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

 

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)

First November 2023 New Releases are in...

November is already feeling kind of spicy and exciting. Don't quite know where to start. But these are at least four books on my November 2023 Reading Menu! FYI. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros made a surprise TBR visit, after having been recommended/suggested to me multiple times by different people since its release back in May. For once--which rarely EVER happens--I decided to bite the bullet and see what all the hype is about. Either way, let's go NOVEMBER Reading!

Edit: I'm about to go finish playing Alan Wake II while I'm between books!

Attempting a June('Piter) Pride TBR

 

My Mystery Reading Compatriots, I Have PLANS (June Kinda-TBR-But-Not)

 

Early Part of 2021 Reading Plans & Some Maxine O'Callaghan Series Clean Up

 

Final Non-Fiction November Pick ~ TURN UP

 

FYI: This book is EXPENSIVE!  I used a membership discount AND a coupon (y'all know I do those coupons)!  Oh, chile.  But I had to have it for myself. :)

New Valerie Wilson Wesley Book & Series on the WAY!

"Odessa Jones doesn't trust her second sight. The extrasensory "gift" that her Aunt Phoenix claims will always protect her let Dessa down in a major way when she was blindsided by the death of her husband. Now, with her failing catering business looming over her, not to mention the possible loss of her home and continuing grieving, Dessa's last chance to keep her life together is a job at a real estate agency with a shady past.

With volatile boss Charlie Risko and a ramshackle operation, it's far from a dream job, but working at Risko Realty veers more into nightmare territory when Charlie is found murdered. Dessa knows she had a "glimmer"--or premonition--of death the day before, and is troubled to think she could have predicted Charlie's death. Her second sight kicks in again when a coworker is arrested for Charlie's murder - and Dessa knows for certain that he's innocent. This time, Dessa doesn't want to ignore her gift. She teams up with friend, former detective, and current barbeque cook Lennox Royal to help her track down the killer - but will her glimmers help save her before the killer strikes again?"

Get READYYYYYYY!  Release January 26, 2021 (as of now, I guess)

Pre-order A Glimmer of Death on Amazon Kindle

Pre-order A Glimmer of Death on Amazon in Paperback 

Muller & Paretsky Short Story Haul

Soooooo, I'm not that great at keeping up with short stories.  But shoottttttt I miss the cheeseburger and FRIES out of reading Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone private-eye stories.  And equally that of Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski series.  I've tidied up these series; totally up-to-date with these two iconic contemporary woman private-eye stories.  Now I really miss these author, and most certainly the voices of their characters.  So short stories it is!  

"ABCD" May Reading TBR

Heyyyyyy. I hope and pray everyone is doing well and keeping safe out there.

So we all like to do little things to create a monthly TBR (given we've decided to make one to begin with). Especially to keep from spending hours or even days between books. And when you factor in today’s virus crisis, now is a good time to get down to reading with a bit of a charge. With a rhythm. With a nice, striding... pace. More so, it's a time to tackle unreads books (I know, I know) that have overdue property taxes on shelf space. Since browsing our favorite libraries and bookstores ain’t happening any time soon, it's an unfortunate but re-calibrating opportunity to play our reading cards. In, of course, fun and interesting ways.

So the first two weeks (or so-so) of May got me creating what I’ve dubbed an ”ABCD May TBR”.

4 BOOKSHELVES. 4 LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET BY ORDER. 4 AUTHORS-BY-LAST-NAME PICKS. 4 UNREAD BOOKS. BOOM!

My first shelf was my “A” shelf. Unread books with "A" last name authors. Alphabet order through the pickings. Let's go! Maya ANgelou’s autobiography, A Song Flung Up to Heaven, beat Margaret ATwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. True enough. Yet, I took a little concession and choose the latter. Why? Two reason. One: never read an Atwood, but read plenty Angelous. Two: because this is an alarming time to explore some disturbing dystopian/totalitarian state novels. And I’m going to throw this out there: Gilead (do your research on that). So let's keep it real with the potential parallels we all fear on the horizon. The phrase "It'll never happen here" comes to mind.

3 Popular Cozies I'm (ADORE) FOLLOWING-UP (eoty TBR)

What's in a REBOTCO TBR?

Sweet 16 - Tentative High School Revisited Reading TBR

The first thing I thought when I woke up New Year’s Day was how in two months it’ll be twenty years since I turned sixteen-years-old. How. In. The. BLOODY. FUCKIN’. HELL! Did. This. Happen? No. Seriously. Where was I in the last twenty years?

Anyway, for whatever reason I kept thinking about this blind leap through time. And as I started grudging around looking for something to start the new year reading (while fussing and sipping coffee), I eventually slumped into nostalgia. I thought about how R. L. Stine's Fear Street Cheerleaders series introduced me to the Whodunit of reading. I thought about how much I grew from ages 13 to 18 being a loyal and dedicated reader to K. A. Applegate's Animorphs series from its debut in '96 to its end in '01.

Needless to say, the reflections on my teenage reading kept coming. I thought about how I tried to emulate many of my favorite authors by writing similar stories to theirs back then. And, well, I thought about time and how it goes by so fast. As well as how memories keep us warm and remind us how special our lives really are when things don't always seem so sweet in the here and now.

That's when I got up to create a TBR reflecting my readings back in and around 1999–give or take. Authors like Naoko Takeuchi [Sailor Moon], K. A. Applegate [Animorphs], R. L. Stine [Fear Street], and T. A. Barron [The Ancient One] all came to mind. Luckily, I’ve kept all my early readings and decided to pull a few out to compose a sort of Sweet 16 Tentative High School Revisited Reading TBR to take on between my regular reading.

Let's kill some cheerleaders with R. L. Stine, baby!

(PART 2) Short Days/Cold Nights Cozy Reading TBR

PART ONE OF MY TBR LINK IS HERE

I have been nailing these cozy mystery reads to “close out” 2018–having read 8 books since the 19th of November. And the weather has definitely been instrumental in my success. It has kept me closed off and anti-social (just the way I like it). And the house is warm and too cozy to get out and brave the elements for no good reason other than food and work. Nonetheless, to keep matters going, I'm continuing ONLY to pick the cozies I already own. Pulling them off the shelf to extend my Short Days/Cold Nights Cozy Reading TBR. And here remains the last three I have in mind.

1. The ever-popular Rhys Bowen is finally getting a fair turn. I picked up Her Royal Spyness–book one in her Lady Georgiana series–a few years back. It never got a proper turn until now. I spent a few hours reading Her Royal Spyness by candlelight and reading light alone. Oh, while dealing with a nasty electric meter and switchboard replacement problem. Anyway, fifty pages in and I found myself hooked. When I first bought the book, I didn’t want to go into all the Swing music, banjo sleeves, Grapes of Wrath décor of the 1930s. I knew the series was popular and knew I would get there one day. That has recently changed. I’m loving the voice of this book.

Forget Sleeping.  Let's READ!

2. Gunpowder Green, by Laura Childs, is the second book in her Teashop Mystery. The series features a cozy mystery favorite amateur sleuth, Theodosia Browning. I read the first book (Death by Darjeeling) this past summer. I was looking for a Susan Wittig Albert China Bayle fix at the time. It more or less provided, but was promising enough to come back for more.

3. 1966’s The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman will close this TBR out. And I’m going to keep this list short because I have coffee brewing, while I’m ready to read!

PART ONE OF MY TBR LINK IS HERE

CHOP IT UP: Them Bones by Carolyn Haines

"No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state--or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.

But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself...and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave."

This.  Book.  Was.  Hard to put down.  Really, this buster was hard to let go of once I got started.  It was nothing like I'd anticipated when I initially picked it up at my public library used bookstore.  The Mississippi setting, I wanted. A poor and single and interestingly unconventional Southern Belle playing detective, delivered me. Old family murders to uncover, I needed. Good ole boy threats, a plus. But an actual and active ghost communicating with the protagonist in a blase fashion took me completely off guard.  And it was soooo good. 

CHOP IT UP: Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler

"Leaving behind memories of her late husband, Benni Harper is making a fresh start...Moving to the trendy California town of San Celina, she takes an exciting new job as director of a folk-art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmade quilts, she stumbles upon the body of a brutally stabbed artist. Hoping to conduct an investigation on her own, she crosses paths with the local police chief, who thinks this short and sassy cowgirl should leave detecting to the cops and join him for dinner. But it's hard to keep a country girl down, and soon Benni uncovers an alarming pattern of family secrets, small-town lies--and the shocking truth about the night her husband died..."

The minute I finished the book and marked it as READ (two stars) on Goodreads.  Using my phone, I wrote this about the book just to "get it out".

Started out with a fair amount of promise, but devolved the further it progressed. All the excitement of a cozy mystery with a quilting and folk-art hook was removed and flushed early on. Instead the focus was on a MC who was not only boldly immature, but adolescent-level illogical in her reasoning and investigative prowess. It did not make her cute. It did not make her relatable. It made her unreliable and irritating to be around during the experience. Further frustration with the story arrived when the author kept (and I mean KEPT) insisting on ushering in a romance between her MC and a moody cop. Cliches. Cliches. Cliches. I kept rolling my eyes, as it was all so desperate to the point of nausea. Yes, there was a mystery. Yet, apparently, the mystery wasn't the book's real point.

   

It just so happens I bought the second book in the series for a dollar the other day.  She's getting one more shot, dude.  

One more...

SHOT...