Book Expo America is a huge event for the book publishing industry and book fans. For those of us who can’t be there, this week there is Armchair BEA.

Today is interview day. All participants are answering 5 questions about us.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

Who am I? Hitting the existential questions first, huh? I’m a veterinarian, reader, quilter, and a long-term blogging addict. I’ve been blogging since 2004. I started because I couldn’t get a word in edgewise with my then-husband. He didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say so I decided to put it out in the world for everyone else to listen to. Since then I got rid of that husband and kept the blog!

What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?

The first book that came to mind was The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther.

Here’s what I originally wrote for the review.

Maryam was thrown out of her traditional Iranian family in the 1950s after a misunderstanding compromises her honor in her father’s eyes. Eventually she makes her way to London where she marries and has a family. Now, when an argument with her adult daughter and a pre-teen nephew causes an accident, she flees back to the village and the people she left behind. Her London family is left trying to figure out what happened in the past to drive her to such extremes.

I listened to the audio and absolutely loved it. The story is told in the voices of both Maryam and her daughter Sarah. I liked both narrators. Maryam’s backstory is heartbreaking and her decision to hide in her village is made believable. Sarah is realistic as a daughter who is trying to understand her mother as a complex person and not just as an accessory to her life.

What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

Bath in England. My mom and I got a bunch (read that as several hundred) of what we jokingly called “smut books” from my grandmother. These were Regency romances with absolutely no kissing or other naughtiness in them. Ok, occasionally they kissed but only after marriage. They always had to go take the waters in Bath. I thought that we should definitely go pay homage someday.

If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?

The Mad Hatter and the Dormouse from Alice in Wonderland, of course! Unbirthdays are the best!

Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging?

Nope and I’m proud of it. The husband (he’s demanding to be called this now because we got married this weekend) hates that I don’t tend to read “serious” books. I read to entertain my brain. I expect it to fun. Being involved with book blogs has exposed me to a lot of books that I wouldn’t have heard of otherwise though.