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Saturday, July 2, 2011

In My Mailbox + ALA

I haven't done an IMM for a few weeks, mostly because I was lazy, then last weekend I was in New Orleans for ALA, so this is a few weeks worth... but it's been a slow few weeks, which is fine, because I ended up with a ton of books after ALA. ALA was AMAZING. Absolutely, completely amazing. I met so many awesome authors, writers, and bloggers, some of whom I haven't properly stalked in the days since I've been home but rest assured, your business cards are in a stack to be gone through!

But for those of you who are here just for the books, we'll get to the IMM portion of this post, then I'll do my probably quick ALA write up with the highlights because honestly, there was so much awesome both at the actual convention and especially after hours that I cannot possibly write it all up.

For Review:
My Beating Teenage Heart by CK Kelly Martin
Sassy and Serendipity by Jennifer Ziegler
A Closer Look by Karen DelleCava
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

I feel like I might have forgotten one or two, and if I realize it soon enough I will put them in next week's IMM. But that's it for that, and now on to my ALA adventures, and some pictures to boot! I ended up getting a ton of books, pretty much all the ones upcoming that I wanted that I didn't already have, and found out about some other awesome books I probably wouldn't have known about if it wasn't for ALA. So before I do anything else, here's my stacks of books, at least YA. I also brought home about 14 adult titles, including Ellen Hopkins's Triangles which I am super excited for, but didn't put them in the photo. There's a few others that my best friend is borrowing first, so they aren't in here either but... details.


The hardbacks in there are ones I bought at author signings, along with a few of the paperbacks. I think out of all the books, I am most excited for Name of the Star, The Space Between, The Beginning of After, Stay With Me, Blood Wounds and How to Save a Life. 

Yes! I met Veronica Roth! I was only freaking out a little... or a lot. But she has lovely and nice in person and she seems!

 And here I am with Jay Asher... found him on the floor, and since I had randomly met him the night before hanging out with people, I awkwardly asked for a picture. He was nice enough to agree.


 With Ruta Sepetys, who is fantastic and so fun to talk to!

 Brenna Yovanoff! She is one of the authors I squealed about when I saw her name on the list.

Sunday night I met up with some of my writing and authorly friends, and it was one of those things where a few of us set the plans and word spread to get this group of amazing. It was a fantastic last night, and left to right are: Michelle Hodkin (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer), Jessica Martinez (Virtuosity), Elana Johnson (Possession), Shannon Messenger, Carolina Valdez Miller, Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin), Kate Hart, me, Jessi Kirby (Moonglass).

I had a dinner with awesome people Thursday as well, including Shannon and Carol from the picture above, but didn't get any pictures during it because I'm silly and forgetful. Friday night was also one of those make plans with a few, and then a bunch of people show up, and while I do have pictures, the best friend took them on her camera and hasn't sent all of them over yet. But nothing says vacation like getting beignets at 2 am then going home to crash before getting up at 730 am to go to the conference and start all over again. 
Saturday night was the author/blogger meet up put together by Kelly at Stacked and YA Highway at a cute little wine bar. I met Sarah Enni there, one of the newest additions to YA Highway, along with some great bloggers and writers. I admit, I actually turned in early Saturday night and was in my hotel by about 10:30... the two nights before had been pretty exhausting.... in all the best ways.

There were plenty of other authors I met, but it would be a ton of pictures and like I said, the best friend hasn't yet sent all of them, but I stayed pretty busy the whole time, didn't sleep much, but enjoyed every minute of it. I got to spend quite a bit of time with Mary Lindsey, Courtney Allison Moulton, Leah Clifford and Lisa Desrochers--all people I talk to regularly and think are great, but we don't get to hang much. Even if it's just getting dinner together, we had a blast. Julie Cross, author of the upcoming Tempest, also hung out with us Friday night, and if you ever have a chance to talk to this woman, definitely take it. She is hilarious and fun.

I went with my best friend and Jessi from The Elliott Review, and we all got along fantastically. We took a city bus tour on Friday which was fantastic- I definitely recommend taking one if you ever go. Our guide knew so many little facts and details, and so much history, but didn't just drone on and on. I also learned about how their above ground cemeteries work which honestly, is just brilliant. 
So all in all, ALA was a success and amazing and awesome and so worth the trip, and I have every intention of trying to go next year even if it's further away in California.

25 comments:

  1. definitely a huge haul of books there! I'm glad you're excited to read The Beginning of After - I read it a couple of weeks ago and absolutely LOVED it! Lots of books there I'm excited to read (luckily I have some egalleys!)...I also see a copy of Chime, I just bought myself a copy last week and can't wait to find time for it :)

    Also...I hope you enjoy reading Forbidden. It is incredibly intense, to say the least.

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  2. Woo! Awesome ALA haul! Thanks for the recap and the photos! I'm glad you had a great time. :)

    And I hope you can make it to California's ALA next summer! :D

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  3. So lucky to have gotten to go to ALA! That is quite the haul! I see some pretty amazing books in their that I have been dying to read! :D

    Myranda @ My{reads}da

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  4. Oh my goodness what a great lot of books! Serious book envy. I just got Triangles this week and excited to read it. Forbidden is so powerful and really well written. Happy Reading :)

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  5. HOLY COW!! I sooo wish I could got to ALA as well as BEA. I can't ever afford to go to those locations and they're usually not somewhere good for me to be on my own.

    Maybe someday.

    Happy Reading!

    My IMM will be up tomorrow, so be sure to stop by!

    Have a GREAT weekend!

    Old Follower :)

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  6. Soo many books! :-) It sounds/looks like you had a great time, too. Cold Kiss is absolutely amazing and I look forward to seeing what you think of it. Happy reading!

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  7. Glad you had a good time at ALA. HOLY BOOKS THOUGH! Haha...have fun reading all of those. Looks like you grabbed tons of fabulous sounding ones. Happy Reading!

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  8. MY brain fried a bit when I saw that picture. Really want: Sweet Venom, Eve, Carrier of the Mark, Forx Inheritance, Legend, Scorpio Races(!!!), Forever(!!!!!!), Jessica Rules the Dark Side(!) and maybe everything else ;)
    Enjoy!

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  9. holy haul of books!! Good for you! Love the pics, looks like it was a blast!!

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  10. The 4 books you got for review are amazing.
    And then I see the looong list of books you got at ALA, wow. You're so lucky and it sounds like you had a great time. Enjoy all these fantastic books!

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  11. Such a lucky girl to go to ALA. Also, I really want to read Sass and Serendipity.
    My IMM

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  12. Wow! You're so lucky! I didn't get to go to any book related things this year. From the sounds of how much fun everyone had, looks like I missed out haha.

    My IMM is here:
    http://faybaysbooks.blogspot.com/

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  13. Woah, that pile of books is amazing! I hope you have a ton of fun reading through all those great titles. There are way too many there for me to list which ones I'm especially curious about :P

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  14. Wow--I'm so incredibly jealous. Looks like you had an absolute blast. Someday...

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  15. So mant great books - I want them all!
    Happy reading.
    Sally.
    http://theelifylop.blogspot.com/2011/07/in-my-mailbox-26.html

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  16. That is a lot of books for your mailbox. It looks like you had a ton of fun. Happy Reading
    Book Sniffers Anonymous

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  17. GIGANTIC HAUL!

    Ashes looks great, I am desperate to read EVE!

    I'm dubious about Forbidden but I shall give it a try!

    MY IMM

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  18. There is way too much awesome in this IMM for my brain to take it all in. I see some amazing books in there! I'm looking forward to your reviews on all these books! :D Here's what I got this week. Happy reading!

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  19. Looks like you had a good time at ALA--thanks for the conference recap! I'm looking forward to reading your reviews of that huge pile of books!


    Smiles!
    Lori

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  20. A great haul! Awesome stuff... I can't wait to read Forbidden :)
    Check out what's In My Mailbox

    Mia @ Gripped into Books

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  21. WOW. Lucky lady here!
    I'm jealous!! :D

    Saw a Lola and the boy next door poster back there! did you get an ARC? O: then I would be even more jealous!

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  22. So. Many. Books! Have fun reading them all. I would probably have a heart attack if my TBR pile looked like that... then again my wishlist is probably over 100x that.

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  23. I'm not actually that funny in real life...lol...but I had a GREAT time hanging out with you!!

    :)

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  24. I'm lame and really late to find you on the internet, but we did meet several times at ALA (one of the times was at the haunted bar that had the hurricanes!)

    I totally thought my stack of books was huge but yours is EPIC! :)

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