I now blog over at The Eyre Guide! This blog is an archive of my past posts.


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Ruin and Rising Launch Party

Posted by Charlene // Tags: , , ,
Gigantic first page of the book in the entry way
The Launch Party for the last book in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone series - Ruin and Rising - was on Monday at the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles.  It's kind of an amazing bookstore by the way.  I live in the area and I've never even heard of it until recently!  This place messed me up though, because I got there so early, with every intention of being one of the first in line to get good seats, and I ended up roaming the store and buying all kinds of books (ones I've not seen in any other bookstore!).  And so I did not get a seat.  C'est la vie.


The event was pretty packed.  Leigh's army turned out in force and we were rewarded with a tote bag, a photobooth, nails station, and free food and drinks!  I had caviar for the very first time, and some freaking delicious bacon caramel brownies.  My friend and I were always keeping an eye out for the waiter bearing the brownie tray!

Drinks!  The red one was called Ruin, and the yellow was Rising

There was a brief talk where Leigh read some from her old diary which was completely endearing and hilarious, and then she started talking about the movie Labyrinth with David Bowie while showing some screenshots and a clip of the scene at the ball from the film.  She talked about how the movie bombed when it was released, but became a cult favorite and it's probably due to how it went from a children's film to one with a seduction and darker themes.  Which lead to her talking about why we read YA.  I'm paraphrasing, but the reason why Labyrinth appeals is why YA appeals.  That in a children's book there is an idealized hero's journey and in adult books, people who make mistakes live in the suburbs with regrets.  But in YA, the characters can make mistakes and still have their hero's journey.  I can not do justice to Leigh's wonderful speech, but I found it very moving and so eloquently put.  If only those silly article writers (who shall not be named) could understand how important YA can be in what it shows of the kind of life that adults want to lead.  Not just children.  I wish I had expressed my admiration for how Leigh explained the importance of YA to her when she was signing my book, but after a long wait in line, I completely forgot to mention it!!  But I thought her speech was so perfect.  And I realize that I really need to watch Labyrinth!  Although it does sound like a very trippy movie.

Like I mentioned, the line was quite long, because Leigh awesomely took her time to talk to everyone, so after we had our book signed, my friend and I had to leave.  It was too bad because I would have loved to stay a bit longer and wander around the bookstore more.  Or maybe sit for a bit and start reading Ruin and Rising like I saw some smart people doing at the event.  But I've already started reading the book now, so must get off blogger to read more!

By the way, I've just set up a 500px account to upload bookish pictures!  You can visit it here: 500px  There's only a few more photos from the event on there, and they are mostly random things! Turns out I didn't like 500px that much!

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19 comments:

  1. Wow, what a cool event! I've heard a lot about the Last Bookstore and I'm dying to visit someday. I'm glad you had such a great time :)

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  2. I really hope to visit the Last Bookstore often - there's a big room of books for $1, and I felt like I really needed time to go through the whole room! I hope you get to go soon!

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  3. I am so totally jealous :) That sounds like it was an awesome event not just because I expect Ruin and Rising is going to be an awesome book or because the Grisha world is so cool (so the drinks and decorations looked cool) but because Leigh took it a step further and made it a meaningful moment with what sounds like a truly amazing speech.


    That was like the longest sentence every :) But that's so cool that you got to attend and thank you for posting about it so we can share in the fun!

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  4. Omg! Labyrinth is literally one of my all time favorite movies..when I was 12 I was madly in love with Jareth lol Yes I know lol seriously he was so dark anf mysterious..I have a type lol I knew every word and watched it obesessively..even wrote some fan fic!

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  5. Proof my obsession lol http://www.rattlebeak.com/go/art/fanart/alisaselene/jareth01.html drawn when I was 14 or 15!

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  6. I'm expecting Ruin and Rising to be awesome too and am so annoyed I have to work and stuff instead of reading! I haven't made nearly as much progress with it as I want! :)


    I was all set for Leigh to make a fun speech - which is what it started off as with her reading from her diary, but I really admired her for speaking about something so passionately - even if it might have been preaching to the choir at the launch party, she gave us a way to make other people understand!


    Thank you for commenting Annie!

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  7. I work near downtown so I am a little familiar with it, but I hardly ever go west of downtown - like the areas you named! Maybe Hollywood once in a while though, but yes, LA is so big, but there is so much I haven't seen!

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  8. That drawing is amazing Alisa! And you were so young too! I really do need to watch this movie - that clip Leigh showed with the girl seeing Jareth at the ball... well I can understand why you were obsessed with Jareth! LOL

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  9. How awesome you got to do this! And I love Leigh's speech, even if I didn't get to actually hear it, I understand the idea! :)

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  10. haha - I did the same thing with Shadow and Bone. I was right in the middle of the good part and then I had to go to work and I was so annoyed that work was getting in the way of my reading this book!

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  11. Aw I'm so glad! I hope Leigh posts her speech sometime though, as I think getting it straight from her is the best! I will definitely use her reasoning to explain why I like YA though!

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  12. If only I could just take time off work to finish a book sometimes! :D I'm so glad it's the weekend now - nothing will get in the way of my finishing the book!

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  13. The fact that you have not watch Labyrinth blows my mind! Do it now. It was one of my most treasured childhood movies. I met her a few years ago when I went to Comic Con San Diego. I had no intention of meeting her or reading her book. I was just wondering around the convention floor and happened to see her signing books at her publishers booth. I was blogging at the time and had kind of heard of the book. So I jumped in line, bought the book and had her sign it. I was determined to bring home something bookish from the con. Boy am I glad I did. The stars aligned.

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  14. Lol I do like those tortured bad boys lol!

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  15. Okay I will! I will try to watch it this week and tweet you when I do! I need someone to hold me accountable or I'll keep putting it off. :D Oh cool, you met Leigh at Comic Con! Did Shadow and Bone just come out? Hopefully she'll travel near you on her tour so you can get the last book signed too!


    LOL that is so funny! Is your sister a fan of the series? Or she's just being dutiful and reporting posts of interest to you? (I need to train my sister to do this!) I wonder how she happened on this post!

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  16. My sister loves the series too. She found your blog through my blog (she doesn't blog) and so she follows you too. She just wanted to point the post out to me in case I missed it... which actually I did because I have been sick with a sinus infection.

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  17. Ah ok, your sister has great taste then! (Hi Angie's sister! :D) I'm glad you are feeling better too - a sinus infection sucks!

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  18. It's funny, I was just talking to a friend last week about how LA is supposed to be all big but we both have oddly small perspectives of it. But we don't go into downtown much. Or into some of what are outskirt communities to us. We stay mostly in this ribbon from Santa Monica to Burbank that includes West Hollywood, and the part of Hollywood that is mostly just Hollywood Blvd and Sunset, Culver City and Beverly Hills. LA is totally manageable on that scale :)

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  19. Okay, I was a wee bit jealous when I saw all your pictures on instagram, but I'm so glad you were able to go! It looks like so much fun, and I'd have loved to hear Leigh's speech. I'd have been stuck in all the aisles and missed a seat too ;) I've been wanting to go to the Last Bookstore ever since I heard about it more than a year ago. But LA is so scary and big to me!

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