/hilarious time at the BEA Blogger Conference this year and got to meet a number of our fellow bloggers, including Jane of Dear Author, AnimeJune of Gossamer Obsessions, April of Good Books and Good Wine, and many others. (Special shoutout to Kelly of Stacked and Leila of Bookshelves of Doom for the shared snark, making that closing speech from Randi Zuckerberg so hilarious and…oh, let’s be diplomatic and call it memorable.)
BEA Blogger Author Rooftop Party – ALL the lights
We went to just a few parties and dinners, and got to mingle with some of our very favorite people in the book world (shoutout to the lovely ladies behind Big Honcho Media in particular!). We met some lovely authors, picked up some highly coveted and unexpected ARCs, attended some fantastic – and not-so-fantastic – panels.
In short, we had a wonderful time. We are exhausted now (and are relieved that it is all over!) but loved every single second of the show. We’ll have a FULL recap of all the action at the Blogger Con and BEA 2013 later this week, so stay tuned.
And now, REALLY, down to business!
Giveaway Winners
We’ve got a few to announce! The lucky winner of our final copy of The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth is…
The winner of our Sonic Doctor Who Giveaway is…
Congratulations to the winners! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible.
This Week on The Book Smugglers
We’re baaaaaack! And that means we’ve got a full week of fun ahead of us here at Casa De Smugglers. On Monday, Ana kicks off the week with a review of one of her most highly anticipated books of the year, The Cydonian Pyramid by Pete Hautman (book 2 in the Klatuu Discus series and follow-up to last year’s The Obsidian Blade).
On Tuesday, we continue our ongoing new series of posts “SFF in Conversation” with the first of a two-part June feature. We are delighted to have a round table of essays about women in SFF – characters, heroes, and authors – from the contributors to upcoming SFF anthology The Other Half of the Sky. On this first day, we hear from the first five authors in the anthology: Athena Andreadis, Melissa Scott, Alexander Jablokov, Sue Lange & Vandana Singh. AND later in the day, Ana writes up her recap of Book Blogger Con and BEA!
Then, it is Old School Wednesday, and Thea takes over with a review of middle grade wonderfulness: Millicent’s Gift by Ann Rinaldi and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (YES, Thea has never ever read a Gail Carson Levine book).
On Thursday, we have the second half of our SFF in Conversation roundtable, featuring 5 more authors from The Other Half of the Sky anthology: Ken Liu, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Kelly Jennings, Cat Rambo & Jack McDevitt. PLUS, later in the day Thea reviews the fun – if slightly over-the-top-ridiculous YA thriller Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green.
Friday, we close out the week with a joint review of one of our collectively most highly anticipated books of the year: Merrie Haskell’s Handbook for Dragon Slayers. Also, by request in the comments on our last OSW Readalong post, Thea is over at Kirkus with a list of fantastic starter fantasy books for YA and MG readers (list inspired by The Naming by Alison Croggon).
PHEW. Another busy week, but back to normal! Until tomorrow, we remain…
“A Lonely God” series by Cosmosnail
~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers
9 Comments
Eliza
June 2, 2013 at 10:58 amWelcome back! Looking forward to your BEA recap and reading all you have planned this week.
Yay for The Cydonian Pyramid but I think I may have to go back and reread The Obsidian Blade so I can reacquaint myself with that world and its rules. It feels like its been way more than a year since I’ve read the first book.
Ashleigh Paige
June 2, 2013 at 12:11 pm[in a whisper] I’ve never read a Gail Carson Levine book either. [done whispering] The closest I got was the Ella Enchanted movie ad I’m not going to use that to judge the author’s work. Maybe one day when I’m not buried in my review books…
Looking forward to the BEA recap and the review for Truth or Dare! Between the colors and what little of the model we see, I love the Truth or Dare cover, but my gut said the book wouldn’t be my friend.
Gabi
June 2, 2013 at 7:35 pmElla Enchated is my favorite Gail Carson Levine book. And I just read Handbook for Dragon Slayers this week, and I absolutely adored it. But it had horses, and I generally love anything with horses, so there’s that. :]
Linda W
June 2, 2013 at 8:44 pmLove Ella Enchanted. Glad you’re back! Looking forward to the discussions this week.
AnimeJune
June 3, 2013 at 12:44 amIt was most excellent to meet you two in person again at BEA! Yeah, this year’s Blogger Con was interesting. Not quite a bull’s-eye, although I feel more effort was spent this year trying to understand bloggers than last year.
Oh, and Ashleigh, just IGNORE the Ella Enchanted movie – it was a total travesty of a film adaptation, and it’s one that Disney should normally have aced.
Iris
June 3, 2013 at 3:52 amI have never read a Gail Carson Levine book either! Although it has been on my wishlist for a while. Looking forward to Thea’s thoughts 🙂
I’m happy to hear NYC and BEA was good, and I’m glad the shared snark made the closing speech of BBC “memorable” 😀
Rebecca I.
June 3, 2013 at 12:42 pmElla Enchanted is one of my very favorite books; cannot count the number of times I’ve read it. It’s lovely! I really hope you enjoy it & can’t wait to read the review. 🙂
Leila
June 4, 2013 at 8:45 amIt was great meeting the two of you, too, and thanks for helping to make that monstrously terrible closing keynote bearable! Hopefully we’ll see each other again soon!
Sarah
June 4, 2013 at 9:25 amI’ve read a few books by Gail Carson Levine but I don’t think any others can match the perfection of Ella Enchanted. I read it to my seven-year-old recently and she loved it even though it had romance/kissing in it – officially the ONLY ‘kissing’ book she has ever given her seal of approval to! The movie is possibly the worst adaptation in the history of cinema.