Book Tour Week Two, Electric Boogaloo [#17]
The Austin — Houston — San Francisco leg doubled as an epic food tour. Plus, fresh press clips and the Washington Post review.
I am having the time of my life over here, crisscrossing the continental US, eating amazing food, having reunions with loved ones I’ve known for ten, twenty, and even THIRTY years.
Hearing from readers feels tremendously rewarding — the reviews and interviewers have observed so much that I couldn’t articulate myself. I think I’ve given 45(!) press and live interviews about the book at this point. I’m buoyed every time I hear from reader that the ideas in Flawless resonated with their own bodily shame or questions they’ve wrestled with, and it reminds me why the conversations are so worth having.
We bungled the start of this week’s tour by getting to the airport and realizing I forgot items not once, but twice. This meant Rob made three airport runs inside forty five minutes, setting up for a harrowing race to catch my flight to Austin. I made it, with zero time to spare. That jetbridge disappeared as soon as my foot stepped onto the aircraft.
Highlights from the Road
The steak and the glazed pork chop from Perry’s will go down as one of my favorite meals on the road. But it barely bested “Fajita Wednesdays” at Little Pappasito’s in Houston, where the late night friend crew decamped after the book event at Brazos Books.
The Austin party hosts catered with Maudie’s Tex Mex, my favorite Tex Mex in Austin, featuring a giant vat of queso.
The kids. I reunited with my now teenaged(!) goddaughter in Austin, who never left my side at the party. And I met so many of my good friends’ children, who came along to the Houston bookstore event and politely sat through all my rambling.
Laughing so much in the lively, lovely conversation with KQED’s Forum host, Mina Kim, at the packed Asia Foundation event in San Francisco.
The love and attention to detail! My SF hosts, Matt and Esther, stocked their guest apartment fridge with my favorite iced tea before I arrived. Cheryl, the bookseller in SF, brought a bouquet of hydrangeas and tulips for the signing table.
One of the sources in the book — Joyce, who took me pore vacuuming — surprising me by showing up at the SF event. And my high school bestie, Erin, coming into the SF event from East Bay, rolling deep with five of her mom friends. After the book talk, she stuck around to go for a nightcap with me and Sarah, who is also in the book. She’s the mom of the family we travel with often, and ventured to Jeju Island with in 2015.
My love language is airport pickups and dropoffs, so this week I felt so cocooned in love when Friend Vickie not only picked me up at IAH, but showed up with a box of warm, soft cookies from the Texas favorite, Tiff’s Treats. When it was time to leave San Francisco, Friend Esther dropped me, wearing her total ajumma outfit, which also warmed my heart.
Selected Press
This conversation with Burnt Toast (which is also a podcast)
Conde Nast Traveler on Flawless, with the Women Who Travel podcast featuring never-before heard sound I brought back from Seoul
Slate’s The Waves podcast conversation
The conversation with Fat Mascara, with episode notes I love
The full video from the New York launch and the LA launch are both up now. Yay!
How to Help
You’ve already helped so much. Thank you. I’ll just list a few to keep the momentum going…
There’s still three more weeks of touring to go, so please come out if you’re in or near Seattle, Phoenix, Boston, DC, or Dallas. Getting to see you — and your children(!) — brings me so much joy, my cup runneth over. RSVP or event pages:
Leave reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble or any of the places that offer that option. I know a lot of y’all have left reviews already, so THANK YOU and keep ‘em coming.
It would also be so incredibly helpful if you share this book page in your social captions if mentioning Flawless on socials. That way there are exponentially more people pushing out the link to get a copy.
HOOO BOY that was a long one, but week two was a particularly compressed week, much like week one. We have chill weeks this coming week (just Long Beach and Seattle), as well as next week (Phoenix), before a giant week five, in which this tour will wrap up with a LA to Boston to DC to Dallas swing. Thank you again to the tireless publicists, Emily and Katie, who have continued to pitch and book and make logistical arrangements for the tour and beyond.
And thank YOU for being part of this! This book’s release weeks will go down as one of the greatest times of my life.
With love,
Elise
We're busy living our lives day by day but somehow your goddaughter turns 13, how amazing is that?!