BOOKS THAT I WAS TO HAVE READ AND BLOGGED BEFORE HEADING TO PORTUGAL :

(See two previous blogs re beattiesbookblog going offshore)

The Shadow World by P.C. Laird Fraser Books

Ocean Roads by James George Huia (shortlisted for Montana NZ Book Awards)

Extremely Pale Rose - a very French adventure by Jamie Ivey Vintage

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay 4th Estate

From my cold, dead hands by David McGill Silver Owl Press

Sadly I have run out of time. Some of the above are purchases while others have been sent in for review by their publishers to whom I apologise. Hopefully I can get to them on my return.

Good luck to James George for his Montana NZ Book Award fiction bid. I guess he is an outsider coming up against the likes of Lloyd Jones with his Commonwealth Writers Prize winning Mr.Pip, (the red-hot favourite), and the brilliant My Name Was Judas by C.K.Stead. not to mention the late Nigel Cox’s The Cowboy Dog, his third consecutive shortlisting.

But book awards judging is a funny old business so you just never know.

I am greatly looking forward to attending the Awards Dinner in Auckland on Monday 30 July when all will be revealed.