I attended the Book Group Expo in San Jose over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised. Four fellow librarians from the county also attendend along with as many as five hundred (?) book club fans and fanatics, authors, independent book sellers, wine merchants… You get the picture. For $25, I saw dozens of authors speak about everything from the creative process to using real-life as an inspiration. Some of the highlights included seeing one of my favorite librarian buddies, the opening salon author Khaled Hosseini, a hilarious salon with three authors ZZ Packer, Andrew Sean Greer (The Confessons of Max Tivoli), and Sarah Gruen (Water for Elephants), and meeting the lovely and elegant Leslie Sbrocco host of Check Please, Bay Area (I am definitely thinking about applying to be on the show). Overall it was a great experience. I really get the sense that authors do like to visit book clubs and really appreciate them. I also got the sense that small independent book sellers are struggling and book clubs & author visits are their lifeblood. I hope they do it again next year when our library can have a booth alongside the San Jose Rep and where we can actually show off the resources that the library has to offer book clubs.