Friday night @ ALAAC

I booked an early morning flight hoping to get some sightseeing done before conference started. My plan was to drop my bag at the hotel, shuttle to the convention center, register, then walk along the lake up to the museum campus and visit one of them for the afternoon. Alas, what with the three-hour flight delay and my mess-ups, there was no time for that. I did shuttle down to register, then shuttled back up for a Simon & Schuster Night of Novels at the Osteria Via Stato. What a night it was! I got to meet Melanie Crowder first. I reviewed her book, Three Pennies for SLJ and absolutely adored it. I will be so glad to add the signed copy to our collection and mark it a partnership read*

Sandhya Menon talked about her debut, When Dimple Met Rishi. Another book I adored and have yet to review here. I want to though. I read it with my ears and the audio is fantastic.

Hena Khan spoke about Amina's Voice. Tim Green spoke about his collaboration with Derek Jeter on Baseball Genius. Susan Vaught spoke about writing a character in a wheelchair for her own son in Super Max and the Mystery of Thornwood's Revenge. I am blanking on the other authors! Oh boy. I'm having a brain fart and it's only the first day of conference. Catherynne Valente's The Glass Town Game - a novel about the Brontes. 

I left there with a tote loaded with books and popped into the Holiday House cocktail party where I got to ogle what's coming up for them. I got to catch up with my review editor at SLJ and a bunch of conference friends. 

Sadly, I took no photos. Sometimes, I need to be just in the moment; but did decide to take a short walk to look for the Bean and take some photos along The Magnificent Mile. Laughably, I mis-remembered where it was, not realizing that the Millennium Park Grille is located right below it. No worries, it was a gorgeous night and a lovely walk. 

 

It's a good thing that I hardly ate anything yesterday because it's all I will be doing today!