I WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF BOOKS TO READ

I’m a bit bummed out about the books that won the vote for the next batch of AIC bookgroup books. Not because they’re not good choices, and sure to be good reads, but because not only have I read 2 of them already, but NONE of my 5 recommendations made the list, and 2 books made the list that were recommended by someone who has never even participated in bookgroup, but showed interest and sent her book recs in right before the deadline. Grump. She’d better show up now. One of her books that made the cut is one I actually want to read, but the other is one I’ve already read, double sting.

We only have one book left, and I will start reading it soon, as I’m almost finished with the YA book I started a few days ago. The discussion isn’t until May 20, but time seems to be flying right now, so I feel I’d better get moving. It’s Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Yes, that Hamnet, that was turned into a movie starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, that won Jesse a Best Actress Oscar. I want to see the movie, but really want to read the book first. The movie was nominated for 301 different awards across all the award shows, and won a whopping 97, so hopefully it will live up to its hype and be good, once I actually get around to seeing it.

This year, we had a mindboggling 43 books recommended and to choose from. And we could only, as usual, vote for NINE. After we had voted and the organizer had tallied the votes, we had to vote again for four of thirteen books that had all tied for the last 4 spots. Sadly, even though 3 of my recommendations were in that tiebreaker, NONE of them made the final cut. I’ll be reading them anyway. I have so many books on my TBR list that I’ll never get them finished. Anyway, for posterity, here is the list:

Key: blue=recommended/voted for by me, orange=voted for by me, neon green=voted for by me in the 2nd round, pink=already read. The ones with a star in front won.