Last night I went to the first stop on Hayley Kiyoko’s book tour for her new book Where There’s Room For Us at none other than the Strand in NYC. I love their events because they’re so up close and personal. I laughed with Hayley, I cried, and I met her while she signed my two books. She said she thought my glasses were cute, and I thanked her for letting me feel seen. She said it right back, too. She was so sweet!! We got a posed photo together and the entire night was pure queer magic. “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan even came on while she was signing. I cannot wait to read her new book!
We also found out that she directed the feature film based on her previous novel, Girls Like Girls, coming in 2026. She said it took 10 years! I’ll definitely be seeing that in theaters!
Last night I went to yet another awesome author signing event at the Strand in NYC. I love going to these events, because they’re relatively small and always great! I have yet to read a book by Alexandria Bellefleur, and after going to the event, I learned that I’m clearly missing out, because this author has a big fanbase. Everyone was talking about the astrology signs of her characters, and now I’m totally going to look up “pisces” on her website, so I can read a character like me.
I love when I can see myself and connect to the books I read. Alexandria and her books are queer, and I can’t wait to dive into her latest, The Devil She Knows, which came out today! I got my book signed & personalized and also had my photo taken with the author. I loved it so much!
I also bought Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko, her debut novel, ahead of her signing in a couple weeks. I spent way too much money on queer and bookish stickers, and bought a tote bag since the one I brought was way too small. I just love browsing the Strand!
I went to Author Day at Harrison Library and it was awesome! I got to reconnect with one of my favorite author friends, Lisa Montanaro after having been to her book signing in May for her debut novel Everything We Thought Was True, meet a fellow bookstagrammer, Jen (@electric_bookaloo) and catch up with an old friend. I even won a raffle!
BOOKS & AUTHORS PICTURED Jessica Anya Blau – Shopgirls V.S. Kemanis Lisa Montanaro – Everything We Thought Was True Cleyvis Natera – The Grand Paloma Resort Cherry Lou Sy – Love Can’t Feed You Liv Constantine – Don’t Open Your Eyes Amity Gage – Heartwood Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau – The French Honeymoon Clémence Michallon – Our Last Resort Mariah Fredericks Alyson Richman – The Missing Pages Lauren Willig – The Girl From Greenwich Street John Beyer – Live A Little Better Susan Shapiro Barash – Estranged (author not pictured)
I recently went to a local library in person as well as watched a Zoom session with authors David Hicks and Nikki Erlick, both natives of Harrison. I had a great time at both of these events, and am grateful that I was able to attend.
David’s book, The Gospel of Danny, is about a man named Danny Gausepohl in today’s fractured world and deals with love and loss in his own life as well. The book grips you right from the beginning, and I can’t wait to keep reading!
Nikki’s book, The Poppy Fields, is a speculative fiction/light sci-fi book that was inspired by the Wizard of Oz that is perfect for bookclub discussions. It is a book about a new, experimental treatment center that helps people sleep through their grief so that when they wake up, they’re healed. I am super excited to read this book as well!
I was lucky enough to see Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert on her very first stop on her book tour for her new memoir, All the Way to the River. I was also lucky enough to have read the book on Netgalley before the talk as well. The book signing/talk took place at Cooper Union in New York City, which was a much bigger venue than the Strand’s Rare Book Room, where they usually hold their events.
I traveled down to the City alone, and met three other women who were also attending the talk who I sat near. The books were already signed by Liz and there were so many people there, so none of the books were personalized. She basically talked the whole time, and then took questions from the audience who lined up behind a microphone.
I am so happy that I was able to see Elizabeth Gilbert do her talk. The book is about her relationship with her best friend turned lover, Rayya Elias, and their codependent relationship with each other, their drug and love addictions, as well as Rayya’s ultimate death due to pancreatic and liver cancer. It wasn’t an easy read, but definitely worth it, I think, and a very important addition to Gilbert’s story.
I haven’t read all of her books (yet) but I plan on being an Elizabeth Gilbert completest (meaning will read all her works, eventually).
I went to NYC’s Lower East Side’s Pride Book Crawl! It was my first one and it was awesome! I bought stickers, bookmarks, zines, and of course, a few books! There were 7 bookstores in all but I got to 5 of them before my phone ran dangerously low on battery so I decided to call it a day. The thing is that my phone’s battery is bad to begin with, my portable charger died and also I was using Google Maps the whole time to navigate. But luckily the Uber I caught back to Grand Central had a charger so I went from 12% to 30% in the 15 minute ride.
Here are the stores on the route. The last two I didn’t get to.
Route Sweet Pickle Books – 47 Orchard St Bluestockings Books – 116 Suffolk St Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks – 28 E 2nd St Book Club Bar – 197 E 3rd St (at Ave B) Pillow-Cat Books – 328 E 9th St Village Works – 12 St Mark’s Place Yu & Me Books – 44 Mulberry St.
I think my two favorite were Cat Pillow Books (they had a cute cat, I mean, come on!!) and the Book Club Bar. I also really liked the queer owned-and-operated one, Blue Stockings Bookstore, except that they allowed multiple panhandlers in their store who approached me and I felt very uncomfortable. So after being hit up twice for money I hightailed it out of there. Honestly if it weren’t for that I would have stayed longer. They even had a public bathroom and a water station which was awesome.
The Sweet Pickle Bookstore was great too in that they sold jars of different flavored and types of pickles – totally unique! But it was pretty crowded and cramped in there.
I ate a scone and had a “Murder On the Orient Espresso Martini” for lunch – I had to make it back in time for art therapy otherwise I would have stopped for a proper lunch – but it was still a really cool place!
The books I bought were:
-Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens On Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown (purchased at Bluestockings Books)
-A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander (purchased at The Book Club Bar & signed by the author. Also, they moderated the adult queer panel at Barnes & Noble last weekend and I didn’t realize they’d be signing books so I’m glad I picked this signed one up!)
-Show Me Where the Hurt Is by Hayden Casey (also purchased at the Book Club Bar; a melancholy short story collection I bought off the “blind date with a book” shelf, having only read a description, not knowing the title or author of the book. I am SUPER intrigued & excited to read this one!)
-A Book Lover’s Guide to New York by Cleo Li-Tan (purchased at Cat Pillow Books).
It was a whirlwind kind of day but I had a lot of fun!
I recently went to the library for a preview of the books coming out in June, July and August. My friend Caroline and her colleague hosted it and we even got snacks from a local establishment to munch on during the program.
The books I starred to put on hold in order of publishing date are:
📖 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid – June 3, 2025 📖 With A Vengeance by Riley Sager – June 10, 2025 📖 Kuleana by Sara Kehaulani Goo – June 10, 2025 📖 Don’t Open Your Eyes by Liv Constantine – June 17, 2025 📖 The C.I.A. Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature By Charlie English – July 1, 2025 📖 The Original by Nell Stevens – July 1, 2025 📖 How to Survive A Horror Story by Mallory Arnold – July 8, 2025 📖 Between Two Rivers by Moudhy Al-Rashid – August 12, 2025 📖 Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library by Amanda Chapman – August 26, 2025 📖 Katabasis by R.F. Kuang – August 26, 2025
Here is the group photo of everyone at the program: (I’m the one on the left in the aqua shirt and Caroline is in the stripes crouched in front of me).
The next night I went to a different library for a wonderful discussion and author signing with Amy Poeppel and Karen Dukess for their new books Far & Away and Welcome to Murder Week, respectively. I got the books signed as well. It was awesome! I even got a summer reading tote with a pack of new colored pencils, perfect for the artist in me.
Amy’s book is about two women – one from Dallas, TX and one from Berlin, Germany who switch houses for several months. Karen’s book is about three Americans who travel to England to solve a fake murder mystery. I am very excited to read them both!
The last library program I went to was an art program at yet a third county library. We made little collages on 4×4 wooden squares, painted them with quick dry paint sticks, and then glued paper things onto them and then mod-podged over it and put a magnet on the back. I had so much fun!
It was a collager’s paradise! Cut up books, old playing cards and lotería cards, magazine pages, you name it! And the woman sitting next to me at the table and I had a lovely discussion about books the whole time.
The left one has the rainbow bookshelf and the Ace card (a little nod to my queerness & my asexuality) and the right one is about my heart, the Spanish speaker in me and the infinity-ness of circles and what they mean for me.
I had an amazing time at all three of these programs, and I can’t wait to keep going to similar ones!
I went to two out of three days of Barnes & Noble Union Square’s Pride Festival this year!
On Sunday afternoon they had a panel of authors called “Let Me Be Perfectly Queer” moderated by author TJ Alexander and featuring authors Christina Li (The Manor of Dreams) Debbie Millman (Love Letter To A Garden) Jesse James Rose (Sorry I Keep Crying During Sex) and Prabal Gurung (Walk Like A Girl).
It was a lovely and powerful conversation! They gave out free swag like bookmarks, pins and body art and I even got a reserved seat! There was also a cute Heartstopper backdrop for lots of photo ops!
Of course I got to Barnes & Noble early to browse and scored some other books as well! Besides the books from the events, I’m most excited to read the art books I bought.
Here are the books I got signed on Sunday at the event:
Here is the swag I got on Sunday:
Here are the other books I scored while there Sunday:
Monday night was another panel called “GYA.” It consisted of queer YA books. The authors in attendance were Zikiya Jamal (If We Were A Movie) Alice Lin (Love Points to You), Page Powars (And They Were Roommates), Brian Selznick (Run Away With Me), K. Wroten (Everyone Sux But You). It was moderated by David Levithan.
The second night was just as magical as the first with all kinds of incredible questions answered and audience engagement. We even got to take photos with each author as we got their books signed! The staff at Barnes & Noble Union Square is amazing; kudos to them for keeping everything flowing so smoothly.
I had so much fun on both nights and came home exhausted! I am SO excited to read ALL the awesome books I bought 🌈📚💜
I attended an author talk and signing at the library with author Michael Alcée, a clinical psychologist and mental health educator who wrote the book The Upside of OCD: Flip the Script to Reclaim Your Life. What drew me to the talk is that I actually have OCD, as do people I love. That was the case for most people in the small group who came to the talk.
It was great to hear the good things about OCD, and the positive qualities people with OCD have, but also a bit about how to heal the bad parts. I resonated with a lot of what was said, and I can’t wait to read the book.
First, Michael talked about the famous people who have or had OCD:
Charles Darwin, naturalist/geologist Camila Cabello, singer Howie Mandel, comedian/actor John Green, young adult author Mara Wilson, child actor
People with OCD are:
Kind and empathetic. People with OCD have a lot of emotional sensitivity, and it’s said that they have hearts that are 10 times too big. They’re very concerned about others and they’re too hard on themselves. They’re also very intuitive.
They’re extremely imaginitive and they have creative minds. They have “what if” thoughts (negtive) but also “why not” thoughts (positive).
Freud says that people with OCD have a conflict with their id: they’re scared of self interest because it feels selfish.
Also, there’s a genetic part to OCD – a nature part, as well as a nurture part. People with OCD are existentially aware; death and loss is very prominent in their minds.
Michael says that OCD “does your dirty work.” In other words, it manages your boundaries. He gave the example of a woman and a man at work. The man gently shoved the woman, and then she obsessed over it, instead of just telling him that it had bothered her that he’d done that, that she hadn’t liked that. To her, it felt too aggressive to bring it up to him, so she kept it to herself.
Michael mentions that people with OCD should, but rarely do, give themselves as much empathy as they give to others. According to Michael, “you can only be selfless for so long before you start to take up space.”
I thought Michael’s talk was incredibly eye-opening and informative, and I am very much looking forward to reading the book! As always, when my review of the book is up, I’ll link it here.
This is the penultimate art talk in this virtual library series with Joyce. This week it was all about the art of happiness. Joyce talked about various artists who painted happiness in their art.
A piece of Monet’s early art was the “Garden at St. Andresse” (1867). It was a seaside painting, showing going to the beach as a leisurely activity for the first time. This was a modern idea. It’s a scene of happiness and joy.
Another piece of Monet’s is “The Artist’s Garden at Giverny” (1900). It is capturing a moment in time, and one is happy to be in nature because it represents spirituality, still and quiet.
Henri Matisse painted the “Joy of Life” (1906) – the colors were free from reality – for example, the grass is yellow instead of it’s normal green color.
Lastly, Joyce asked us to draw joy, and/or what brings us joy. I chose to draw myself in a window scene, singing, surrounded by my books.
Michelle’s Bookish Life 