My last month was a whirlwind of bookish travel. I spent 11 days at various book conventions which I am calling: 11 Days, 3 Cities, Dozens of Authors. It truly was a wonderful experience for a booklover. Some women love spas; I love book-related travel. Along the way at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival I had the pleasure of catching up with Lisa See, an author who I know is a favorite of many of yours. She wrote Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and her new book Peony in Love will be in stores next month. It was great to share my early excitement for the book with her. I will be writing more about my adventures in my blog on Bookreporter.com later this week.

I am writing this week from the Outer Banks where I am on vacation with my family. The weather has been spectacular, which is lovely after a gray and drab New York winter. I have been getting a lot of reading done poolside, which is a treat. I usually end up "reading ahead" with books that are coming out in the next few months. One that you are going to be excited about is A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini who many of you know as the author of THE KITE RUNNER. It's just brilliant, and readers will not be disappointed in this sophomore effort. Again the setting is Afghanistan. It's a deeply moving story of two women that takes place over thirty years. It will be in stores on May 22nd. There's also a debut author who I want to have on your radar --- Anita Amirrezvani, whose book, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS, is set in 17th century Persia. The protagonist is a young woman who is a carpet designer and weaver. I am not a fan of historical fiction, but this story definitely wove its way into my heart. It's on sale June 5th.

A reporter from the Sacramento Bee called me late last month to ask about what I knew about the tenure of most book clubs. She was doing a piece about the Elk Grove Book Club that was celebrating its 70th anniversary. We marveled as we realized the cultural and political times this group had shared together --- World War II, the fabulous '50s, the swinging '60s, and on and on. I told her that among our 5,200 registered book clubs, only 265 have existed more than 10 years. We then talked age for a bit as the oldest member of the Elk Grove is 88; the group's last charter member just died earlier this month. With our registered groups we see that we have 3,900 groups with no members over age 65. You can read the article here (please note that free registration is required).

It's gotten really cold here in New York, and they are saying snow is on the way. I have decided in my next life I want to be a weatherperson. Think about it. You can declare it's going to snow, or rain, or be sunny, be wrong and keep your job. You can get jazzed by the potential for bad weather. Seriously, I think it's amazing that these folks can send an entire city of people out of the house with umbrella in hand. Hmmmmm...and to think all I want to do is send you out of the house --- or into the house for that matter --- with a book you love in hand!