Sometimes, when I am out of my reading groove, I start reading far too many books at once without finishing any of them right away.

It’s counterproductive. It’s confusing. It’s overcompensation. It’s where I’m at.

Roomies, by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando. I was excited to read this! A dear coworker gave me her ARC from her trip to BEA! The stars were aligned!

But I am still only halfway through. I can’t tell if it’s just my mood or if I am completely over two authors writing alternate viewpoints. I can only think of a few books where I thought this back and forth added to the book in any significant way… not that dual authors necessarily ruin a good story, but I just think it’s probably more fun for the authors than it is for the reader. I might DNF this one. I don’t know.

Speaking of books I have been reading forever…. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. I really adored Daughter of Smoke and Bone (and gushed about it here) but I just don’t know why I can’t make it through the sequel. I did read Smoke and Bone in paper and am trying to listen to this one on audio. Maybe that is a mistake. Maybe I need to read it more slowly so I can keep all the non-human characters with fantasy names straight. Maybe because I keep cheating on this audio book with other audio books, and you know, I just can’t juggle like I can with print books.

I started reading Aria Beth Sloss’s Autobiography of Us a few weeks ago on the pretense that I should just pick up a new book, start reading, and if the story draws me in then I should just read it. To hell with all the other unfinished books in my life. So far, this is one of those stories about two female friends, one of whom is the alpha friend who is kind of a jerk, and the other is the protagonist who can’t decide if she hates her friend or will be forever entranced by her charisma. Oh, and it’s a period piece. I’ve read this kind of story before, but I like this kind of story. I’m not sure I think the protagonist is actually enough of a protagonist for me yet – she’s like a little caricature of a good 1960s coed. Any time she actually makes a decision, it’s strange, like she’s not really allowed to do anything except muse silently about her angsty friendship. But I’m only a hundred pages in or so, so a lot could happen, I suppose.

All of my children’s lit friends read this one at once and I was jealous. So when I wanted to start reading some more current YA Andrew W. Smith’s Winger – a new boarding school book – was my first stop. I will probably pick this one up next, once I finish my other High Priority Books. Unless, of course, new high priority books show up in the meantime. My life.

High Priority Book #1: Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, a book with a hold list a mile long. It’s due on Thursday, so I should finish it up. This is the kind of career book that speaks to my anxious soul – simple advice for professional growth that gets you big results in the long run.  You men should read it, too.

Although I am a little skeptical about the chapter I read this morning, about forging an equal partnership with your spouse. The chapter’s thesis: “share the household responsibilities.” The chapter’s suggestion for how to achieve such domestic nirvana: “don’t nag, don’t ask, don’t expect, don’t assume.” Oh, I’m sure it didn’t actually SAY that in the book, but that was the message I got. Give me some better advice, Sandberg! I desperately need to convince a certain somebody that “sweeping” and “toilet scrubbing” are necessary activities that I don’t plan on doing exclusively for the rest of time and eternity.

High Priority Book #2: Vikki Wakefield’s Friday Never Leaving. Sometimes, when you need to review a book, you need to actually finish reading said book. Actually, all the time. All the time you need to finish said book.

This one is a piece of Australian realism about a girl with a dead mother and a curse who moves in with a bunch of homeless teenage grifters. There are supernatural overtones. It’s pretty creepy. I am about 25 pages from the end and just need to get it done with.

Okay, I know. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking I am crazy. Well, yes. Yes, I am. I have no legitimate excuses for this one, except that I was putting the audiobook on my computer so I could share it with the man in my life, and I… just started listening. And that is why I can’t listen to poor Days of Blood and Starlight – because I stopped to listen to all 28 discs of A Game of Thrones, and then I’m just going to listen to them all AGAIN. I am a sick individual.