I'VE GOT IT!
I have Go Set a Watchman!
Now before I can finish it (of course I already started) and review it, I thought I would talk a bit about the midnight release of the book in London. Two major stores stayed open, Waterstone's Piccadilly and Foyles, and I went to both to see what they were doing!
Waterstone's kicked off the evening at 7.30 with a talk about To Kill A Mockingbird's influence on modern literature. Not only did they have interesting panels all evening, their whole store was in the theme of the book - the highlight being a Go Set A Watchman tree!
Besides that, they had Harper Lee cocktails, information about the book and special Mockingbird cupcakes! If you want to see all of these things, I've made a little gallery of all the gorgeous Waterstone's things I spotted:
While the panel, featuring Joanna Trollope, Paul McVeigh, Timothy Sheader and others, was good, it also made me want to read the new book more. Yes, we all loved To Kill A Mockingbird, but what is this new one about? All the speculation about one certain character drove me crazy and I just wanted to read it myself!
After the panel, we headed to Foyles to see a screening of To Kill A Mockingbird. I had never seen the movie before so I figured this was a great opportunity to discover it for the first time. As usual, the event was on the 6th floor of the shop and we got free tote bags! (I love Foyles and the fact that they have bags for everything!)
After the movie (it was 11 at this point), we headed downstairs for a jazz party/countdown until midnight. There was food, drinks and a band playing perfect Harper Lee music. But most importantly, THEY HAD THE BOOK EVERYWHERE. Foyles was prepared and even though I was third (yes, I am that person) in the queue, I'm convinced everyone in the shop got their copy at midnight!
And that is how I, exhausted (clearly from the pic) but also beyond excited, ended up with Go Set A Watchman just a few minutes after midnights. Of course I was most excited about holding this book, 7 years after falling in love with the characters, but I was also excited about the book community here in the city. We don't get a lot of massive book events like this and to see so many people so eager to have a book by an author I love was amazing and I feel so lucky that I was able to be a small part of this night!
Can we do this more often please book community?