CHOP IT UP: The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

 

CHOP IT UP: A Fatal Glow by Valerie Wilson Wesley

 

#marchmysterymadness Super Brief Reading Update/Check-In

 

March Mystery Madness Prompt Card

 

Your Everyday Book Haul... I Suppose (First Book Haul of 2024... and Stuff)

 

Goodies & Indie Authors Haul from Lowe Mill

 

My Bookstore Book Picks Shelf Recs

 

#marchmysterymadness 2024 TBR

 

February Reading Wrap Up -- By a Creek (2024)

 

2024 #marchmysterymadness Announcement & Other March Reading Ideas

 

A "Healthy" February 2024 TBR - ...BOOKS } LOVE

 

J. D. Robb's Random in Death has FINALLY arrived!

 

#FridayReads: The Langoliers by Stephen King

So I'm keeping to my 2024 reading initiative idea so far. This month I've read a mystery, fantasy, even a non-fiction book. Now I'm taking the opportunity to read horror by specifically picking up my copy of The Langoliers by Stephen King. I think it's going to make a fantastic read over the weekend. But, having watched the mini series back when it aired in the 90s, I'm most super excited to finally get the full cake of King's creation via his own written words. 

Anyway, with all my personal and creative business pretty much settled, let's turn on the coffee maker and get to reading!

What're you reading this weekend? Share with me in the comments below!

Closing Thoughts After Reading The Woman in Me

 

Britney Spears went through hell. And to think–as a teenager–I wanted to be a popstar inspired by her. But, again, this is simply her story. Her tragic journey. It’s still sad, though. I couldn’t imagine working to achieve all that fame and money, only to one day find myself being outside the control of my own life. To be always controlled, subdued, and used by people who were meant to love and protect me. When you factor in her parents and their own family history, it starts to make sense. Either way, I don’t find too much I can say about Britney’s story because it’s almost classic in the expression of how “everything that glitters isn’t gold.”

Nonetheless, I have some deep, reflecting thoughts I can add regarding how much of a fan I was of hers from back in the day. So much nostalgia was happily activated as we recounted the beginning of her career on up. I suppose it was the terribleness behind her stage throughout her career is what left me frustrated and a bit sour. Still, as of closing her memoir, I’m left more with gratitude for my own life. While feeling strengthened and encouraged to keep going forward. To keep living and not so much in the past. And to pray. I think that was the number one thing I left receiving from the book is to pray. I need to do more of that outside of the routine means in which I pray before I drive and sleep. I need to pray more when I'm unsure and frustrated; lost and confused by thinking I'm in control when I'm actually not.

So, yeah. Reading The Woman in Me was absolutely great. And without a doubt, Britney's story reminded me how there is power in prayer.

2024 New Releases I’m Looking Forward To List (Just Might Be Considered the "Baddie" Version)

2024 New Releases I’m Looking Forward To List

Watch Where They Hide by Tamron Hall. It’s the second book in her TV journalist, Jordan Manning, series. This time Jordan is going to investigate the disappearance of a stay-at-home mom who recently left her abusive husband to live with her sister. Of course, as a TV journalist, Jordan uses her profession to not only bring awareness to the woman’s disappearance, but to also solve the crime. This comes out on March 12th.

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky. This is V. I. Warshawski’s 22nd case. This involve V.I. searching for a friend of her protegee who is later found remote house. Drugs are involved. The FBI is involved. Classic V.I. going after the bigwigs of Chicago. This comes out April 16th.

Circle in the Water by Marcia Muller. This is Sharon McCone’s 36th case. This has Sharon requested to solve a string of pranks surrounding occupants of an elite and wealthy neighborhood. What McCone finds throughout her search is not only murder, but a meth lab. So, what’s really going on in this neighborhood. This releases April 23th.

Forget me Never by Susan Wittig Albert. After about a three year break, Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles is back with her 29th investigation. As I’m writing this, there isn’t much information available on what the book is about (unless you scoured through the authors blog), but according to Amazon it is slated to release on May 29th. My only hope is that Albert is back to giving China a murderous crime to solve. Because, though I love all the ghost and New Age stuff, I really with the stories would go back to being these small-town high stake murder affairs.

Truth Be Told by Patricia Raybon. This is the third book in Raybon’s Annalee Spain mystery series. Taking us back to 1924, amateur detective and once schoolteacher, Annalee Spain, is going to be involved with a political-centric type murder mystery. This I due out on June 11th.

A Lethal Lady by Nekesa Afia. Book three in Afia’s Harlem Renaissance Mystery is due out July 30th. We’re back into the mind of her main character, Louise Lloyd, who thought trading Harlem for Paris would avail her of solving murders. Evidently, she’s dead wrong.

"2024 New Release Mystery Book Baddies I'm Looking Forward To," said the Zebra in the Blue Shirt.

 

Adding Library Books to my Handy Library App

Had to update my Handy Library app. I saw so many books at the library the other day that I was interested in checking out in the future. Many of them are mystery novels written by Black writers. So that's exciting. 

Nevertheless, I had to fight off the temptation to check them all out. Have to keep reminding myself that I can't read everything all at once. LOL. But I'm excited to explore a lot of these new books, mostly by authors I'm new to myself.

Currently Reading on this Cold Day...

I'm sure everyone is experiencing the freezing temperatures and snow and ice. I also hope everyone is bundled up, safe and warm. With, of course, a book. I decided to continue forward with my "No New Friends" TBR–as well as my initiative reading list–by knocking out the second (and perhaps final) book in M. H. Boroson's The Daoshi Chronicles series. This is an opportunity to clear a series off my list, as well as achieve my fantasy reading of the month (no pressure still).

So as I sit here and wait for my job to send out a message that we'll be closed again for another day on Wednesday (the roads are absolutely awful out here), I'm just staying warm and enjoying myself reading about a Daoist priestess in San Francisco's 1899 solving a mystical crime involving a girl who has plants growing out of her face.

Yeah... I know... crazy. But so, so intriguing.

I Think I Have a 2024 Reading "Initiative" Plan

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO ACHIEVE EACH MONTH WHEN IT COMES TO READING IN 2024?

(USING GOOGLE DEVICE TO CHOOSE THE NUMBER IF I CAN'T MAKE A PATH.)

1. Read at least one NEW RELEASE (or NEW ARRIVAL) book from the library each month

JAN   FEB   MAR   APR   MAY   JUN   JUL   AUG   SEP   OCT   NOV   DEC

2. Read at least one book in a MYSTERY series I’m currently in the middle of (or one I’m not)

JAN   FEB   MAR   APR   MAY   JUN   JUL   AUG   SEP   OCT   NOV   DEC

3. Read at least one book in a FANTASY/SCI-FI/URBANFANTASY series I’m currently in the middle of (or one I’m not)

JAN   FEB   MAR   APR   MAY   JUN   JUL   AUG   SEP   OCT   NOV   DEC

4. Read at least one NON-FICTION book each month

JAN   FEB   MAR   APR   MAY   JUN   JUL   AUG   SEP   OCT   NOV   DEC

5. Read at least one CONTEMPORARY or ROMANCE or HORROR book each month

JAN   FEB   MAR   APR   MAY   JUN   JUL   AUG   SEP   OCT   NOV   DEC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOOK SERIES I’M CURRENTLY IN THE MIDDLE OF (IN WHICH I OWN ALL THE

REMAINING BOOKS OR AM CLOSE TO AND THAT I FEEL CAN BE WRAPPED UP

BEFORE THE END OF 2024):

MYSTERY

1. P. D. James: Adam Dagliesh (5 Books Remaining)

2. Patricia Raybon: Annalee Spain Mystery (1 Book Remaining)

3. Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey (8 Books Remaining)

4. Carolyn G. Hart: Dead on Demand (Anytime Pick Up)

5. Chester Himes: Harlem Detectives (5 Books Remaining)

6. Michael Nava: Henry Rios (2 Books Remaining)

7. Peter Tremayne: Sister Fidelma (Anytime Pick Up)

8. Margaret Maron: Judge Deborah (Anytime Pick Up)

FANTASY/SCI-FI/URBAN FANTASY

1. Claire O’Dell: Janet Watson (1 Book Remaining)

2. Patricia Briggs: Mercy Thompson (Anytime Pick Up)

3. Juliet Marillier: Sevenwaters (Anytime Pick Up)

4. Max Gladstone: Craft Series (3 Books Remaining)

5. David Weber: Honor Harrington (4 Books Remaining)

6. Daniel Jose Older: Bone Street Rumba (2 Books Remaining)

7. Phillip Pullman: Dark Materials (1 Book Remaining)

8. Mercedes Lackey: Anything (Anytime Pick Up)

9. Lynn Flewelling: Nightrunner (Anytime Pick Up)

10. Ilona Andrews: Kate Daniels (Anytime Pick Up)

11. Seressia Glass: Shadowchasers (Full 3-Book Read)

12. Seanan McGuire: Rosemary & Rue (Anytime Pick Up)

13. Tanya Huff: Anything (Anytime Pick Up)

14. M. H. Boroson: Daoshi Chronicles (1 Book Remaining)

15. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings (3 Books Remaining)

16. Modesitt: Spellsong or Another (Anytime Pick Up)

17. Brandon Sanderson: Stormlight (3 Books Remaining)

18. L. A. Banks: Crimson Moon (6 Books Remaining)

19. Jennifer Fallon: Hythrun (2 Books Remaining)

Like You, I Love READING!

 

Some Kind of January 2024 Hillerman TBR...

I went through my usual waffling around regarding what I want to read next. Often I go with what I'm currently agonizing about wanting to complete. Still, there is a lot of unnecessary overthinking and consideration in all the meticulousness and thoroughness given the decision. Shoot, there are even days where I decided to read something, go to bed, and am running late to work because I've somehow changed my mind while asleep. But I must bring a book with me every time I leave the house! 

Nonetheless, after having read about five or six Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Tony Hillerman series books back in July; reading the final five written by Hillerman, before his daughter Anne picked up the series after his death, has been heavy on my reading spirit. Thus, as of right now, I’ve decided to do this.

I’ve labeled this the “No New Friends in 2024” TBR. Honestly, all it means is that I’m going to try not to start a new series of books until I wrap up at least one that I’ve been reading for years. Last year I finished the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. I’m still hoping I can finish the Adam Dalegish series by P. D. James (only five more books to go there), and then decide what to do from there.

Anyway, I do plan on going further into Tony Hillerman’s world with the revival of the series introduced by his daughter. Just at another time (hopefully). As of right now, I want to gather up the final words Hillerman had to share about Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.

So here we go…

As I’m writing this, I finished book #14, Hunting Badger. I’m currently 82 pages away from the end of book #15, The Wailing Wind. I might pull an all-nighter on that one. After that, only three more to go: The Sinister Pig (#16), Skeleton Man (#17), and The Shape Shifter (#18). I have to say, I’m proud of myself for not actually buying the books but checking them out from my library.

Anyway, back to crimes in the desert to launch 2024. Which, obviously, I love reading about.