event recap: Suzanne Collins at Oblong Books

-
Thursday night, Mr. Nomadreader and I took a little road trip down to Millerton, New York to see Suzanne Collins at Oblong Books. We drove down a little early and had a wonderful lunch at Harney and Sons, a gourmet tea shop. We got to Oblong a little over an hour before the signing, and we were rewarded with a number oh so very close to the front of the line. We all sat on the floor to listen to Suzanne read, and I was thrilled she first read from Catching Fire, which I adored. Next she read the opening pages of Mockingjay, and I was amazed how many in the audience hadn't read it yet (I mean, it had been out for two days already--kidding!) After the reading, the line started moving quite quickly. We had our book stamped and were back outside to enjoy a beautiful day before 5:30 p.m. We stayed in Millerton for a phenomenal dinner at Manna Dew and toasted the last night of my 20's. All in all, it was a wonderful night, even though (I confess) I didn't like Mockingjay. I do still love Catching Fire, and it was a treat to attend a fun literary event.

And there are goodies. The prize pack from Oblong includes a Hunger Games bag clip, two Mockingjay tattoos, a Hunger Games button, a Mockingjay bookmark and an Oblong Books bookmark.

Because I didn't especially enjoy Mockingjay (review coming this week), I don't feel the need to keep this awesome prize pack/party favor from Oblong Books, but I'm sure one of you would love to win, right? Fill out this form by Friday, September 3, 2010 to enter. Comments left on this post will not enter you. Good luck!

Comments

  1. ZibileeAugust 30, 2010 at 9:37 AM

    So, so cool that you got to meet Suzanne Collins! What I would have given to attend that reading, you lucky lady!!

    Sorry to hear that you didn't like Mockingjay...I haven't read it yet, nor any reviews, so I am not sure what I will think!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the fir
Read more