Archives - Weekly Update

Here comes a three-day weekend! And I am ready for it. I have been working some very long hours prepping for BookExpo next week. Among other events during the week, I am going to be interviewing Kate Morton, whose upcoming book, THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER, which will be in stores on October 9th, is just fabulous. It’s so multi-layered that I marveled at her plotting as well as her storytelling as I was reading. It’s the kind of book you want to really focus on as you read it, and savor every last detail as it unfolds. I am so looking forward to speaking to her.

This week kicked off with brilliant celebrations of my mom and Tom’s mom, and then Tom and the boys celebrating me. Yes, there were books as presents; I loved selecting ones that I knew the moms would enjoy.

On Tuesday, Cory hit a milestone graduating from NJIT, which had me hit pause on my typical workday to sit back and enjoy celebrating this moment. There were four terrific commencement addresses. What I liked about them is that they all had practical ideas --- be resilient as this is a needed skill, give back and remember about building community and sharing with those around you, be inventive and embrace your role in the growth of the tech sector as an innovator, and recognize that change has its challenges and be part of working through them. While graduations bring plans and dreams, I loved that there was a focus on the twists and turns that life can bring, which is such sage advice. Life is often not a straight road, and reminders of that are good for us all to take note of.

I had a terrific evening interviewing Lisa Jewell at Watchung Booksellers on Monday night. Lisa is such fun to talk to; we dashed from topic to topic, including talk about her latest book, THEN SHE WAS GONE, which was an instant New York Times bestseller. In the audience were some huge fans of hers, some of whom had traveled quite a ways to meet her. She recognized them by name from social media, and I loved how they fell into deep conversation following the event. You can see the two of us above. And for me, there was a lovely surprise that night, as my cousin Maryann was in the audience!

When the weather warmed up on Monday, I found myself trying to remember what I wear when the weather is warm. I got to rediscover a whole other side of my wardrobe! And it also was a fabulous week of book events and book releases.