LA Times Festival of Books 2017 Recap

Hi, guys! The year is just flying by. Sorry I haven’t been around much. I moved recently and things are finally settling down. I hope that means I’ll have a bit more time to blog, but we shall see. We are getting into what my friend jokingly calls “con season” which starts off with the LA Times Festival of Books. This year’s festival took place, one again, on the USC campus. Unfortunately I was only able to go one day this year – Sunday – but I tried to make the most of it.

I started off the day at the YA stage with the panel There’s No Emojis For This featuring Kayla Cagan, Amy Spalding, Morgan Matson, Gretchen McNeil and moderated by Maurene Goo.

Hulu was out promoting their new series based on The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (who was also at the festival) with handmaids dressed in red walking around the festival. The sight was pretty spooky and I am looking forward to watching the show.

Golden Books is celebrating 75 years and they had a really cool book truck on hand.

Of course, no book festival would be complete if I didn’t buy a few books. I was very good this year and only picked up a few things.

I’ve heard so many good things about The Hate U Give my Angie Thomas and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to get a signed book.

Maurene Goo was at the Once Upon a Time booth signing advance copies of her book I Believe In a Thing Called Love.

My total book haul above. I think I was quite restrained and only picked up a few things that I was really interested in. I am a little bummed I didn’t get to more panels, but we were having a lot of fun wandering around the fest and checking out all the vendors. As usual, things were really well organized and there were a ton of great panels throughout the weekend. We also hit up The Boba Truck, which I’m a big fan of. Overall, I had a great time and can’t wait for next year.

Do you have any local book festivals near you that you attend? I’d love to hear about it!