Sorry...and Catching Up

Greetings! Long time no blog. First, I would like to send out big, warm virtual hugs to those people who sent me nice messages. They were so kind; not one of them said, "hey slacker, what the heck is going on?" I apologize for my hiatus.

For those that don't know, I went on vacation to Virginia during the second week of April, where I played with dogs and chickens and my wonderful friend Ginny Phillips who blogs over at gspotsylvania.

Henrietta Poppy

Millie

Tiffin

I'm sorta, kinda caught up from being away. As much as I'm ever caught up, I guess. Anyone else  feel perpetually behind? Ah well, 'tis life. It's all about the journey, right? While I was away, it snowed in NE Ohio. Left several inches on the ground. But then I returned to the mowing season. My dog Rufus was getting lost in the grass, so I figured it was time to drag the mower out. While I complain about the snow in Ohio, let me say right now, I'm glad I don't live in Denver. Unless you're a snow lover living there, I'm so sorry Denver folks. I hope this last storm is it for y'all now.

I did quite a bit of reading while I was on vacation--that's the joy of vacationing with a fellow book lover. Finished up a great book from Lindy West called Shrill, Steve Hamilton's new one--The Second Life of Nick Mason--fantastic, and the upcoming book from Ben Winters, Underground Airlines. I'm on a run of good books and worried about when I'm going to hit that bad one that wrecks everything. I don't think it's my current read, though--Broken Ground (Karen Halvorsen Schreck) is off to a great start.  You'll be hearing about them all in more detail eventually, of course.

Since I drove down to Virginia, I got plenty of good audiobook time in as well. Finished up Michael Robotham's Close Your Eyes; David Taylor and Keith Szarabajka once again blew me away with the audiobook for Night Work (the second Michael Cassidy historical crime novel); and now I'm listening to a fun audio called Spill Simmer Falter Wither, which is dog-centric instead of crime-centric.

What good books have you been reading or listening to lately?

I posted this on Facebook, so you may have already seen it, but it's in print so I feel like it's real now, and I can share it with people--even though I still have a hard time believing it. I'm going to interview Fredrik Backman for his bookstore appearance at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL next month. If you are in the area...whether you live there or are maybe in Chicago for BEA...I hope you'll come out. I'm so thrilled and excited about this. Hopefully I manage to keep my inner fan girl under control and won't make a fool out of myself.

Coming up on the blog I have plenty of reviews to catch up on, but I also have an interview with  debut novelist, Pamela Wechsler. She's a first time novelist, but she's writing and consulting for TV prior to her first book, Mission Hill.  I'll be sharing that interview with you tomorrow. I thoroughly enjoyed Mission Hill, a legal thriller, and it's due out next week, so I'll be reviewing that for you later this week as well.

I'm also hoping to get a new post up, probably next week, about the books I'm looking forward to this summer--as far as I know at this point anyway. And I have more posts for Where Jen's Book Thoughts' Readers Are Reading. I'm still taking submissions (details here). If you haven't sent one yet, I hope you'll consider doing so. I'd love to have YOU on the blog. It's been fantastic connecting with some of you for the first time through this feature. So thank you to everyone who's sent something in so far.

That's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with Pam Wechsler. I hope you'll join us. Thanks so much, my book-loving friends. Happy reading!