Sunday, November 30, 2014

2015 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge


Hosted by: Amy @ A Bookish Girl
Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2015

Challenge goal: Read any novels, short stories or authors, so long as the genre is mystery/crime/thriller. See the announcement post for guidelines and levels.

Mysteries are my favorite genre, and I read more of them than just about any other type of book, so this one is a natural for me. Will I make it to 15 books (the Flavia de Luce level)? We'll see. During the year, I'll also be tracking my progress over on my challenge blog.

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2015 Sci-Fi Experience

Art work by Stephan Martiniere
There was a time when I read almost nothing but science fiction. It's still one of my favorite genres, but I don't read very much of it anymore. That fact bothers me. And it makes Carl V. Anderson's Sci-Fi Experience (hosted over at Stainless Steel Droppings) very appealing. I also love that it's not really a reading challenge -- just an invitation to read/view as much sci-fi as you'd like, during the months of December and January. Which means no rules -- just have fun. Can't pass that up, right? So this year I'm signing up.

Books/stories read:
1. With Folded Hands. Jack Williamson (1947)
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Movies/TV shows watched:
1. Mission to Mars (Film, 2000; Directed by Brian De Palma; Cast: Tim Robbins, Gary Sinise, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell, Kim Delaney)
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During the event, I'll also be tracking my progress over on my challenge blog.

2015 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge


Hosted by: The Book Vixen
Dates: January 1 to December 31, 2015

The goal of the Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge is pretty straightforward: just read more in 2015 than you did in 2014. Since it looks like I'm not going to get anywhere near the goal I set for this year (50 books), I really do need this challenge.

Books can be any format or genre (including nonfiction), and re-reads and crossovers with other challenges are allowed. Novellas of at least 100 pages count, too.

To see the various levels, and sign up, just head on over to the challenge announcement page. I'll be signing up at the "Getting My Heart Rate Up" level, which means I'll be trying for 1–5 more books than I read this year (or 250–1,499 more pages). Since I'm still reading for 2014, and don't yet know exactly what my total should be for next year, I'll just shoot for 50 again. During the year, I'll also be tracking my progress over on my challenge blog.

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Friday, November 28, 2014

2015 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge


I really don't have any business browsing for new reading challenges, when I did such a lousy job with my 2014 challenges -- I'll be leaving several of them unfinished, and I hardly posted any reviews all year. But I'm hoping to do a much better job in 2015. (No -- really, I am.)  And these challenges do serve their purpose (as far as I'm concerned, anyway) of keeping me reading.

Besides, I love these alphabet challenges. They appeal so much to my list-making mentality. And the 2015 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, hosted by Dollycas (over at Escape with Dollycas Into a Good Book) is invitingly light on rules and regs: Just read one book for each letter of the alphabet. Any genre is OK, reviews are not required, make your list of titles now or add them as you go along, all formats are acceptable, and crossovers with other challenges are allowed encouraged. Could not get much simpler.

Oh, and re-reads are fine, too.

See the challenge announcement page (HERE) to read all about it and sign up. I don't have any firm ideas yet about what I'll read, so my list is without titles right now and waiting to be filled in. I'll also be tracking my progress over on my challenge blog during the year.

UPDATE (August 2015): It looks like I never actually got signed up for this challenge. So I'll put this one down as finished, if not really completed, due to technical difficulties!




Book Beginnings: Another Side of Bob Dylan


For this week's Book Beginnings on Friday I'm looking at Another Side of Bob Dylan, by Victor Maymudes and Jacob Maymudes, published in September by St. Martin's Press. These are the opening lines of Chapter 1:
Altogether my father recorded twenty-four hours of audio chronicling his relationship with Bob Dylan, Dennis Hopper, Joan Baez, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Wavy Gravy, David Crosby, Tom Petty, the rest of the Traveling Wilburys and a few others who made up his inner circle of friends.
Initial Thoughts:

That's quite a list of friends! Victor Maymudes was Bob Dylan's tour manager for many years, and also a close friend and confidante. He tape recorded his memories of those times for this book, but died suddenly before he could get the book written. His son Jacob stepped in to finish his father's work. I was attracted to the book as soon as I heard about it. I'm certainly not a "Dylanologist" and haven't really kept up with the man or his music in recent years. But when I was a teenager back in the '60s I was a huge fan, and still find the whole Dylan phenomenon pretty fascinating. Looking forward to reading an "insider's" report.



Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays. As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Book Beginnings: The Days of Anna Madrigal


Lately I've mostly been reading mysteries, thrillers, and ghostly tales. Which I love.  But the last one left me so spooked, I decided I needed something completely different -- and Armistead Maupin's The Days of Anna Madrigal is certainly that.  Here's the opening paragraph:
Summer had been warmer than usual this year, but the heat that throbbed in the East Bay was already coaxing pale fingers of fog into the city. Anna could feel this on her skin, the chilly caress she had come to think of as "candle weather." She had not owned a fireplace since her landlady days on Russian Hill, but to her mind the proper application of candlelight carried all the primal comfort of a campfire.

Initial Thoughts:

Well, I'm intrigued, I guess -- all that fog and candlelight and chilly caressing draws me in. Also, I know that Anna is 92 years old, and I'm always interested in books with older protagonists. I haven't read any of the earlier books in this series (this is number 9, and apparently the final volume), so this will be my introduction to Maupin's San Francisco tales. I've heard lots of good stuff about the books (and the TV mini-series, which I've also never seen), so I'm looking forward to getting immersed in this one.



Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays. As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays: Bliss House


This week my teaser lines come from Bliss House by Laura Benedict:
She wouldn't own Bliss House if it hadn't been for the murder. The thought struck her with its full force. Another woman's blood had helped her become the mistress of Bliss House. (p.83)
It's definitely an unsettling read, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.





Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays: Peter Pan Must Die

This week my teaser lines come from the latest novel in John Verdon's Dave Gurney series, Peter Pan Must Die. I love the Gurney books, and this new one is my favorite so far.

In this snippet, Dave is speaking with his wife Madeleine, about his grown son Kyle. (The quote is taken from an advance copy of the book, so please remember it might be different in the published edition.)
"I used to tell Kyle when he was a kid that one key to a happy life, a happy career, was to find an activity you enjoyed enough that you'd be willing to do it without being paid -- then find someone willing to pay you to do it. Well, not many people succeed in doing that. Pilots, musicians, actors, artists, and athletes, mainly. And hit men...." (p.281)
You have to realize that Gurney is a retired police detective who's investigated some pretty gruesome crimes -- it's given him a unique, if ever so slightly skewed, perspective on life. Well, maybe a little more than slightly skewed.




Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Book Beginnings: The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches


For this week's Book Beginnings on Friday, I'm looking at one of Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce novels, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches. Here are the first lines from the book's Prologue:
"Your mother has been found."
Nearly a week after he had made it, Father's shocking announcement was still ringing in my ears.
Harriet! Harriet found! Who could believe it?
Harriet, who had been lost in a mountaineering accident when I was barely a year old; Harriet, whom I can't remember seeing, ever, with my own eyes.
My reaction?
Numbness, I'm afraid.
Initial Thoughts:
I read the first of the Flavia books, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, when it first came out back in 2009. Haven't read any of the others -- the one I'm quoting from here is No. 6, so I'm supposing I'll be doing some catching up with all the characters. I had forgotten about Flavia's lost mother, so hearing that she'd been found was sort of a double surprise. I enjoyed the first book, and so far I'm having fun with this one, too.



Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays. As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

Monday, November 03, 2014

Monday Reading Update


It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

I didn't get a huge amount of reading done last week. Somehow, we'd managed to schedule a bunch of medical/dental stuff all in one week (I hate it when that happens), and that took up a lot of time that would have been reading time. Took my Kindle with me, and read as much as I could in the various waiting rooms. But that's not as easy as it used to be, now that all medical facilities have TVs blasting talk shows all day, and everyone in the place is on a cell phone. I find it so very strange that people will have the most intimate conversations right out loud on their phones, not caring who's hearing it.

But I digress.

I did manage to finish a couple of books last week:
  • Children of the Revolution, by Peter Robinson (The latest Inspector Banks mystery - number 21! Enjoyable, as always.)
  • The Dirty Book Murder, by Thomas Shawver (Which is the first book in a new mystery series set in the world of rare books and book collecting. And, no matter what the title and cover might make you think, not pornographic.)

OK, what's up this week? Well, the RIP/9 reading event/challenge ended October 31st, and I'm sort of mourning its passing. Just not ready to give up on reading the dark stuff. So this week, I'll be starting Bliss House, a ghost-y novel by Laura Benedict,

and possibly Blue Labyrinth, the new Pendergast thriller by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

And to balance out all that darkness, I'm also reading something a bit lighter (although still a suspense tale, but romantic suspense): Murder at the Painted Lady, by Barbara Warren.

So that's it.  Oh, and I'm also thinking of signing up for a new fall reading challenge I stumbled onto the other day.  It's called The Come Sit a Spell Challenge, and it's hosted over at Book Dragon's Lair. It's appealingly free-form, and I'm thinking it might be just what I need to keep me on track with my reading for the rest of the year.