Discussion: #WLABBGoesPlaces - Obsidio Book Store Event

It's been a while, but sometimes, #WLABBGoesPlaces. Last week, I was lucky enough to attend the Obsidio tour stop in Princeton, NJ, and I must say, a good time was had by all.

A post shared by Sam Kozbial (@kozbisa) on Mar 14, 2018 at 6:34pm PDT

Recap: B-Fest 2016 / Ivory and Bone Launch

For the first time this year, Barnes and Noble did a nationwide weekend long event called B-Fest Teen Book Festival. I was instantly intrigued by this when I found out about it because it meant that there would be a bookish event nearby. I ended up going to the first event at my local BN and then I went about an hour away to go to the location that was having the Ivory and Bone launch party as part of B-Fest day two.

Since there really isn't much to talk about for day one (there was a quiz), I'll talk more about day two! The first thing that happened that day was a sampler giveaway, which was cool if you like samplers (I personally don't). While the plan was to go to this particular BN because of the Ivory and Bone launch, an added bonus was that they had an additional panel of authors earlier in the day that featured Claire LeGrand, Megan McCafferty, and Leanna Hieber.

I ended up really enjoying this panel a lot! Not only were the authors really fun, but it was cool to hear their writing and publishing journeys. Since B-Fest is, in part, targeted towards young writers, I think it was particularly fitting and helpful for the young writers in the crowd. Also, listening to the panel made me even more interested in these authors' books - had to add a few more to my already lengthy TBR!

After the panel, there was a spelling bee, but I can't spell, so I skipped out on that one. Instead, Sloth was up to his usual shenanigans around the store...

Shortly after that was the Ivory and Bone launch party with Sarah J. Maas as a special guest!

It turns out that Sarah J. Maas and Julie Eshbaugh have been friends for a while, and the panel was so much fun. I always love panels with Sarah J. Maas, but her rapport with Julie Eshbaugh was particularly amusing and fun. I didn't know much about Ivory and Bone before going to the event, but I'm really interested in checking it out now!

Overall, I really enjoyed B-Fest! I feel like not everyone would be able to have the same experience I had since the authors/events at each location differed - maybe staggering the weekends for different locations would allow more author events at all the different stores - but I think the idea behind it was great and I hope that Barnes and Noble continues it next year.

- Kiersten

Did you go to B-Fest? What did you think?

Let us know in the comments!

Recap: BEA + BookCon 2016

Hi, everyone! At the title of this post implies, I'm finally doing my BookExpo America and BookCon 2016 recap post! This year, BEA and BookCon were in Chicago rather than New York City and were earlier in the month than usual. This presented many problems for myself and my co-bloggers - NYC is less than an hour from where I live via the train, and with the date change, it was very close to when we were all taking finals. Traveling to Chicago instead made BEA more of a vacation than several day trips into the city.

BEA Day One

I actually had to take a final exam the day before BEA Day One, so I ended up taking an early flight that morning - I woke up at 4 a.m. and I was not a happy camper. I had been so tired from working on final projects, taking final exams, and planning for BEA, so it was a bit of a struggle - but I was headed to BEA, one of my favorite parts of the year.

Once I got there, I headed to the hotel for a little while before meeting my mom at the convention center. It was a strange feeling to get there because I'm so used to being able to walk a few blocks to Javits from Penn Station and then knowing how to get around the building. McCormick Place wasn't so different from Javits - it definitely had a similar look - but it took a second to get my bearings and figure out where I needed to go.

The layout of the show floor wasn't much different from the layout in New York - I had actually looked over the map beforehand, so I had a decent understanding of where things were - and it looked so much like Javits once we entered.

The biggest difference between BEA in Chicago and New York is that Chicago definitely had a calmer vibe from most of the people there. There were definitely less people on the show floor, and I couldn't help but notice that the people generally walked a lot slower than in New York, especially since I tend to be a pretty destination-oriented walker at BEA.

Day One ended up being a really successful day for books! I decided not to go to the Blogger's Conference this year because I had to fly into Chicago that morning, but I managed to make it to a ton of drops, particularly at HarperCollins.

BEA Day Two

It was nice going into Day Two because I was familiar with the show floor, and I had a more clear picture of what books I needed to get that day. Since I had gotten most of the Harper drops on Day One, I only had to make it to the very first one that morning to get Replica and some other gems.

The most intense part of this day was definitely getting signing tickets for Macmillan, also known as the MacMob (possibly only to me, but I will continue to use this name for this event because it is Accurate). If you've never been to BEA, the thing you have to understand about people is that they will wait hours to get a book they really want. Unfortunately, the location of Macmillan's booth didn't really allow for accommodating a line for hours before they handed out signing tickets. The tickets up for grabs were for some highly anticipated books: You Know Me Well, Vassa in the Night, 738 Days, and, arguably the biggest attraction for people, Heartless. I really wanted to get all of these books, so I was there pretty early, just "hanging out" until they started the line. Unfortunately, instead of just starting an official line early, a mob formed. It was chaos. There were 3 "lines", going in all different directions, blocking other books and the entire walkway near Macmillan's booth. People were getting so edgy and it was just all around Bad.

At the MacMob

I really think there should be "I Survived the MacMob at BEA 2016" t-shirts. It really did feel like an accomplishment. And not everyone survived. I mean, no one died, but the faint of heart gave up once the stampede began.

You might be wondering what I mean by stampede. Well, when Macmillan eventually made the official line (it was well over two hours after people started lining up), it was a stampede. Somehow, I ended up at the very front of that line - I'm still not entirely sure how that happened. At this point, I was super excited - I would get All The Books! Haha, no. Because of Fairness, everyone could only get up to two signing tickets. I'd like to just put in right here that I totally respected the rule, I just wish I had known earlier because I would have had my mother on line with me. So at this point, I had to make some Choices about which books I wanted to get. Given that Heartless was going to be available again on Day Three, I figured I could just get it then, so I opted for Vassa in the Night and You Know Me Well, which my mom really wanted to get because she wanted to see David Levithan. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about just getting a third ticket for Heartless as well, but knowing how there were people in line who probably wouldn't get any tickets, I decided to opt for good karma. This was the start of my path to not getting Heartless at BEA.

Overall, Day Two was super successful - by the end of it, I had very few books I still needed to pick up on Day Three.

BEA Day Three

Now, I shall continue my path to not getting Heartless at BEA. In New York, the WLABBers always went early to Javits to get on the line for autograph area signing tickets, and we always got the tickets we wanted. So I went early (granted, not as early as other people because we were relying on the BEA shuttle from the hotel) and got on the line. Little did I know, they, evidently, only had three Heartless tickets to give out. Three. It was extremely frustrating, especially because they always had way more to give out the day of the event in New York.

So Day Three was off to a disappointing start, but the rest of the day was very calm. I found myself just hanging out and wandering around most of the time, which was pretty nice. Most of my day was actually spent waiting on line for the Gemina drop at Penguin Random House.

On a side note, I'd like to take a moment to praise Penguin Random House - out of all the publishers at BEA this year, they definitely had the best set up and location to manage lines. They had a wonderful system going on. It was amazing.

Anyway, the Gemina line started about 3-4 hours ahead of time, but it was so calm. Everyone was just sitting down, hanging out, being calm. It was so refreshing in comparison to some of the other lines I had waited on the other days. I think it was partially due to how much space there was for us to have our line, but people were also a lot more calm since it was the end of the last day of BEA.

All in all, BEA 2016 was a success - I got almost every thing I wanted (insert sobs about Heartless here), and I had a great time!

BookCon

As always, BookCon was more disorganized than BEA. When I got to the convention center, there was a line wrapped throughout the entire convention center. Having purchased VIP passes, we were confused about there only being one line. Apparently, you had to wait on the line to get your bag checked so that you could get autographing wristbands. I was not about that. So we just chilled in the general area of the entrance to the show floor, and ended up in the VIP first access line.

From there, we headed over to the First in Line Red Carpet event because why not. After that, we mostly just went to panels, which was a lot of fun.

The first panel was with Melissa de la Cruz, Sabaa Tahir, Lauren Oliver, and Veronica Roth. It was weird at first because it was past when the panel should have started but the authors weren't coming out yet. Then, I saw on Twitter that Lauren Oliver's Uber driver actually got lost and couldn't find the convention center. Once she got there, the panel was really cool and all about good and evil in books.

Some other panels we went to were Friendship is Magic with Sarah J. Maas, Alexandra Bracken, Susan Dennard, and Victoria Aveyard, Reality Bites with David Levithan, Jennifer Niven, Nicola Yoon, David Arnold, and John Corey Whaley, and The Simon & Schuster Sisters with Siobhan Vivian, Jenny Han, and Morgan Matson.

The last, and most fun, panel we went to was #IReadYA Presents Book Besties with Maggie Stiefvater, Jeffery Self, Aimee Friedman, and Francisco X. Stork, moderated by David Levithan. Maggie Stiefvater is just so fun, and David Levithan did an amazing job of steering all the conversations in exciting directions, which is something some of the other panels missed due to lack of a moderator.

Overall, I was disappointed by BookCon in Chicago. Not only was it one day instead of two, it felt like there weren't as many big things to go to this year as in the past. Additionally, I was very disappointed by the "privileges" of the VIP pass - it kind of felt like I paid way more than everyone else for no reason. It was still fun, but I'm happy BEA and BookCon will be back in New York in 2017!

Sloth's Adventures

You were wondering about the lack of Sloth above, weren't you? Well, here are some of the fun photos Sloth took while adventuring at BEA and BookCon!

If you want to check out more of Sloth's adventures, you can follow him on Twitter: @SlothGoesPlaces!

- Kiersten

Did you go to BEA or BookCon this year?

Let us know in the comments!

Discussion: Night on the Towns

June 2014, three WLABBers and some extras went to a movie premiere + livecast event for The Fault in our Stars. A few nights ago, on July 23rd, 2015, just over a full year later, three cooler WLABBers (plus Kiersten's mom and boyfriend shoutout to y'all) went to the same event for Paper Towns, another book by author John Green adapted into a film.

Noor

For Paper Towns, the event was in Westfield, NJ, a very cute, very photogenic area which was made for walking around (and taking pictures in my opinion) although it was on the hotter side when we arrived so indoors was nice. We had dinner (I ended up getting Qdoba for the first time and it was not nearly as good as Chipotle -- 0/10 would not do again) and headed to the movie theater, where we then spent an hour taking pictures before the movie actually started. 

Here, we can see two nicely posed pictures in our nicely designed spirit jerseys, and if you look in the corner, you can see me taking my shirt off like a hooligan because I was wearing an almost-knee length dress and with the shirt over it for pictures I looked like I should be churning butter on a farm somewhere so I was trying to take it off ASAP. 

We took so many fun poses and I debated posting all of them but I settled on posting three (if Kiersten or Amrutha want to do more it's up to them) but here's one of me being ridiculous while Kiersten inwardly judges me and Amrutha stares into the camera oblivious, and then there's my personal favorite picture where I think we look pretty fierce, and then I thought I'd throw in a cute one so you'd know we're not actually ugly. 

After our photoshoot, where you can see we all channeled our inner Cara Delevingne modeling skills, we headed in for the actual movie. Before the movie, we got to see weird commercials where they superimposed the faces of Cara and Nat onto the unrelated commercials????? That was a little weird, but not relevant to the movie. Anyway, as someone who is a huge fan of the book, like someone who holds this book in High Regard with capital regards, who thinks it's Very Important, I really really liked the movie! 

I liked it more than The Fault in Our Stars but I also liked the book more so for me, I think it stems from entertainment value of the story and the character more than its construction as a movie so if you're looking for a really super analytical movie review don't blame me if you think it wasn't as good in that regard although I think they were both equal in the objective "movie" aspect (does this make sense?????). 

Anyway, I think the actors did a phenomenal job. They really brought the characters to life. Special shoutouts to Radar and Ben, because they were just great and hilarious and their delivery was fantastic. Cara did a great job as Margo too -- I was apprehensive about this because while I didn't doubt her abilities, I just had such a specific idea of Margo in my head I was afraid that because I knew I wouldn't be seeing that on the screen I wouldn't like it, but she definitely portrayed her well and I didn't feel that at all. 

While they did change a few things around, I think the movie as a whole was very well done. The plot was followed more closely than a lot of book-to-movie adaptations and I'm not going to nitpick on things like the fact that Angela came on the road trip in the movie and not in the book because it didn't take away from the movie and in fact added to it and to the closeness and the bonds formed by the character so I was cool with it. The real big changes were at the end, with what happened once they got to New York, but the end result was generally the same and had the same feel to it so I still liked it and I loved the way it highlighted the way Q's obsession with Margo was just that -- an obsession, and an unhealthy one. So I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up liking this movie and I'd definitely watch it again (and by "I would" I mean "I will"). 

After the movie was the Q+A (and the performances) and that was great too. The questions were taken from Twitter and most of them were asking about experiences on set and filming and things like that but the answers were just so cute because you could tell the cast got really close and became friends with each other during this whole process. Halston Sage, who played Lacey mentioned how she loved the prom scene at the end because she didn't get her own prom and it was just such a sweet comment and an adorable thought to think about her getting to get dressed up and go to this prom in this movie. Another comment was made about how Justice Smith (Radar) was the funniest person on set, not only in what he said but in who he was -- he just had this aura about him. I loved the way they were so comfortable with one another and they had such a nice dynamic and could understand so easily exactly who they all were. Also, my favorite story about everyone was about Justice Smith and how he just had an argument with Austin Abrams (Ben) about whether aglets (the plastic tips on shoelaces) were important and if the world would be a significantly worse place without them and he just refuse to accept that it wouldn't. 

Also, the Naked Brothers Band made a comeback and Alex Wolff looked so sad up there but kind adorable at the same time it was a strange image. 

-Noor

Amrutha

!!!! This past Thursday, us peeps - Marlon went to go watch Paper Towns during the Night On The Towns early premiere which was super fun. As you might remember, WLABB - me went to see The Fault in Our Stars last year, but unluckily for me I was sadly doing very high schooly things and therefore could not go. So, continuing the tradition, next year when John Green inevitably comes out with another movie, we will have to leave a member behind for the night. 

The night was awesome (other than that I drove and that Noor is no longer going to be allowed to GPS anywhere in my car) and we ate at Qdoba (which I am not usually a huge fan of but had a good experience with this time) and then we got to the movie theatre. Westfield has this really small movie theatre with tickets sold at the concession stand and no one watching the signed posters and lockets. It's so cute and lo and behold, having gotten there an hour and a half early, we were the first ones there. So naturally, we had a photoshoot.

First of all, turns out our pal Joe is pretty good at taking pictures because I don't hate all of them and that is very surprising as I am very picky about my aesthetic. But also turns out neither me nor Kiersten can hold straight faces/angry faces during pictures because literally only Noor had her shit together during most of these. All in all, I thought the pictures turned out real cute and also very representative of WLABB-Marlon. (Note from Kiersten: In that first photo, we were posing for a serious photo, but someone in a car yelled something like, "Awh, yea!" at us out their window and we all started laughing as this picture was taken. While I don't approve of catcalling people out of your car window, it was pretty funny.)

As for the movie: They held pretty true to the plot (except for some of the end but it winding up ending relatively the same way) and the tone of the story, which I expected after seeing TFIOS. Nat Wolf's casting was impeccable, I don't think I could see anyone else as Q, and literally the entire friend group killed it, Radar and Ben were hilarious and honestly were just so real and just ugh they were all casted so well. Could not have done it better. Cara was okay as Margo, to be quite honest I didn't think she was the right choice before the movie began and I didn't think she was the right choice after watching it. I like her a lot, I think her personality is awesome and she's beautiful and her eyebrows are absolutely insane, but I just don't think she captured Margo completely. I just loved how they didn't end up framing it as a romance when it's really a coming of age story where the main character understands that other people are complex and other people are not to be obsessed over and lauded and made to be something they are not. The movie did a really good job of conveying that theme, and if I had just a little something extra from the character of Margo, I would really be in love with it. 

That being said, it was a good movie, and I'd watch it again just for Q and Radar and Ben. They were flawless. 

The Q&A was cute and I think really reinforced the idea that the cast members were all actually good friends (which I think showed a bit during the movie too). Also, Alex and Nat preformed a song during which Alex's face was very sad and I'm not really sure if he did much preforming at all, so that was a fun way to end the night. 

But hey, it was a really good night and I got to hang with some of my WLABB crew so definitely would do again. 

-Amrutha

Kiersten

So, I think pretty much everything relevant has been said. We went to the thing, we took pictures, we watched the movie, and we watched the livecast. I'll have to side with Amrutha about my opinion of Cara as Margo - I'm not sure if it was her acting or the direction, but I didn't feel like the character was well portrayed. She kind of spoke in a monotone and made a serious face the whole time - she seemed more like the hipster chick loner rather than queen bee of the school. For the movie as a whole, my only complaint is that they removed the scene where Q's mom gives him the car as a gift and never mention when he acquires the car - he just switches from saying that it's his mom's car in the beginning to his car near the middle. Not a big deal, but it bugged me. Also, while I think the movie did capture the essence of the book, I found it less entertaining. It was fun to watch, but I don't think I'll be rushing to the store to buy this on Blu-ray to watch again and again. 

Oh, and even though it's not related to the movie, I disagree with Noor - I am a strong Qdoba over Chipotle fan. To be honest, they're basically the same thing, so it comes down to the seasonings, and I prefer the chicken at Qdoba because I find the Chipotle chicken too spicy for my delicate taste buds.

Anyway, the main reason I'm here is to include more pictures of Sloth. Sloth attended the event with us because, as his Twitter handle implies, he likes to go places, but also because he likes to be included in WLABB outings since he is the most prominent honorary WLABBer. Amrutha already included our super cute forward photo with Sloth, but here are a few others.

Also, I'm kind of mad that Amrutha put the version of this first photo where I was laughing, so I'm including the serious one here. The second is the same one as in Noor's section, but I thought it was a shame that she cropped it in and I really liked it. We are WLABB's Angels.

- Kiersten

Have you seen Paper Towns yet?

Let us know in the comments!

The Hunger Games Exhibition

A few weeks ago my friend Cheech came to visit New York. We decided to plan a day trip together, including rushing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on Broadway, meeting up with some other friends for dinner, and going to The Hunger Games Exhibition. As you might have noticed, this post is about the exhibition!

I'm not going to lie, I was really freaking excited about going to this exhibition. I'm a huge fan of The Hunger Games franchise - seeing The Hunger Games movie is what got me into reading and eventually becoming a blogger. That morning, I donned my victor t-shirt and did my "Girl On Fire" inspired makeup in anticipation of the exhibition. Let me tell you, The Hunger Games Exhibition was absolutely incredible and it changed my life. For real. I cried a little. It was amazing.

Before I get into actually talking about the exhibition, I'd like to apologize for my photos. They're not very good. While I could take photos in the exhibition, the lighting and the fact that I couldn't use flash made it difficult for me to get good photos on my phone. I also had the screen dimmed so it wouldn't be obnoxious in some of the darker rooms, so I couldn't tell until later that they photos were kind of blurry. These photos by no means do this exhibition justice - seeing it in person is an entirely different experience. These photos also don't represent the entire exhibition since I didn't feel like I really needed to document the entire thing. I think they actually sell a book that does that.

The first thing that happens when you go to the exhibition is that they offer to take a few posed pictures in front of a green screen. You can always say no, but posing for the photos doesn't cost you anything so you might as well. BUT LET ME TELL YOU, these photos become epic and you'll want to give them all your money - at least I did.

Before entering the actual exhibition, you can also get a self guided tour device. While this guide certainly isn't necessary, it's really cool. The way it works is that while you walk around, the guide picks up commentary that you can listen to about certain parts of the exhibition (you can also just read the transcript if you prefer). There are also times when you can pick up movie clips to watch, which is still cool even if you've seen the movies a million times because YOU'RE IN AN AMAZING EXHIBITION ABOUT THE HUNGER GAMES. Another aspect of the guide is that you can create a digital passport. While you walk around, you get stamps in your passport. You can also use the guide to take pictures of the exhibition and add themed borders. The great thing about it is that as long as you put your email in the device at the beginning, you'll get all your photos and your passport stamps. I went the second day of the exhibition so I don't know if they've worked on it since, but when I was there, a lot of people had problems with the guides dying while they were still looking around the exhibition. I personally had this problem, but the people who work there were really good about getting people a new one that was charged more so they could continue. While I was disappointed that I couldn't keep track of the stamps I had on my previous passport (I ended up missing one at some point because of this), it wasn't that big of a deal (I could have gone back to the beginning and walked through everything again if I had wanted to). Even though the first guide died, I still got all my photos, and I just entered my email again in the second guide and got those photos as well. The only thing that I didn't know about the photos that slightly upset me at first was that you don't get the photos right away. I went to the exhibition on the 2nd, and I got the first set of photos on the 4th and the second set on the 5th. The photos are sent to you as a link and you can view your passport stamps and photos online. I was kind of annoyed that I couldn't enlarge and save the photos through the link, but I just screenshot them and it worked out good enough for me. I took a bunch of pictures on my phone as well, so it was all good. The photos I took on the device are mixed in with my other photos below; most of them have the borders on them.

Once you enter the exhibition, there's an introductory video, with a commentary video from Elizabeth Banks, before the really cool stuff happens. This is one of the times I teared up during the exhibition - partially because I was so excited but also because Banks was talking about how The Hunger Games has actually affected the world. After the video, these fancy doors open up and you can step into District 12.

In the District 12 section of the exhibition, there's a replica of a few parts of the hob set up. I couldn't get a photo that showed it, but in the third photo below, the mockingjay pin that Katniss picks up at The Hob (aka the storyline in the movie vs the book) is in the bowl with the really bright light.

Throughout the entire exhibit there are a bunch of interactive parts, including polls where you drop a bead into how you would answer the question and can see how many other people picked the same as you did, an interactive map of the Districts vs a map of North America, and more. Below you can see Sloth finding out how well he would forage if he were in the games. There are also a bunch of signs talking about Suzanne Collins' inspiration for The Hunger Games around the exhibition. I had never looked into what inspired Collins to write The Hunger Games, so the signs about her inspirations were really interesting and informative for me.

Another part of District 12 was a replica of part of Katniss' home with models of her and Prim in their Reaping Day costumes. After that section of District 12, the exhibition features the scene of the reaping in The Hunger Games. It was so cool to see Effie's costume up close (this goes for all of hers). In the photo on the right, Sloth decides he's going to reap the tributes instead of Effie. One really cool thing about this setup is that you can actually see through the paper Effie is holding and that it says Primrose Everdeen on it rather than being a thick paper you can't read through.

Just like the tributes, the exhibition heads onto the Capitol train after the reaping. My favorite part of this was that there's a bench you can sit on and take a photo to look like you're riding on the train to the Capitol.

After "riding" the train, you reach the Capitol! The Capitol felt much less like a linear story than District 12 since there's action from all the books/movies there. From Katniss' fire dress from The Hunger Games, to the chariot from Catching Fire, to Cinna's designs for the mockingjay armor, there's a bunch of cool stuff to see in this section. One thing that really surprised me is that the red fire dress is actually super underwhelming in person. I don't know if it's the fit on the display mannequin or just that there were a lot of special effects in editing, but I was really surprised that it didn't look as pretty as it did on screen. Another interesting thing is that Katniss and Peeta's costumes for the Tribute Parade in Catching Fire are actually made of black and gold brocade. I mean, obviously I knew it wasn't really hot coals, but I just thought it would be a different texture/print. I like the brocade a lot though since it adds that elegance that Cinna had them portray in the parade.

Also featured in the Capitol is President Snow's house and some of the costumes from the Victory Tour Party in Catching Fire. I really liked this display because it just looked so pretty. I absolutely loved Katniss' dress for this party in the movie, so I was basically drooling over it when I saw it here.

The last big thing in the Capitol is the Captiol TV set up. There's a fun section where you can sit down and it looks like Ceasar Flickerman is actually interviewing you (note Sloth in the chair and the screen over the body that has a video of Ceasar's face on it). There was also a display of Peeta and Ceasar's costumes from when Peeta is doing the propaganda photos for the Capitol in Mockingjay.

The next part of the exhibition is also technically the Capitol, but this section focuses on the Games. There were a bunch of of the props and costumes from various parts of the games on display, including the training outfits for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire below, Finnick's Tribute Parade costume, a few of Haymitch's costumes, Effie's gold hair costume (aka when she says they should all have a gold token) below, and more. I would have included more photos of the costumes aforementioned, but my photos weren't very good.

Another costume featured was that of Plutarch Heavensbee's costume and figurines of a jabberjay, tracker jacker, and monkey from the arena. Besides the costumes and props, there was also an interactive section that looks like the table the gamemaker uses to change things in the games. On the table, there are screens you can use to read more about different aspects of gamemaking, and if you get the guide, you can simulate the arena from the Third Quarter Quell. I couldn't get mine to work, but other people seemed to have success with this. This area also has an interactive area where you can learn some fight choreography and learn how to tie some knots.

After the Capitol, the last main area is District 13. I loved the way they set up the figures for District 13! Sloth wanted to jump right up there with them and throw his three finger salute, although he realized that when he raises his hand it's always a three finger salute. There were a bunch of other things from District 13, like Prim's nurse costume, some armor, Beetee's desk (below), and part of the room where all the food and plants were grown in District 13. The coolest thing in this area was that you could make your own propos! While it's mostly just picking out a few clips, you pose for a picture to add to the end and the propos shows pictures of a bunch of characters standing in front of the mockingjay symbol and then you. I was really disappointed that I didn't have the option to save the photo / buy it or something.

The photos below aren't actually both in District 13 but it seemed kind of appropriate to put them together. The first photo, if you noticed the scarf, is from Catching Fire and is on display in District 12. The second photo is from when Katniss and Gale leave the shelter of District 13 (in the movie) and Katniss eventually sings "Hanging Tree." I thought putting these two photos together was kind of interesting because although Katniss is wearing the same color coat (possibly even the exact same coat), Gale's coat is much darker.

The last part of the exhibition is THE PART YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR. Before this point in the exhibition, my friend Cheech was like, "I came here and I didn't even get to see the wedding dress." Of course, I knew the wedding dress was on display because I had casually seen pictures of the actors near it, but I didn't expect to be quite like this. On the way out of District 13, you have to round a pretty sharp corner and you can't really see what's coming until you're there. It's at this point that you behold the absolute beauty of the wedding dress because no photos can do it justice. Ugh, this room. This room was the other part where I cried a little.

The room shows the evolution of Katniss - from her hunting costume in The Hunger Games, to the wedding dress and transformed mockingjay dress in Catching Fire, to her mockingjay armor from Mockingjay. In a small case you can also see the mockingjay pin. This was absolutely stunning - the way the room is lit and the inspiration moments from the film being played on screens in the room made it so breathtaking. (Note: There aren't actually flower petals falling around the dress in the photo below - it's one of the overlays you can use on the guide, and I thought it looked really pretty with the dress.)

And so the exhibition is done! After prying my eyes away from that majestic dress, I was surprised to see that before the gift shop, there was another green screen. You want to know what they do there? THEY PUT YOU IN THE MOVIE. For real. Someone will give you a cape and tell you what to do before and as you film. The video is pretty short, but it follows you as you are the tribute from District 12 going into the tribute parade at the Quarter Quell, flaming outfit and all. It was especially funny because Cheech and I kept laughing because the woman giving us directions thought Sloth was a koala. I would show you my movie but I'm pretty sure the file is too large to upload here and Lionsgate actually owns it since a lot of the footage is from the movie. After you film the video, you're given the option to buy the film, as well as the three photos from before the exhibition and a photo taken in the filming area. I told them to take all my money. When I got my pictures and movie (they told me to go look in the gift shop and they'd bring it to me after they printed the photos), I was super impressed by the presentation. The woman handed me a little black paper bag with the mockingjay symbol large on it. Inside the bag, was a pretty little box with a The Hunger Games Exhibition flashdrive inside (aka my movie) as well as a picture book that had some film photos and my photos in the sleeves next to the pages where it related. I SHALL NOW SHOW YOU MY GLORIOUS PHOTOS, although they're slightly less glorious because my scanner isn't great.

Obviously the last thing after that is the gift shop. My main goal here was the Buttercup stuffed animal because I had seen online that there would be one and I love stuffed animals (hence Stuffed Animal Saturday). This is where I once again said, "take all my money," and spent my money on random things that said The Hunger Games The Exhibition on them. I ended up spending less that I thought I would since I told myself I could not get any of the clothes, but in total with what I spent on the photos/movie, it was a little more than most people would deem socially acceptable to spend on Hunger Games stuff. I do what I want.

So, that's the exhibition! Honestly, I think that if you have the opportunity to go to this exhibition, you should. I absolutely loved every second of it - I spent two hours there and I definitely could have spent more time there to thoroughly read all the different boards and listen to all the commentary leisurely. The tickets are a little pricy at face value, but it was so incredibly well put together and I loved it so much. A must see for fans of The Hunger Games! Seriously though - go buy your ticket now. You need to go.

Will you be seeing The Hunger Games The Exhibition?

Let us know in the comments!

UtopYA 2015

If you've been following me on Twitter or read my section of Previously on WLABB at the beginning of the month, then you might know I went to UtopYA last month. I procrastinated on this post a lot - mostly because I knew it would take a while to get the whole thing together and I'm lazy - but it's finally here! Check out me and Sloth's adventures in Nashville and at UtopYA!

If you don't know what UtopYA is, it's a relatively small (in comparison to BookCon) book convention that focuses a lot on Young Adult and New Adult in the fantasy and contemporary genres. Every year, it takes place in Nashville, Tennessee and draws a very enthusiastic group, often of authors who make a point to attend UtopYA every year. While a large part of the authors are independently published, there are still many traditionally published authors as well. This was the fourth year of UtopYA.

The first day was basically a travel day - we took a flight and a connection and then we were in Nashville! Since the main events of UtopYA weren't starting until the next morning, we decided to explore downtown Nashville, which was only a short bus ride away. Sloth likes exploring new places for photo ops, so we did a lot of that.

After we explored a while, we decided to get some food! Of course, we wanted to get barbecue, so we went to Rippy's Ribs. It was really good! There were a bunch of business cards stuck under the table top, so I stuck mine under too.

Day one of UtopYA was fun! It was such a different feel from the craziness of BEA and BookCon that it took me a while to adjust and figure it out. I went to a few great panels (I won't bore you with pictures of people sitting and talking), including one about world building with Marissa Meyer, C.J. Redwine, Amy A. Bartol, and Helene Dunbar and one about why YA matters with B.J. Sheldon, Lauren Miller, Chanda Hahn, and Hope Collier. Both panels were really great, and all the speakers presented great tips/points at the panels. The highlight of the day was after the world building panel when Sloth got to meet Marissa Meyer!

Day two of UtopYA started off with an absolutely incredible keynote from Lauren Miller about embracing the detour. Seriously, that could have been a commencement speech - it was so well put together and inspiring. We also went to a great panel from C.J. Redwine and her husband about marketing to millennials, which was really interesting even though it doesn't necessarily pertain to me. After that, we mostly walked around the show floor, and Sloth took some more fun photos. We don't remember whose booth the first photo is from, but the second is at Patti Larsen's booth and the third is with Little Big Benny!

In the middle of the day, we were just sitting down and waiting to eat lunch, and we ended up hanging out with Katie McGarry for over an hour! Katie McGarry saw Sloth and asked me about him. When I told her that Sloth goes on adventures and takes pictures, she told me about one time when she took her kid's Perry the Platypus and posed him on the stops of her book tour. Sloth was quite smitten with Katie McGarry, so obviously they took a picture together. It was also around this time that Sloth decided he needed to get his own Twitter, and so he created @SlothGoesPlaces.

After hanging out for a while, we went to the last panel of the day, which was gender roles and stereotypes with Marissa Meyer, Katie McGarry, Jamie Anderson, and Tammy Blackwell. After the day ended, we had some dinner and went to a special premiere of a short film, After Light. The film was an adaptation of Cameo Renae's ARV-3. I'm a bit of a production-side-of-things geek since I'm on the production side of things in my theater work, so I really enjoyed hearing about the experience from the director and actors. One of the monsters from the movie came to the premiere, and Sloth decided to become friends.

Day three of UtopYA started off with a very beautiful keynote from Kim Holden about "Do Epic," a message from her book Bright Side. After that, the main event of the day, Authors R My Idols aka ARMI, was basically a big signing. All the authors had booths set up to sell and sign books, and there were more people there just for the signing event. This was the day I really went around and talked to the authors about their books. Since I'm not much of a physical book reader, I decided it would be better to just take the bookmarks or information cards for the books and look them up online later. I was also on a mission to get my bag signed by most of the authors, so it was both enjoyable and productive. While we were visiting the booths, Sloth had to take some fun pictures (of course).

One of Sloth's favorite stops was Cambria Hebert's booth. Sloth and Murphy became friends and took some pictures, and then Sloth also took a picture with Cambria Hebert!

I'm not sure if this is obvious to people who don't know me in real life but I really like unicorns (as does Sloth). We were so excited to see a book called Unless You Can Be a Unicorn by Delphina Henley, and Sloth had to take some photos. The third picture below is Sloth with Nooce Miller and her fun steampunk set up.

Another booth where Sloth had a lot of fun was Courtney C. Steven's booth. She had so many friends on her table! Sloth's favorite was Big the ostrich. Becca Vincenza's table was nearby and Sloth befriended that little red guy (I think he's from Doctor Who?).

Sloth had some more fun with these hippie chicks at Shawn McGuire's booth. (Yes, I'm aware they're actually ducks, but hippie chicks sounds more fun than hippie ducks.) Sloth loved the panels where C.J. Redwine spoke, so Sloth and C.J. Redwine posed for a picture together at her booth. At Myra McEntire's booth, Sloth had lots of new friends to pose with.

If you couldn't tell, Sloth was quite busy taking pictures and making friends. Unfortunately, as a result, neither of us remembers the booths at which we took these two photos. The first one was a cute monkey friend, and the second was a zombie friend, although Sloth was a little creeped out by the severed hand.

Even though the signing was mostly a book purchasing day, a few authors offered me review copies. Even though I'm swamped with BEA books right now, I'm hoping to get to these soon! (Don't mind Sloth - he thinks these are his.)

Bound by Duty - Stormy Smith

Spark of Light - Elizabeth Tuttle

Dreams and Echoes - Patti Larsen

The Telepath Chronicles - Anthology, given to me by Theresa Kay

The Secret Diamond Sisters - Michelle Madow

Wolf Burn - Alexis H. Johnson

Edge, Part One: Season One - Jamie Magee

Unless You Can Be a Unicorn - Delphina Henley

Since I got so much swag at UtopYA, I've decided to include pictures of some of my favorites! I got a few pens throughout the day, but these two were my favorites. The first is from Tricia Zoeller, and I love it because it's a pen but can also be used as a stylus if the pen is clicked out. The second is from Nikki Jefford, and I thought the sayings on the sides were really funny.

One thing that I always love picking up is fun buttons. These are my favorite buttons I got at UtopYA!

A bunch of the authors were giving out really awesome goodie bags for bloggers. My favorite thing I received was this tote bag from Christina Benjamin.

I don't remember where I picked this card up, but it was definitely one of my favorite things I saw. It's such a great message accompanied by a super cute illustration - love!

At the end of the signing, I ended up getting most of the authors to sign my bag, and I love how it turned out! I didn't want to list all the authors/books that I saw at UtopYA here (it would be a long list), so I decided to make this Goodreads shelf where you can check them out! I made this list using the swag I picked up at UtopYA. It is by no means an all-encompassing list, but it's definitely the majority of the authors/books from the convention.

After all the adventures of the day, we rested for a bit and got ready for the UtopYA Awards! The awards were really fun, awarding authors in various different categories. It was all very fancy. There was also a lip-sync battle happening periodically throughout the awards, which added some extra whimsy and fun.

The last day of UtopYA wasn't really a full day. The day started off just discussing the success of the weekend and awarding a few authors based on the votes received for best booths. For the fifth year of UtopYA next year, they really wanted to have a special theme; they also wanted to branch out more. As a result, UtopYA will now be Utopia, and will also include Middle Grade and Adult novels. Next year's Utopia will have a revolution theme, and the tagline is "Fight for Your Write." Since they are expanding, there will be some more changes for next year, including a big field day competition that sounds like fun.

If you love books and live near Nashville, I definitely recommend going to Utopia next year! Although I won't be able to attend again next year (BEA being in Chicago is a big hit money-wise since I'll have to travel there), it sounds like next year will be even better and more fun!

So, my actual UtopYA recap is finished, but if you'd like to see more of Sloth's adventures in Nashville, keep reading!

Since the last day of UtopYA wasn't a full day, we decided to take a bus tour themed around ABC's Nashville. Most of the tour was spent on the bus as we drove through Nashville and saw some of the places featured in the show. The guide was really great - he grew up in Nashville and told us a lot about the history as well as things like how the production team picks locations to shoot. Most of my pictures of the houses and other places in the show aren't particularly good shots since we were on the bus, so I'm not going to include them. I do, however, have some great photos from times we got off the bus to look around.

One of the first things we did on the tour was visit Ryman Auditorium, which was the big concert place before the Grand Ole Opry. Sloth had a lot of fun looking around here. They also have a really cool display of clothes, instruments, and other things from musicians who have performed there.

Another big highlight was getting to see The Bluebird Café. The Bluebird is actually only open at night for shows so we couldn't go in. We did get to stop and get off the bus to get a good picture though!

Another place we got to get off the bus was Two Old Hippies, which is a store that sells vintage style clothes and decor. I don't watch Nashville, but I'm told some of the characters sang there in the show. In the photos below, Sloth is having fun at the store. He drove a fun looking van and tried to go to Narnia through a magical wardrobe (it wasn't actually magical). Sloth met a "Dammit Doll", which is meant to be smashed against a wall when the owner is frustrated. Sloth said he would never smash the "Dammit Doll" against the wall. Sloth liked the pet bed that looks like a car (although there was no pet in sight), and he looked at the pretty beaded hummingbirds.

While we were driving around, we passed a bunch of celebrity houses, including Taylor Swift's. We also drove past the Parthenon replica. Sloth told me to include a picture of that (even though it was from a distance through a bus window and he's blurry) since it is IN FACT bookish because Percy Jackson went to the Parthenon. I told him that was a different Parthenon; he didn't care.

Overall, it was a really fun trip! I enjoyed my first time at Utopia and visiting Nashville! I think it would be fun to go back again in a few years to visit some of the sights I didn't have the opportunity to, like the replica Parthenon and seeing the replica Athena Parthenos, and attend Utopia again. If you're interested in attending Utopia, I hope this post helped you see what it's all about!

- Kiersten

Have you ever been to Nashville?

Let us know in the comments!