Meeting Meg Cabot

Saturday was such a super fun day for me! I totally got to meet Meg Cabot- my very favorite author! My friend, Audrey, called a couple of weeks ago to tell me she was coming in town on a book tour and I had been looking forward to it ever since. It was Audrey who got me hooked on Meg after insisting I read The Princess Diaries series* five years ago and I have been a fan ever since! The series inspired the name Mia for our kitten (she was just too tiny to be named Fat Louie) and I always recommend it to friends!!

(source: www.megcabot.com)

*Yes, there really are books, ten actually. Laugh out Loud greatness!! The movie is based on the first book, but the second movie has nothing to do with the series (and that actually annoys Mia as you read about it in the later books). You really should read the books. I loved the movie, but it totally doesn't capture the hilarity of Mia's diary entries. 

Audrey and I met up at Panera before going to the venue, which is only to be expected as it was the location for our old book club meetings (before our lives got so super crazy) and where I was first introduced to Meg! Yes, after meeting her, I feel that we are close enough to be on a first-name basis. I mean, she wrote my name when she autographed my book! We both brought our favorite book to get signed in addition to the one included in our event ticket. Audrey's pick: Avalon High. My pick: Size 12 is Not Fat.

It was way cool to hear Meg speak. As she shared about some of the events in her life-- I totally felt that I already knew her because she's revealed a lot of it in the characters she's created. She didn't even have to outright say this experience inspired this book or that experience inspired that character. It was as she talked about her parents being professors I was thinking, "that really sounds familiar. Oh! That was from Avalon High!" And as she spoke about the grossness of her mom dating her teacher, it was exactly the same expression Princess Mia exhibits when it happens to her. And... she's an artist! How cool!

Audrey and me with Meg Cabot!!!

(We may or may not have been the only twenty-something fans, 

but we will never be too old for young adult fiction!)

If it is at all possible, I love Meg even more after going to her book signing on Saturday! She is as entertaining and funny in person as she is in her books. Great personality. I seriously want to be her BFF. And she had the cutest shoes!

Book club resumes this month. And our book to read is, of course, Abandon by Meg Cabot!

Book Club

This was book club in 2007. We'd each take turns picking a book, meet at Panera, and talk (at least a little bit) about the book. We'd stay at Panera until we were the last ones there and every once in awhile we'd make a trip to Barnes and Noble or to watch a movie that was made about a book we'd already read.

Kristin, me, Audrey, and Jessica

(reading Twilight before it was the cool thing to do)

Kristin got married and moved out to Washington State where she does cool things like go to the Olympics and travels all sorts of cool places. Audrey graduated with her Master's and has begun working on her Doctorate, all while teaching and coaching volleyball. Jessica already had Tobin at this point, but then had another baby boy- raised them both while her husband served in Iraq, then had another baby boy and will be on her own again while hubby goes through FBI training. Meanwhile, I've started graduate school, became a mommy, and went from working full time outside of the home to full time inside the home. (Am I the boring one or what?!?) Needless to say, we can hardly find a time that works for everyone to get together. 

My 2010 book club is vastly different.

We eat macaroni and cheese instead of Panera. We don't read books like The Devil Wears Prada, My Sister's Keeper, or A Total Waste of Makeup. Instead, we read books more along the lines of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round, and Hop on Pop. And we don't read them just once, but over and over and over and over and over.... you get the point. All I can say is thank goodness for the library so I can switch up the books I have on hand. But we have fun. I love reading them books and I think it is so great that they are so interested being read to. I can't wait for the Summer Reading Program! So this what I call Book Club: The Next Generation.

David, Chacey, and Jackson diving into

some new books I picked up at the library yesterday.

I am open to any recommendations of  must-read books for me or the kiddos? The kids books must be board books, and if you have to ask why- you clearly haven't met my son. I do have to say that I love, love, love the Sparkle and Shine Noah's Ark book, enough that I am tempted to just buy a copy! Let me know of any suggestions!