June was a crazy month, with me being away from home for 18 out of the 30 days in June. Work kept me busy at two Conferences, a Leadership Institute, and then our annual pilgrimage to the Provincetown International Film Festival. While all of the things that took me away from home were worthwhile, I think I’d like my business travel to be a little more spread throughout the year.
The first week of June found me in New York City for BookExpo America, the national conference for independent booksellers and librarians. The conference was great; it was so nice for this librarian to spend an entire conference focused on books. Believe it or not, that’s pretty unheard of for librarians nowadays. Even better was getting to spend so much time with two good friends who I don’t get to see very often: Daniel from Milwaukee, and Ren?e from New Jersey. Ren?e is the editor for Rutgers Magazine, the publication for Rutgers University. Daniel is a buyer at Harry W. Schwartz Books, Milwaukee’s largest independent bookstore chain. It’s great doing the BookExpo with Daniel, because I swear, he knows everyone in publishing. AND everyone likes him. Daniel took me to a party in Brooklyn on the first night where much to my surprise, I bumped into Ren?e , who I wasn’t expecting to see until Friday. The party was great, and I met lots of very cool people.
Ren?e and I joined my friend Talia Ross of, director of Library Marketing for Holtzbrinck Publishers, for a tour of their offices at the Flatiron Building. 
Afterwards we (and the dozen or so librarians who were invited) enjoyed lunch at Bobby Flay’s new restaurant. I was thrilled to be have as my next door table mate, none other than Nancy Pearl, the most recognizable librarian in the country. Why is that you ask? Why she is the model for the librarian action figure.
Conference stuff was lots of fun too. I got to meet two authors whose work I have admired. The first was a total surprise as I had no idea that he was going to be in attendance, or that he had a new book coming out. Michelangelo Signorile wrote the life-changing (for me) book Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power back in the 80’s. It was the first book that made me think about activism in a serious way. His new book is a collection of his more recent essays entitled Hitting Hard: Michelangelo Signorile on George W. Bush, Mary Cheney, Gay Marriage, Tom Cruise, the Christian Right and Sexual Hypocrisy in America. He was soft-spoken and friendly.
I was also pleased to be able to meet and spend 30 seconds (after standing in a rather lenghty line) with Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham. I tore through his terrific new novel Specimen Days (you can read my review here and told him that we wanted hom to come to our next State Association Conference. He said to keep contacting him. I certainly will.
Other things I did in NYC. I saw the film PALINDROMES with my pal Bruce Kingsley (who then brought me to a really cool bar/restaurant, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name. Bruce, if you read this could you let me know?) I also saw BKLYN: The Musical on Broadway. It wasn’t my first choice (Doubt and Avenue Q were sold out, no big surprise.)
Wow. I thought I was going to talk about all the things I did during the month of June, but I ended up going on and on about BookExpo America! Guess I’ll colme back another time and talk about the rest.