Books I'm Excited About From BEA 15

Every year I spend many hours pouring over the lists of book giveaways and author signings that I want to see at the Book Expo of America. I make my own list, and hope that I can find others to add to it while I'm there.

Here are six books that I picked up that I cannot wait to read.

Stephanie Clifford writes for the New York Times, and her first novel is Everybody Rise. This book was being talked about before the BEA, and as it is a story about a young woman from Maryland who ends up living on the Upper East Side in Manhattan (where I now live), it has definite appeal to me. And the fact that every time I see the title I can hear Elaine Stritch belting out those words from the Broadway show Company's song "The Ladies Who Lunch"  only adds to the joy.

Ruth Ware is a British writer who set her mystery In a Dark, Dark Wood at a 'hen party', the British term for bridal shower. Things go horribly awry and I'm sure I will tear through this one quickly.

I probably won't be able to tear through Garth Risk Hallberg's 900 page novel City on Fire, about New York City in the 1970's, but I will savor it as I read it. This is the one novel that literally everyone was talking about, and this is one to save for vacation.

I was an early admirer of Anthony Marra's last book A Constellation of Vital Phenomena a few years ago, and so I was thrilled to hear he had a linked short story collection, The Tsar of Love and Techno. Getting to meet him and get a signed book and gush to him about much I loved his first book was a bonus.

I don't normally read YA, but Gwenda Bond's novel Lois Lane- Fallout, " a contemporary reimagining" of Lois Lane's story had my attention, as well as the attention of the many adult women waiting in a long line to get a signed copy. I love Girl Power.

Julie Checkoway's book The Three-Year Swim Club- The Untold Story of Maui's Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory was not on my radar, but after hearing Ms. Checkoway speak at a panel, I wanted to read this one.

If you went to BEA, what were your favorite gets?