• Lambda Winners
• Celebrity Spotting
• Authors Everywhere
• Lunch Literati
• Book Sense Book of the Year Winners

Every year, thousands of booklovers -- booksellers, authors, publishers -- get together in one place (in this case, the gargantuan yet still navigable McCormick Place convention center in Chicago) to talk shop, schmooze, get the inside scoop on what titles are coming up next, and to honor excellence in the world of books.

The BookSense.com staff is there, of course, talking with and offering advice to participating BookSense.com stores … and, in my (Linda's) case, roaming about with notepad (the paper kind and the heavy-laptop kind) in hand introducing myself to authors, seeking out Interesting Goings-on, and wishing I'd worn more comfortable shoes.

Lambda Winners Announced!

On Thursday, May 31, the Lambda Literary Foundation held a gala banquet and awards ceremony at which it honored the winners of the 13th Annual Lambda Literary Awards.

Who won?
Visit our Lambda Winners page!

Celebrity Spotting

It's not a good trip unless a celeb is sighted, and we fulfilled that requirement right away: Our first night in town, Meg shared a revolving-door section with actor Tony Goldwyn, who played the bad-guy best friend in the movie "Ghost." Fabulous.

Authors Everywhere!

One of the many exciting things about BEA is the opportunity to meet authors pretty much anywhere. (Note to the shy: The common bond of trying to stay clear-headed amid the hyperactivity of the BEA Experience often proves an excellent conversation-starter.)

On Friday, June 1, the fun started at the Children's Book & Author Breakfast. I am not a morning person, but speakers Sharon Creech (A Fine, Fine School, Love That Dog), Jules Feiffer (I'm Not Bobby!), and Jack Prelutsky (It's Raining Pigs and Noodles, and Awful Ogre's Awful Day) were interesting and fun, even at an early hour.

Highlights of the breakfast:

Creech read aloud excerpts from letters she's received from young fans: "When you go shopping, do you have to have guards? And do the guards shop for you, or what?"

She also told the story behind Love That Dog, in which a young boy discovers a Walter Dean Myers poem and finds himself in turn able to tell the story of his beloved dog Skip. Aww!

Tom Bodett of NPR's Loose Leaf Book Company gave a nice plug to LLBC's new partnership with BookSense.com (and, whoops, I just gave a shameless plug!). Click over to the Loose Leaf Book Club to find out more! Or click on the LLBC icon on the left side of this page.

Jules Feiffer gave us the scoop on the reason he did the illustrations for The Phantom Tollbooth in 1963: "Norton Juster and I were roommates in Brooklyn, and he was the cook. I had to draw the illustrations if I wanted to eat. And so I did."

Feiffer also showed us his drawings from 63 years ago ("My mother saved everything") and revealed that, for The Man in the Ceiling, he had a hard time creating the art by 10-year-old Jimmy, the book's main character. So, he copied the art his mother had saved: "There I was in my 60s stealing from myself at 8 and 9 and 10." Makes you want to dig out your grade-school memory box, doesn't it? No? Oh. Never mind, then.

Prelutsky, who used to be a folk singer (and a cab driver, but that's not important here), often sets his poetry to music. He sang a pun-laden poem, "We're Fearless Flying Hot Dogs," with much enthusiasm and a little ululation. Tidbits: "We spread our wings with relish" and "We are the delicate essence of flight!"

Lunch Literati

Our first-ever Book Sense 76 luncheon, wherein we honored authors whose books were selected for the Book Sense 76 and the booksellers who nominated them, was really crowded and great fun. Author-attendees included Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Hamilton, Andre Dubus III, Anita Diamant, Myla Goldberg, and Jane Yolen.

I spoke with John Searles, who was besieged by enthusiastic booksellers … Myla Goldberg (in between her signing copies of Bee Season, out in paperback) … and Thisbe Nissen, whose The Good People of New York has been well-received, even by people who aren't from New York. She's really cool, that Thisbe. Oh, and I chose her book for my May staff pick … click here to see why.

Book Sense Book of the Year: The Winners!

David McCullough, author of John Adams, emceed the gala Celebration of Bookselling on Friday evening. It was just like the Oscars, except the awards were for books, and the attendees weren't wearing $5,000 gowns.

The Book Sense Book of the Year winners were chosen by independent booksellers nationwide as the titles they most enjoyed hand-selling in the past year. Various booksellers served as presenters -- Valerie Lewis of Hicklebee's in San Jose, California, was particularly good at tormenting the audience by chatting a bit, instead of reading the winning name off the envelope she held. (It was top-secret info -- up until the Big Moments, only the auditors knew who the winners were! Power to the accountants.)

To see all the winners and their fellow finalists, visit our Book Sense Book of the Year Winners! page.