R.J. Julia Booksellers Blog

Every year the New England independent booksellers get together for our annual trade show; we breathe in bad convention air and meet lots of fabulous authors and see tons of great books. Last weekend we were up in Hartford, and I wanted to share some of the highlights with you.

1) Author breakfasts (no, we don’t eat them). Joshua Ferris earned the adoration of every bookseller in the room by being completely funny and charming on very short notice. Anita Shreve had been scheduled to talk about her new book but was ill; Josh got a desperate call at 10:30 the night before the 8 am breakfast, said “Sure,” and left his 15 day-old baby to come give a speech. And he was great. He gets the Good Sport Award.

2) Mary Karr (Liars Club – I’m sure lots of you have read it, if not, it’s the one of the first, best, and least self-indulgent confessional memoirs) was funny and lovely. Her new book, Lit: A Memoir, talks about motherhood, daughterhood, personal demons, religion and redemption. She had on one extremely cool pair of purple suede boots. (And she admired my vintage mauve jacket). Clearly, the way to her heart: purple.

3) I survived speaking in front of a room of 100 – this may not sound like a big deal to you, but public speaking fills me with terror. Luckily, I had a very easy author to introduce: Sy Montgomery wrote The Good Good Pig, a wonderful book about adopting a tiny runt piglet who grew into Christopher Hogwood, 750 pounds of loving, and rambled about the neighborhood receiving belly rubs and other treats. Sy gave a very moving talk about the power of books and independent booksellers.

4) Another authorial crush: Adam Haslett, talking about his forthcoming novel (see, isn’t he cute?). Said after a half hour of talking about Union Atlantic: “As you can see, I do not have an elevator pitch for this book.” I just finished the galley last night, and it’s an amazing look at conflicts over class and corporate power and an eerily prescient story of the collapse of a huge financial institution. Don’t be scared about all the finance bits – I can’t balance my checkbook & still managed to understand what was going on. Sorry, the book won’t be out til January, but I’ll remind you – and trust me, this book will be getting lots of great reviews.

Other fun bits: It turns out Gail Collins used to be the editor of the Shoreline Times (Madison’s local newspaper). Sarah Vowell talked about Wordy Shipmates, and if you can get laughs with the Puritans, you’re good. Ward Just, leaning against the podium: “No one in this room has gotten rich from a Ward Just title. That would include Ward Just.”

These events always reaffirm my love of books, selling books, and people who write great books. Now, I have a question for you. We often talk about opening up these events to the public, much like Comic-Con, the comic book & graphic novel convention that draws thousands. How many of you would be interested in a convention where you’d hear authors talk, meet & greet them, talk to publishers about forthcoming books? Or is this just something bookselling nerds get excited about? Please leave a comment below, yea or nea.

Karen

p.s. As always, click on the jacket for more info or to order.