By the third day of BEA15 I had totes filled with unread titles and a blister or two on my swollen feet. It wasn’t a “more is better” philosophy that kept me coming back – it was the prospect of the Book Group Speed Dating event on Friday afternoon. With that knowledge, I was very particular about the booths I visited beforehand.
Four years earlier, I stood in an endless line to get a copy of Alice Hoffman’s The Dovekeepers. Getting the book, a quick word with the publicist and a lot of hard work paid off with a wonderful Book Club Brunch program at the JCC of Greater Washington that fall. 
This year, Ms. Hoffman has another title coming out in August, The Marriage of Opposites, a novel about the artist Camille Pissaro’s family origins on the island of St. Thomas. As she prepared to sign a book for me, I mentioned that she had spoken at an event I chaired. The photo below captured our conversation. 
Ms. Hoffman not only remembered the event, but loved the format and hoped she’d have another opportunity to speak to that audience.
About six weeks ago Annie Barrows’ book, The Truth According to Us, appeared in my mailbox. As one of the authors of the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her latest has had terrific advance press. I won’t give away any details here, saving that for a review I hope to post by morning (and before the book’s release on June 9), 
but there was a huge clamor to get signed, finished copies on Friday morning. While in line I spoke with several staff members involved in the publication. Each had a genuine affection for the book and its characters. I mentioned that while Ms. Barrows was signing my copy and she allowed that each had a special place in her heart but wouldn’t commit to any one as the main character. She was very pleased to meet someone who had already read the book.
At this point I packed up my box of books, shipped it off and waited for the BookReporter.com‘s Book Group Speed Dating to begin. This event required advance reservations for assigned seating. Twenty-five tables with eight attendees each and seats for two publisher reps were spread throughout a large meeting room. The 2 reps at the table were allocated a total of 9 minutes to present their top upcoming book group titles after which they would rotate on to another group for several more rounds. Everyone received a copy of the Powerpoint presentation containing all the publishers’ recommendations. On each table were several copies of some of the titles they discussed. Not every publisher came to each table (27 publishers) and only a selection of the titles was on the table. We then picked and choose among the books on the table those we wanted to take home. As usual, it was a fantastic opportunity to hear about titles I might not have otherwise looked at. Having been for three years running, it truly was a highlight of my experience.
Having had my fill of all things book, at least for Friday, I took my books and large mailing tube of posters and headed to the US Post Office opposite Penn Station. 
I was not the only one packing up books for the trip home. Some kindred spirits kindly gave me their packing tape to use on my purchased mailing box. These days security is such that the post office has no scissors or cutting devices to cut down the size of the box. I took a risk knowing that some of the books might bounce around a bit in transit. Unfortunately the box arrived somewhat the worse for wear, missing a few titles and the copy of the presentation. The mailing tube has yet to arrive. But here’s the really weird thing. There must be some grab bag-like redistribution of things that come out of damaged parcels. Here is my box with the added surprises
– a 5-pack of shrimp ramen and a Goldman Sachs report on golden parachutes. Not clear which is less useful to me. And I really wonder what they got in their boxes!
Overall, the time at Book Expo was well spent. I have more follow-up to do with several publishers about ideas to bring together books, readers and authors. And now I have A LOT of reading and reviewing to do!!
by 