Packing for my trip to Charleston

Ok, I go through this every single time I head off anywhere. Packing. It sucks. Why? I don't usually care much about my clothes, although this time I do have to be a little picky in that department. It's the book! What do I bring?

I've talked about it before, here just before my reunion in October and here the previous summer when I went to NYC to see Mike. I'm totally neurotic when it comes to this issue. God forbid I be traveling and run out of things to read!

I'd been planning on taking Michelle Gagnon's latest, The Gatekeeper, but I couldn't actually wait that long to read it. So now I have to pick some other stuff. In my stack of possibilities are:

Little Face by Sophie Hannah (desc from Hannah's site): When Alice Fancourt returns home after having been out for the first time without her two-week-old daughter Florence, she insists that the baby she finds at home, in the care of her husband David, is not their daughter but a child she has never seen before. David denies it, claiming that the baby is Florence and that Alice has gone mad. Is she crazy, or is David lying, and if so, why would he do such a thing? And where is the real Florence? Alice has no proof, but she needs the police to believe her, and quickly. While they wait for the DNA test that will settle the matter, valuable time is being lost, and David’s behaviour towards Alice becomes increasingly threatening and sinister. Can Alice make the police listen to her before it's too late?

Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne (desc from Rayne's site): “All theatres are haunted…”

The old Tarleton music hall in London’s Bankside is the subject of a mysterious restraint that came into being in 1914 and has kept the theatre closed for over ninety years.

When Robert Fallon is asked to survey The Tarleton, he finds clues indicating that its long twilight sleep may conceal a sinister secret. He joins forces with Hilary, a researcher into Edwardian theatre, and they discover the legend of The Tarleton’s ‘ghost’ – a figure whose face was always hidden and who was first seen in the time of the charismatic singer/songwriter, Toby Chance, once the darling of Edwardian audiences until he vanished suddenly and inexplicably in the early 1900s…

After almost a century, The Tarleton’s dark silence is about to end, but there are people who find this a threatening prospect, and as Hilary and Robert delve into the remarkable history of one of London’s oldest music halls, they both become menaced by a secret from the past – a secret that has its roots in a shattering event that had to be kept hidden at all costs.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (PW Starred review): Maternal love faces formidable challenges in this stellar steampunk tale. In an alternate 1880s America, mad inventor Leviticus Blue is blamed for destroying Civil War–era Seattle. When Zeke Wilkes, Blue's son, goes into the walled wreck of a city to clear his father's name, Zeke's mother, Briar Wilkes, follows him in an airship, determined to rescue her son from the toxic gas that turns people into zombies (called rotters and described in gut-churning detail). When Briar learns that Seattle still has a mad inventor, Dr. Minnericht, who eerily resembles her dead husband, a simple rescue quickly turns into a thrilling race to save Zeke from the man who may be his father. Intelligent, exceptionally well written and showcasing a phenomenal strong female protagonist who embodies the complexities inherent in motherhood, this yarn is a must-read for the discerning steampunk fan.

All three of those are trade paperbacks. I've got some mass markets to consider as well (limiting myself to no hardcovers this time around -- I'm supposed to leave bag space to bring materials back).

This is totally maddening! I'm pretty sure the Sophie Hannah is making the cut. I bought it just last week and set it aside specifically for the trip. I'll be spending most of today changing out the others I'm sure. Dork.