Frankfurt Book Fair + Tori Amos with Orchestra!

The Frankfurt Book Fair took place this year from October 6-10.  This is my highlights post.

Wednesday October 6th
While Daniel picked up our friend Wes from the airport, I headed to the fair to check out the set-up this year and see which hot books were on display. I walked around hall 8 for about two hours and then went home.  Reps tend to be busiest on this first day, so I only try to talk to them if they look alone and bored. Unfortunately, the ones I did try to strike up a conversation with were seriously rude to me. Only saw three galleys up for grabs in all of hall 8 - a new low.  At least I grabbed a couple of catalogs to bring home.

Thursday October 7th
Got to talk to the lovely reps at Penguin for about 10 minutes and they told me which Fall 2011 books they are most looking forward to, including the start of a new dystopian trilogy called LEGEND by Marie Lu which is based loosely on Les Miserables and set in a flood submerged Los Angeles in 2130.  They also gave me a copy of XVI by Julia Karr - yay!

Friday October 8th
I skipped the fair to go to Amsterdam to see Tori Amos' first ever show live with full orchestra!  It was amazing! I had a 3rd row center seat and loved every minute.  First time songs for me (at my 20th show) were Yes, Anastasia (not full version, but close) and Programmable Soda as well as four songs from her new seasonal album Midwinter Graces: Snow Angel, Our New Year, Holly Ivy and Rose, and Star of Wonder.  I also loved to hear Precious Things reworked for orchestra as well as favorites Winter, Baker Baker (which I will now always associate with Peeta from Hunger Games), and Flying Dutchman.  I was hoping for Winter's Carol and Strange, but you can't have it all!

Saturday October 9th
I went straight to the fair after getting off my train from Amsterdam.  There I met Ka-Yam who gave me the most amazing present: an Emmy keychain!

I picked up a few picture books and arcs as well.  Here's Ka-Yam and me in front of Bloomsbury (where I got MY UNFAIR GODMOTHER by Janette Rallison and THE LEGACY by Gemma Mailey).

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the afternoon because of a preplanned event at my mother-in-law's.

Sunday October 10th
I met my friend Tracy very early, and we were shocked to find a lot of the stands already packed up and picked clean. I guess Saturday afternoon is the new Sunday morning as far as giving away books goes.

After going home to take a nap, I meet Ka-Yam at Maggie Steifvater's reading event where she saved me a front row seat.  The actress who reads SHIVER (German title: NACH DEM SOMMER) for the audio book read a passage from the book while Maggie drank water. (Fun Fact: She's the same actress who does the German voice for Bella in the Twilight movies)

I took 40 seconds of video:



And then, I got to say hi to Maggie.  She was surprised to see my ARC of LINGER and commented, "Wow- you must be someone important." And I said, "Well, I'm Lenore." She got up and hugged me saying, "Yes, you ARE very important."  Then Ka-Yam took this picture of us.

All in all, not the best Frankfurt Book Fair ever (and I am definitely spoiled by BEA), but it was still fun.  Here's my fiction book pile: