I spent a chilly, rainy weekend curled up on my couch, perusing some 75 advance reading copies that publishers, large and small, have sent me in the hopes that I will highlight their titles at LJ’s tenth annual “Shout ‘n Share” program at BookExpo, held May 30–June 1 at New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. A Facebook friend amusingly suggested I could easily handle three or four books a day if I treated the reading like a marathon race and had liquid nutrition poured down my throat at intervals. Despite my anxiety at the sight of so many books, I am finding lots of exciting titles and it’s going to be difficult to whittle these down to a manageable ten to 12 volumes (not including the unexpected discoveries I’ll pick up on the show floor.)

The “Shout ‘n Share” panel takes place at the Javits Center’s Downtown Stage on Friday, June 1, 11:45–12:45 p.m. Joining me in the discussion will be Stephanie Anderson, BookOps/NYPL; Shayera Tangri, Porter Branch Library/Porter Ranch, CA; Jennifer Hubert  Swan, Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School Director of Library Services; and Gregg Winsor, Johnson County Library, Overland Park, KS. The ever-popular event climaxes three days of librarian friendly BookExpo-related programming that launches on Wednesday, May 30, with LJ and School Library Journal‘s Day of Dialog, held concurrently in different venues. See the “BookExpo/BookCon 2018 Preview” for a listing of other panels and events that have caught our attention.

Below are LibraryReads events to add to your BookExpo schedule. Unfortunately, the May 30 LibraryReads Adult Author Dinner at the Yale Club and the May 31 LibraryReads Adult Author Lunch at the Javits Center are sold out, but you can email Tina Jordan on behalf of LibraryReads at jordanfotine99@gmail.com to be placed on the waiting list.

Thursday, May 31

9:30–10:50 a.m. Writing Powerful Book Annotations, Hosted by LibraryReads. (Javits Center Room 1E11)
Join members of the LibraryReads Steering Committee in a hands-on session to learn tips and tricks to write attention-grabbing annotations that appeal to readers. Come with pen in hand.

2-3:15 p.m. LibraryReads Book Buzz—Part I (Downtown Stage Exhibit Floor, Javits Center)
Hear the first installment of what publishers are excited about for the forthcoming season, and why! Presenting are Laura Keefe (Bloomsbury); Elenita Chmilowski (Ingram); Jessica Case (Pegasus); Judith Gurlewich (Other Press); Linette Kim (Harlequin); Talia Sherer, (Macmillan); Linda Hollick (New York Review Books); Chris Vaccari (Sterling); and Michelle Leo (Simon & Schuster).

Friday, June 1

9:30–10:45 a.m. LibraryReads Book Buzz II (Javits Center Room 1E16)
This second installment of the LibraryReads Book Buzz offers more exciting news about the forthcoming publishing season. Presenters include Miriam Tuliao (Penguin Random House); Golda Rademacher (W.W. Norton); Annie Mazes (Workman); Margaret Coffee (Sourcebooks); Melissa Nicholas (Hachette Book Group); Ivy Weir (Quirk Books); Juliet Grames (Soho Press); and Virginia Stanley (HarperCollins).