There are so many things to talk about in the Salon today!
Let’s hit the books first:
The Indie Lit Awards winners were announced last Monday, and I began posting my reviews of the books that were considered in the Biography/Memoir category that same day. So far, I’ve discussed:
I Pray Hardest When Being Shot At, by Kyle Garret
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, by Nina Sankovitch
Bossypants, by Tina Fey (previously reviewed, but re-posted for the occasion)
Reviews of the final two are coming this week:
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (runner-up), Monday
Little Princes by Conor Grennan (winner), Tuesday
Those were my personal choices for the top two, and I was very happy that the rest of the panel thought so too!
The Indie Lit Awards postings were interrupted for a BlogHer Book Club review of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, which is outstanding. If the year ended today, it would easily be my Book of the Year.
Today, I’m reading The Bloggess‘ “(mostly true) memoir,” Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, for a Shelf Awareness review next month. If you know Jenny Lawson from her blog and Twitter, you have some idea what you’ll be getting in this book…but only some. You have no idea about the rest. She’s got a blurb from Neil Gaiman, though, if that matters.
In other news…
Bloggiesta begins on Friday! Are you working on your to-do list? I’ve started mine, and I’ll be hosting a mini-challenge too…with a prize!
And speaking of prizes, my Blogiversary Giveaway is still open (ask a question on the entry form to get a bonus entry!)! I’ll be choosing the winners during the first week of April, so take your chances now!
The winner in my BlogHer/eHarmony sweepstakes was chosen a few days ago, and I was excited that it was one of my regular readers. Congratulations to Stacy, and hope you enjoy spending that Visa gift card!
Oh, and I got retweeted by Christopher Moore yesterday when I linked to a very helpful post from his blog:
Useful info at ANY book signing, not just @theauthorguy‘s: ASK THE AUTHORGUY brings you BOOKSIGNING FAQS erlyedt.in/GXDBM3
— Florinda Pend.-Vasq. (@florinda_3rs) March 24, 2012
That was kind of exciting. And you really should check out that post of his. (@RhapsodyinBooks retweeted it too, which was also very nice.) He’ll be touring next month for his latest novel, Sacre Bleu, so it’s rather timely–and I hope to be there when he comes back to Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on April 28th.
It’s been an eventful month or so around here, but there are big events coming up elsewhere, too…
The BEA Bloggers Conference (formerly the Book Blogger Convention, purchased by BEA earlier this year and an official “concurrent event” with Book Expo America) is starting to add names to its program, which looks to have a strong publishing-industry presence this year. So far, they’re mostly authors, but blogger panelists are promised…I’ll be watching for updates.
In the meantime, there are discussions brewing about a blogger-centered, independent “unconference” to be held the same day as BBC…and I’ll be watching what develops with that, too.
The “unconference” seems to be growing out of a perception that the “new” BBC is developing as a conference for bloggers, presented by those who want to work with bloggers; in response, this new group wants to produce, collaboratively, a day of discussion by and among bloggers.
Ideally, we’d have both. Look at BlogHer. While it’s expanding into a growing number of smaller niche conferences, programming at its main event continues to be primarily driven by community input, and it still manages to serve a diverse range of blogger interests and experience levels.
While these events are sorting themselves out, the conversations will continue, and drama may or may not ensue. If you prefer to sit out the drama, there’s always Armchair BEA–not much drama, but plenty of fun! It’s coming back, and coming to you wherever you are (maybe even at the “real” BEA?)…and now it’s on Facebook, too!
What are you reading about–and talking about–today?
