nomadreader

Dear Taylor, A year ago, I didn't know who you were. A couple of your book covers were vaguely familiar, but I hadn't read any of them. In July 2017, I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo , and I fell in love, with Evelyn and with your writing. It's a book I've recommended to many, many people over the last year, and they all report back how much they love it too. It was my favorite book of 2017 . It's a book that made me want to read our backlist in order. I devoured Forever, Interrupted  and After I Do  in fall 2017 (they both made my top 10 fiction reads of 2017 ), and then I made myself slow down because I didn't want to live in a world where I didn't have more of your books to read. Instead I enjoyed following you on Instagram and Twitter . I read books you recommended and was recently thrilled to discover how much we both love The Bold Type . When I saw you were speaking at the American Library Association conference, I was ecstatic. Your speec...

Happy Sunday, everyone! The last few months have been incredibly hectic, and I'm really looking forward to a calmer work life this summer. My reading has picked up, and I'm enjoying not having a backlog of reviews to write too! I finished Ann Patchett's Run  last night and am spending my afternoon and evening today with Roopa Farooki's The Flying Man  from this year's Orange Prize longlist. I'll be reviewing both later this week. In just over one month, I'll be heading to Anaheim, California for the American Library Association's Annual Conference! I'm really looking forward to the trip for a number of reasons: As I've mentioned before, I was blessed to be chosen as a 2012 ALA Emerging Leader. Anaheim marks the culmination my group's project . All of the Emerging Leaders teams will be presenting Friday, June 23. It will be my first presentation at a national conference, and I'm particularly glad it happens on the first day so I c...

This spring has been a hectic one, and it's pulled me away from the blogosphere at times. Here are some of the things I've been up to: Elle  magazine Reader's Prize Each month, Elle  selects fifteen readers, sends them three books, and has each reader rank them and comment on each one. I participated years ago in the non-fiction category, but it was so much fun to participate in fiction this spring. Fiction and non-fiction alternate months, and then at the end of the year, all of the fiction judges will read the monthly winners and crown a grand champion. It's a book tournament all its own. Our picks appear in the May 2012 issue ( it's also online ), but I read them all back in February. The titles were: The New Republic  by Lionel Shriver ( my review ), The Red Book  by Deborah Copaken Kogan ( my review ), and The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler ( my review .) I didn't know how the votes turned out until I received my issue on my Kindle Fire last week....

Tomorrow after teaching my first class of the semester I'll be off to the airport to catch my flight to Dallas for this year's American Library Association Midwinter Conference. I was blessed to be chosen as one of ALA's 2012 Emerging Leaders this year, and I'll meet my fellow ELs and begin work on our projects, which will culminate with a poster presentation at ALA's Annual Conference in Anaheim in June. As you might imagine, my schedule is already pretty full with meetings, but I do want to take some time to see Dallas. I'd love to hear your suggestions of things (preferably near the conference center or easily accessed by public transportation) to do while I'm there and places to eat. So far on my list are the Public ArtWalk Dallas  and the Sixth Floor Museum . And I'm always looking for suggestions of good food. Give me your best Dallas recommendations! If any of you are going to be there, send me an email. I'd love to meet up!

I'm on a train bound for Washington, D.C. to attend my first American Library Association Annual Conference. I've been impatiently saving Justin Cronin's The Passage  to read on the train, and I cannot wait to start it. I'm really looking forward to the conference too, of course. I'm less excited about the forecast of hot, humid weather for D.C., which means I likely won't be doing too much exploring in my free time. If you'll be at ALA this week, you can stop by and see me in the Networking Uncommons  or email or tweet me about meeting for lunch, dinner, coffee or cocktails. I hope to provide periodic recaps here over the weekend, but at the very least I'll recap the entire event next week. If I do have spare time and the desire to leave air-conditioning, what would you suggest I do in D.C.?

It's time to get excited about book conferences. I'm thrilled to be attending the 2010 Book Blogger Convention in New York City on Friday, May 28, 2010. I'm looking forward to meeting other book bloggers, networking and getting even more fabulous tips. Book Blogger Con is now officially affiliated with Book Expo America , which I will also be attending for the first time. Book Expo America is a huge deal in the publishing industry, so it's fantastic they're officially recognizing book bloggers too. Book Blogger Con was planned to be the day after BEA (May 25-27), but now it can be held in the same spot. Plus, all bloggers registered for Book Blogger Con are automatically registered for BEA. It's awesome. Do you want to go? BEA is free for press, and Book Blogger Con is $115, but if you register before February 14, you get $25 off. Register now to guarantee the $90 fee. I found a delightful studio apartment through Airbnb , a Web site that allows homeown...