Mundie Moms

Monday, April 27, 2015

My TLA (Texas Library Association) Recap / New To My Shelves #186: The TLA Edition & ENTER TO WIN!

Welcome to this week's edition of New To My Shelves (previously known as In My Mailbox (IMM) / Stacking the Shelves (STS) or My Weekly Round Up in the Stacks. You can check out all the goodies that have arrived via my Instagram accountI've been a bit behind on posting my IMM posts each week here on the blog, though I've been posting pics on Instagram

Two weeks was TLA (Texas Library Association) was here in Austin, TX. I love this week long book convention. It's not only a fabulous place to reconnect with book friends, and authors, and meet authors, it's a wonderful place to chat with publishers about upcoming books, and attend some awesome panels. 

This year I was really picky with the goodies I brought home. I received some amazing books to feature on Mundie Moms & Mundie Kids, and some of the arcs I received, I either gave away, or didn't take, as I knew I wouldn't be able to feature them on one of the blogs, or have the time to read. Or if a publisher was giving out an arc I already had on hand, I didn't take it. This is post a mix of books I brought from home, books/arcs I received from the publishers/authors, or books I bought at TLA. 


For Review


Check out my Middle Grade / Children's goodies HERE.

SIGNED BOOKS
One of the things I loved about TLA, is that you can bring books from home, purchase books at a huge discounted price in the signing line to get signed (if the publisher is selling the books. It's up to each signing if that is happening), or receive a copy of the book or sometimes the arc, from the publisher for free, to get signed. Sometimes if you purchase a book, and the sequel is coming out or the authors next book, you get the arc for free. 

Here are the books I brought from home, received from the publisher at TLA, and purchase while at TLA.

Books I brought from home that got signed:


Purchased from TLA:
RECAP

My first day at TLA was Wednesday, and an amazing day it was. It was so great to reconnect with book friends, and see some fabulous author friends. Today's highlights included seeing authors: Jenny Martin, Marie Lu, Carrie Ryan, Joy Preble, Cinda Williams Chima, Katie McGarry, and Suzanne Young. If ever get the chance to see these ladies, please do. They are truly amazing, and it is always a pleasure seeing them. 

I also enjoyed catching up with friends, and having lunch with a publicist I've worked with for awhile now. One of the things I love about TLA, is the chance to talk with publicist I've been working with for sometime now, and finally meet them in person. It's so great to get catch up with the rocking publishing house teams who make TLA and all the big book events possible. I love chatting with them about books. I also love how they take the time to talk to kids about books. Both my kids came this year with me, and the rocking people who took time to talk to my kids, authors included, really inspired my kids. They love reading, but after TLA, I think that love of reading reached a whole new level. THANK YOU to all who inspired my kids, and all of us at TLA this year. 


That evening at Book People, I took my kids to an epic signing which included middle grade authors;
Jason Auxier (The Night Gardner), Mac Barnett and Jory John (The Terrible Two), Jon Scieszka (Guys Read), and Tom Angleberger (Origami Yoda series). THIS was one of the best signings I've ever been to. If you ever get the chance to be in the same room with these 5 brilliant writers, and hilarious guys, I strongly recommend that you do. I'm not sure who had more fun that night, the kids or us parents. My kids LOVED meeting them. We brought a few books from home, and also purchased The Terrible Two, which I highly recommend picking up. It's hilarious. 


TLA Day Two: Thursday!AKA my fangirling day. This was my epic day! I FINALLY got to meet Marie Rutkoski, Mary Pearson, A.C. Gaughen, and Becky Wallace! These ladies are even more awesome in person, which I knew they would be. I am so thrilled I finally got to meet them all. I also LOVED seeing Sarah J. Maas again, Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Deebs, and Andrea Cremer. I love these ladies! 


 TLA Day Three: Friday! Today was the last day of TLA. My sole purpose of coming today was to meet Sabaa Tahir!! She is amazing. My daughter loved meeting her as well. I had planned on going to just her signing, and leaving, but I ended up stopping by a couple other signings, visited with some blogger friends, and oh yeah, I met this cute little guy:


This cute baby monkey needs to be filed under: Things You Don't Except To See At A Book Convention. One of the cool things about sticking around for the end of TLA, is when the publishing booths get rid of their books. This is done by either waiting in lines for awhile (which is totally worth it), to received 1-3 books (publishers choose the number you can pick), for free, while others change a steal of a deal price on books. I rarely stick around to do this, since it gets crazy, but it was totally worth it. I didn't list books my kids got while at TLA, but my daughter was able to get some books for herself, and she was sweet and grabbed some books for her teacher, while I got some for our my kids's school librarian. I loved seeing the boxes of books librarians were buying for their schools. 

Friday Night was a blast, as I picked up friends, D from Good Choice Reading, and Susan from Waster Paper Prose and took them around Austin to site see. Never mind the fact that it had been storming before, during, and after our fun. We had a blast. I can't wait to do this next year!

TLA rocked this year! It ran so smoothly. My only compliant was the signings. They scheduled so many epic authors to sign all at the same time. It was really hard trying to get to see all the authors you wanted to see, because of that. In fact I missed seeing a few, though I'm very grateful I was able to see the authors I did.

THANK YOU to everyone who had a hand in putting TLA together this year. Thank you for all the authors and publishing all the time and energy you put into making TLA so awesome! 

The Giveaway



Since I was so selective with what I took, I don't have a huge giveaway like I have done in previous years. However, I do have a great giveaway featuring a couple signed items I received at TLA, and I'm throwing in an arc I had at home, that I've got duplicate of.

1 lucky winner will receive:
To enter, please fill out the form below: US residents only (If International, you're welcome to enter if you're willing to cover international shipping costs).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cassandra Clare Shares A New Snippet: Mundane Monday #240


Happy Mundane Monday! Somehow yesterday I totally missed Cassandra Clare sneaking a snippet onto Twitter. Did you catch it? If not, here's the snippet she shared in response to a fan asking her a question:

Too soon for a snippet?” "Michael let a week pass before asking the question Robert had been dreading."

I look forward to finding out what that question is when this entire story is out.

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