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What’s it like to have your city flooded with book people? Not so bad, according to Bookreporter.com reviewer Amy Gwiazdowski of Washington, DC, who was among the thousands in attendance at the National Book Festival on September 21st and 22nd. Luckily, Amy was willing to share her experiences about her day at the festival with all of us who weren’t there. Read on to find out which books she’s most excited about after attending, the interesting literary question the Library of Congress posed to the world at their pavilion, and the best part about getting together with fellow readers.

On September 21st and 22nd, thousands of book lovers gathered in Washington, D.C. for the 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival. Among those in attendance was Bookreporter.com reader Denise from Rockville, MD, who tries to make it to this national celebration of all things reading every year. Luckily, for those of us who weren’t there for the fun, Denise agreed to chat with us about her experiences. Here, she gives a recap of her favorite panels, shares which authors she was dying to meet most, and chimes in on the Franzen-Weiner Twitter controversy, which, in case you missed it, is the most recent literary spat grabbing headlines. She also reveals what surprised her most and gives advice for folks thinking of saving the date for next year.

After the success of last year's Hachette Reading Group Day, ReadingGroupGuides.com couldn't resist partnering with Hachette Book Group again to give readers the opportunity to meet some of their favorite authors and hear them speak about --- what else? --- books! Diana from Staten Island, NY was one of the lucky readers who attended the event on Saturday, September 7th, and was kind enough to answer a few questions about it. In this Q&A, Diana shares some of the highlights of the day, including her favorite panels and the authors who impressed her the most. She also talks about which book included in her swag bag she's most interested in reading --- and why she's lucky it's not Nicholas Dawidoff's football nonfiction, COLLISION LOW CROSSERS, which was immediately stolen by her husband!  

After the success of last year's Hachette Reading Group Day, ReadingGroupGuides.com couldn't resist partnering with Hachette Book Group again to give readers the opportunity to meet some of their favorite authors and hear them speak about --- what else? --- books! Valerie of the Red Pages Book Club in Secaucus, NJ was one of the lucky readers who attended the event on Saturday, September 7th, and she was kind enough to share some of her experiences with Bookreporter.com. Here, she talks about the panels she attended --- including her favorite, the New Adult/YA crossover, which featured effervescent authors A.S. King and Kate Locke --- some of the interesting things she learned about writers' writing processes, and all the free books she received (as well as the ones she couldn't help but buy).   

Ahhhh…the joy of having a week off during the summer to read while floating in the pool. This year we did a staycation, which made things a tad easier as I did not have to pack books in advance. Instead, I would just peruse my shelves and let my fingers dance over what I wanted to explore. What happened? Eight books in 10 days, not bad! Here’s what I explored....  

Thank you to all the readers who wrote notes in honor of our 17th anniversary. Here you will find some of the warm words that were shared with us.

Author Francesca Lia Block has been quite busy lately, with her latest YA book, LOVE IN THE TIME OF GLOBAL WARMING, pubished in August and the paperback edition of THE ELEMENTALS to come out later this month. As an author who writes for both adults and young adults, the line between adult and YA literature can easily become blurred, especially if the protagonist is in her teens. In this blog post, Block explains how one story can appeal to both adults, new adults and teens.

Back in June, we ran a contest for readers to attend the Debbie Macomber Fan Retreat in Nashville. Pat from Brazil, IN won two tickets to attend the retreat, which took place last weekend. Pat was kind enough to answer some questions for us and share some pictures of the weekend. Read all about her experiences in this blog piece.

We wrap up this year's "June is Audiobook Month" blog series with Tavia Gilbert, an Audie Award nominee who has performed over 100 full-length audiobook narrations. With a hand in both production and pre-production, Tavia is quite an expert when it comes to what goes on behind the scenes. Here, she walks us through the creation of an audiobook, shares the ways she personally makes an emotional connection to the material, and talks about the joy of finding a book to record that she feels is truly important --- including the most meaningful audiobook of her career.

Winner of the prestigious Audie Award for his recording of EMPIRE OF LIBERTY by Gordon S. Wood, veteran actor Robert Fass is equally at home in a wide variety of styles, genres, characters and dialects. He has given voice to modern and classic fiction writers alike, including Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, Isaac Asimov, Jeffery Deaver and John Steinbeck, plus nonfiction works in history, health, journalism and business. Here, Robert discusses why narrating audiobooks is so meaningful to him, as well as the challenges and thrills of connecting to even the most difficult material --- including getting into the mind of a serial killer!