Last night in...Greenpoint

Last night I went to WORD in Greenpoint (which is a pretty great indie bookstore I'd never been to!) for the launch party of Emily St. John Mandel's new book, The Singer's Gun. You may remember Ms. Mandel from her previous (and first) novel, Last Night in Montreal, that was all the rage in the book blog community last summer. The Singer's Gun just hit shelves yesterday, but it's already getting rave reviews and is the #1 Indie Next Pick for May. I'm about a third of the way through it, and I'm loving it so far. She is BRILLIANT with how well she layers the story and reveals more information—brilliant to the point where it probably demands a second read to fully realize all of the brilliance [I realized a bit of it last night when she read aloud an excerpt I've already read and more details clicked into place now that I've read beyond that passage].

Anyway, after Emily did a brief reading, she answered a few audience questions [did you know she went to university for dancing and somehow ended up a writer?], administered a contest for WORD giftcards [with these cute little passports made by Emily herself], and signed some books.

I had a great time and was so excited to meet such a talented new(ish) author. You can check out the other stops on her book tour here. And just a heads up to those attending BEA: Emily will be there.

Review coming on this one soon!

Also, I met another newly published author, Joseph Wallace, whose debut novel Diamond Ruby was released by Simon & Schuster yesterday as well. It's another New York-centric book, so I'm prettttty excited to get my hands on it.