2020 Mystery Series Catching Up List

Hi, folks.  I wrote this list in Google Docs and just wanted to share it.  I have GOT to get these series under control.  With that said, while I won't say this listing is "tentative" I will stretch around when needed.  This is from just one single shelf–out of four.  I also want to focus on this list to see what's going to stick around and what isn't. 

2020 Mystery Series Catching Up List

1st BOOK SHELF

I’m making this list because I’m tired of myself starting a new series, while having series I already need to read hanging around my shelves.  

This list will be used to help me stay focused!  Other genres in-between will come as well.

Mrs. Murphy Series by Rita Mae Brown

Book #13: Cat’s Eyewitness

Book #14: Sour Puss

Book #15: Puss N’ Choots

Book #16: The Perrfect Murder

(The rest of the series I’ll check out from the library)

John Le’ Carre Smiley Spy Series

Book #3 The Spy Who Came Out of the Cold

Book #4 The Looking Glass War

Stand-Alone: A Small Town in Germany (This’ll be my first read)

Suzanne Arruda’s Cameron Del African Series

It is vital that I finish this series this year.  I only have five books left to read.  The last two I’ll have to order.  Nevertheless, I must finish this series in 2020.

Book# 3: The Serpent’s Daughter

Book #4: The Leopard’s Prey

Book #5: Treasure of the Golden Cheetah

(I have to order the following two for my personal library.  Will not do until I’m done with BOOK #5)

Book #6: The Crocodile’s Last Embrace

Book#7: Devil Dance

Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley Series

Book #3: Well-Schooled in Murder

I have to either order or check out the following books in this series.  I’m still in limbo about my approach with this series.  Maybe after I wrap up a few other series will I come back to this one.

Nikki Bakker’s Virginia Kelly Series

(Will be completed with these three books)

Book #2: The Lavender House

Book #3: The Long Goodbye

Book #4: The Ultimate Exit Strategy

Charlotte Carter’s Nanette Hayes Series

(Will be completed with these two books)

Book #2: Rhode Island Read

Book #3: Drumsticks

Tanya Huff’s Torin Kerr Series

(Will be completed with these three books)

Book #1: An Ancient Peace

Book #2: A Peace Divided

Book #3: The Privilege of Peace

Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Series

(Really excited to continue forward in this series.  I will not buy the following 3-book collection UNTIL I finished the one I currently am up-to-date with)

Book #4: People of Darkness

Book #5: The Dark Wind

Book #6: The Ghostway

Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody Series

This is probably going to take the longest.  I have all the remaining books in this series, and they’re all long-winded reads.  But, if able, maybe I can finish this series in 2020.  It’s possible with nine books left.  One or two books a month, perhaps?

Book #13: Lord of the Silent

Book #14: The Golden One

Book #15: Children of the Storm

Book #16: Guardian of the Horizon

Book #17: The Serpent on the Crown

Book #18: Tomb of the Golden Bird

Book #19: A River in the Sky

Book #20: The Painted Queen

I will focus on these series for the time being.  That is before starting any new series.

A Touch of Sailor Moon-Related Updates

Yoooooooo. Listen. Errr… read. I finally bought my first Sailor Moon S.H. Figuarts figure. I picked my favorite character, Aino Minako. And she's here in my favorite of her two heroine identities as Sailor V. As opposed to Sailor Venus–which I plan on getting sooner than later. Sailor V is Naoko Takeuchi’s first Sailor Senshi. So that counts as well.

Anyway, I stopped buying Sailor Moon figures and collectibles a long time ago. I suppose that's a product of my getting older and focusing more toward the manga and video releases. Still, I wanted to make the exception here with this figure.

Few Favorite "Becoming" Moments

#nonfictionnovember WRAP-UP (week one - or whatever)

Favorite Lines on Death From Tembi Locke's "From Scratch"

When You Understand Someone You Love Is Dying

3 of my Favorite Messages from Tyler Perry's Higher is Waiting

Relationships Are Like Quilts

WEEK TWO #NonFictionNovember ~ CLASS & CHINA

So what’s next on the #NonFictionNovember reading TBR? The image is obvious, but to walk it on down through there it goes like this…

Becoming by Michelle Obama

"In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same." 

Yes, yes, yes. I’m a year late to this party. But, as I always say, when a book comes it comes at the right moment in which it needs to be one's hand (or, heck, e-reader). Which, as a given, is now about Michelle Obama's Becoming for me. I wanted to use this #NonFictionNovember to lean into inspirational memoirs/autobiographical stories. You know, to get my own inner seas a glimpse of direction. Besides, life is a recipe that takes the right amount of timing of ingredients to bring it taste. BOOOOMMMMM! Put that expression on a T-shirt, buddy. It sounds like an opening tagline for a Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member. I’m picturing Cynthia Bailey. (But did y'all see what I just did there?)

But I digress. Y’all get the gist. I'm taking on the story of one of my most classiest of classiest women ever to exist. And that twinkle of thought is only the beginning. Basically, I'm looking for more confirmation to commit to this...

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang

"Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is a gripping story of love, war, intrigue, bravery, glamour and betrayal, which takes us on a sweeping journey from Canton to Hawaii to New York, from exiles' quarters in Japan and Berlin to secret meeting rooms in Moscow, and from the compounds of the Communist elite in Beijing to the corridors of power in democratic Taiwan. In a group biography that is by turns intimate and epic, Jung Chang reveals the lives of three extraordinary women who helped shape twentieth-century China."

Author Jung Chang tackles China’s history in the most storytelling of fashions. And finally we have a new release (you better believe it was on my pre-orders list) from her. Chang hasn’t released a book since 2013’s Empress Dowager Cixi (CLICK HERE TO SEE MY THOUGHTS ON THAT BOOK). Now she’s back with Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China. As I said, Chang knows how to relay China's history and make it both real, fascinating and enjoyable to digest. With this book I’m particularly interested in getting into Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s story. Years ago I attempted to read a biography of her story, but also that of her surrounding sisters. Let’s just say that biography didn’t have the spell-binding gusto and finesse as a Jung Chang book. HA! Now’s my chance to go further into this fascinating woman in history. And just China's history as a whole. Considering I have a deep fascination with The Cultural Revolution–among other eras of extremeness within China's history.

Anyway, I’m off to read. How about yourself, eh?

CHOP IT UP: The Little Death by Michael Nava (Henry Dios Mystery #1)

Published in 1986, The Little Death is the first book in Michael Nava’s Henry Rio legal mystery series. Henry Rios is a gay, Latino public defender based out of San Jose. At the opening of The Little Death he acquires a case involving of a young socialite named Hugh Paris. Hugh has found himself arrested for being under the influenced of PCP as well as in possession of it. Which turned into an arrest and battery of an officer situation for him. During Rio’s prodding toward building Hugh's case, the two become lovers. Until Huge turns up dead underneath a bridge.

A budding companionship soured by death; with a few bizarre family-related clues in hand, Rio begins to question Hugh's death. And it's here where Rio unravels dark, generation-long secrets surrounding Hugh's family. These secrets involve the wealth and control behind the patriarchal governing of the Paris family. With, of course, many resulting family murders to unbury.

The character of Henry Rios is a direct reflection of the author, Michael Nava, himself. Both identify as gay. Both are Latino. And both are attorneys. All three landed me this book into my "trust" box. I knew the author was going to give it to me straight (no pun intended) from all three angles. Yet, the glowing reason I wanted to read this book was because of the gay lead element in a mystery series.

Let's Buy Some Newly Released Mystery Books!

Judge Me When I'm Wrong (A Charlie Mack Motown Mystery) by Cheryl A. Head

"When a guilt-ridden client has an unexpected change of heart, the Mack team’s careful preparation for his grand jury testimony is blown to smithereens. Now, Charlie and Gil must pull out all the stops to defend him from his new enemies and the estrangement of his father. Meanwhile, Charlie reports for jury duty and unwittingly begins to unravel a disturbing plan to alter the outcome of a crime lord’s conspiracy trial. Before she knows it, Charlie’s dangerous meddling lands a bull’s-eye squarely on the intersection of her personal and professional lives, putting all that she holds dear in jeopardy."

Motherless Child (An R. J. Franklin Mystery Book 2) by V. M. Burns

"When John Paul Rollins is murdered during his niece’s wedding reception, Detective RJ Franklin quickly realizes this case is going to be anything but routine. The list of people who wanted him dead includes just about everyone he’s ever known including the bride and groom. Can RJ put his personal feelings behind him and catch a killer?"

Bookmarked for Murder (Mystery Bookshop #5) VM Burns

"Amateur sleuth Samantha Washington’s shopping trip to Chicago takes a deadly detour when a man is murdered on her bus . . .

What My Cousin Wants For His 7th Birthday

Me asking my 6-year-old cousin while out to eat:

Hey, what you want for your birthday, Junior?  You know I only give out books, right?

My 6-year-old cousin:

Dog Man and Cat Man books.

Me:

Do and say what?

My 6-year-old cousin:

I said 'Dog Man and Cat Man books'.

Me:

Well, I guess.

*Gets on cell phone to research*

Me at the bookstore:

Dang, it's legit!

{Screws 'N' Bolts} On Lending Out Books

What Happened With My Reading of The Cutting Season

"Just after dawn, Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the historic plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug up by the fence bordering the sugar cane fields. Assuming an animal has been out after dark, she asks the gardener to tidy it up. Not long afterwards, he calls her to say it's something else. Something terrible. A dead body. 

At a distance, she missed her. The girl, the dirt and the blood. Now she has police on site, an investigation in progress, and a member of staff no one can track down. And Caren keeps uncovering things she will wish she didn't know. As she's drawn into the dead girl's story, she makes shattering discoveries about the future of Belle Vie, the secrets of its past, and sees, more clearly than ever, that Belle Vie, its beauty, is not to be trusted."

So, yeah. Time for me to get to hammering with my TRUTH. Like how I had the total gall to DNF Attica Locke’s The Cutting Season. I know. I know. I know how stuff works around here. This was a book–like so many others–that I’m “suppose” to like. Nah, this mug was bor-RING.

The Cutting Season is a literary (if that word is necessary) murder mystery. It weaves together two periods in time alongside two respective mysteries. Mystery One: Civil War era plantation where a female slave once went missing. Mystery Two: same plantation now a historic landmark, where a present-day body turns up at the property line. Two interwoven mysteries blossoming with possibilities and profundity, as they pounce upon a study of American slavery era throes with its present-day echos and resonance. Sounds like a hit–like no other! And I believed it possible in The Cutting Season. Both concepts of the depravity of slavery and its compelling illustration of 17th to 18th century southern American history would become a taunt-like joy to unbraid around a present day murder mystery.

Yet, no. Or, at least, I didn't get into the book deep enough to step into its truth. Because I couldn't quite shake the wafting ennui in the book's first fifty pages. Nor could I shake the book's vibe of projection, as oppose to presences.

But while I did struggle with that, here’s why I decided to call it quits overall...

#NonFictionNovember ~ Memoirs on LOVE & LIFE

I'm just going to slide this in here, with little explanation (not that it's really needed with these two celebrities).  Wait, other than I'm starting #NonFictionNovember with books I've been wanting to read for a while now.  Or, rather yet, memoirs I've wanted to consume.  Either way I'm going for something inspirational to launch the hashtag with.  

Tembi's story for a little touch of LOVE, because Lord knows that's an abstract concept when it comes to me.  Tyler for some of that GOALS-type of inspired stuff, because Lord knows that's just as abstract a concept as love.

Ooooo-weee, chile.  Anyway, I'm already 50 pages into each and love them both.

#WeekendReads First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain

#NonFictionNovember is going to have to wait a little bit longer, bro.  Why?  Because I got to stay up all night and read First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain.  It's the second book in her Green Rider series.  A series that follows this pretty neat-o young lady named Karigan G'ladheon.  She works as one of the king's (y'all know how these fantasy worlds go) messenger services dudes called Green Riders.  And, well, given her job she also has the ability to turn invisible...

AND I LOVE EVERY BIT OF ITTTTTTTTTT!  WITH ALL THE PERSONAL AND FANTASY INTRIGUE IN BETWEEN!