BEA12 Wrap-Up Part 3- Is speed dating wrong if you're already married 2- the sequel

Three upcoming book club titles

So my first experience with speed dating worked so well at BEA12, I decided to try it again at Hot Book Group Titles for Fall/Winter, hosted by BookReporter.com's Carol Fitzgerald.

Instead of authors, this time we "dated" publishers, who shared the books they were most excited about for book clubs.  We were assigned tables, and I got lucky number seven. In previous years, this was a panel discussion, and there was little time for interaction as the publishers raced through their presentation to get all of their titles in.

At the tables we got to interact with our tablemates and the publishers. I liked this much better; it seemed less like a lecture and more of a discussion. The only downside was, due to time constraints, we didn't get to talk to all of the publishers.

Craig from Algonquin Books shared his two favorite books with us, one of which was B.A. Shapiro's The Art Forger, about an artist who makes a pact with the devil in the form of a person who wants the artist to forge a work that was stolen 20 years ago from a museum in Boston. (It's based on the infamous Gardner Museum heist.) Craig says ""it's a great book to put in anyone's hands." It publishes in October.

I also loved how he described Algonquin Books as "the only publishing house that does not do vampire books." (YAY!) He also said, laughing, that wine goes great with Algonquin Books, cause "the more you drink, the better Algonquin Books read."

Hachette had a book I was interested in- Jami Attenberg's The Middlesteins, which was described as about family, marriage and obsession.  Mom Edie is obsessed with food, and she just keeps getting bigger. Her husband finally leaves her, and their adult children don't know how to handle this. It is set in Chicago, and we were told that "what Alice McDermott did for Irish-Catholic Easterners, Jami does for Midwest and food." The book also publishes in October.

Jennifer Hart from Harper Collins shared an historical fiction book that caught my attention- Lois Leveen's The Secrets of Mary Bowser, about an educated female freed slave who ends up spying for the Union inside the Davis White House in Richmond during the Civil War. I love books that are based in truth, and this story came out of a tale of a real-life female Union spy. This book is available now.

Carla Gray from Houghton Mifflin raved about Frances & Bernard by Carlene Bauer, a book based on the letters that Flannery O'Connor and Robert Lowell wrote to each other. Carla said that "This one had me sobbing on the subway, it got me in the gut. It's just a treasure." We'll have to wait until February 2013 for this gem.

Harlequin is not a publisher I usually read, but they are not just romances as I discovered. J.T. Ellison writes suspense novels, and her newest is Edge of Black, about a female medical examiner who is called to investigate what is believed to be a terrorist attack on the Metro subway in Washington DC. When she discovers that the victims all had something in common, it's game on. Ellison has previously been chosen as a PW Pick and Indie Next book, so she is worth a read in December when the book is released.

Carol Fitzgerald will have all of the books discussed here on ReadingGroupGuides.com.
http://readinggroupguides.com/art/BEA_Book_Club_Speed_Dating_Presentation_2012.pdf

It's well worth a look, I hope you find as many great books as I did.

BEA12 Wrap-Up- Is Speed Dating Wrong When You're Already Married? Part 1

Books from the authors I met at speed dating

Two of the events I enjoyed most at this year's BEA were speed dating. The Book Bloggers Conference opened up with Author Speed Dating.

Each table was numbered and we got to choose where to sit; I chose table 9 because of I was looking forward to meeting Lee Woodruff and Justin Cronin. Lee Woodruff is a reporter on my favorite morning show, CBS This Morning, with Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Erica Hill.

One of the stories she did on the show was about the uber-popular book, Fifty Shades of Grey. She visited with housewives, including her sister, to find out what all the fuss was, and this story was one of the earliest in the mainstream media to report on the phenomenon.

When she sat down at the table, the reporter in her came out as she asked us all who we were. Then she discussed her upcoming book, her first novel, Those We Love Most, a story about a family whose lives change tragically in an instant. It is told from the perspective of four people, and it's about marriage, the secrets we keep from the ones we love, and the consequences of those secrets. I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

Amy Sohn, author of Motherland, joined us next. Her novel is a sequel to Prospect Park West, and both are about that trendy section of Brooklyn and the inhabitants who live there. It's like the next step for the Sex & the City characters. Her time with us seemed short, all she could do was describe her new novel to us and then the bell rang.

I was very excited to meet Justin Cronin, whom most people know as the man who wrote The Passage, but I know him for his lovely book Mary and O'Neill.  I was so happy to be able to tell him how much I loved that book, and I think he was pleased to hear it. (I fear I was slightly schoolgirlish in my devotion.) His upcoming book is a sequel to The Passage titled The Twelve.

Our last author was unfamiliar to me; Will Schwalbe wrote a memoir about the death of his mother, The End of Your Life Book Club. He was so genuine and his description of the book had our entire table under his spell. He accompanied his mother to her chemo treatments, and they decided to read and discuss books together to pass the time.

His love and admiration for his mother, who founded a women's and children's refugee organization in Afghanistan, had all us teary-eyed. I think our table all fell a little in love with Will. His mom must have been remarkable to have raised such a wonderful son. I can't wait to read his tribute to her.

All in all, I have to say that my first speed dating try was very successful; of the four authors I met, I am excited about "dating" three of them. (And by "dating", I mean reading their books and following them on social media.)

My next post will be about speed dating at the Book Club Buzz Panel.

Weekend Cooking- Things Were Cooking at BEA

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food!

Things were cooking this year at the annual Book Expo of America, held at the Javits Center in NYC June 4-7.

I managed to pick up a few food-related items this time around, as you can see in the photo:

I got a blad of The Barefoot Contessa's new book, Foolproof, scheduled to publish on October 30th. On the back is a recipe for raspberry crumble bars. I make many of Ina Garten's recipes, and her Chicken with Shallots from how easy is that? is in our current rotation.

David Venable from QVC has his first cookbook coming out on October 9th, Comfort Foods That Take You Home, and he was signing blads and handing out aprons, which was nice. He took the time to talk to everyone in line, and spoke of the fact that the first time Paula Deen was on TV was on his QVC show, in the kitchen with David. There are five recipes in his blad, including one for Southern BBQ Chicken that looks good.

Not a flattering picture of David Venable

Bravo TV's Top Chef had three alumni there, including Carla Hall, who now co-hosts ABC's daytime show The Chew. She had a very long line, and I didn't wait to get her signed blad of her upcoming cookbook, Cooking With Love, as I have seen her a few times at tapings of The Chew. She is a hoot!

Carla Hall

Mike Isabella had champagne and rainbow cookies at his signing at the Perseus Books booth, a welcome diversion. He signed blads of his upcoming Mike Isabella's Crazy Good Italian and chatted with people.

Mike Isabella

The last Top Chef alumnus there was Angelo Sosa, who was promoting his book, Flavor Exposed. I did not get to see him as I was waiting in a loooong line to get Chris Colfer's (Kurt from GLEE) book.

Bon Appetit contributor Jenny Rosenstrach's turned her blog, Dinner- a Love Story into a book from Ecco, a Harper Collins imprint. I'm looking forward to reading this one. Jenny and her husband believe it is important to cook dinner for their family every night, and this book chronicles that story, along with recipes. (I agree wholeheartedly with her; I tried to cook for my family every night, and when my sons went to college, they cooked and ate with their roommates almost every night.)

Moll Anderson handed out samples from her upcoming book, Seductive Tables for Two, but I'm not sure about this one. The photos are beautiful though. 

The book I'm most excited about is Marlene Koch's Eat More of What You Love. Perusing it I found several recipes I'm going to try, including Steak Diane, (how apropo!), which I made tonight and was pronounced delicious by those lucky enough to be served it.  It only had 265 calories per serving, and I love that along with the nutritional information at the end of each recipe, she lists the Food Exchanges too, including Weight Watchers Plus Point Comparison.

I can tell that I will be using this book alot, the recipes are all of food my family would eat, not necessarily 'diet food'. 

If you went to BEA this year, did you get any cookbooks?

Book Expo America starts Monday

Book Expo America kicks off Monday with the Book Blogger Conference, and happily I will be attending. The actual expo, featuring authors, publishers and hundreds of exhibitors runs through Thursday, and this year the BEA has offered live streaming of some  of their most popular events, including the Authors Breakfasts.

If you can't be there, you can follow along with the BEA Streaming Player here:

I'll be posting about my BEA adventures here and on Twitter @bookchickdi. Hope to see you there!