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‘American Fantasy’ Author Emma Straub Brought Us Behind-the-Scenes on Her Book Tour

It’s not a cruise with your favorite boybands, but it is an epic time with one of our must-read authors!

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Collage of four polaroid-style frames on a red background featuring various scenes.
Emma Straub / Alpha Smoot / Penguin Random House

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Emma Straub is honestly total #AuthorGoals as she releases her now eleventh book, American Fantasy. Apart from being an author, she is also the owner of one of our favorite bookstores of all time, Books Are Magic, which you absolutely need to stop by on your next trip to NYC. So it still blows our mind that not only does she still manage to not only write incredible stories that we can’t get enough of, but also go all over the country to talk about it.

It’s particularly fitting for her latest book which follows one woman who decided to join her sister for a cruise with one of the biggest boybands from the 90s. Unfortunately, her sister breaks her leg before the trip and suddenly finds herself alone with one boyband, thousands of fans, and some other interesting characters who you’re bound to be obsessed with. And while this tour actually didn’t include a four-day themed cruise, it did include some familiar faces and plenty of fun!

Thankfully, the author took plenty of pics and is taking us throughout her tour as she shares her new book and also some of the magic of being on tour. From the ultimate trip to Buccee’s to showing off her incredible boyband merch, you can scroll through Emma Straub’s behind-the-scenes photo diary from the American Fantasy book tour!

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Emma Staub chatting with each other.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

I love Lin-Manuel. He is the greatest. As great as you think he is, he is better. I am very very lucky to have him as my friend. This was at my book launch, and was one of the very greatest nights of my life.

Emma Straub standing in aisle featuring chips on both sides.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

This is Buccee's, the greatest gas station/everything store chain in Texas. I bought my whole family presents, and snacks. It's the only place to buy a burrito, pajamas, a 40oz iced tea, earrings, and a bathing suit. (I bought all of those things, and more.)

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Emma Straub wearing a NKOTB shirt and yellow cardigan.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

Some days are just good days, and this was one of them. It was the morning after my event at Skylights Books in Los Feliz, and I was walking to my favorite breakfast spot in all of LA, and I was feeling GOOD.

Emma Straub wearing a button and a blue and white sweater.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

This is my friend Amy's very cruise-appropriate sweater and VERY boyband book appropriate New Kids on the Block button, saved from her childhood.

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A marquee mentioning Emma Straub's event at Concord, New Hampshire.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

This marquee was in Concord, New Hampshire, at a beautiful event set up by Gibson's bookstore, which has been there for...100 years?? I want to say even more than a hundred years. I should have taken a photograph of the marquee in the daylight, but I did not. Oh well! Hopefully someday I will have another marquee and I will do it then.

Emma Straub on stage chatting with a moderator.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

This is also in New Hampshire. Here is something important about going on book tours: it is hard to know when to eat dinner! I had just driven 2 hours from Boston and when I got there, I ordered Indian food from a place around the corner, and the booksellers went and picked it up for me and I ate more food than you can imagine in five minutes flat.

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Emma Straub standing on stage in a pink suit with a crowd behind her.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

This was in Ann Arbor, and I feel like I have to point out that there were more people than this! Ha! I really love my pink suit. It's from Ann Taylor, it was a steal, and I get a hundred compliments every time I wear it.

Emma Straub under a poster featuring herself.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

This is my face and also my face, outside the theater in San Francisco. Which face is bigger??!! Hard to say!

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Emma Straub wearing a yellow shirt and jeans and posing.
Courtesy of Emma Straub

This was in the green room in Orange County, at the library. I bought that shirt that day, because I was proud of myself for sending home a box of things I wasn't wearing. This yellow top takes up very little space. Practically none! My friend Priyanka took this picture to send to my husband.


American Fantasy,by Emma Straub is available now from Riverhead Books. To order the book, click on the retailer of your choice:

AMAZONAUDIBLEBARNES & NOBLEBOOKS-A-MILLIONBOOKSHOPAPPLE BOOKSKOBOLIBRO.FMTARGETWALMARTPOWELL'S BOOKSHUDSON BOOKSELLERSGOOGLE PLAYEBOOKS.COM

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