The Fab Five at Books of Wonder

You guys are going to think that all I do these days is traipse into Manhattan for author-ish things, but... Last night I traipsed into Manhattan again to attend a joint reading/signing at Books of Wonder by five (count them: five!) fabulous YA authors: Coe Booth, John Green, Maureen Johnson, David Levithan, and E. Lockhart.

Due to the precision timing of the Long Island Railroad, I arrived late. Luckily, the festivities hadn't started yet, but the audience was already seated on the floor staring adoringly up at the Fab Five. Across the crowded room, I spotted the fabulous Holly Black and her also-fabulous husband Theo. I waved; Holly waved back. This made me happy. Fun and fabulous people to sit with! And there was even an empty spot of carpet next to Holly. Unfortunately, it was all the way across the room -- I'd have to either cross directly in front of the about-to-start authors (which would have been rude) or take a mighty leap over the audience to reach her (which would have been... difficult). So I chose to trample over the audience, crushing small puppies and children on the way, and plopped myself down next to Holly. We were later joined by the fabulous Cassandra Clare, who gracefully leapt over the heads of the previously-crushed puppies and children to reach her own spot of carpet.


The Fab Five read from their newest books. E. read a hilarious passage from THE BOY BOOK. David read a lovely love scene from WIDE AWAKE. Maureen read a vivid and fabulous bit of DEVLISH. John read a very witty and clever 19 sentences from AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. And lastly, Coe read an every-word-perfect scene from TYRELL. Afterwards, they alternated reading clips from their books in what David called a "re-mash." (See blog entries by Coe and John for more about the re-mash.) They finished with a Q&A. (Above photo stolen from John Green who stole it from Phil Bildner.)

Maureen has a somewhat different account of all this in her blog... Trust me, you want to check this out. You won't be sorry.

After the entertainment portion of the evening was over, we moved on to the chatting. Got a chance to talk with Maureen, which was great since we've only chatted online before. Very nice to meet her in person. I'd met Coe and David before at Teen Author Drinks Night (see prior blog entry) so it was cool to see them there and to cheer them on. Also got a chance to talk with Peter Glassman (the owner of Books of Wonder) again, which was really great. He's fabulous. After the event ended, eleven of us headed out to dinner. It took a while to get a table for eleven, but that just meant more time for chatting with fabulous people so no complaints here. Got to talk to Holly, Theo, Cassie, and two of their friends (Steve and Ruby) quite a bit at dinner, which was fantastic. And the guacamole was fabulous!

(For those of you who are counting, that's nine fabulous-es in one post! It was just that fabulous a night!)