RITA and Golden Heart scores are due Monday. Is anyone reading madly through the weekend to meet the deadline?

I entered my RITA panel scores a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I have not read one romance. I think I overdosed during the RITAs, because I honestly could not bear to pick one up. Judging the Golden Heart has never had that effect on me. However, judging a panel of five or six 55-page entries is a much different animal from reading NINE entire novels in the same genre back-to-back in a relatively short time span. No wonder I overdosed.

I found a sparkling gem in my panel. Am eager to see if it makes the cut. How about you? Any gems in your RITA or GH panels?

I’m getting that hankering to dig into my TBR pile again. Yes, I’ve recovered from my post-RITA reading stupor! However, lest you think I didn’t read at all during the last couple of weeks, I have. I’ve read and re-read the scenes I’m currently writing for my WIP. Does that count? And I read two excellent books.

First up, LOOK ME IN THE EYE, a memoir by John Elder Robison about growing up with Asperger’s Syndrome.

I first became interested in Asperger’s watching Boston Legal. One of the secondary characters was an Aspergian, and I often wondered if the portrayal was at all accurate.

I greatly enjoyed John Robison’s memoir. I picked it up because I’ve read three of his brother’s (Augusten Burroughs) memoirs, and I thought it would be interesting to read about the same family from a different point of view. John and his brother are several years apart in age, which doesn’t offer quite the same perspective as if the memoirs were written by two siblings, say, two years apart.

But John’s memoir stands on its own. A worthy read. I especially enjoyed the chapters that dealt with his emotional growth and struggles to fit in. Because, to some extent, we all deal with the same issues. There’s a lot to identify with here.

Back cover copy for LOOK ME IN THE EYE:

Ever since he was young, John Robison longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother, Augusten Burroughs, in them)—had earned him the label “social deviant.” It was not until he was forty that he was diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. That understanding transformed the way he saw himself—and the world. A born storyteller, Robison has written a moving, darkly funny memoir about his life that has taken him from developing exploding guitars for KISS to building a family of his own. It’s a strange, shy indelible account—sometimes alien, yet always human.

Woof!

From there I moved to TURTLE VALLEY by British Columbia writer Gail Anderson-Dargatz (gotta love that hyphen). I’ve never read Gail’s books before, and TURTLE VALLEY, a gift from my sister-in-law, sat on my bookshelf for two years (as is my way—I like to let my hardbacks “gel”). TURTLE VALLEY is set in an area of British Columbia ravaged by forest fires more than once. I had no idea going into it that it contains a bit of a ghost story. Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m a bit squeamish, however usually ghostly activities in literary novels don’t bother me. But whenever the gas burners popped to life in the middle of the night on the stoves in Gail’s book, I, um, had to put it aside. I quickly learned only to read TURTLE VALLEY during the day. Okay, it’s not the same as reading Stephen King, but I told you I was squeamish! Also, let’s just say I found the characters and the situations she describes all too believable. There’s something about reading a novel set near where you grew up that makes you really feel like you’re there (or maybe that’s more a testament to the author’s talent). Definitely a recommended read.

Back cover copy for TURTLE VALLEY:

The story—of love and land and memory—is propelled by the progress of a forest fire that sends flames raining down from the hills surrounding the peaceful and secluded Turtle Valley. Disillusioned with a marriage that has been severely tested by illness and exhausted by the demands of care-giving, Kat returns to her childhood home with her husband and young son in order to help her aging parents prepare to leave. As she sorts through her parents’ belongings and wrestles with the question of what to save and what to leave behind, Kat finds in her grandmother’s tattered carpet bag a clue to a decades-old family mystery involving the disappearance of her grandfather, John.

As she tries to unravel the tangled threads of her family’s past—urgently, because the fire is starting to move into the valley and authorities have placed area residents on a ten-minute evacuation alert—Kat uncovers the terrifying story of what really happened and discovers startling parallels between her grandmother’s life and her own. As she does so, she also renews an old friendship—with a man who makes her wonder about possibilities she thought were long gone.

Gail’s previous novels include A RECIPE FOR BEES and THE CURE FOR DEATH BY LIGHTNING. I’m looking forward to picking them up.

How about you? Read any good books lately? Want to sell me on them?