Wordless Wednesday: Decatur Book Festival Haul

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Met for the First Time at DBF

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Today’s theme was:

FREEBIE — your choice!

A week and a half ago, I went to the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, GA and had an AMAZING time. I met SO many incredible authors. Like, a ridiculous amount of authors. So I wanted to do a post about all of them. But then I realized I met way more than 10. SO I’ve decided to narrow it down to the top ten um, eighteen authors I met for the first time (because we all know if I did a list of authors I met/saw again, people like Becky Albertalli, David Arnold, Andrew Smith, Jeff Zentner, Renee Ahdieh would be ALL over it). My list is ten eighteen of the seriously wonderful authors I met for the first time at the Decatur Book Festival. BUT FIRST, here’s a pic from the PG-13 panel I moderated on Saturday (pic of my second panel farther down).

Andrew Smith, Adam Silvera, me, Becky Albertalli, (sweaty) David Arnold

Okay, the authors I met for the first time (and just completely adored) were:

Adam Silvera, author of the incredible More Happy Than Not. Adam was on my PG-13 panel on Saturday. He’s wonderful and kind and funny and SO SO TALL. Just look at that picture of my panel above. So. Tall.

Nicola Yoon, author of the recently released Everything, Everything, which we all know I LOVED. Look how adorable Nicola is!

Sarah Dessen, I MET SARAH DESSEN WHO NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION. I’ve been a fan of Sarah’s since I was FOURTEEN. I chatted with her (and some other wonderful authors) for about 30 minutes Friday night and it was amazing.

Check out the photobomb appearance by David Arnold and Ash Parsons.

Drew Daywalt, author of The Day the Crayons Quit & The Day the Crayons Came Home, two of my absolute favorite picture books EVER. Drew read the second book during his panel, and he was hilarious. Then in the signing line, he recognized me from Twitter, so that was cool. *tries to play it cool. fails*

I’m cheating and putting my entire Thicker Than Water panel as one: Una LaMarche (most recent book: Don’t Fail Me Now), Katie M. Stout (Hello, I Love You), Marie Marquardt (Dream Things True), Elizabeth Lenhard (most recent book: Our Song), who were all so welcoming and wonderful.

Elizabeth Lenhard, Katie M. Stout, me, Una LaMarche, Marie Marquardt

Tommy Wallach, author of We All Looked Up, and Will Walton, author of Anything Could Happen. They were both on the Identity Crisis panel on Saturday and they were the coolest. So very sweet and kind.

David Levithan, another author who needs no introduction (but in case you need it, David has written A LOT of books, including Two Boys Kissing, Every Day, Boy Meets Boy, and co-authored several books like Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Green).

Nicole Castroman, author of the 2016 debut Blackhearts, which I got an eARC of and I can’t wait to read it! I actually helped Nicole figure out her author signature which was a lot of fun.

Libba Bray, the unbelievably cool author of The Diviners (and lots of other books). Libba freaking lip-synced to Bohemian Rhapsody on stage (and then actually SANG the song) for the YA Truth or Dare panel. Yeah, she’s awesome. And very nice.

Me, Nicole Castroman, Libba Bray, Adam Silvera, and Andrew Smith

I also met the lovely Sabaa Tahir, Aisha Saeed, Ash Parsons, Gwenda Bond, and Nic Stone, and I just want to take everyone home with me.

Holy crap, you guys. Now that it’s all written out, I can’t believe how incredibly lucky I was to meet all of these amazing authors. They were all so welcoming and…just seriously cool. I had an awesome time moderating my two panels, and I wish I could go back right now! The festival was so much fun and the schedule of panels (especially the children’s and teen stages, which are managed by Diane Capriola) were really interesting, diverse, and absolutely fantastic.

How did you use your TTT freebie?

I’m going on vacation!

Hey, lovelies! I just wanted to let you know that I will be going on vacation from TOMORROW (!!!), Friday, September 4 until Thursday, September 10. I have posts scheduled for most of the week, but I won’t be responding to comments as quickly as I usually do. In case you missed it though, I have a great giveaway going for copies of THREE of Jennifer E. Smith’s books!

Where will I be going, you ask? I’ll be heading to Decatur, GA for three days for the Decatur Book Festival, where I’ll be moderating TWO panels (PG-13 on Saturday & Thicker Than Water on Sunday) plus hopefully meeting a bunch of amazing authors and fellow bloggers. Then I’ll be heading down to FL for a few days (going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on Monday with Annette aka Booknerderie then spending a few days with family and generally vacationing). I’m SUPER excited! This is the first time I’ve taken a weeklong vacation by myself and the first vacation (longer than a weekend) I’ve taken in years.

I also wanted to mention that if you will be at the Decatur Book Festival, come say hi if you see me! This is what I look like (I only occasionally make this face). But, like, I have no hair, so I’m really hard to miss. 🙂

Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a little heads up and say that I’ll miss you! If you would like to follow along on my vacation, I’ll be posting pics and updates on Twitter and Instagram (mostly Instagram for pictures).

<3,

Stefani

Stacking the Shelves: Decatur Book Festival and some new comics!

This past weekend I went to the Decatur Book Festival (check out my recap of the weekend here). I had the awesome opportunity to meet several of my favorite authors and get my books signed. I already owned most of the books I got signed, but I bought a few new ones. 🙂
Here are the ones I already owned that I got signed!

     
Here are three books I didn’t already own but bought at the festival and the ARC I got at the festival!
(This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith; ARC of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli)

I also bought several new comics this week:
(The Wicked and the Divine Issue #3, Bodies Issue #2, Batman and Robin Issue #34, Trees Issue #1)

(

Did you get any new books or comics this week? Let me know what you got so I can check it out! 

Adi Alsaid on adults reading young adult books at Decatur Book Festival

This past weekend, I went to the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, Georgia and met several celebrities of my favorite authors.

I attended several panels over Saturday and Sunday. Since finding out about the festival, I’d been looking forward to the “Map of My Heart: Love Stories” panel featuring Isabel Gillies, Stephanie Perkins, Adi Alsaid, and Jennifer E. Smith. They didn’t end up talking too much about travel or the places in their books, but they did get asked probably my favorite question and answer of the festival:

“Elizabeth Lenhard, moderator: Are you thinking about your teen readers? Or are you thinking of everyone? Or are you thinking of these adult readers out there, and does that affect how you’re writing at all?

Adi Alsaid: [after some other stuff] I never heard of people asking young adults why they would read an adult book when the character’s not a young adult. I don’t think that really matters, as a reader. I think we just want to connect with a story and a character, and it almost always is someone unlike ourselves, so why would the age matter?”

As an adult reader of a lot of young adult literature, I really loved this answer. I felt like a lot of my followers would relate to it just as much as I did so I wanted to share. I loved what he said: young adults aren’t asked why they read adult fiction; why should adults be asked why they read young adult fiction? We just want a good story to connect to.

What do you think? Do you like Adi’s response? Adi wrote Let’s Get Lost, which I reviewed on my blog HERE. Also, check out my wrap up post of the whole Decatur Book Festival over on WatchPlayRead.

Decatur Book Festival

Hey guys!

I just wanted to tell you that this weekend, I’ll be attending the Decatur Book Festival! I have some really awesome opportunities lined up, and I’ll be covering the festival for WatchPlayRead. I just wanted you guys to know because I might be a little MIA on the blog this weekend. I’ve got a couple of posts lined up, but if I can’t respond to your comments, please do know that I will! I read all of my comments, and I try to respond to all of them.

Some people at the festival I’m excited to see:

Stephanie Perkins

Maggie Stiefvater

Jennifer E. Smith

Adi Alsaid

Leigh Bardugo

Jennifer Mathieu

Possibly Lev Grossman

AND YOU! Will you be at the Decatur Book Festival? If you will, LET ME KNOW! I want to meet some awesome bookish people this weekend. Comment here if you’ll be there. 🙂

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you guys because I know my bookish followers will appreciate it. Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend!

SUNDAY FUNDAY: WEEK IN REVIEW [12]

The lovely Cristina over at Girl in the Pages started Sunday Funday as a way to recap the bookish (and not-so-bookish) things that have happened that week.

August 18 – 24, 2014

This was a pretty good week. I participated in Bout of Books 11 this week, which was super fun. I read A LOT (almost 1,800 pages!!). Look out for my Bout of Books wrap up post tomorrow!

Also, I reviewed Chew Issue #1 and Bodies Issue #1 over on WatchPlayRead! Check those out. 🙂 And if you missed it, I reviewed Preacher Volume 1 over there last week.

ALSOOO!! I found out that I will be getting a press pass for the Decatur Book Festival, and I’m super pumped! I hope to meet a bunch of amazing authors and if any of my lovely followers are going, PLEASE let me know. I would love to meet up with you!

Coming up on the blog this week: Reviews of The Girl from the Well, The Geography of You and Me, probably several reviews of Oliver Jeffers’ adorable books, Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, and possibly a review of Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid (depending on if I have time)

Books read: Like I said, I read A LOT this week: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, Chew Volume 1, The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco (review tomorrow), The Walking Dead Volumes 6-8 (might review soon), Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg, The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (review this week), Lost and Found and Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers (reviews probably this week, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.

TBR: I added several books to my TBR this week. I bought The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu and Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid (both of whom will be at the Decatur Book Festival). I also checked out several volumes of The Walking Dead comics out from the library, as well as Don’t Look Back by Jennifer Armentrout (who will also be at DBF).

Non-bookish things I’m excited about:

I’m kind of only thinking about the fact that I’m going to the Decatur Book Festival. It’s been a YEAR since I’ve been to a book festival, and I need it so bad. Also, it’s going to be a nice little weekend trip with one of my favorite people (Hi, Jugee!) and I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to be surrounded by bookish people and authors and books. So again, if you’ll be there, let me know!

How did you week go?

SUNDAY FUNDAY: WEEK IN REVIEW [11]

The lovely Cristina over at Girl in the Pages started Sunday Funday as a way to recap the bookish (and not-so-bookish) things that have happened that week.

August 11 – 17, 2014

This week was pretty great. Definitely more fun that the week before. Highlight of the week? I had my first blogger meet up! I met Annette (aka Booknerderie) in person. She drove up to my house Friday and we saw The Hundred-Foot Journey Friday night. On Saturday, we went to B&N and bought Isla and the Happily Ever After. We spent a couple hours reading and drinking coffee, then went to the comic book store. It was so much fun! I’m looking forward to going to visit her next.

I also made plans with my friend Georgie to go to the Decatur Book Festival the last weekend in August. I am SO PUMPED about this. Stephanie Perkins, Maggie Stiefvater, Jennifer E. Smith, Lauren Myracle and a bunch of other awesome authors will be there. CANNOT WAIT.

Books read: I finally finished reading One of Us by Tawni O’Dell (review tomorrow). I also read all of Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins yesterday (review either tomorrow or Tuesday), which I LOVED. Obviously.

I also read the first two issues of The Wicked and the Divine, issues 19 and 20 of Saga (I’m beyond obsessed), about 15 or 20 issues of Batman and Robins, the first several issues of Batman Incorporated, and I think that’s it. I’m a little comics-obsessed. But I’d say two books and 20-30 issues of comics is a GREAT week.

TBR: This week I bought Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid and The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu (on Amazon; should be here this week). They’ll both be at the Decatur Book Festival in two weeks. Definitely need to read their books before then.

Non-bookish things I’m excited about:

DOCTOR WHO premieres on Saturday!! Yay!

Teen Wolf. Duh.

It’s bookish, but I believe I’m going to see The Giver this week.

Also going to see Let’s Be Cops with my brother. It looks so funny.