Most would agree that Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species created a stir among the scientific and religious communities when it was first published (some could argue it's still wreaking havoc to this day). However, in America the hubbub was less about where God fit into the picture and more how Darwin's theory solidified the stance against slavery. The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation by Randall Fuller explores how this one book helped abolitionists build arguments based on scientific fact while at the same time forcing long-held rigid beliefs to be questioned. (I'm looking at you Bronson Alcott.) Until reading this book, I had never thought about its reception in America in terms of its historical context/proximity to the Civil War. These two events seemed to be separate while in reality they were very much interwoven. Leading authors of the day including Henry David Thoreau were well-known and vocal about ending slavery so they not only endorsed Darwin's theories but went on publicity tours to promote it (and give their own opinions). On the Origin of Species showed that all humans had a common ancestor and thus there was no reason why they should not be treated as equals. (The relevance of this book during this time of sociopolitical upheaval in America right now was not lost on me. It just goes to show that we haven't evolved that much since this book hit the shelves.) I was continually surprised by what I learned by reading this book considering that I studied Darwin while I was working on my Bachelor's degree in Anthropology. Instead of solely focusing on the religious impact (which was still significant) it would have been informative to have learned this as well. I suppose that's why Randall Fuller wrote the book! hahaha If you're like me and eager to learn more (especially in light of the insanity that is 2017) then this book is the one for you. 9/10

What's Up Next: Comics Squad #3: Detention by Jennifer L. Holm (and others)

What I'm Currently Reading: The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth by Ursula K. Le Guin

My Thoughts - 5 out of 5 Unicorns - I loved it!!

***I choose what I read and review based on what intrigues me!!

The cover definitely fits with the rest of them like works of art that should be appreciated.

This is the 11^th book in the series (not counting novellas).  This series is for adults who are not of the faint of heart.  There is violence and love in spades.

I really love D.B. Reynolds writing style.  Her books are packed with action, intrigue, and baggage to go with the vampires’ long lives.  I’m always intrigued and never want to put the book down whichever one it is.  Her humor written through makes me laugh.  She always takes you on an emotionally journey.

Lucifer and Eleanor’s story is just as fantastic as I find each story to be.  This story mostly takes place in Canada in Sophia’s territory.  I don’t want to give anything away, so read the blurb and if you are intrigued, you definitely want to read this book.

I highly recommend the entire series to vampire fanatics who understand the powerful relationships with vampires.  In this series, there is NEVER a dull moment!

Hello, everyone! If you haven't already read my BEA Day 1 and BEA Day 2 recaps, you can do so at those links. Friday, the 29th was in some ways more chill than the other two days and somehow more hectic because my two most anticipated titles had events going on at the same time that day. Today's video recap won't have C.J., as we got back at midnight & were so exhausted, we went to sleep, and she went to the airport the next day :).

So we were a bit late into BEA today, such that when we got there, the line to go inside had already started to move. Whoops. But, actually, it's amazing how strolling in like that can reduce stress levels. I knew we had various plans because C.J. ofSarcasm and Lemons, Summer of Blue Sky Shelf, and I had some of the same books on our lists, but getting to sleep a little bit more, actually getting lunch that day (yes, I literally did not eat lunch on either Day 1 or Day 2 - it just slipped my mind)... much better. Plus, focusing on fewer books - also much better.

C.J. went to go sit in the 10:30 signing line for SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo, and was like tenth at 9:03. Yeah, BEA is that intense. (I also didn't realize this until later). Summer and I were in the BLACK WIDOW: FOREVER RED 9:30 autographing line for Margaret Stohl along with the lovely Brooke. I passed by the Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff 9:00 signing for THE ANATOMY OF CURIOSITY, but the line was already pretty big at the very beginning, so I skipped onto the Widow signing, which was the plan (C.J. in line; Summer & I to join later). As soon as I finished with that signing, I went over to the line for Six of Crows and got the sense that people were glaring / telling me to leave / to not join C.J. So I did leave. Debated what to do.

NGL, I was a little upset. But then later, I got really embarrassed by myself. Upset? What right did I even have to be upset? This is an industry event. It was my number one most anticipated title, but I'm not entitled to anything and am I really that important in the face of other people who can also promote the title? NO. Freaking BEA and getting caught up in the book fervor - I hate that, and you know what? I'd made my choice in not going to that line immediately - I should have realized that was what would happen. The moment I realized that some of my upset was rooted in this entitlement, I just wanted to go crawl into a dark corner to get over myself.

I went to two events and kinda did just that.

The two events I went to were the BLOOD AND SALT by Kim Liggett signing and the DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE by Carrie Ryan signing. Kim Liggett seemed really friendly, and as with all signings, I was trying to prepare a generic question (can't ask any specifics if I haven't read the book yet; also awkward penguin = me), but all that went out of my head after Kim Liggett came around the table to hug me. She'd recognized me from my booktube channel! So shocking to me - I'd only started that channel in December and deleted many of my earlier videos because of my crappy webcam and I even nearly skipped the entirety of March. If people have recognized me, it's from my blog. Booktube? Woah. She also said that I had a calming voice and wanted me to... read to her? I don't remember what she said she wanted me to do though. Her reaction was one of the many things that calmed me, actually. It was gratifying. I don't spend much time promoting this blog or that channel, or on twitter, so it's just unexpected. And I got lucky with that Carrie Ryan signing - she was going so quickly that I was able to step in towards the end, when there were only like 10 people in front of me, and it still worked!

After I got those books, I found an open table by the Starbucks on the first floor, calmed myself and my earlier disappointment/embarrassment/etc., ate lunch, and read the PW Show Daily.

Another thing or two I learned from the PW Show Daily:

Y'all want to know which books are going to be "hyped" soon, right? Here's information from the article, "Early Favorites for Young Readers."

"As booksellers, librarians, and publishers descend on the Javits Center for the first full day of BookExpo America, there was strong early interest across all age ranges and genres, including adult books with YA crossover and vice versa..."

• Crown: Ernest Cline's Armada
• National Geographic: Anita Silvey's Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall
• Penguin Random House: Ruta Sepetys's Salt to the Sea, Marie Lu's The Rose Society, Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski's Nightfall, Moira Fowley-Doyle's The Accident Season, Richelle Mead's Soundless, Eric Carle's The Nonsense Show, Pharrell's Happy!, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's Illuminae, Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything, Jory John's I Will Chomp You!, Rebecca Stead's Goodbye Stranger
• Bloomsbury: Aimee Carter's Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den and Lauren DeStefano's A Curious Tale of the In-Between
• Abrams: Jeff Kinney's Old School, Robbie Robertson's Hiawatha and the Peacemaker
• HarperCollins: Julie Murphy's Dumplin', Nicholas Gannon's The Doldrums, Patrick Ness's The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Rae Carson's Walk on Earth a Stranger, Garth Nix's Newt's Emerald
• Disney: Mercedes Lackey's Hunter
• Charlesbridge: Pamela S. Turner's Samurai Rising
• Chronicle: Mac Barnett and Christian Robinson's Leo, Hannah Moskowitz's A History of Glitter and Blood
• Shadow Mountain: Brandon Mull's The Caretaker's Guide to the Fablehaven, True Heroes by 21 authors
• HMH: Erin Bowman's Vengeance Road, Gary D. Schmidt's Orbiting Jupiter (Clarion), Estelle Laure's This Raging Light, Joelle Charbonneau's Need, Audrey and Don Wood's The Full Moon at the Napping House
• Simon & Schuster: Kevin Sands's The Blackthorn Key, Kenneth Oppel's The Nest, Erin Bow's The Scorpion Rules
• Workman: Polar, Daniel Nayeri's How to Tell a Story
• Little, Brown: Ali Benjamin's The Thing about Jellyfish
• Candlewick: Maggie Thrash's Honor Girl, M.T. Anderson's Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
• St. Martin's Press: Rainbow Rowell's Carry On
• Scholastic: Brian Selznick's The Marvels

(Probably not every hyped title - and not just from the publishers, but across the industry it seems - but still a decent list, no?).

I actually went to go ask about Ruta Sepetys's title after reading this article. Turns out they had manuscripts available for booksellers - a little fascinating, no, how books come in so many different forms at BEA for promotion? I went around to the publishers, but I already had so many books, it was a little ridiculous. I did get THIS RAGING LIGHT, though, because C.J. and everyone else seems so excited by it & it was a YA Editor's Buzz Panel book. Eventually, to kill time, I started to read BLOOD AND SALT, which is quite good (see the video for more! + this blog later!).

Essentially I needed to catch the 2:51 train from New York Penn station to go back to my job. We're currently on a sort of deadline to run subjects at work, and so it didn't seem right to take Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off without running a single subject. And the very last thing on my schedule was the 2:30 galley drop of SIX OF CROWS, which I'd missed that morning (and work => why I'd wanted to get it in the morning). So I started to hover around the Macmillan booth, reading BLOOD AND SALT, at like... 12:40. Yeah, I had a feeling I was going to annoy the publicists, but I honestly didn't want to start a line so much as see when the line started and make sure that I was early so that I could go catch my train. Oh well. Line formed, line dispersed, line formed, line moved. And then once it was official, I got to talk to awesome people like Kel, Jen (in my book club :D), Kay, Lauren, and Danielle. Lines are sometimes the best!

As soon as I got that book, I sped over to NY Penn station. Made it with four minutes to spare. Books are important, people... but so is making your train.

#BEA15 ended then for me. I came back into the city after work for one last important thing:

OMG THAT BROADWAY IS AMAZING. If y'all are in New York, see it ASAP! If it comes to your city's theater sometime, SEE IT (especially if you're a writer). It's the story of how J.M. Barrie found his inspiration for PETER PAN. It was made into a film a while back, but the Broadway play is so much more inspiring (C.J. told me the film was quite depressing, actually - this play was not depressing; it had a little bit of everything - sad, funny, inspiring, glorious (aka: Christina in awe)).

On Saturday, May 30th, aka BookCon Day 1... well, I was at the Javits for like 20 minutes because I didn't want to brave any super long lines. I picked up my press badge, found the line for the SERPENTINE by Cindy Pon signing, and then left. I knew that Ameriie at Books Beauty Ameriie was really looking forward to that title, so I got it for her. I also read it immediately so that when she got a chance to read it, I'd be able to discuss the book with her. Highly recommended book! FIND & READ IT, PEOPLE.

BOOK HAUL:

Hey, hey! If you haven't already read my recap of Day 1 at BEA 2015, you can do so at that link (also includes a video, as this post does, with C.J. from Sarcasm and Lemons). Today honestly felt much better & I have more detail in this post than from last time as well. Same questions for the video though: a.) favorite moment of the day; b.) favorite book/grab; c.) most surprising moment/book; d.) most anticipating (and today, since our answers were unlikely to change from last time: expectations for the last day aka tomorrow!).

One of the first things I remember people advising re: BEA is to get a hotel in NYC - don't deal with Port Authority in NJ, try to save money in NJ, etc.. But I happen to live and work in NJ, and can take the train, have that ride take about an hour and be good to go, without the costs (it's okay for me, too, because I'm used to this). Still... then there are the days when you want to get to Javits by 7:30 and are awake before 5 to catch a train you literally have to sprint to (we were late).

TRUTH!

Things to learn from those PW Show Dailys!

 

At Harlequin Breakfast

So cool though that Libba's title has so much hype over it! I also asked Libba Bray who her favorite character was and she said that it changes depending on the scene that she's writing. She also said that Theta gets some "good lines" in this series. Also, the publicist who I was standing next to in line said that she thought that thrillers and mysteries (though just "everyone appreciates a good story") would be the next big thing.

At some point during the day, I wandered into the Penguin booth and found THE ACCIDENT SEASON and WILD ONES. One early morning and the other later. I also specifically sought out the EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING galley drop at 4:30, the 2:00 drop of THE MARVELS, the random drop of THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH. The best thing was getting to talk to everyone while being in line, like Kel at the LOIS LANE lane and Monica at the Libba Bray line and older friends like Liliand Kristin. Also hanging out again with Summer.

But, now, the worst thing is that I am way too tired to continue writing. Toooooo tired. After that train and the time of night it is now...

BOOK HAUL:
if you're really looking forward to any of these titles, and we're friends, you can definitely borrow these books. let me know!