charmedthirdsYelena Shuster has a few notes from author Megan McCafferty’s Wednesday night bookstore visit.

The svelte author, clad in a red sundress, began by asking the 99% female audience “You know I don’t have food for you right?” and established her alumna status right off. “Because I know the only way to get people to come to an event at Columbia is free food,” she continued.
The women (and one man) were instantly in her thralls, erupting in giggles throughout the reading.

During her reading from “Charmed Thirds,” her new book about an angst-ridden heroine who attends Columbia, McCafferty captured the whiny inflections and hyperbolic compaints with the ease of a familiar graduation speech. McCafferty showed off her work like an actress auditioning from a slide — and judging from the adoring faces of the front-row tweens, she got the part.

The first question was asked by an excited blonde–“Who was the inspiration for [dreamboat] Marcus?”
McCafferty answered, “Every mysterious boy who disappointed me.”

The real highlight came when she was asked if her books will become films– McCafferty expressed her concerns for not having any power in the movie-making process. “It’s scary for me to see an actress as Jessica that I don’t like. Someone once mentioned Hilary Duff. NOO! NOOO!”

Oh chick-lit angst, how I love thee.