One of our students and past Graduate Assistant, Rachael Kelly, went to an event this weekend. Read more about her experience at the Book Club Brunch hosted by Hachette Book Group!
Saturday, October 20 was a happy day for readers in the city. Hachette Book Group, one of the “Big Five”, hosted its 7th annual Book Club Brunch at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a campus/convention center located on the west side of Manhattan. After registration and caffeination, the event’s many ticket holders filed into an auditorium for a narrative nonfiction panel moderated by Bill Goldstein, the founding editor of The New York Times’ books site.
Photo Credit: Rachael Kelly
Goldstein is perhaps most famous for interviewing authors on NBC’s “Weekend Today in New York.” His book, The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature, was published in 2017 by Henry Holt and Company.
In the spirit of Vanity Fair’s “In Short” section, here’s a one-sentence snippet of each book featured at the event.
On the nonfiction side, Bridgett M. Davis looked into the life of her mother, a bookie in Detroit, for her forthcoming memoir The World According to Fannie Davis: My mother’s life in the Detroit Numbers. Brian Murphy explored a ship wrecked by ice in 1856 in Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It. New Yorker writer Paige Williams discussed the dinosaur-skeleton salesman Eric Prokopi in The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth’s Ultimate Trophy. Stephanie Land participated in a book club discussion for her forthcoming memoir Maid, an incredible tale of resilience, determination, and love that describes the dirt and grime and cruelty and callousness she experienced working as a house cleaner in Washington. (This book I have read. I highly recommend it. Just be sure to read it with a box of tissues nearby.)
On the fiction side, author Luis Alberto Urrera read a hilarious passage from The House of Broken Angels,a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Monica Hesse introduced us to Haruko and Margot in The War Outside, the story of two teenagers living in a family internment camp in 1944. Elise Juska examined the moral and ethical responsibilities of teachers to report students’ potential for violence in If We Had Known. Daniel Mason revealed the makeshift medicine doctors and patients had to suffer through in The Winter Soldier, a novel set in WWI.
Book-related events are a great way for publishing students to explore trending topics in the marketplace, especially when it comes to book clubs. In addition to meeting other like-minded book people (dare I say bookies?), you can chat with authors, see how book events are run, and meet other publishing professionals, especially those who work in publicity. An added bonus is a goodie bag full of books at the end of the day.
Interested in magazines? Bookpage also made an appearance at the event. You can find a copy of the monthly review publication at your local bookstore or library.