A Book Signing

I have never been to a book signing so when a member of my book club suggested traveling to Sykesville in a neighboring county for dinner and a book signing, I said yes.

We had dinner at E.W. Beck's then crossed the street to A Likely Story Bookstore where the author, Elin Hilderbrand was to speak and sign books.  

You had to purchase a book there to have it signed.  I've never read anything by this author.  She's known for summer beach reads.  I bought a paperback of "The Rumor" to read and then had her sign her name.  After I read it I'll donate it to the Vantage House library so no need to have the book personalized to me.

All the chairs were taken when we arrived and it was standing room only.  We were directed to the front where the author would stand and to the children's book room off of that.  It worked well for the talk but put us at the end of the line for the signing because she was stationed at the front door vestibule.

Here's Sue in the purple who organized this.  Only three out of the 12 members of our book club attended.  The others don't know what they missed.  It was a fun evening out.

Here's Sally.

Elin is being introduced.  She's in the yellow sundress.

Notice the posters on the upper shelf.  Those are from other book signing events.

Here's the line to the front door.  We used the time to peruse other books on the shelf to then look for at the library.

Elin does 16 book events for her new titles.  This store was her 16th and she has been here before for other books.  Maybe being a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and having a sister in the area has something to do with that.

I imagine small bookstores have to have a special niche and special events to bring people in to their stores.  Clearly this little shop is doing well against Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

National Gallery of Art East Wing

Friday I had a trip to the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC courtesy of Vantage House, where I live.

[Joining Through My Lens]

The East Wing focuses on modern artists.  It was built on a rather triangular shaped lot next to the West Wing, so the architect I. M. Pei, went with lots of triangular shapes in the building.  Let me share that with you with this post and feature the art in other posts.

Look at all the triangles.

Entry Level

Down one level

Our docent

Even the floor is triangles.

From the rooftop gallery you can see the structure of the ceiling/roof.

The Smithsonian Castle is in the distance.

Across this plaza with the fountain is the West Wing built of the same kind of stone.  The quarry where that stone came from was closed after the West Wing was built so that if ever there was an addition, the same stone would be available.  Forward thinking by the donor, one of the Mellons.

Under that plaza is this walkway to eating places and Gallery shops.  It connects the two buildings underground.  There is a constant light show as you travel on the moving walkway.

More to come in future posts.

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Murals

Each week fellow blogger Tom posts about mural art.  His latest is here.  

He inspired me to share these two photos I took on the road leaving New Orleans.  

Someone had painted these boxes (electrical?) in the median strip.  I wish I had captured more of the art work.

New Camera

I purchased a new camera yesterday. Another Canon.  I wanted something lighter to keep handy when I walk or in my purse.  I'm not an iPhone person and the cellphone I have though it takes photos they are lousy and a pain to transfer to the laptop.

Here's my new purchase.  Lighter weight than my other two.  I think its going to work just fine.

Powershot ELPH 190 IS

Here's my oldest one, heavier and I've dropped it too many times that the Menu button no longer works.  I think I may pass it on to my oldest granddaughter.

Powershot SX230 HS

Here's the one with the greater zoom.  I still struggle with what it has focused on so that my subject is blurred.  Unfortunately I can't see that when I'm taking the photo.

Powershot SX530 HS

The new camera has a setting to make photos vivid.

Here's the same view on another day with the oldest camera.