Much love to Kepler's and Angela

Last night I went to see John Green promote his newest novel, Paper Towns at Kepler's (my favorite independent books store). I love going there for many reasons, but maily to visit with book store maven Angela.

Angela is always happy to see Tricia and I, and I am genuinely happy to see her in turn. Her book recommendations are fantastically spot on and she is marvelously witty and warm. Did I also mention that she is generous beyond measure? Last night while picking up my contest prize, an ARC of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (she got me a brand new copy, never read) MUAH!!. Angela went around looking for more ARC's to give to my friend Tricia so that she would not feel left out. By the time we left Tricia had 4 ARC's and a big happy grin on her face. It made up for the fact that we were very late for the book event, not even having to wait in line for an hour to see John Green put a damper on our mood.

So far this book is AMAZING!!! I love it. Unfortunately the book is not due for release until March 2009, but you can read an excerpt and put it on your TBR pile. Many of my favorite authors (Melissa Marr, Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfeld) have fantastic blurbs about this book and it makes me all that more excited to be reading it. I will have a review to soon follow. :)

I would not have known about this book if not for Angela, so I am sending her some blog love and putting a shout out to the Teen Blog that she particpates in for Keplers. Please visit your independent book stores and participate in any event that you can, it makes a difference and it is very important to them. Because once these independents are gone....they are gone for good and that is a true shame.

Thank you Angela, for expanding my reading library, it is always much appreciated.

John Green at Kepler's

John GreenPaper Towns
Wednesday October 29, 2008 7:00 p.m.
Come find out what all the buzz is about!
As a recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award for Looking for Alaska John Green has established himself as a premier author who writes intelligent literature for teens.

Paper Towns is no exception to his excellent literary style which combines laugh-out-loud humor with poignant life observations. After the quirky and compelling love of his life disappears abruptly, Quentin embarks on a detective-style mission to find her by following a set of clues that was left only for him. Sound intriguing? With John Green at the helm it can only get better.

UPDATE: Musical guest, Abby Simons will be performing with John Green! Abby can be found online at http://www.youtube.com/user/songsfromahatEvery Sunday, Abby writes a song based on a song title she picks from a hat.

Neil Gaiman and Chapter 5 The Dance Macabre

Neil Gaiman was in Palo Alto last night for his book tour of the The Graveyard Book. This book tour is unique for he is reading a chapter from the book at each stop on his tour and he is having it video taped. Keplers book store did an amazing job of setting up the stage. They placed a comfy chair and end table filled with water, a beautiful lamp and a black crow. They also placed mock headstones of the books characters surrounding his chair. This is video from last night.

If you go onto his website you can get the entire book on video, now how awesome is that? His voice is so soothing and he does all the voices. I highly recommend watching it.

These are some of the pictures I took that night, unfortunately I did not take many pictures because it was too dark and no flash could be used.