And the finalists are................

Yes!  We've finally chosen our finalists for the inaugural Maine Readers' Choice Award.  We'll be asking Maine readers to choose among A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers come September.  The winner will be announced at the Bangor Book Festival, which is the first weekend in October.

I am very happy that these are our finalists.  With my own vote I had Cash's and Powers' books one and two, respectively.   Flynn's book was number four on my list.  I had Richard Ford's Canada in third place. They are all excellent reads.  I highly recommend them for book groups.  They will generate a lot of discussion, especially Gone Girl.

I am thrilled and honored to be a part of this effort.  It has me rededicating myself as a serious reader.  I've read books that I would never have picked up - period.  The Yellow Birds or Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain would not have been on my radar.  I'm just not into stories that are war-based.  While I put Fountain's book in last place, I appreciated the challenge of reading it. My thanks to all the authors who gave us such excellent reads in 2012.