Book Expo 2019 – Day One

Once again, I was lucky enough to attend Book Expo and Julie, of Booking Mama fame, was kind enough to room with me.  We arrived in New York bright and early (I had to get up at 3:45am to catch my flight) on Wednesday, May 29 and, after checking into our hotel and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed over to the Javits Center.  We got our badges and headed to the show floor.  It was only open a half day on Wednesday so it wasn’t too crowded but, to me, it seemed smaller and less vibrant than in years past.  One of the early panels is Editor’s Buzz and it’s always exciting to see the books editors believe will be big.  This year’s titles seem to be dark and literary.

• HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES by Saeed Jones (Simon & Schuster; October 8, 2019) is a memoir by a gay, southern, black man struggling to find his place in the world.
• MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell (Harper Collins; January 28, 2020) is a debut novel about the relationship between a 15 year old girl and her male teacher.  It’s already been sold in 24 countries.
• THE SECRETS WE KEPT by Lara Prescott (Knopf; September 17, 2019) is a fictional account of two secretaries who become spies for the CIA during the Cold War.
• SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid (Putnam; January 7, 2020) tells the story of an African American nanny who takes her young white charge to an upscale grocery store.  A security guard notices the pair, assumes the child has been kidnapped, and calls the police.
• UNCANNY VALLEY by Anna Weiner (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux; January 14, 2020) is the author’s memoir of leaving publishing to move to Silicon Valley to work for a start-up in the tech industry.
• THE WAREHOUSE by Rob Hart (Crown; August 20, 2019) is a science fiction thriller set in a “live-work” facility of a tech company.

From the Javits, we headed over to Nobu to meet up with Miriam Parker, associate publisher at Ecco and author of THE SHORTEST WAY HOME, which comes out in paperback on June 25th!  Seeing Miriam is always a pleasure and our time together just flew by.  We were so busy catching up, we didn’t get a picture of the three of us, but Miriam did snap this one of Julie and me.

We ended the evening by seeing The Cher Show on Broadway.  We had fantastic seats and both thought the show was a lot of fun.

Book Expo 2019 Day One • Book Expo 2019 Day Two • Book Expo 2019 Day Three