Booktopia 2019

Northshire Welcomes Booktopians!

Finally! It was over a month ago now (a busy month!), but here is my summary of the annual Booktopia event, held the first weekend in May each year at Northshire Bookstore in lovely Manchester, VT.

Ann and Michael, who started Booktopia, in 2015

A little history: Ann and Michael of the sadly now-retired Books on the Nightstand podcast (you can still listen to or download episodes at the link) began Booktopia almost a decade ago. It was always hosted at the amazing Northshire Bookstore, but at its height, they were coordinating 3 Booktopias each year, in different parts of the country. Listening to the podcast every week, I yearned to attend one of these incredible book-centered weekends, and in 2015, I invited my mother along (as a joint birthday gift for me and her), and we were blown away! We skipped it in 2016 when it fell on Mother's Day but attended again in 2017, 2018, and most recently, 2019. Ann and Michael ended their wonderful podcast a few years ago, and with it the 3 Booktopia events each year (can you believe they were too busy with full-time jobs, kids, the podcast, and hosting 3 major events a year??). Luckily, Northshire Bookstore decided to pick up the reins on their own and continue hosting the Vermont event.

My mom and I at Booktopia 2019

So, what is Booktopia? It's a wholly unique gathering of book lovers, booksellers, and authors. Unlike trade shows like BEA or the typical author events at bookstores, here the readers and authors spend the weekend together, sharing meals and conversation, and the author sessions are more like book groups, with in-depth discussions and Q&A's. If you love books and love to read, it's paradise! You can read more about our experiences at Booktopia 2015, Booktopia 2017, or Booktopia 2018, including photos and lists of the books and authors featured.

Booktopia 2019 was just as amazing! By now, we've gotten to know lots of other Booktopians, so we look forward to reconnecting with old friends (and meeting new ones) just as much as meeting the authors and hearing about great books. There are many of us who return every year (or most years). This year's list of featured books and authors included:

• The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
• Leading Men by Christopher Castellani
• The Den by Abi Maxwell

• Soon the Light Will Be Perfect by Dave Patterson
• Baby of the Family by Maura Roosevelt
• Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones

• Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
• Damascus Road by Jay Parini
• Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais (one of the featured books/authors from Booktopia 2018 who returned to act as host/MC this year) 

I read all but two of the books for Booktopia this year, and you can read my reviews at the links. As always, every book I read - chosen by the brilliant booksellers at Northbrook - was excellent.

Author Bianca Marais kicks off Booktopia 2019

So, the event began Friday morning with an introductory talk that was interesting and funny by Bianca Marais, who after her 2018 appearance at Booktopia now feels like an old friend. If you haven't yet read her first novel, Hum If You Don't Know the Words, you must! It is moving, powerful, funny - one of my favorites of this year. Her second novel, If You Want to Make God Laugh, will be released on July 16 - I've already pre-ordered it through Northshire!

Next the Northshire booksellers each took a turn recommending 4-6 of their favorite recent books, adding many new books to everyone's TBR list! The attendance fee for Booktopia includes a $50 gift card to the store, and those gift cards don't last long. Mine was spent before the event even began.

Me with Christopher Castellani, a Delaware native, after his session

All day Friday and Saturday are author sessions. You can choose which ones to attend. As I said, these are less like typical author talks/book signings and more like a book group discussion with the author present. Usually, many people have already read the book, so the author talks about his or her inspiration in writing it, the writing process, and answers questions from the group.

Our table Friday night - lots of old friends & a couple of new ones!

Friday night, there's always a big group dinner for everyone - readers, authors, and booksellers - where we play book trivia and do a Yankee book swap. For other meals, you are on your own, but Manchester is filled with wonderful restaurants, and smaller groups of Booktopians get together to share meals.

Readers with Stephen Mack Jones after the Yankee Book Swap

Saturday is more author sessions and then the big wrap-up in the evening, where each author gets 10 minutes to talk to the entire crowd - this portion of Booktopia is free and open to the public. Veteran Booktopians always laugh when every year, each author stands up there and says something to the effect of, "I had no idea what Booktopia was - this is such an amazing event! I've never been to anything like it." It is truly unique, and I think the authors love it as much as the readers who attend - after all, they are rock stars to this crowd of bookworms! Finally, all of the authors are available to sign their books.

Me with Sarah Blake (no, not sitting on her lap, just awkwardly crouching!)

On Sunday, exhausted but happy, we headed for home (an 8-hour combination drive and train ride for me!) after one last breakfast at Manchester's incredible Up for Breakfast restaurant. Mmmm...

It really is a unique and wonderful event. If you can manage the trip (people come from all over the country - and a few from other countries!), put it on your calendar for the first weekend in May 2020 - I'll see you there!

Fiction Review: Hum If You Don't Know the Words

Bianca Marais, author of the novel Hum If You Don't Know the Words, was one of the featured authors at Booktopia 2018, a wonderful weekend book event held every May that I attend whenever I can, but I didn't have time to read her book before last year's gathering. I was thrilled to hear she'll be making a rare second appearance at Booktopia 2019 (click on Events) next week, so I finally read her stunning, powerful, funny novel while stuck in airports and very uncomfortable airplanes last week - it was the perfect distraction.

In 1977 Johannesburg, 9-year old Robin, a white girl, lives with her parents in a suburb populated by mining families; her father is a supervisor in the local mine. A long way from there, in the mountainous region known as the Transkei, a 50-ish Xhosa woman named Beauty lives a satisfying life with her children in a dirt-floor hut. It is just her two sons at home now, as Beauty allowed her smart and determined teen daughter, Nomsa, to attend high school in Johannesburg. But she has just received an urgent letter from her brother that he fears Nomsa is in trouble, so Beauty packs a small bag, changes into "city clothes," and begins the multi-day journey. Things are worse than she imagined when she arrives in the city to find a huge student-led protest, later known as the Soweto Uprising, being held that day, with her daughter as one of the leaders. Beauty somehow survives that horrible, bloody conflict intact, but Nomsa is missing. That same violent day ends with Robin's parents being brutally murdered while at a neighborhood party. Robin is left devastated and mostly alone, with only her aunt to care for her, who is rarely home due to her job as a flight attendant. Desperately searching for Nomsa, Beauty takes on the job of caring for Robin so she can legally stay in the city with proper papers. The two isolated, damaged people slowly bond, as Robin begins to heal with Beauty's help. Robin worries, though, about what will happen to her if Beauty finally finds her daughter.

I was blown away by this moving, powerful novel about love and loss set during a turbulent, often horrifying time in South Africa's history. The racial inequities are stunning, especially when contrasted with the affection and love that Robin and Beauty begin to feel for each other, and Beauty's attempts to help Robin understand the world they live in. This novel took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride, punching me in the gut with its wrenching, shocking losses, and alternately making me laugh out loud. Chapters alternate between Robin's and Beauty's perspectives, and Robin's childish understanding of the adult world is often hilarious (plus, there's a talking parrot named Elvis). I loved every moment of this unique and exquisite novel, and loved both Robin and Beauty as well. It's the kind of novel that you finish and just hold to your chest, sighing in satisfaction and wishing you could read it all over again for the first time.

415 pages, G.P. Putnam's Sons

Listen to a sample of the audio book, which sounds wonderful!

You can purchase Hum If You Don't Know the Words from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

Or you can order Hum If You Don't Know the Words from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Booktopia 2018

Welcome, Booktopians! My mom and I at Booktopia 2018

If you were reading my blog around April and May, you probably got sick of hearing me mention Booktopia! My mom and I attended our third Booktopia this year. Here's a recap:

First, the basics. Booktopia is a unique annual event held the first weekend in May in Manchester, VT. It was started by Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness, the hosts of an amazing book podcast called Books on the Nightstand (it is now off the air, but you can still download old episodes). My mom and I went to Booktopia in 2015, the last year that Ann and Michael hosted it. Happily, the wonderful independent bookstore in Manchester, Northshire Bookstore, decided to keep up the Booktopia tradition on their own. My mom and I attended this unique event again in 2017 and then this year.

I say that Booktopia is unique because it isn't like any other book event - every single author who attends mentions that! This is not simply a reading by an author or a book trade show, like BEA, but an intimate gathering of book lovers and authors, together for the whole weekend. There are sessions where the authors each speak about their books and perhaps read a short passage, but those sessions are interactive, with lots of Q&A from the readers in attendance. So, it's more like a weekend filled with book club meetings with the authors in attendance!

This year, the featured books and authors were:
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• I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
• The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
• My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul
• All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson
• The Names of Dead Girls by Eric Rickstad
• Winter Sisters by Robin Oliveira
• My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley
• The Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles
• The Unmade World by Steve Yarbrough (guest speaker)

And when Chloe Benjamin got sick at the last minute and couldn't come, author Bianca Marais stepped in, with her new novel Hum If You Don't Know the Words (of which I've heard nothing but rave reviews so far!).

(links are to my reviews)

This year's Booktopia was even more fun for me because I had the opportunity to interview two of the authors ahead of time for Shelf Awareness, so I had already talked to them and gotten to know them a bit (and both were delightful!). You can read my interviews with Stephen McCauley and Heather Abel.

My mom and I with Stephen McCauley, one of our favorite authors

Friday night was a big dinner event, with all the authors and readers (the authors just sit among the other attendees) - we ate a great dinner, talked books, laughed a lot, played some killer book trivia, then ended the evening with a Yankee Book Swap.

Our group is ready for the Yankee Book Swap!

During the day Friday and Saturday, we attended interactive sessions with individual authors. Booktopia officially ended Saturday evening with a 10-minute talk from each author, on any topic they wanted. In between, we ate at the wonderful restaurants in Manchester, VT, chatted with our book friends, old and new (many of the same people return to Booktopia every year), and shopped at the fabulous Northshire Bookstore (the Booktopia fee includes a $50 gift card).

Heather Abel giving her wrap-up talk

All in all, it was another exhausting but satisfying Booktopia - it really is the ultimate event for book lovers! Start now to plan to go next May to join the fun! I'll post a link here on the blog at the start of the year when tickets go on sale. Hope to see you there in 2019!

Be sure to check out this article in Shelf Awareness on Booktopia, written from the perspective of the booksellers who do all the hard work to put it on.