Last week was one of those chapters I'd rather rip out of my book. A new doctor who saw something, freaked out, and told me to hie myself off to the Emergency Room. A day spent in the Emergency Room. Another day spent getting my leg rewrapped by the same person who couldn't wrap it properly the week before. As far as the wrapping goes, do these people think Denis and I have nothing better to do than show up two or three times a week for a leg wrap? For cryin' out loud, give me the stuff and I'll put it on myself, and the darned thing will stay put!
As for the ER visit, I knew that what the new doctor suspected was not what was going on. I knew I'd be wasting my day in one of my least favorite places on the planet, but I knew it had to be done anyway. Just in case. (Plus, my preparation worked. I now have a hospital "go bag" in case they hold me hostage. I brought that with me as well as my knitting bag with not one but two projects in it. I had both my Kindles, all the charging cords I needed... I was set for a long stay. Just try to get rid of me!
It worked. I passed all the tests with flying colors, and once those test results were in, they got rid of me so fast that my head spun (happily).
All this has left me seriously behind in my blogging. I haven't had time to do the research on my next Celebrating Mysteries with a Strong Sense of Place, and I was wondering what to do. Then I looked at the shelf on my new table here by the daybed. Then I took a picture of it. I would imagine that most of us have a pile or a stack or a shelf of books that represent the very top of the books we want to read next. I'm calling mine the TBR Short Shelf, and it will probably become a semi-regular feature.
Let's take a look. (You know me, I left the file size on the photo large so you can do what you have to do to to see what you want to see. *wink*)
Pardon the glare from some of the mylar covers on the books. Starting from the right and moving to the left, you can see-- shock!-- a book of knitting patterns for afghans, a black spine, three green spines, and a multi-colored blue spine. Two of those green spines keep track of new book releases and giveaway winners. The multi-colored one is my Kindle Fire.
Now we can get down to the important stuff: the books. The next two books, Hairpin Bridge and Suburban Dicks, were both ones that I'd had my eye on for awhile, but watching the Taylor Adams event (with Craig Johnson!) and the Fabian Nicieza event both for The Poisoned Pen tipped the scales, and I had the bookstore send me copies. By the way, both events are Facebook videos, but you don't have to be logged in to Facebook to watch them (although they do try to get you to do it).
Mary Miley's Silent Murders is the next in her Roaring Twenties series that I want to get back to, and Tahoe Jade is Todd Borg's next Owen McKenna mystery that I'll be reading very soon-- probably as soon as I finish typing and scheduling this post. I adore Owen and Spot.
Steve Hamilton's The Lock Artist is a book that I'm partway through. It has a very interesting main character-- a young man who will not speak. I'm looking forward to finding out why as he gets himself into one scrape after another. This is another book I was compelled to buy after meeting Hamilton at The Poisoned Pen and listening to him talk about this book.
I enjoyed Riley Sager's Home Before Dark so much that when I read the synopsis of Survive the Night, I knew I had to read it, too.
Sam Sattler from Book Chase "twisted my arm" to get a copy of Michael Punke's Ridgeline to read. It took very little twisting because I've always been deeply interested in Native American history and fiction.
And now we've finally come to the last book on the right. I've been a cheerleader for William Shaw's DS Alexandra Cupidi books since The Birdwatcher, so I went looking to see if he'd written anything else. He had. She's Leaving Home is the first of his Breen and Tozer mysteries set in London in the late 1960s. And after reading Sam Sattler's review of it, I know I need to get a move on!
That's it-- a look at my current TBR Short Shelf. Now spill the beans. Is your "short shelf" shorter or taller? Inquiring minds would love to know!
