All About Books discussion

Overview:
I always want to read far more than I will ever accomplish. And I have over 2,000 books in my TBR lists. So I like to create various lists from which I pick books. I don't try to read a certain number of books from these lists. Some are fixed lists, and some are random, and there are always leftovers from previous years that I still want to read. This helps these books to not get lost in the ever expanding TBR!

1. Themes
I like to pick an annual theme every year. And then there are always leftovers! I never seem to be able to let go of a theme. I keep adding new titles year after year! These end up as one of my "Random Reads" categories (see below.) I also usually have several mini-themes.

2. Random Reads
I draw 30 titles from my TBR lists to highlight as Random Reads each year. This is no guarantee that I will read many of them, but it gives me something besides leftovers to read, and brings long buried items to the fore. Previous Random Reads either just go back into the TBR ocean or they might be added to the Leftovers list.

3. Book clubs and online group reads
My face to face group, Daytimers, is a guaranteed 12 books. I usually have at least one theme within this group to help me pick titles. At the time of posting this, I haven't finalized the list yet, but our theme will be Libraries and titles with "Book" in the title. I'll read other online group picks as I please.

4. A Good Yarn - Reading the Alphabet
This is another face to face book group that I am in, but we pick monthly themes rather than titles. I'm also reading at least one book for each letter. We have 6 more months to finish "reading the alphabet" and then I am not sure what we will do. Probably start the alphabet over again - LOL!

5. Authors and series
I'm not picking an author of the year this year, but I have a multi-year goal to reread all of the Outlander books. I also like to list some prioritized authors and series that I want to start, continue, or finish.

6. Leftovers and library books
A combination of old and new. Sort of a catch-all for anything that doesn't fit above.

My overall goal is 48 books - I want to be a little more relaxed this year! I hope to read at least 15,000 pages.

Finally, I don't like the limitations of Goodreads 1-5 star rating system, so I add colors to my ratings to give it a little more nuance. Here is my rating scale:
Ratings
5 + stars = Gold (Gold medal, nothing higher. Well maybe Platinum but let's not go there....)
5 stars = Purple (Grand Champion ribbon)
4.5 = Blue (Blue ribbon, 1st prize)
4 stars = Red (2nd prize ribbon)
3.5 = Pink (tickled pink, in the pink, ...but not quite red?)
3 stars = Green (Green for Go, not outstanding, but I'd read more by this author - or not)
2.5 stars =Yellow (Caution)
2 stars = Orange (Hazard Warning, LOL!)
1 star = Black (Black-balled)
DNF (not rated) = Gray

THEMES
I have several ideas for themes this year. WINTER is a big one, but not sure I'd call it my "annual" theme. A Daytimer's theme is LIBRARIES and books with BOOK in the title, but I don't think that is my annual theme either. The ODYSSEY is a theme I have wanted to do for awhile, but I think it will end up being a multi-year theme...

1. Winter
Midwinter of the Spirit
Rebecca
Mrs de Winter
Winter's Tale
Winter of the World
The Winters
The Winter's Child
Winter Counts: A Novel
The Winter King
Winter Solstice
The Winter Vault
Winter in Madrid
A Wild Winter Swan
Winter of Despair
Death and Nightingales (main character: Beth Winters)
Midwinter Folk
READ The Winter Hare
Minds of Winter
Winter Sisters
Beautiful Evil Winter
Cruel Winter
The Winter Guest

2. Libraries and Books
READ The Library Book
The Book of Joby
Library of Souls
READ The Book of Lost Friends
READ The Book of Longings
The Lost and Found Bookshop
The Midnight Library
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
The Book of Life
The Book of Lost Things
Book of a Thousand Days
The Book of Speculation
The Book of Fires
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
The Book of Uriel: A Novel of WWII
READ The Book of Boy
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts
READ The Lions of Fifth Avenue
READ The Transatlantic Book Club
READ The Giver of Stars
La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust #1)

3. The Odyssey
The Odyssey and The Iliad
A Short History of Myth
Ulysses
Ulysses: Complete Text with Integrated Study Guide from Shmoop
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
Circe
Sing, Unburied, Sing
The Penelopiad
Homer's Odyssey
Ilium
Ransom
Over the Wine-Dark Sea
The Siege of Troy
Lavinia
Omeros
A Thousand Ships

4. The Plantagenets/Wars of the Roses
The Summer Queen
Queen By Right
Bloodline
Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England
The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
Blood & Roses: the Paston Family and the Wars of the Roses
Blood Sisters: The Women Behind The Wars Of The Roses
Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses
Cecily Neville: Mother of Richard III
The Queen’s Rival
The Game's Afoot
WARWICK - The Man Behind The Wars of the Roses

RANDOM READS
30 titles drawn at random from the TBR ocean... These are all new this year. Previous Random Reads that I still want to keep on the radar are under Leftovers.

Non-fiction:
Decoding the Celts: Revealing the legacy of the celtic tradition
Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History

Wales/Arthurian:
The Snowdonia Killings
Crimson Shore
The Chinese Sailor

Next-in-Series:
Real Tigers
Demons are a Ghoul's Best Friend
The Dark Rose

New Series:
A Mortal Bane
Hot Tea & Cold Murder
Ink and Bone

Old Themes:
Bel Canto (music)
Black Dove White Raven (birds)
The Odyssey
142 Ostriches (birds)
The Butterfly and the Violin (music)
READ Peregrine

Historical Fiction:
The Game's Afoot
Bertie And The Tinman
Simon the Fiddler
In the Company of the Courtesan
Minds of Winter
The Second Sleep

Other Fiction:
The Cornish Coast Murder
Margot
The Secret Keeper
The Department of Sensitive Crimes
The Murmur of Bees
The Eight

BOOK CLUBS

Daytimer's Book Club
Read all 12.

READ Jan: Non-fiction: The Library Book
READ Feb: Woman author: Mrs. Everything
READ Mar: Prize Winner/Nominee: The Dutch House
READ Apr: Children's fiction: The Book of Boy
READ May: Suspense/Thriller: The Secrets We Kept
READ Jun: Mystery fiction: The Lions of Fifth Avenue
READ Jul: Contemporary fiction: Dear Edward
READ Aug: Memoir: The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
READ Sep: Historical fiction: The Book of Longings
READ Oct: Laurel's Choice: The Book of Lost Friends
READ Nov: Books to TV: Normal People
READ Dec: Love stories: One Day in December

Perspectives Book Club
Jan: Cantoras
Feb: This Is How It Always Is
Mar: Sing, Unburied, Sing
Apr: The Year of Magical Thinking
READ 2010 May: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
READ 2019 Sep: Pachinko
READ 2020 Oct: Left Neglected
READ 2020 Nov: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Dec: (meeting postponed until Jan. 2022) The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life

Online group reads:
The Crystal Cave March pick, The Reading Loft

A GOOD YARN
A book club with monthly themes or challenges.

JANUARY:
U is for Un-
Untimely Death

U is for Under
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky

Title beginning with U:
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky
Untimely Death


FEBRUARY:
V is for Victorian
READ Death at Bishop's Keep

V is for Valley
Lonely is the Valley or
The Valley

Title beginning with V:
Veil of Lies or
The Valley


MARCH:
W is for Who, What, Why, When, or Where
READ Where the Forest Meets the Stars

W is for Wives
READ The Chocolatier's Wife

Title beginning with W:
READ Where the Forest Meets the Stars


APRIL:
X is for X marks the spot Read a book about pirates or buried treasure.
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
Treasure Island

X is for any X in the title, author, or location
Anglesey Blue (DI Tudor Manx, #1)
Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa

Title beginning with X (or maybe that contains an X):
The Xenophobe's Guide to the Welsh

MAY:
Y is for Yellow
Neverhome

Y is for Yarn
READ Murder in a Scottish Shire

Title beginning with Y:
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur


JUNE:
Z is for words in the title that begin with Z
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise

Z is for words in the titles that contain a "double z"
READ Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon

Title beginning with Z:
Zorrie


JULY: No new themes (catch-up month)


AUGUST: No new themes (catch-up month)


SEPT: Starting a new alphabet focusing on GEOGRAPHY.
Each month will have two options: a place NAME that begins with the letter. And a generic place that begins with the letter.

Around the world with A:
Anglesey Blue (Anglesey)
READ The Alehouse Murders (an alehouse)

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER:
Around the world with B:
READ The Bungalow (Bora Bora, a beach, AND a bungalow)
READ The Giver of Stars (Baileyville, Kentucky)
READ 2020 Left Neglected (Boston)

DECEMBER:
Around the world with C:
The Cornish Coast Murder (Cornwall AND a coast)
City of Masks
READ Murder on the Menu (Cornwall)
Bonus: Christmas


Leftovers:
B is for Body Parts
From Hand to Hand: the Welsh novel O Law I Law

I is for Ice
Independent People

J is for Jungle

J is for Japan

Title beginning with J

O is for One
One for Sorrow

P is for Pioneers

Q is for Queens
Queen By Right

T is for Trees
The Plum Tree

AUTHOR AND SERIES

Diana Gabaldon
Virgins - short story
Outlander
The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel
Dragonfly in Amber
A Fugitive Green -short story
Voyager

Lord John and the Hellfire Club - novella
Lord John and the Private Matter
Lord John and the Succubus - novella
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
Lord John and the Hand of Devils - novella
The Custom of the Army - short story
The Scottish Prisoner
A Plague of Zombies - short story
Besieged - short story

Drums of Autumn
The Outlandish Companion: Companion to Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes
An Echo in the Bone
Written in My Own Heart's Blood

A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows - short story
The Space Between - short story
The Outlandish Companion, Volume Two

Madeleine L'Engle
Here is "sort of" a chronological list of books featuring the Murrays, the O'Keefes, the Austins, and a few other crossover characters, and maybe a few books that don't have any crossover but I'm including them anyway...

The Other Side of the Sun
READ 2018 Ilsa
The Small Rain
And Both Were Young
The Joys of Love
Camilla
A Winter's Love
Love Letters
------------------------------------------
READ 2019 A Wrinkle in Time
READ 2019 A Wind in the Door
READ 2019 Many Waters
READ A Swiftly Tilting Planet
------------------------------------------
Meet the Austins
The Moon by Night
------------------------------------------
The Arm of the Starfish
Dragons in the Waters
A House Like a Lotus
------------------------------------------
The Young Unicorns
A Ring of Endless Light
Troubling a Star
------------------------------------------
An Acceptable Time
------------------------------------------
Certain Women
A Live Coal in the Sea
A Severed Wasp

Other leftovers from previous years:
Alexander McCall Smith:
44 Scotland Street series:
#09 Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
#10 The Revolving Door of Life
#11 The Bertie Project
#12 A Time of Love and Tartan

Corduroy Mansions series:
#3 A Conspiracy of Friends

Rita Mae Brown:
Mrs. Murphy series:
#13 Cat's Eyewitness
#14 Sour Puss
#15 Puss 'N Cahoots

Alan Bradley:
Flavia de Luce series:
#01 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (reread)
#02 The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (reread)
#03 A Red Herring Without Mustard (reread)
#04 I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (reread)
#05 Speaking from Among the Bones

Next in series of recently read books:
READ The Mistletoe Matchmaker (Finfarran #3)
READ The Transatlantic Book Club (Finfarran #4 US, #5 UK)
The Month of Borrowed Dreams (Finfarran #4 UK, #5 US)
---------------------------
Key Witness by Morley Torgov (Hermann Preiss #2)
Two for Joy (John the Eunuch #2)
A Rose for the Crown (not really a series, but the next book chronologically...Wars of the Roses)
--------------------------------
READ All Things Bright and Beautiful (James Herriot #2)
READ All Things Wise and Wonderful (James Herriot #3)
READ The Lord God Made Them All (James Herriot #4)
Every Living Thing (James Herriot #5)
----------------------------------------------------------
The Chocolatier's Ghost
Death at Gallows Green (Kathryn Ardleigh #2)
Murder in a Scottish Garden (Scottish Shire Mystery #2)
--------------------------------------------------------
READ Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (Meg Langslow #4)
READ We'll Always Have Parrots (Meg Langslow #5)
Owls Well That Ends Well (Meg Langslow #6)
-----------------------------------------------------
A Brush With Death (Nosey Parker #2)

LEFTOVERS

Themes
Stars:
READ The Giver of Stars
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
The Movement of Stars
READ Where the Forest Meets the Stars
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky
Written in their Stars
Children of the Stars
READ Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
Star of the Sea

Macbeth/Thorfinn/Vikings:
King Hereafter
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth: A Novel
Macbeth
A Sacred Storm
Tomb for an Eagle
Flight of the Wren

Random Reads
Wales/Arthurian:
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur
The Story of the Champions of the Round Table
The Book of Joby
To Carry The Horn

Next in Series:
His Dark Lady
City of Masks

New Series:
A Game of Thrones
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga #1)

Themes (old and new):
The Sparrow
The Sparrow Sisters
The Plover
READ *The Chocolatier's Wife (Wife titles)
*Railsea (Moby Dick)
*Orfeo (Music and musicians)
*A White Wind Blew (Music and musicians)

Historical Fiction:
Courting Mr. Lincoln
Wolf Hall
The Pillars of the Earth
The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers
Kristin Lavransdatter
*The Golden Horn (11th cent. Vikings)
*Season of the Raven (12th cent. England)
*When Knighthood Was in Flower

Other:
Hounded
Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love
...And Ladies of the Club
Awayland
*The Evening Chorus (WWII)
*Letters from Skye (dual timeframe, 1912, 1940)

From the library:
Library of Souls
A Map of Days
Awayland
The Evening Chorus
Dark Winds Rising
The Sparrow Sisters
READ Boone: A Biography
City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan
Dark Fire
Heartstone

The 12 Oldest in My TBR Ocean:
The Long Walk Home (owned)
Within the Fetterlock
Thirteenth Night
Kilt Dead (owned)
The Tale of Hill Top Farm
Her Royal Spyness (owned)
The Last Troubadour
The Book of Joby (owned)
The Fall of Atlantis (owned)
Mozart's Sister
Vivaldi's Virgins
The Expected One (owned)

January plans:

Currently reading:
READ Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
READ War and Peace
READ Troubled Blood
READ The Mistletoe Matchmaker
One for Sorrow
Queen By Right
Outlander (reread)

Next up:
READ Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
READ The Library Book (for Daytimers)
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky (for A Good Yarn)
Untimely Death (for A Good Yarn)
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier (Netgalley ARC)

Impressive! And I love your idea of the color ratings to, as you say, add some nuance to the GR scheme. Wishing you lots of good books in 2021 :)

Thank you, Leslie! The same to you for 2021! Let's go read!

#1 Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
5 gold stars.

I counted this as finished last year, just because I was almost finished and it is a chunky one! I marked it as a reread for 2021, but it isn't really. Just wanted to have it counted for 2020 and 2021....

Pages: 728

#2 War and Peace
5 blue stars.

Also counted as finished last year. Timeless themes.

Pages: 2078

Finally got my Daytimer's Book Club books picked, so I've updated message 4 above.

Impressive challenges, Laurel. Good luck.

February plans:

Still reading:
READ Troubled Blood - paused
READ The Mistletoe Matchmaker
Queen By Right

Started in Jan:
READ Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
READ The Library Book (for Daytimers)
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky (for A Good Yarn)

Next up:
Untimely Death (for A Good Yarn) - this may have to be a "leftover" for later...
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier (Netgalley ARC)
One for Sorrow - started last year
READ The Winter Hare and
READ Peregrine - just got through ILL and need to prioritize.

Possibly:
READ All Creatures Great and Small - just got on Audible. Been watching the new TV series and it has me wanting to reread these books!

Also need to come up with my V books for A Good Yarn. Maybe:
READ Death at Bishop's Keep or
A Dangerous Duet for "Victorian"
Lonely is the Valley for "Valley"
Veil of Lies for a V title, or maybe
The Valley for "Valley" AND a V title...

I've added another list to message 7 above: The 12 oldest books in Goodreads that I've listed as To Be Read. By giving these some visibility here, maybe I'll get at least a few of them read.

#3 The Winter Hare
5 blue stars - Historical fiction for young teens (ages 10-15?). I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am starting the sequel right away. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Pages: 2350

#4 Peregrine
5 blue stars - Loved it! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Pages: 2590

Here it is March already, and I only finished the two books above in Feb. So, I still have everything else in message #15 to finish, plus some new:

READ The Dutch House - for Daytimers

A Good Yarn themes are Who, What, Why, When, or Where; and Wives titles. Choices are:
READ Where the Forest Meets the Stars
READ The Chocolatier's Wife

Maybe, because it is a group read in The Reading Loft (Yahoo group):
The Crystal Cave

#5 The Mistletoe Matchmaker

3.5 pink stars. Another cozy visit to the little town of Lissbeg, Ireland.

Pages: 2944

I thought The Chocolatier's Wife was very good! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks, Leslie. It's been on my TBR and a random read pick for several years now! This Good Yarn challenge is finally getting me to prioritize it. I like a good fantasy. Although, right now Where the Forest Meets the Stars has really grabbed me! Normally I read several books at a time, but when a book is really good the others can go begging...

#6 The Library Book
4 red stars, though I struggled to finish it. Loved all the trivia about libraries!

Pages: 3261

#7 The Dutch House
4 red stars, purely on the strength of the narration by Tom Hanks

#8 Mrs. Everything
3 green stars. I didn't like it, but it did take me on a trip down memory lane.

Pages: 4014

#9 Where the Forest Meets the Stars
Definitely 5 purple stars. I will read whatever the author writes next.
Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Pages: 4346

#10 Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
4 red stars.

Pages: 4650

Well here it is April already! I am now fully vaccinated and eager to visit my parents (over 90). Not going until Mother's Day weekend...

Today, I am eagerly awaiting delivery of my new Nook tablet. Didn't even know until this week that they were coming out with a new one. I love my Nook HD, but it was discontinued several years ago, and will no longer update Overdrive. I can't put Libby on it and I had to go through my library website rather than the Overdrive app to get my latest ebook on the tablet, so I was looking. I hope the new one does well enough that it isn't discontinued in a couple of years. I probably would have bought a Samsung Galaxy something, but the new Nook was a very competitive price, so I'm taking the chance!

Okay. Still reading and hope to finish soon:
Queen By Right (owned)
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier (ARC from Netgalley)
READ The Chocolatier's Wife (ebook owned) - leftover W theme (Wife) for A Good Yarn
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky (audiobook from library) - leftover U theme for A Good Yarn

Next up:
READ Troubled Blood (Audible purchase) - started this, but it got interrupted by book club books that had to be finished. Will resume this as soon as I finish Under the Wide and Starry Sky.
The Crystal Cave (owned) - this is the current choice of an online group I belong to, and have not reread this since probably college days?
READ The Book of Boy (from the library) - this month's library book club choice.

After that I have way too many choices. Fortunately Blood and Treasure works for this month's A Good Yarn theme. But I am way behind on previous themes.
Aunt Bessie Assumes - another book for this month's X theme - will need to purchase ebook. Not available through the library
Would also like to read
Treasure Island
READ Death at Bishop's Keep - checked out on Overdrive - this is a leftover V (Victorian) theme.

Have also started
Neverhome

No, I won't get all of these read in April....

Enjoy the Nook tablet when you receive!

Thanks. It arrived, and I am loving it so far! No cover available for it yet....

#11 Under the Wide and Starry Sky
4.5 blue stars - I didn't know anything about Robert Louis Stevenson's life before reading this. Now I really must read Treasure Island. Can't believe I've never read it!

Pages: 5146

#12 The Book of Boy
5 purple stars. A magical tale, much deeper than it first appears. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pages: 5439

#13 All Creatures Great and Small: The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World's Most Beloved Animal Doctor
4.5 blue stars - Just as delightful as it was 50 years ago.

Pages: 5876

#14 The Chocolatier's Wife
4.5 blue stars - fantasy, mystery, love story - satisfying characters and world building

Pages: 6154

#15 Troubled Blood
5 purple stars - I never get tired of Robin and Strike. Really, it is their relationship that holds me, more than the mysteries, although I like the complex plotting as well.

Pages: 7098

Only two books behind my goal now. It seems I never did a May update...

Still need to finish
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
READ Death at Bishop's Keep
Queen By Right - long paused
One for Sorrow - even longer paused

This month's book clubs:
READ The Secrets We Kept - Daytimers
READ Murder in a Scottish Shire - A Good Yarn (Y is for Yarn)
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur - A Good Yarn (Title beginning with Y) and a LONG time leftover....

#16 The Secrets We Kept
3.5 pink stars - The story of how the CIA recruited women in their efforts to spread propaganda behind the Iron Curtain, and how a subversive Russian novel was smuggled out of Russia to be published in Italy and the US, and then smuggled back into Russia secretly. This also tells about the lives of women, both Eastern and Western, during the 1950s.

Pages: 7466

#17 Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
4 red stars - how could it not be red, given the title....

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Total pages read in 2021: 7849

Every month brings new plans, and the beginning of June seems to invite some all summer long plans. Having just finished Blood and Treasure, I have a couple of other Daniel Boone biographies I want to read:
READ Boone: A Biography
Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
I'll probably stretch those out over the summer at about 10 pages a day.

Another all summer project is the Wolf Hall trilogy. A Librarything group read these this spring. I'm a little late to the party, but this seems like a good time to tackle it.
Wolf Hall will be for June.
Bring Up the Bodies July
The Mirror & the Light August

The Librarything group has also got me interested in Sarah Moss so I requested her first book to read. That arrived via Interlibrary loan so has to be read in the next 3 weeks!
READ Cold Earth

A Good Yarn is finishing up the alphabet with Z this month. So we have a word that begins with a z for one theme and a word with a double z for the second theme. I have several ideas for a z word, but probably won't get to it. My double z book is #4 in Donna Andrews wonderful Meg Langslow series. I read the first three back in 2007 and always intended to read more. The #4 title has a double z word, so here's my excuse to reread the first three first....
READ Murder With Peacocks
READ Murder With Puffins
READ Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
READ Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon

And, if I get to it, my z word title is
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise

My Daytimers book club book this month is
READ The Lions of Fifth Avenue

And I'd better stop there.

Oh, but wait! There are several "Welsh" mysteries I want to read this year. Do I add those to my summer plans, or wait until fall... I guess it depends on whether or not I can keep up with Daniel Boone and Wolf Hall....

But here they are:
Anglesey Blue
The Snowdonia Killings
Crimson Shore
The Chinese Sailor

#18 Death at Bishop's Keep
3 green stars - A good-enough first in a series, although some of the stereotypes bordered on cliche. Lots of nice period detail though.

Pages: 8145

#19 Murder With Peacocks
4.5 blue stars rounded up - Reread. Just as good now as it was then.

Pages: 8457

#20 The Lions of Fifth Avenue
4.5 blue stars - Mostly enjoyed this, but it occasionally felt a little contrived. A love story to books and libraries, and to the New York City Public Library in particular.

Pages: 8811

#21 Cold Earth
4.5 blue stars - Intriguing psychological fiction. Will definitely read more by this author.

Total books: 21
Total pages: 9091

It's almost July, so here's my update.

I've added a second reading of Wolf Hall - on audio - to occur simultaneously with the print book.

Waiting for the audiobook of the next Meg Langslow
READ Murder With Puffins

The next Daytimers book club book is
READ Dear Edward

I have talked A Good Yarn into NOT starting our next round of the alphabet until September. That gives me July and August to finish some themes that I had started and then postponed, and to catch up on some I never got to....
Queen By Right
One for Sorrow
Untimely Death
The Valley
Aunt Bessie Assumes
Neverhome
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur
Zorrie

And there were more from last year....

Still reading
READ Murder in a Scottish Shire
READ Boone: A Biography

#22 Murder With Puffins
4.5 blue stars. Not as good as the first book, but still a quirky, fun, read.

Total books: 22
Total pages: 9411

#23 All Things Bright and Beautiful
4.5 blue stars. Another reread and just the thing I needed this month.

Total books: 23
Total pages: 9789

August: Did not finish anything of my July plans except for Murder with Puffins. My father (91 with Alzheimers) was hospitalized at the end of June and it was determined that he had aspiration pneumonia. He failed the swallow test, and per his advance directive of not wanting to be on feeding tubes if there was no hope of recovery, he was put on "comfort care" as of July 2. My sister and I took turns being with Mom to help with decisions, etc. I went on Monday the 5th, and after finishing Murder with Puffins, I turned to James Herriot as something uplifting and comforting to listen to on the long drive. My sister and I switched again on Friday and I returned home to prepare for a trip that would take me to Scranton, PA for Welsh Heritage Week. I had been asked to teach the Welsh folk dancing class, since we could not bring in the usual instructors from Wales because of Covid. I am one of very few certified Welsh folk dances instructors in the US, so it was a big honor and a huge opportunity for me. My father died on Sunday, July 11, and I left for Scranton on Wednesday, again with James Herriot for company. The next two weeks was a blur of dawn to midnight activity with NO time whatsoever for reading. Ah well. The books are still there now that I am back home.

What I think I can actually finish this month is
READ Boone: A Biography
Queen By Right
Wolf Hall
READ Murder in a Scottish Shire

In the car, I have just started
READ Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos

Waiting for holds on book club books on audio (last month and this month)
READ Dear Edward
READ The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
I should be able to finish at least one of those.

Waiting in the wings, but maybe not impossible to at least make progress on
Neverhome
The Chocolatier's Ghost
Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
The Valley

#24 Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
4.5 red stars - The humor is starting to get a tad repetitive. Still a fun, zany read!

Total books: 24
Total pages: 10,077

#25 Dear Edward
3.5 pink stars. Not a bad book, but not up to the hype it got either. I found it a bit superficial and Hallmarkish.

Total books: 25
Total pages: 10,417

You may have noticed that my reading for August has been mostly nonexistant, except for a couple of audiobooks. I've been dealing with another very emotional and all-consuming life event. My landlord (of 15 years) just up and decided he is selling. I don't know how long I have, but he told me to "start looking." My rent here is VERY low (he only raised it once in all that time) and I have had the freedom to create the garden of my dreams. It is my heart and soul, my sanctuary, the longest I have lived in one place, and I am profoundly grieving. So reading has pretty much gone out the window. I'm 66, work part-time, income is adequate, but I basically live paycheck to paycheck. No savings at all. I will have a pension, so that is good.

My heart has fixed on the idea that I will never be happy if I don't have my own place. So I'm suddenly trying to learn about mortgages, and maybe buying will even be "cheaper" than renting. It sure seems like it. Maybe I'm crazy, but.... Wish me luck.

Now that it has been a couple of weeks, I'm beginning to be able to relax a little. I don't have enough information yet (the landlord said he would "talk to me" last week and still hasn't, so I don't know what his actual plans are, or what kind of time frame I am looking at. And I am waiting on a financial planner to get back to me, so I can figure out what is possible as far as income/ retirement etc. I kind of think retirement might not be in the picture for another year at least. That might be okay. I don't want to have to make two major life changes at the same time.

So - plans for September. My dad's memorial service is Sept. 11 in Rapid City, so driving out there again will give me some extended listening time in the car. I'm a month behind with Daytimers, so I'm going to skip
READ The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir for now and start our Sept. book
READ The Book of Longings
The audiobook is at the library waiting for me.

A Good Yarn discussed plans for Sept. and we decided to go ahead with our new geographical alphabet challenge. I'm going to set aside the unfinished "Reading the Alphabet" challenges for now, except maybe for
READ Murder in a Scottish Shire
I'll forge ahead with my two "A" books
Anglesey Blue for a specific place
and READ The Alehouse Murders for a generic place.

I will continue to try and read
Wolf Hall and its sequels by the end of the year, so having that be a much slower and spaced out read will help.
Ditto on the two Daniel Boone books, and
The Valley trilogy.

And we'll see how it goes.