Tagged: 2017 reading challenge
Alan Vernon [CC BY] One of the most successful reading challenges I completed in 2017 was the Mount TBR challenge from Bev at My Reader’s Block. I have way too many books that I’ve purchased over the years sitting unread on my bookshelf or in the Kindle cloud. So I’m very happy that I was able to read 36 books from my TBR pile, climbing Mount Vancouver. Some books I acquired mere months before the challenge started, while others had been languishing on my shelves for decades. The...
I’ve always been fond of classic British authors, so the British Books Challenge (hosted by Chelley at Tales of Yesterday) fit right into my reading plan for 2017. I read thirteen books for this challenge, only two of which I had read before, Emma and Nineteen Eighty-four. My favorite was Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and my least favorite was Beerbohm’s Zuleika Dobson. Genres included epic poetry, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and satire. The most recent book was Agatha Christie’s 4:50 from Paddington from 1957, and the earliest book was Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year...
It’s time now for me to make my case in Bev’s Follow the Clues Mystery Challenge. The challenge was to read a certain number of mysteries and link them in a chain of evidence from one to the other. As she explained: To follow a set of clues furnished by the mystery books you read to create a body of evidence to support a book court case. Each book clue should lead you to your next read. The connection can be anything at all from author names to...
The Back to the Classics Challenge was hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate, who asked participants to read a classic in one of twelve different categories. For completing 6, 9, or 12 books, participants also earned entries into a drawing for a $30 Amazon gift card. I finished and reviewed the full twelve books, but at times it was a chore. I had difficulty making it through Far from the Madding Crowd, The Trial, and Dead Souls. On the other hand, Rebecca and Kristin Lavransdatter were books I couldn’t wait to get back...
The goal of the European Reading Challenge hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader was to read books from different European countries. There were several different levels to choose from, each of which was represented by a different level of hotel accommodation: FIVE STAR (DELUXE ENTOURAGE): Read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries. FOUR STAR (HONEYMOONER): Read four qualifying books. THREE STAR (BUSINESS TRAVELER): Read three qualifying books. TWO STAR (ADVENTURER): Read two qualifying books. ONE STAR (PENSIONE WEEKENDER): Read...
The What’s in a Name Reading Challenge hosted by The Worm Hole was a lot of fun. The challenge was to choose a book from each of six categories, write reviews of each of them, and post them on the appropriate pages at The Worm Hole. I’m happy to say that I have finished the challenge–my first real reading challenge ever. Here are the books I read in the order I read them, along with links to my reviews: A title which has an “X” somewhere in it: The Chronicles...
Late last year when I was trying to find books for the What’s in a Name Reading Challenge, the hardest to find was a book whose title included “an item of cutlery.” After a lot of searching I finally settled on a book I had last read in 1996 when it first came out, The Story Knife, a mystery by Fr. Brad Reynolds, SJ. Fr. Reynolds is a Jesuit priest (like Pope Francis), and he happens to have grown up right here in Spokane, Washington, where I live. I...
What’s a clergyman to do when murder is committed in his home? Start investigating, that’s what, especially when Miss Marple lives next door. Leonard Clement is the vicar in St. Mary Mead, a small English village. He’s also the narrator of The Murder at the Vicarage, the first full length novel to feature Agatha’s Christie’s elderly sleuth Miss Jane Marple. When Colonel Protheroe is murdered in Clement’s study, the difficulty is not in finding a suspect, but in sorting through all the people who wanted him dead–including the vicar...
If you love genealogy, mysteries, or stories set in contemporary London, then you will likely enjoy The Last Queen of England by Steve Robinson. Main character Jefferson Tayte is an American genealogist on a brief visit to London when he gets embroiled in an elaborate (and confusing) plot to topple the British monarchy. They key to the mystery lies in the genealogical records of the House of Stuart, but Tayte has to survive long enough to be able to solve it. This genealogical thriller is a quick and...
I had no idea when I began reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly that it was such a highly regarded mystery novel. I had heard of the movie starring Matthew McMcConaughey, so when the ebook went on sale for $2.99 I figured it was a pretty safe bet to be entertaining. It was all that and more. It’s no wonder that in 2006 it was awarded the Shamus Award and the Macavity Award for best mystery novel and, in 2010 was nominated for the Best Mystery Novel of...
Under every guilty secret there is hidden a brood of guilty wishes, whose unwholesome infecting life is cherished by the darkness. I chose to read Romola for the 2017 Back to the Classics Challenge as my “Classic set in a place you’d like to visit.” The story takes place in Florence, Italy, which is one of my bucket-list destinations. Written by George Eliot in 1863, Romola transports the reader to Florence in 1492, where the main characters rub elbows with Niccolo Machiavelli, Girolamo Savonarola, members of the Medici family,...
The Man in the Brown Suit is a mystery novel, but it also reads like a grand adventure. There’s a murder to be solved for sure, but there’s also espionage, a perilous sea voyage, diamond smuggling, kidnapping, a journey across Africa, and romance. Looking back, I’m amazed at how much Agatha Christie was able to fit into the novel. And yet, it didn’t seemed forced or crammed in. Here’s how the publisher describes the book: Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes...
