BEA Book and Author Breakfast

This year, these were really really great, as usual.

TUESDAY, CHILDREN’S BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST
The opening-day breakfast will featured Brian Selznick, author of Wonderstruck (Scholastic); Sarah Dessen, author of What Happened to Goodbye (Viking Children’s Books/Penguin Young Readers Group); and Kevin Henkes, author of Little White Rabbit and Junonia (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins). Julianne Moore, author of Freckleface Strawberry: Best Friends Forever (Bloomsbury) was the Master of Ceremonies.

WEDNESDAY, BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST
Wednesday morning will featured Diane Keaton, author of Then Again (Random House); Jefferey Eugenides, author of The Marriage Plot (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); and Charlaine Harris, author of Dead Reckoning (Ace/Penguin Group USA). Mindy Kaling, author of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) (Crown Archetype) was the Master of Ceremonies.

Since I don't watch TV, I had no idea who Mindy Kaling was, but she was really funny. Dianne Keatons' presentation was very touching, but I was thinking the whole time, "She's an actress, that's what she does." I may be jaded!

THURSDAY, BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST
Thursday morning featured Roger Ebert, author of Life Itself: A Memoir (Grand Central); Anne Enright, author of The Forgotten Waltz (W.W. Norton); and Erik Larson, author of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Crown Publishers). Jim Lehrer, author of Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to McCain-Obama (Random House) was the Master of Ceremonies.

In spite of his health problems that leave him unable to speak, Roger Ebert was very funny. He used a computer voice, ala Star Wars, and he pantomimed while his wife read parts of him book. It was very funny and touching. I've finished Larson's and Enright's books, they were outstanding. I'm really looking forward to Lehrer's Tension City, it sounded fantastic.

What are you reading?