From BookSmack: Barbara Hoffert's Guide to BEA 2010

Making BEA your bitch: authors to stalk, galleys to grab

By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 05/24/2010

With over 2000 exhibitors, this year’s BookExpo America (May 25–27, New York) will be a challenge to negotiate. Where are the best galley giveaways? What authors are being featured? What will folks be buzzing about when they get there? To help you plan your BEA trek, we’re providing a list of publishers, necessarily selective, whose offerings caught our attention. Publishers are presented chronologically by booth number so that you can map out your quest aisle by aisle. For a complete schedule of exhibitors, events, and the more than 500 authors expected to be signing in the autographing area or at the booth, check out this handy BEA search tool.

Note that galleys are often available in limited numbers only and, even when distribution times aren’t given, might still not be available throughout both days. Check in early for galleys that interest you the most.

HarperCollins | W.W. Norton | McGraw-Hill | Persea | Penguin | Yale | Grand Central | S. & S. | Macmillan | Newmarket | Wiley | Perseus | Algonquin | Storey | Timber | New Society | Grove/Atlantic | Random | Houghton Mifflin | Bloomsbury/Walker & Co. | Akashic | Bellevue Literary | Cinco Puntos | Fulcrum | 
New Village | Soho | Tyrus   

—3340–3341 HarperCollins. Galley giveaways kick off with Laura Lippman’s I’d Know You Anywhere, which should go fast. Also look for Scott Spencer’s Man in the Woods, with characters out of Spencer’s National Book Award nominee, A Ship Made of Paper; Daphne Kalotay’s Russian Winter,a debut blending history, mystery, and ballet; plus Larry “Bozo” Harmon’s Man Behind the Nose, Deepak Chopra’s bound-to-get-attention Muhammed, and Katrina Kittle’s The Blessings of the Animals. Oh, and there will be Symtio Cards of Elmore Leonard’s Djiboutiand Sena Jeter Naslund’s Adam and Eve, for easy download postshow.At the Early Word/AAP lunch: Adriana Trigiani (Brava, Valentine).

—3423 W.W. Norton. With 1400 copies being served at the Adult Book & Author Breakfast and 500 copies more available at the booth, Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars is slated to be one of the bigger titles at BEA. Roach was hilarious at the AAP breakfast at PLA. Smaller booth giveaways (so hurry): Craig Sherborne’s Muck: A Memoir, just out, and Samantha Peale’s exceptional 2009 debut, The American Painter Emma Dial, bearing an HBO sticker.

—3440 McGraw-Hill. Book (not galley) giveaways galore, designed for the cash-strapped and job-stumped during this recession. On 5/26, Dennis L. Prince’s Get Rich with Twitter, 9:45; David Ulrich and others’ The Why of Work, 10:00; David E. Rye’s Save My 401(k), 10:45; Kaiser Fung’s Numbers Rule the World, 11:00; John Kador’s 301 Best Questions To Ask on Your Interview, 2d ed., 3:00; and Joe Watson’s Where the Jobs Are Now, 4:15. On 5/27, L.J. Rittenhouse’s Buffett’s Bites, 9:45; Genevieve Chandler’s The Ultimate Guide to Getting into Nursing School, 11:15; Jay A. Block’s 101 Best Ways To Land a Job in Troubled Times, 2:00; David Findley’s Do-It-Yourself Home Energy Audits, 3:15. Plus booth signings by David Seidman (The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon), at 2:00, 5/26, and Srikuman Rao (Happiness at Work), at 10:00, 5/27. If I can carry away only two: Kador’s301 Best Questions andRye’s Save My 401(k). Big red bags given away throughout both days.

—3531a Persea Books. The publisher marks its continuing revival of works by celebrated Australian writer Elizabeth Jolley with galley giveaways of The Sugar Mother and Foxybaby, which in their day both earned front-page coverage in the New York Times Book Review. 

—3540–3541 Penguin Group (USA). No word on galley giveaways, but the mere presence of Jane Green (Promises To Keep) and Ann Brashares (My Name Is Memory) at the LJ/AAP dinner suggests that they are featured authors worth stalking. In the autographing area: Tara Parker-Pope (For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage), 1:00, 5/27; Rob Sheffield, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut, 1:30, 5/27. Cool YA crossover titles: Andrea Cremer’s Nightshade, Catherine Fisher’s Sapphique, Brenna Yovanoff’s The Replacement, Mike Lupica’s Hero, and Kathy Reichs’s Virals—yes, that Reichs, in her YA debut. 

—3724 Yale University Press. Yale’s featured galleys give us insight into some cool folks, starting with its biggie, Michael Takiff’s Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton as Told by Those Who Know Him, with a giveaway excerpt and, doubtless, dish-the-dirt quotes from the 150 friends and enemies interviewed. Also ready to walk: bound galleys of Randy Roberts’s Joe Louis: Hard Times Man. And look for Robert Gottlieb’s Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt, first in a new “Jewish Lives” series; Adrian Goldsworthy’s Antony and Cleopatra; Brian Walker’s Doonesbury and the Art of G.B. Trudeau; and The Anthology of Rap, edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois. We’ll all want Takiff’s Complicated Man, but after that, my fave: the excellent Gottlieb’s Sarah. 

—3740–3741 Grand Central Publishing. Now wouldn’t you like to break bread with Jon Stewart, who’s hosting the Adult Book & Author Breakfast, where you can snag blads of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book)?If you miss Nelson Demille (The Lion) at the Soundstage event at 10:00 on 5/26 or in the autographing area directly after, catch him at a 3:00 booth signing that afternoon—his June release looks set to be a roaring success. Other booth signings: Brad Meltzer, 12:00, 5/26, whose The Inner Circle won’t even be out until January; he’ll sign brochures. More galley giveaways: Larry Levin’s Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love—the sweet story (with Dewey appeal) of a rescued pup who’d been used for pit-bull bait. Also attending: Joshilyn Jackson (Backseat Saints),Early Word/AAP lunch; Jeffrey Hayzlett (The Mirror Game), Soundstage and autographing area, 2:00, 5/27; and Mick Foley (Countdown to Lockdown),autographing area, 2:30, 5/27. And also featured: Steve Martin’s An Object of Beauty.

—3940–3941 Simon & Schuster. The two big galley giveaways here are Don Winslow’s The Savages, a good, blackly funny summer romp, and Mait Haig’s fierce domestic comedy, The Radleys. Jonathan Alter will sign copies of The Promise immediately following his Author Stage event at 2:00, 5/27. Another Author Stage event: “O Sole Mio,” with Buddy Valastro (Cake Boss) and PW editor Mark Rotella (Amore, Farrar). At the Early Word/AAP lunch: Susan Isaacs (As Husbands Go). In the autographing area, Carlos Eire (Learning To Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy, 3:00, 5/26; Mary Higgins Clark, 10:00, 5/27.

—3953 Macmillan. You need a stopwatch to track this publisher’s featured treats. Galley giveaways on 5/26: Jay Jennings’s Carry the Rock, 9:00; Tom Payne’s Fame and Deirdre Madden’s Molly Fox’s Birthday, 9:30; William Ryan’s The Holy Thief, 10:00; Lena Meydan’s Twilight Forever Rising, 2:00; and Amy Bourret’s Mothers and Other Liars and Tatiana de Rosnay’s A Secret Kept, 3:00. Galley giveaways on 5/27, Ruiyan Xu’s The Lost Languages of Shanghai and Nevada Barr’s Burn, 9:00; Chevy Stevens’s Still Missing and Bruce deSilva’s RogueIsland, 10:00; and Michael Cunningham’s By Nightfall and Bo Caldwell’s City of Tranquil Light, 11:00. Author signings on 5/26: Beth Bernobich (Passion Play), 10:30; Paul Auster (SunsetPark), 11:30; and Ian Frazier (Travels in Siberia), 3:00. Author signings on 5/27: Ntozake Shange (Some Sing, Some Cry), 11:30, and Deborah Coonts (Wanna Get Lucky?), 2:00. Coonts is at the Early Word/AAP luncheon, while Boing Boing coeditor Cory Doctorow (For the Win, a YA novel)is at the LJ/AAP dinner. At 500 copies, the biggest galley giveaway is Cunningham’s By Nightfall (though there’s a slim chance that last-minute edits could scotch this little gift). Meanwhile, word of mouth points us to Madden’s Molly Fox’s Birthday, Ryan’s The Holy Thief, and Chevy Stevens’s Still Missing; personally, I’m going after literary newcomer Xu’s The Lost Languages of Shanghai.

—4114 Newmarket. The publisher is backing up 4TROOPS, a group of four U.S. combat veterans just back from the Middle East, with a fully illustrated book whose release coincides with the start of the group’s 60-city tour this September. To win the group’s CD, stop by the booth on the hour from 11:00 to 3:00, both days; for poster signings, go to the Perseus booth (4225), 9:30, 5/26. The group will entertain at the Children’s Book & Authors Breakfast as well. Daphne Oz will be previewing the revised edition of her best seller, The Dorm Room Diet, 3:00, 5/26. Healthy snacks, too. Galley giveaways (but not too many, so rush): John Crowley’s Chasing Miracles: The Crowley Family Journey of Strength, Hope, and Joy; Lisa Grunberger’s Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss, and the Lotus Position; Russell Spurr’s A Glorious Way To Die: The Kamikaze Mission of the Battleship Yamato; Thomas R. Beyer Jr.’s 33 Keys to Unlocking The Lost Symbol: A Reader’s Companion to the Dan Brown Novel; and, finally, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber’s screenplay for (500) DAYS OF SUMMER: The Shooting Script®. In the autographing area, Anne Ford, 9:30, 5/27.

—4140–4141 John Wiley & Sons. Among Wiley’s hard-core to-do authors, it’s fun to see Louis Gossett Jr., who’ll be signing his current title, An Actor and a Gentleman, at 10:00, 5/26. Other signings: on 5/26, Charlene Li (Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead), 1:00; and David Meerman Scott (Real-Time Marketing & PR: How To Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers and Create Products That Grow Your Business), 2:00—a galley, as that’s a late fall pub. On 5/27, Arthur Frommer (Frommer’s NYC Free and Dirt Cheap), 10:00; Tony Hawk (How Did I Get Here?),11:00 (blads or excerpts); and Rick Sammon (Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter), 1:00.

—4225 Perseus Books Group. Lots of booth signings. On 5/26, Alexa Stevenson’s Half Baked: The Story of My Nerves, My Newborn, and How We Both Learned To Breathe, 10:00; Chris Hedges’s Empire of Illusion, 11:00; Kathy Lee Gifford’s Party Animals, 2:00; Alex Kershaw’s The Envoy: Raoul Wallenberg’s Heroic Rescue of the Jews of Budapest, 3:00; Andrea Metcalf’s Naked Fitness (DVD), 4:00; and Lucy Baker’s The Boozy Baker, 4:00. On 5/27, Rebecca Costa’s The Watchman’s Rattle, 11:00; Mika Brzezinski’s All Things at Once, 1:00; Terry Romero’s Viva Vegan!, 2:00; and Otto Penzler’s Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop, 3:00. Galley and book giveaways will include Fatima Bhutto’s Songs of Blood & Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir, Edward Ugel’s I’m with Fatty, and Ariel Sabar’s Heart of the City: Nine Stories of Love & Serendipity on the Streets of New York. My bet on the longest line: Gifford’s Party Animals. Sentimental fave: Stevenson’s Half Baked. Meant for librarians: Chris Hedges’s Empire of Illusion, on our post-literate society. Book I most want to read: Bhutto’s Songs of Blood & Sword, by the niece of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, ever more relevant and already stirring controversy.

—4259 Algonquin (Workman Publishing). There’s a big push—and a 75,000-copy first printing—behind Jonathan Evison’s West of Here, a reportedly rich and overflowing account of 100 years in the life of a Washington town. And, hey, since the editor of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants signed this up, it’s definitely worth a scouting trip. Evison is doing a booth signing, 4:15, 5/26. Other signings, Caroline Leavitt (Pictures of You), 11:00, 5/26—she’s also at the Early Word/AAP lunch; Josh Braff (Peep Show), 10:00, 5/27; Pete Nelson (I Thought You Were Dead), 11:00, 5:27; and Joseph Skibell (A Curable Romantic), 2:00, 5/27. Skibell, whose 1997 debut, A Blessing on the Moon, drew raves, is doing a Book Trip that includes editor Elisabeth Scharlatt, publicity director Michael Taeckens, and agent Wendy Weil. At 11:00, 5/27, Room 1E17; moderated by Nora Rawlinson. Love those book trips; I’ve done lots.

—4259 Storey (Workman Publishing). Find the yummy poster featuring Krystina Castella’s A World of Cake, and you’ll also have a chance to pick up free copies of Andrea Chesman’s Recipes from the Root Cellar (5/27) and have Sherri Brooks Vintonsign the felicitously titled Put ’em Up!, 1:00, 5/26.

—4259 Timber (Workman Publishing). The big book at this booth (with chapter giveaways, as it’s a January 2011 title) is Jeff Gillman and Eric Heberlig’s How the Government Got in Your Backyard: Superweeds, Frankenfoods, Lawn Wars, and the (Nonpartisan) Truth About Environmental Policies. Also check out Andrea Bellamy’s forthcoming Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden and current buzz title Gardening for a Lifetime: How To Garden Wiser as You Grow Older. 

—4323 New Society Publishers. The publisher’s motto is “Deep Green for over 25 Years,” and it shows in its featured titles: D.J. Herda’s From Container to Kitchen: Growing Fruits and Vegetables in Pots and Sue Reed’s Energy-Wise Landscape Design: New Approach for Your Home and Garden, both just out.

—4304 Grove/Atlantic. If you like Clusterfuck Nation, James Howard Kunster’s popular blog, you’ll likely go for his new novel, The Witch of Hebron; line up for a booth signing at 3:00, 5/26. Other galley giveaways: South African crime whiz Deon Meyer’s Thirteen Hours; John Lawton’s World War II chiller, A Lily of the Field; Julia Franck’s Blindness of the Heart, an international best seller; and Patricia Engel’s Vida, a debut memoir that’s an inhouse favorite. Note: If you miss out on the Kunster, Meyer, or Lawton galleys, you can also find them at ALA.

—4341 Random House. Lots to survey at this booth, but here is the lineup of authors signing galley giveaways: on 5/26, Gary Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story, 10:00; Steve Berry, The Emperor's Tomb, 10:30; Sean Manning, That Things That Need Doing, 11:00; Carl Hiaasen, Star Island, 11:30; Allison Winn Scotch, The One That I Want, 1:00; Michelle Norris’s Grace of Silence, 2:00; Susan Casey’s The Wave, 2:30; Lee Child, 61 Hours, 3:30; Julia Glass, Widower's Tale, 4:00;and Anne Fortier’s Juliet, 4:30. On 5/27, Gail Caldwell, Let's Take the Long Way Home, 10:00; David Rakoff, Half Empty, 10:30; Patti LuPone, Patti Lupone: A Memoir, 11:00; Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, 11:30; David Lipsky, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, 2:00; Sara Gruen, Ape House,2:30; John Verdon’s Think of a Number, 3:00;and Justin Cronin’s The Passage, 4:00. Hint: Expect crowds for all of these, with a special note that Cronin’s literary sf breakout The Passage is positioned to be huge, as is debut novelist Fortier’s Juliet, romantic suspense that will get extra attention after she appears at the LJ/AAP librarians’ dinner, 5/25.

—4441 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Galley giveaways include Philip Roth’s Nemesis, Scarlet Thomas’s cool and edgy Our Tragic Universe, and Bruce Machart’s The Wake of Forgiveness, a blowaway debut—get ’em all. No galleys for Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska’s Here, but the postersshould keep poetry lovers happy.

—4051 Bloomsbury/Walker & Co. The big giveaway here is Antonya Nelson’s Bound, her first novel in ten years. Look also for Rowan Jacobson’s American Terroir; Adam Dunn’s Rivers of Gold, a hard-edged urban thriller; Dante’s Divine Comedy, in graphic adaptation by Seymour Chwast (move over, Gustave Doré); Steven Kotler’s Small Furry Prayer (the publisher is betting on this dog-rescue book); Frank Dikotter’s Mao’s Great Famine; Deborah Fallows’s Dreaming in Chinese; and Martin Lemelman’s Two Cents Plain.

—4504–4519 Akashic (Consortium). Just how good is Bernice L. McFadden’s Glorious? O proclaimed it the Book To Watch in May, and it’s been picked by the Harlem Book Fair and Hue-Man Books as the first selection in the forthcoming One Book, One Harlem program. Tireless promoter McFadden (see her site for her latest book club offer) will sign at the booth at 3:00, 5/26.

—4504–4519 Bellevue Literary Press (Consortium). It’s no surprise that Paul Harding, author of this year’s David-beats-Goliath Pulitzer Prize winner, Tinkers, is this small publisher’s big BEA draw. He’ll be doing a booth signing at 3:30, 5/26, and will also appear at the ABA Author’s Lounge, 10:00, 5/26, and the Indie Choice Luncheon. A chance to check out Bellevue’s other smart titles.

—4504–4519 Cinco Puntos (Consortium). Hungry? Cinco Puntos is holding a 25th-anniversary celebration on 5/26 at 4:00 that includes Mexican cookies shaped like its wild-bird logo. While munching, check out the images from Youme Landowne’s Mali Under the Night Sky or grab her Pitch Black, a YALSA Top Ten Great Graphic Novel for Teens in 2009. In the autographing area, Christopher Cardinale, illustrator of the graphic novel Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush, with text by Luis Alberto Urrea, 3:30, 5/27. Cynthia Weill (“Basic Concepts in Mexican Folk Art” series), too, 5/26. 

—4504–4519 Fulcrum (Consortium). Talk about wide-ranging. This publisher’s featured galleys include a former senator’s memoir of ideas (Gary Hart’s The Thunder and the Sunshine: Four Seasons in a Burnished Life), a visual anthology of Native American lore (Matt Dembicki and others’ Trickster: Native American Tales; A Graphic Collection), and a chronicle of wildlife on the edge (Mitch Tobin’s Endangered: Biodiversity on the Brink). Booth signings include Tobin at 1:30, 5/26, and the Trickster gang at 10:30, 5/27. Hart will be in the autographing area, 10:30, 5/26.

—4504–4519 New Village (Consortium). What better place to promote What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs than New York City–based BEA? This tome on the urban activist is getting a bit of buzz; for display only but could be worth the walk.

—4504–4519 Soho (Consortium). Stuart Neville’s Collusion, a follow-up to The Ghosts of Belfast, a Los Angeles Times Book Award winner, leads off a galley-and-poster giveaway that will also include Mary Volmer’s Crown of Dust (wild friendships in the Wild West) and Adam Schwartz’s A Stranger on the Planet (one man’s reconciliation with family and self). In the autographing area: maîtresse d’intrigue Cara Black (Murder in the Palais Royal, 9:30), plus chiller authors Mick Herron (Slow Horses, 10:00), James R. Benn (Rag and Bone, 10:30), and Henry Chang (Red Jade, 10:30), all 5/26.

—4504–4519 Tyrus (Consortium). Mystery fans, take note: two-time Edgar Award nominee Reed Farrel Coleman will be signing posters of his Innocent Monster at 2:00, 5/26, and Hal Ackerman will do the same for his Stein, Stoned at 3:45, 5/27. In the autographing area, Michael Lister, 11:30, 5/26.