90 Second Reads at Nicola's Books

On Tuesday evening, I attended an awesome YA author event at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor. Gae Polisner, author of The Summer of Letting Go and The Pull of Gravity, was visiting Michigan for a sports event her son was participating in, and so she reached out to Nicola's to do a group author event that she calls 90 Second Reads.

The way 90 Second Reads came about stems from an experience when Gae was invited to attend an event with a group of authors and was asked to prepare a 4-minute reading. Her reading lasted the obligatory 4 minutes, but the other authors went way beyond the 4-minute mark, which got her thinking, "Do people really want to listen to an author read out of context for ten minutes?" Thus 90 Second Reads was born. The 90 seconds are timed by an audience participant and if the author goes over their allotted 90 seconds, they receive a ding with a bell until they stop.

The brave souls who participated along with Gae were Beth Neal, Carrie Harris, and Lara Zielin. It was a fun, interactive evening, and best of all, a group of Nerdy Book Club friends were lucky enough to hang out with Gae and Carrie afterwards.

The 90-Second Reads crew: Lara Zielin, Beth Neal, Gae Polisner, and Carrie Harris

Carrie Harris gives me the best signed book in my collection, an homage to my famous maple bacon ice cream

The Nerdy Book Club crew: Sarah Andersen, me, Jessica Crawford, Gae Polisner, and Brian Wyzlic - I find the pig mural in the background quite amusing (photo credit: Gae Polisner)

Carrie Harris and Gae Polisner (Photo credit: Gae Polisner)