Fall Bookish Events @MassBooks #BBF2013 #sleepalong #diversiverse

Massachusetts Book Awards Ceremony – October 17, 2013

On Thursday, October 17, at 2:00 p.m., come to the Massachusetts State House and see a fabulous group of authors receive Massachusetts Book Awards  for 2012 and 2013 in a combined ceremony honoring award winners and Must Read authors from both years. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, this event is free and open to the public. It will be held at the Grand Staircase part of the State House.

This is a great way to show your support for books and authors who live in and/or write about Massachusetts, and for books and reading in general! (Psst….you might even get to meet the wonderful blogger behind Care’s Online Book Club there!)

Boston Book Festival – October 17–20, 2013

Last year was my first year of attending the Boston Book Festival, but this will be the fifth annual event. Salman Rushdie is the keynote speaker on Friday, but you’d better get your tickets early for that! I’ll be there on Saturday, October 19. One thing I learned from last year…get in line early for the events you want to get a seat at! The one I’ll definitely be waiting in line for is Fiction: Domestic Disturbances, with Tom Perrotta, Ann Leary, J. Courtney Sullivan, and George Harrar, moderated by Robin Young of WBUR.

If any other Boston-area bloggers want to meet up for lunch or for one of the events, comment here or give a tweet to @baystateRA!

Doctor Sleep Read-Along – September 30 – October 21

I heard about the Doctor Sleep Read Along from Ti at Book Chatter and have the audiobook to review and will start listening today. Since I listened to The Shining recently, listening to the sequel that Stephen King has come up with will be perfect for the month of October!

The book has just been released, but it’s already hard to avoid spoilers. If my read-along posts have any spoilers, I’ll hide them and give readers fair warning. Don’t worry!

A More Diverse Universe Challenge  – Celebrating People of Color: Speculative Fiction Authors
November 15–17, 2013

See if you can read this impassioned plea from Aarti at BookLust and not join this challenge to read at least one work of speculative fiction written by a person of color in November!

“I know your TBR list is huge.  I know your commitments are many.  I know that there are so many things on which you must take a stand, and it can be exhausting to make reading a political activity.  But this is so important to me, and I really think it should be important to you, too.  None of us lives in a monochromatic world, and yet the fact that terrifying hate crimes still occur makes it clear that we do not fully understand or trust each other.  And maybe part of the reason is because the media we consume does not accurately reflect the diversity of our society.  And books are such a massive part of the media we consume that we should demand and fight for those that do represent minorities and those that do present the world from a different perspective than the one we are used to.  So please – participate.  You may just discover a character or an author or a setting or a story that will completely change your life.”

Last year, I read and enjoyed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin for A More Diverse Universe, but 2013 may be the year I finally read Kindred by Octavia Butler, after many years of intending to.

It’s going to be a busy fall for readers everywhere!

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