Chicago, we're coming for you!

Get excited! It's officially ALA week in Chicago! 25,000 librarians, writers, publishers, bookshop owners, and library students all invading one city for a week of awesomeness! I've never gotten the chance to go, so this is my first trip to the Conference of Win. [I might meet Lois Lowry!! EEEEEE!]

There are so many people coming to speak that I'm sad I won't get to hear and see everyone! I'm bummed especially about my train schedule meaning I have to leave the conference in the morning of the last day before Octavia Spencer takes the floor for her big talk to close the conference. Remember Octavia Spencer? She was on Ugly Betty, Big Bang Theory, and most notably as Minny Jackson in The Help (for which she won an Oscar! Yay!). She's taking the leap into a mystery series for children that features a Ninja Detective and she is the keynote for the closing of the conference. I'm sure she's awesome. Plus, she's writing books for kids about Ninja Detectives, how can that flop?

Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson. She was my favorite character in The Help!

Speaking of non-floppers on the children's lit scene: Mo Willems is going to be there and I've got a book for him to sign for my friend's son. Elephant and Piggie books are all the rage! I love his work. He's such an amazing author, it'll be interesting to hear him talk about how he comes up with all of his ideas.

Giada DeLaurentis is going to be there, and I'm really hoping she's actually cooking. Cookbooks don't do a whole lot for me, but I'd like to eat free food! Especially free food prepared in front of me by a famous chef I've seen on tv before.

Khaled Hosseini is coming to talk about his newest book that came out last month, And the Mountains Echoed, which is sitting at #3 on NY Times Best Seller list this week. I always wanted to read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, but I still haven't gotten around to it. Maybe hearing him speak will inspire me to finally read these books?

Oliver Stone is coming to talk about his new documentary, which I might stop in to hear a bit about. It's called "The Untold History of the United States" and is going to be challenging the traditional history taught to students. I'm all for it.

And Alice Walker is coming! I don't actually own a copy of "The Color Purple", but I might see if I could get one and see if she could sign it? She's got a new book of poetry coming out and I hope she reads some from it. It'd be pretty cool to hear her read a little.

And, as I mentioned at the start: LOIS LOWRY! This is probably the coolest thing, ever. Because Number the Stars and The Giver are two of my favorite books in the world, I actually don't have full copies of them any longer. Books that I love, I tend to tear pages out and frame for decoration in my house. So, unless I track one down, I won't have one for her to sign. I don't know that I'll actually be able to meet her. I mean, I might stand in front of her and just sort of stare awkwardly and then be like, 'hi?' But, regardless of whether I can actually form a coherent sentence and have some actual dialogue with the woman, I'm going to hear her speak about dystopian fiction on the first night. She's part of a panel of other young adult fiction writers who are going to be holding a discussion on the topic. Maybe hearing her speak first and not having the chance to meet her face-to-face until the next day will give me some sort of conversation starter, like, 'I really agreed with what you said last night about....' Or, I'll just hover and hear what other people say to her and inwardly go 'EEEEEEEEE!!' the entire time.

Plus all the actual sessions and things I have to go to for work and networking and generally having a blast with fellow bookish people! It actually doesn't start until Friday, but I've been so looking forward to this for months that I'm already overcome with joy! That being said, there will be no Throwback Movie Night this weekend...possibly not next weekend, either?

Squeee!

I feel like a badass librarian today. Unbeknownst to me, I have been corresponding with an author of books that I would probably read! Most authors I deal with are in the history field and write books that, generally speaking, I don't like to read. I love historical fiction, but most authors who reach out to the Society are the sort who will need annotations and footnotes. Lots of 'em. So, a week ago when I was approached by an author in Texas for an inter-library loan request of some film on Laura Ingalls Wilder, I thought it was for yet another non-fiction book on the Little House on the Prairie author. Today, I got the payment for the loan and shipped it out, but also decided to look up the author and find out more about her. She was very good about staying up-to-date with the status of the request and was really nice to talk to, but she seemed different than other authors I've dealt with so far.

Turns out, she is waaaaay different and waaaaaay awesome. She's written 50+ historical fiction books plus some juvenile fiction books. She focuses on mystery stories which seem to turn historical figures into detectives of sorts. She has an entire series about Beatrix Potter, which I am totally going to read now. She has two current mystery/romance series and she and her husband have their return address listed as "Partners In Crime", which is adorbz once you realize they're not actual criminals. My local library has 52 of her books and those are just the ones published under her actual name! She's got series' right and left under pseudonyms including (dun dun dunduuuuuun!) Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon. Those might not ring a bell immediately, so let me help you out: those are the pseudonyms used by the author of two crazy-influential juvenile book series: Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. (Several authors have ghostwritten for those series, but I personally have never spoken to them...til now!) I was geeking out all afternoon. I still think it's about the coolest thing that I've gotten to do so far. While geeking out to my co-worker, she began geeking out to me because apparently she was asked to do some research on Reba McEntire's family for that tv show "Who Do You Think You Are?" and she had to sign an affidavit to not talk about it until the show aired last March. I don't think she was able to find much on Reba's family in Missouri, but still, it's exciting to get to take part in these sorts of projects and work with people who are creating books and shows and documentaries that we would read or watch anyway.

Sigh. Good day at work, yo!