Christina Reads YA

Hello, everyone! Today I'll recap my experience of BEA Day 1. I've got a video for you with C.J. from Sarcasm and Lemons. Most of what I'll write about in this post is a sort of logistics "what-did-you-do" thing whereas the video talks more about our individual experiences & the books I got/why I'm excited for those. Let me know what y'all think!

On the train from NJ (where I currently live) to BEA!

Last year both C.J. and I went to BEA, and this year the schedule is completely different. I'm only mentioning this because I've done like 0 research on my own and would know nothing were it not for this community. Most of what I know about comes from other bloggers making spreadsheets, so thanks community! Wednesday used to be a day to pick up your badges and... leave. Unless you were going to Blogger Con, I guess. This year, Wednesday was a sort of half day, with the exhibition hall opening at 1:00 p.m. (a fact I found out last night from twitter; thanks bloggers!).

(My badge was ... not to be found. So I'm that sketchy anonymous press member. I also forgot to pick up a reprinted version later mostly because if I had free time, I was sitting down. I hope this does not cause actual problems.)

I thought that because today was a half day, it would be less intense.

I was wrong.

So, the first thing that most YA bloggers wanted to get was Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. There were 100 ARCs for a signing at 3:00 p.m., but tickets were being given out at 1:00 p.m., right when the exhibition hall opened. When C.J. and I got there, the main line outside the exhibition hall looked really intense. So, we and let's say 10 others formed a line by the side entrance and as soon as it 1:00... heh, we were fast walking beside so many other people. But, sadly, we didn't make it in time. Later we learned that the tickets were gone within 90 seconds. 90 SECONDS PEOPLE. HOW IS THAT EVEN PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE?

(But really, I have nothing to complain nothing about since I would know nothing were it not for the fellow community :D).

Also, like, if you're looking to find out what the next trend in YA is... hello, high fantasy!

YAY!

From there C.J. and I searched for Little, Brown because I'd read in the "PW Show Daily" (these giant booklets that are given for free while you're waiting to get into the exhibition hall... pubbed by Publisher's Weekly... goes over various publishing industry articles like whether Amazon is good for readers and practical things like favorite NYC bookstores & food places.... also has ads by some publishers for their main titles) that they were having a galley drop at 1:00. Got there, and then caught behind the mob. Didn't really want to push through people to find Wolf by Wolf by Graudin which is what I was essentially interested in, but ...in those few seconds I wasted, the ARCs ended. Half day? WHO CARES. ;)

Did I say BEA was intense? yeah.

So we wandered over to find lists from various publishers on author events and galley drops and the like. (Funny story: at one publisher, not going to say who, a publicist was talking to her colleague about how she didn't have ARC/author event sheets because people would then have to come up and ask her, and that meant that she could for the most part avoid people). I didn't really plan much re: this BEA because I figured these sheets would end up being more helpful than so many other things. And they were (cc: below).

The next thing we went to was the galley drop at Harper Collins at 1:30 for Lauren Oliver's latest MG title... and as you see in the video, hello, new precious MG that I'm going to love (THE DOLDRUMS!). THIS LOOKS SO ADORABLE; PUT IT ON YOUR LIST TOO (and watch the video to see the artwork inside!). And from there, another drop at Little, Brown for the 2:00 of THE WITCH HUNTER & COURT OF FIVES. But what's cool is also getting to see what other people have... aka the person in front of us in line was holding A THOUSAND NIGHTS and told me about Disney's pile. So I grabbed copies of that while C.J. stayed in line and then lol, there was the drop of THE SCORPION RULES (I'm probably getting the times mixed up) and drop after drop after drop (I basically just plopped onto the floor at several points). Earlier in the day, we found NIGHTFALL at the Penguin Booth (their BEA Editors Buzz Book selection, I believe, in addition to EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING). Also THESE SHALLOW GRAVES and ANOTHER DAY. At some point, too, I went to the HMH booth to ask about VENGEANCE ROAD; same for Chronicle and A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD.

The first day... was a lot of running around, and I'm hoping to change that tomorrow, because I felt like I didn't get a chance to... enjoy?

The thing I probably hate and love most about BEA is the book fervor. Like, a.) love book nerdiness but b.) it's so easy to get caught up in everything and I felt like I lost sight of just those nice moments of talking more to the other people and falling less into what-next-who-where-why (relaxed Christina would have actually gone up to the various Famous Bloggers and Booktubers that she saw instead of wondering whether she was going to be bothersome... and also rather than running to the next area for another book). As I say in the video, my favorite part was actually one of the quiet moments talking with a librarian. The waiting in line and just getting to chat with other people and see what they're excited about.

Also meeting up with other people, like Summer from Blue Sky Shelf and getting to hang out with C.J.. And, also just asking publicists what they're most excited about. A publicist we met at Candlewick was SO friendly. The best. I wanted to be excited about all the books that she was excited about. All the publicists I met today were SO freaking nice. I probably should have mentioned that as one of my favorite moments too but ah.

And because this post wasn't full of bookish goodness, I also got two books from the Strand: The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer & Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (high fantasy, peeps. It's my game. And now if I ever complain about not having books to read, please smack me upside the head).

Okay, because I live in NJ, it takes about an hour to go to and from Javits. (And not to mention the time it took editing the video, and the rain that delayed trains...) So, like, hopefully I'll have a longer recap tomorrow than I did today, but I'm now too exhausted and need to sleep some.

Thanks for reading!

BOOK HAUL:
if you're really looking forward to any of these titles, and we're friends, you can definitely borrow these books. let me know!

• Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski
• The Curiosity House: the Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver & H.C. Chester
• The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
• Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
• The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker
• A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz
• A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
• Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti
• Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash {sampler}
• Another Day by David Levithan
• Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
• Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
• The Doldrums by Nicholas Gannon
• These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

• Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
• A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
• Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
• Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between by Jennifer Smith
• Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
• Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett
• Serpentine by Cindy Pon