A list of authors I have met, so I don't forget

-Diana Pavlac Glyer, author of The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. I met her at LionCon in 2008, where she presented about her book and its topic. She told us that CSL basically rewrote parts of "The Lay of Leithian" because he didn't like how JRRT had done it, contributing significantly to the version we know today.

-the Fug Girls, who signed my copy of Spoiled. I've read their blog for years and am a member of Fug Nation, so Heather signed my book with "Hola, lover." á la her JLo parody posts. I heard them on a YA panel and met them at their signing at the 2012 LA Times Festival of Books.

-Pam Muñoz Ryan, who signed my copy of Esperanza Rising and the copy of The Dreamer that I bought after her talk at the 2013 Annual Frances Clarke Sayers Lecture at UCLA. I told her how I loved ER growing up but I don't think she heard me. My sister came with me because it's also one of her favorite books growing up, and she brought her Spanish copy of ER for PMR to sign. She was like, huh, there's a Spanish version? which I thought was weird because it's a book about a Mexican girl? Of course there is? There are Spanish versions of pretty much all books?

-Peter Sís, who signed my copy of The Dreamer at at ALA Annual Conference 2014 and said he really liked PMR, that she was such a nice lady. I told him how I loved his illustrations in The Whipping Boy, one of my favorite books growing up, but he was in signing mode and didn't really pay attention.

-Marissa Moss, author of the Amelia's Notebook books, which I loved so much growing up. I told her that as I chatted with her a bit at her Creston Books booth at ALAAC 2014 (it is the publishing company she owns!). She is super nice. I entered to win an Amelia doll and I think an Amelia books set, but I didn't win :/

-Kate DiCamillo, author of usually animal-centric books that I love. I actually had no idea she was going to be at ALA Annual 2014, but lo and behold she was next to Peter Sís. If I had known I would have brought my copy of The Tale of Despereaux for her to sign, but as it was I think I bought a copy of The Magician's Elephant and she signed it. I don't see it in my LibraryThing so I'm going to have to do some searching.

-Margarita Engle, who wrote a couple of award-winning books, one of which I read for a children's literature class. I met her at ALAAC 2015 where she signed a copy of Enchanted Air, her poem-memoir about feeling divided between her two worlds of LA and Cuba, and I'm mad because I didn't realize who she was until I read the back of that book. The booth worker didn't tell me who she was and if I'd realized I would have been able to chat with her about her books (I read and loved this one) and being Cuban! Ughhh

-Gigi Pandian, who signed her book Quicksand for me at ALAAC 2015. I hadn't heard of her but her book looked interesting.

-This doesn't count as "meeting" per se, but once a few years ago I was at a Christian concert, volunteering with World Vision. We were to don orange vests and go with child sponsorship flyers to the front of the auditorium/stage while the heartrending video about sponsoring children through WV played, crouch down in front of the first row so we wouldn't block their view of the video, then hand out the flyers after the video and the WV representative's remarks. I went to the base of the stage with the other volunteers and knelt on the floor, avoiding looking up at the people we were in front of since this was awkward already. When the video ended I straightened up, and I found I had been kneeling at the feet of Rick Warren.

When it comes to meeting celebrities and especially authors, I am very much of the Troy Barnes school of thought, which is why I never want to meet Neil Gaiman, as I would hyperventilate and pass out and that would be embarrassing for everybody.

January-March 2016 books

Orgullo y Prejuicio (graphic novel). Dec. 2015-Feb. 2016
My dad bought me a graphic novel version of Pride & Prejudice in Spanish, as a Christmas present. It's an ok envisioning; the speech bubbles' copying and pasting of text should have been edited a bit more closely, and I don't like how all the girls look 16 and all the guys look 40. The artwork was kinda cartoony, and more detail/accuracy could have been kept in the depictions of clothing, etc. 3.9/5

Bon Appetit by Sandra Boyd. early January
A Christian chick lit book about an American woman who moves to France to become a pastry chef in a culinary school. Great depictions of baking and food; this made me want to visit France so bad! I think this is part of a series, although it stands alone. 4/5

Epic by John Elderidge. early January
This is a reread I did one Saturday afternoon. I do love books that are like 'there's a spiritual reasoning behind loving fairytales/myths/etc.!' 4.9/5

Behind Lewis's Lions: Searching the Bible for C.S. Lewis's Lions by Mary Tilden. Jan.-Feb.
This was a free Nook ebook I was initially excited to read, but turned out to be kinda dull and repetitive. I did learn a bit about how the Bible portrays lions, but it's annoying to me when books are like "look up these 8 Bible verses!" without providing the text (I'm lazy, ok?). Plus she did that thing where she extrapolated too much from it, like, "see how the Bible portrayed lions like this? Lewis clearly was referencing/inspired by that when he wrote Aslan!!" Like, not necessarily. 3/5

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. mid February
I had heard good things about this book, but didn't get around to reading it until my book club chose to read it. This (library) book was really good but SO SAD. I'm talking major domestic abuse/violence situation as well as mean school bullying. Teens from different social backgrounds are thrust together in their high school, bond over music and comic books and overcome obstacles like cliques and fear of what others think to fall in love, set in the 1980s.  Like I'm glad? I read it, but it did a number on me emotionally. It ends on a happy note, I guess. 4/5

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris. Mid-late March
I read and own Me Talk Pretty One Day and loved it, so I was excited when the next book my book club chose was this one (and lbr, we needed a lighthearted palate cleanser after E&P). David Sedaris is a great writer and very funny/outlandish, but I didn't like this book as much as MTP1D. I don't know if it was lesser in quality or humor, or if I just now have way less patience for privileged white men's opinions about stuff (especially about other cultures and/or race). I think the funniest essay/story was about Costco. 3.9/5

Batter Up by Robyn Neeley. Late March
The least substantial of all chick lit about a baker chick whose cupcake batter spells out the name of the person a bachelor is going to marry. I was interested in the magic stuff, but the author chose to focus more on the stale "bicker then fall for each other" and "quirky/meddling small town" tropes, which made it pretty lame and forgettable. 3/5