Alea's 13 Most Anticipated BEA 2011 Titles

Today I am going to share with you the 13 books that excited me the most at BEA this year. Most I came home with ARCs of, and then a few a sampler and a few posters but regardless of what I came home with these books have got me excited!

In no particular order, my 13 most anticipated BEA 2011 Titles!

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (January 2nd 2012)

This book just sounds super super super cute! I'm totally loving all the British love interests in YA lately! I also like how this is set over 24 hours and in an airport and a plane!

 

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger 

 (September 5th 2011)

I really enjoyed Keplinger's first book, The DUFF so I'm sure this one will be just as good! She doesn't shy away from telling it how it is and using the real language teens actually use!

Straw House, Wood House, 
Brick House, Blow by Daniel Nayeri (October 11th 2011)

I really enjoyed Another Faust that Nayeri wrote with his sister. And this sounds like a highly original book, it's 4 novellas from different genres. The sampler I got features the novella Blow I believe which is a love story told from Death's perspective, this definitely seems like it will be interesting!

 

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler art by Maira Kalman (January 2nd 2012)

This is the second year in a row I failed to meet Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket, hopefully someday! But I was still lucky enough to score a copy of his upcoming book Why We Broke Up. It looks like the story starts with a box of things from the relationship of these two people! I think it could be fabulous!

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
(November 21st 2011)

I love the idea of The Future of Us, in 1996 two kids find their facebook pages from 15 years in the future. Not something you will see everyday! I am always attracted to books that explore social media as a means of storytelling!

 

Bunheads by Sophie Flack 

(October 10th 201)

I danced for about 12 years from Elementary school until I graduated from High school and while I was never as serious as it sounds like the characters in this book are I've always had a soft spot for dance,t so I'm totally excited about this book!

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick 
by Joe Schreiber (October 25th 2011)

When I saw the title for this book on the screen at the YA Editors Buzz I burst out laughing. And even though it turned out the book wasn't about anything I had expected it to be, it turned out to be even more crazy and original sounding! I don't want to give a lot away but the back of the ARC says "Ferris Bueller Meets La Femme Nikita in this funny, action-packed young adult novel."

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling (November 1st 2011)

I was lucky enough to hear Mindy speak at one of the Adult Author Breakfasts at BEA and let me tell you, she was HILARIOUS! I read a few of the sample chapters  and I love her writing style, it's going to be wonderful! No wonder the Office can be so funny when they have someone like her writing it!

Cakespy: Sweet Treats for a 
Sugar-Filled Life by Jessie Oleson
(October 11th 2011)

This book has never made me want to eat paper more. The sampler came with two recipes, one for S'moreos and one for Ice Cream Pudding Pie, both which look delicious There are also cute illustrations sprinkled throughout! To hold me over until the release I have been checking out the CakeSpy blog!

Good Girls Don't by Victoria Dahl (August 30th 2011)

I've loved all of the Victoria Dahl books I've read so far so I have a feeling this one will be just as fun!

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins (October 25th 2011)

I've also really enjoyed all the Kristan Higgins books I've read! I think Victoria Dahl and Kristan Higgins are definitely my two favorite contemporary romance authors!

Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found by Sophie Blackall (September 22nd 2011)

When I was looking up events that were going to be at BEA a found a listing for Sophie Blackall's Missed Connections and wondered how I had gone so long without knowing about her! The book is set to be a collection of her beautiful drawings of missed connections, you know, the ads in the newspaper, I saw you (insert place) and you were wearing (insert color and shirt type) and I was the person in the.... anyhow from what I've seen of her drawings and the poster she signed for me at BEA this is going to be one beautiful book!

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me by Jenny Slate & Dean Fleischer-Camp 
(November 1st 2011)

What else can I say about this one besides it's Marcel the Shell AS A BOOK! I've heard there are going to be paintings in the book instead of photography like I had imagined. I was so excited to meet the two creators at BEA!

To see a full list of the books I picked up at BEA click here.

Arrival of the BEA Box (only 1 this year!)

My box of BEA books arrived this afternoon and I was very excited to see the box was intact, unlike last year! I tried to approach BEA with a more casual attitude this year (which included being more picky about what books I came home with), and I think I mostly succeeded! I'll share some highlights of my trip soon! If you want to see the visual highlights visit this post! 

If you went to BEA or even if you didn't, what book are you most excited to read from BEA?

 

What Alea Saw in NYC

BEA 2010: Arrival of the Boxes

Ok, ok these actually came Thursday but I thought I would share a sneak peek before posting the rest of my BEA recaps, which will be occurring sometime soon. Disclaimer: I somehow ended up with 2 boxes this instead of one. How? I have no idea! I did ship at the end of each day though, to try and avoid the theft that happened last year. And one came with a big old rip in the side, luckily everything seemed ok for the most part!

Big old rip, oh no!

Wednesday's Box

Thursday's Box

Pre-BEA: (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday)

SUNDAY:

As some of you know, I was in the D.C. area the week before BEA so I hopped on a bus 7am Sunday morning and was into New York City by 11am. Roomie Irish/Gail and I timed it so we would arrive around the same time.

We dropped our bags of at the hotel (and roomie Gail brought me Things I Know About Love by Kate LeVann because she knew I wanted to read it, how sweet!) and then went in search of lunch. We ended up at Max Brenner which I had gotten very excited about! Here are the awesome chocolate pancakes both Gail and I had.


We then headed over to the Strand where we ran into Lenore and Trish!


I tried to keep my buying down to a minimum unlike last year when I went sort of crazy. Here's what I got:


The Daughters by Joanna Philbin
Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern
Sing Me to Sleep by Angela Morrison
How to be Single by Liz Tuccillo
Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini
Fa La La La Felt by Amanda Carestio
Daniel Clowes Strand Bag

After that we met up with Joanne Renaund for dinner! We went to a ramen house which I can say I've never been to and OMG was it tasty!

After that we went back to the hotel to check in. Then we decided we better make our first Pinkberry run, I think it was the first of three during the trip. Behold:


MONDAY:


Monday we started the day by eating breakfast at the hotel, yum french toast! Then we wandered around for awhile (see above picture), including Kate's Paperie which was extremely cute. Then we headed over to Harper Collins where we got to chat with a large group of publicists who were all extremely nice. They showed us around for a bit, honestly I don't think I've ever felt so welcome anywhere, such nice people! I picked up a copy of You by Charles Benoit there, which I had heard about via twitter.


After that Gail and I met up with Julia Hoban, the author of Willow who I always have the best time with! And since the Willow paperback had recently come out we took the chance to get Julia to sign some copies for us! I also found the second book in Candace Camp's Willowmere series, A Gentleman Always Remembers, which wasn't due in stores until the next day. (The week before I tried to buy it, store had it but said I couldn't have it so instead I used my Borders bucks on A Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior by Suzanne Enoch).

Then we headed over to the Jefferson Market Library where the Teen Author Carnival was held. The carnival was organized a little bit differently this year. There were three themed panels on three different floors repeated three different times. Then at the end was a big signing.

I got my copy of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place signed by Maryrose Wood, got to meet Sarah Ockler who signed a copy of Fixing Delilah Hannaford for me and also got to say hi to Michelle Zink who signed Guardian of the Gate and mini-posters of her new book covers for me! Also chatted with Melissa Walker, Stephanie Kuehnert and others. This was basically the first time I got to meet a majority of the bloggers (too many to name) that attended BEA this year. Was a lot of fun!




After that we went out for dinner with a HUGE group of bloggers of dinner! The food was good and the conversations were great!

TUESDAY:

Tuesday morning we stopped at the Javits Center to pick up our badges. And this was the popular spectacle upon entering. It really was very cool!


After some breakfast (or for me sweet potato fries) with some fellow bloggers we headed to Penguin for a tour! Yay! We started off visiting the design department, which of course is exactly what I wanted to see. I asked a lot of questions during our tour and we even got to see the review copies closet. I've always wanted to see one of those! They were so kind to offer us some books to take home. I picked up The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paol Giordano and Promises to Keep by Jane Green.

Next up was a light lunch with Gail, James, Susan, and authors Chelsea Campbell and Anastasia Hopcus and her boyfriend. We had gotten so hot it was so nice to sit inside for a bit! Next it was off to the Lion Brand Yard Studio! If I lived in NYC I would totally take classes there!

Next was tea at Sweetiepies. We knew it was going to be expensive but them with all the taxes and fees it kind of got really expensive! But I still thought it was fun, the food was cute and tasty and we got to spend some time with more bloggers!



The final event of the day was the Class of 2k10 signing at Books of Wonder. I purchased Change of Heart by Shari Maurer and The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams by Rhonda Hayter. Gail was kind enough to let me steal some stickers to use as bookplates so I could get the books I had at home "signed" by some of the authors there that night! After the signing wrapped up I was the camera holder for a video interview Gail conducted with Janet Fox the author of Faithful (see the video here). So after listening in on that I ran up to the register and bought a copy book and also had her sign it!



I believe this is another day that ended in a trip to Pinkberry. I tried Chocolate which was a new flavor of theirs I had not had! And of course we got home just in time for Glee!!!!

Upcoming posts:
BEA Day 1
BEA Day 2
Book Blogger Convention
Alea's BEA Picks On A Theme or OMGGGG!

SUNDAY: BEA Day 3 + Guggenheim + The Strand (again)

So today was the last day of BEA. *weep* Laura and Sharon were there already because apparently Laura wanted to get up at 6:30? So I wandered in but I couldn't find them so I looked at everything on the lower level one last time, wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything before heading back upstairs to find them! Eventually we started wandering the whole upstairs as well, what can I say, I wanted to make sure I saw everything! I had much less on my schedule for Sunday and also a lot of the bloggers weren't going to be there that day. Here's another picture of the floor!


After a little snack I headed over meeting Elizabeth Scott one final time, she was signing her book Something, Maybe. Here's a picture! She is so so sweet!


After meeting Elizabeth I went down to the shipping area to ship my box off and that's when I discovered the 4 books that I hadn't been able to fit inside and set on the top had vanished. I figured it would be ok since a lot of other people were doing it, but just my luck I'm the one that has stuff stolen :( Anyhow I shipped my box and after some more wandering went upstairs to the Little and Brown Young Readers booth to meet Michelle Zink and her family one last time! Here are some pictures.


After that everyone started packing up and really there wasn't much more to see. Here's a few pictures, sorry Steph I looked horrible in all the ones you took of us...


Before I headed back to my hotel me and Mitali went and had some ice cream, very nice as it was a bit warm outside! Here are the books I ended up with the last day, and also all the swag I collected over the whole weekend.

After stopping at the hotel me and my mom headed over to see the Guggenheim before it closed. For the most part everything was Frank Lloyd Wright related and while I do like him, I don't think seeing architecture plans and models is really all that exciting, rather just look at a book for that... I was hoping to see far more modern art. But I did like the building itself, how amazing. And I was thankful they had so many benches my feet were still so sore from the day so I kept sitting down.




After that we headed over to Little Italy for some dinner and gelato. I really liked all the walking to and from the subway stops we did that afternoon even if my feet hurt. Here's a picture I took, love those buildings.

At dinner I realized my trip was quickly coming to an end since we were leaving the next morning so I was determined to visit the Strand one last time and I did! Here's what I picked up.
And that's pretty much the end of my trip. Went back to the hotel that night and I tried to balance my books between my carry ons and luggage as to not go over the weight limit (I didn't). One of my carry on duffel bags ended up being like 40 solid books weighing about 30 pounds. Ouch!

So there we have it that's my trip!