Hole in One
Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vt., hosted a party in honor of the release of local author Linda Urban’s newest middle-grade tale, The Center of Everything (Harcourt). Children’s buyer Jane Knight said the event attracted “one of our largest crowds ever, spilling out onto the aisles and onto the stairway.” Though the author herself (shown here signing for young fans) is certainly a draw, the treats on offer couldn’t have hurt – Urban’s book takes place in a town said to be founded by the man who invented the hole in the doughnut, and Montpelier’s Wise Owl Bakery provided the thematically appropriate goods.
Lucky Stars
Rachel Shukert and Anna Godbersen recently held an intimate book club-esque discussion at Word Brooklyn that, given the subject matters their books explore, took a somewhat glamorous turn. Shukert, shown here, is a memoirist turned debut YA author of Starstruck (Delacorte), about aspiring starlets in Hollywood’s golden age. Godbersen is the author of the Luxe series and the Bright Young Things novels; the latter, about Jazz Age flappers, recently concluded with The Lucky Ones (HarperCollins). The conversation covered not only their respective writing processes, but also fashion, corruption, Hollywood, and more.
On the Bright Side
Real estate agent-turned-YA author Scott Blagden (second from l.) looks like he’s feeling pretty good these days, despite the title of his first novel, Dear Life, You Suck (Harcourt), about a teen with a justifiably bleak outlook. His launch party at Foxborough, Mass., Irish pub Waxy O’Connor’s drew some 60 attendees, including (far l.) Betsy Groban, senior v-p and publisher of the HMH Children’s Book Group; Rubin Pfeffer, Blagden’s agent (back r.); and a number of young fans, who were no doubt pleased to sport the t-shirts given out at the celebration. To the right of Blagden is his 16-year-old son, Connor, who did his part by selling books.
