Slowing Down...Digging Out....and ......... OH FORGETTABOUDIT!!

This past week I finished reading all ten of the short listed books for judging in the Maine Readers'Choice Award competition. The next step is to narrow those ten down to three finalists. We'll do that in early May. I've definitely eliminated two of them and have several others in the 4 out of 5  star range that will probably not make my cut. But then I wouldn't be horribly upset if the group voted any of them in. I have my top two pretty firmly established (and I will be very upset if they DON"T make the finalist list) but I'm really conflicted about choosing that third book.

I went back and re-read and listened to Transatlantic and Benediction.  Since I read both of them months before the long-list ever came out, I wanted to have a current assessment of them against other entries.   This week I finished Visitation Street (review coming soon) and was very very pleasantly surprised.

With the exception of The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, I ended up reading them all in print and listening to the audio versions too, thereby giving me a pretty good handle on all of them.  I'm actually glad a couple of them turned out to be such duds for me.  It helped to narrow the field..especially since they were for me duds in both formats.

This week I'm going to take a breath, excavate my library/office ( it's so bad I couldn't even take a photo that would make any sense - if it were not enclosed it would like this outdoor market in Spain!), make a few phone calls to friends and family members, and try to gather the paperwork I need to do my taxes. UGH.   So my reading is going to be of the total fun, "not anybody making me do" it variety.

In the dock:
Snow in May - a review copy of Russian short stories on my nook - pub date in May
Bruno, Chief of Police - an audio I got from the Library, recommended by a LibraryThing friend. Just what I need-- another good detective series.

I also have "next ups" standing by - Colin Cotterill's latest Dr. Siri Paiboun adventure, and the newest Ely Griffiths book, as well as the audio of Bill Bryson's One Summer - a long one that will probably take me until the summer to finish.

I've got several Audible credits waiting to be spent, and lots of books on the wishlist to use them up.

The weather was gorgeous yesterday, so I got nothing done except to plan some meals for next week.  In the meantime,  it's time to stop procrastinating and get to the taxes.  Maybe later....but it's supposed to be very cold, so I'll need to curl up in front of the fireplace.  So....maybe  Monday...or Tuesday...or........wish me luck!

Oops....forgot that I have bookclub on Wednesday, so I'll have to grab my copy of Christopher Morley's Haunted Bookshop which I read years ago and refresh my memory before then.  Like I said.....wish me luck!