Mount TBR 2021 discussion

This is my second ever attempt at this mountain. Normally, I get a few books past 60 but too late in the year to even attempt another climb and expect to achieve the summit. However due to the pandemic there is not much else to do other than read. So here we are for a second year.

For my previous books read see "When not in Narnia Karen wants to climb Kilimanjaro!"

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

MAY

Total number of Books read: 24
Total number qualifying for this challenge: 13

MAY CHALLENGE

I did it. I read all 4 books. For my monthly 2019 challenge I picked the Fencing Master.


JUNE SPINS

1. Oldest Amazon - A Power in the Land: The Percys by Richard Lomas. Bought 30/01/2001. I have read most of it, if not all of it, but never in a systematic way.
2. Re-read a book - On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn. Might as well finish off my Bridgerton re-read.
3. YA - The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence.
4. Re-read a book - The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer.

From previous challenges:

Victor Hugo - Les Misérables from March 2020.
James M. Powell (ed.) - The Deeds of Innocent III from October 2020.
Alan Savage - Ottoman from December 2020.
Michael Hicks - Warwick the Kingmaker from March 2021.
Charles Freeman - A New History of Early Christianity from March 2021.
The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick and Related Texts from April 2021.

Additions to Mount TBR in June 2021.
(I will cross them out if I read them). Hoping if I have to keep updating this it might put me off buying books...Although they will all count for this challenge...in 2022.

Physical Books Acquired

1. Fancies, Fashions, and Fads by Ralph Nevill. No cover.

2. Vera Brittain and the First World War: The Story of Testament of Youth by Mark Bostridge.

3. Madame Solario by Gladys Huntington.

4. A Notorious Voices: Feminist Biblical Criticism, 1500-1920 by Marla J. Selvidge.

5. Ink And Spirit: Literature And Spirituality edited by Stephen Platten.

6. Meet Me at the Olive Tree: Stories of Jews and Arabs Reconciled to the Messiah by Julia Fisher.

7. The Haunting of Drumroe by Claudette Nicole.

8. Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy.

Physical Book Freebies

1. Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries Edited by Martin Edwards. Gift.

2. Strange Things by Margaret Atwood. From a free library, as were the books up to 7.

3. The Group by Mary McCarthy.

4. Original Sin by PD James.

5. Oystercatchers by Susan Fletcher.

6. The Revolt by Clara Dupont-Monod.

7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

8. The Turn of the Screw & Daisy Miller by Henry James. Books 8-14 are gifts.

9. The Inheritors by William Golding.

10. Geisha of Gion by Mineko Iwasaki.

11. A Taste for Death by PD James.

12. The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill.

13. The Bridges Of Madison County by Robert James Waller.

14. Also got a Jeeves anthology which is not currently on GR.

15. Small Island by Andrea Levy.

16. Love Falls by Esther Freud.

17. Summer at Gaglow by Esther Freud.

18. Girls Are Best by Sandi Toksvig.

19. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett.

20. The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts by David Lodge. Books 20-23 are gifts.

21. The New Italians by Charles Richards.

22. Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling. Different cover.

23. Splendid by Julia Quinn.

Kindle Freebies

1. Have We Met? by Camille Baker. Amazon First Reads pick.

2. Fair Game by Monica Murphy.

Kindle Purchases

1. Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. 99p.

2. Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father by Donald H. Calloway.

61. Unpregnant by Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan.

3 stars. This book was okay. I never really warmed to it and it went a little OTT.

On TBR since 02/02/2020.

62. The Secret of Villa Serena by Domenica de Rosa.

5 stars. I really like the author and this was a nice, enjoyable read.

On TBR since ? I forgot to add it to Goodreads. Maybe 2019? 2018?

63. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer.

5 stars. Another of my favourite Heyer novels. What happens when a drunk baronet finds a heiress escaping from her window? An amusing story.

On TBR since ??? Last read in 2011!

64. On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn.

4 stars. I have finished the main Bridgerton novels (although some of the editions I read did not have the second epilogue...might see if I can find those). This is a good book but I could not get as invested as I could with books 2-4. Interesting plot though.

On TBR since 11/12/2020 although I had borrowed it from the library before this.

65. Interfaith Dialogue at the Grass Roots edited by Rebecca Kratz Mays.

3 stars. Interesting. Topic to read more about.

On TBR since 15 June 2015

66. The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extense.

3 stars. This was really well written and with a strong lead character. But I clearly didn't look into this before picking it up from a bargain bin as I wouldn't have picked up a book about assisted suicide.

On TBR since approx 18/06/2016.

67. A Power in the Land: The Percys by Richard Lomas.

4 stars. This was good. If you want a one volume history of the Percys here is a good place to start. I really used to be obsessed with them.

On TBR since 30/01/2001. I have read this before.

And I completed my June challenge quite early in the month for me. Yay!

68. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

4 stars. I have fulfilled a teenage desire by reading this book. I actually did not know too much about it so was surprised when the events moved beyond Arkansas. Lots of horror but also some wonderful female role models, and I was interested by her relationships with her brother and with her faith.

On TBR since 13/04/2019.

69. Broken Prince by Erin Watt.

4 stars. The sequel to book 50. This was totally addictive the first time I read it, and I am still enjoying it, but this volume is not as good as the first volume.

On TBR since 03/02/2018 although I did read it for the first time shortly after purchase.

70. Twisted Palace by Erin Watt.

4 stars. This one suffers from a poorly-executed ending. I enjoyed it, but it was not as addictive as the first time I read it.

On TBR since 03/02/2018 although like books 1 and 2 I read it shortly after purchase.

71. Tarnished Crown by Erin Watt.

4 stars. A novella in this series. I first read it on Wattpad but have since purchased a Kindle copy. The characters could have settled things earlier if they had just had a chat, and an awful character (Dinah) is left unpunished. She attempted to murder someone as well as blackmailing one of the leads in this novella. And unless books 4 and 5 deal with this I am not going to be happy.

On TBR since 15/12/2018. (Read on Wattpad previously).

72. The Life You Want by Emily Barr.

3 stars. I ended up really enjoying the prequel to this, Backpack, last year, but this one didn't really hit the mark for me. All the things I did not like about the heroine came to the fore and the plot twist was too heavily hinted at to be a surprise.

On TBR since 02/08/2021.

73. Warleggan by Winston Graham.

4 stars. I really like the Poldark books. Poor Francis in this one :( It is nice that things start to look up for the Poldarks at the end of this book (especially since there was a 20 year publishing delay until Graham wrote book 5).

On TBR since... these were bought for my dad and he gave them to me...I never added it to GR but I have had it for several years.

74. Bound By Blood: Anthology by Cora Reilly.

4 stars. Nothing surprising, just an update on some of the characters in her previous stories.

On TBR since 14/12/2020.

JUNE

Total number of Books read: 23
Total number qualifying for this challenge: 14

JUNE CHALLENGE

I did it. I read all 4 books.


JULY SPINS

1. Living Room 1 - Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
2. Month 2019 - 1 of The Journey is My Name by Lavinia Byrne, A Brief History of Misogyny by Jack Holland, Manual of Printing and Calligraphy by Jose Saramago, Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson, Adeline Mowbray by Amelia Opie, Porneia by Aline Rousselle, To the Lighthouse by Virignia Woolf
3. Borgia - The Borgias by Alexandre Dumas
4. Under 250 pages - Silk by Alessandro Baricco

From previous challenges:

Victor Hugo - Les Misérables from March 2020.
James M. Powell (ed.) - The Deeds of Innocent III from October 2020.
Alan Savage - Ottoman from December 2020.
Michael Hicks - Warwick the Kingmaker from March 2021.
Charles Freeman - A New History of Early Christianity from March 2021.
The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick and Related Texts from April 2021.

Additions to Mount TBR in July 2021.
(I will cross them out if I read them). Hoping if I have to keep updating this it might put me off buying books...Although they will all count for this challenge...in 2022.

Physical Books Acquired

1. The Challenge of Islam to the Church and Its Mission by Patrick Sookhdeo.

2. Embers by Sándor Márai.

3. Dying Bites by D.D. Barant.

4. His Excellency Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola.

5. L'Assommoir by Émile Zola.

6. Take Six translated by Margaret Jull Costa.

7. Raised from the Ground by José Saramago.

8. The Wager by Machado de Assis.

9. The Girl from the Sea and Other Stories by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen.

10. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. Read August 2021.

11. The Migrant Painter of Birds by Lidia Jorge. No cover.

12. The Word Tree by Teolinda Gersão.

13. Apology To Women by Ann Brown.

14. Feminist Theology by Natalie K. Watson.

15. Casting Off: Finding Faith for Change by Ruth Scott.

16. Born Bad: Original Sin and the Making of the Western World by James Boyce.

Physical Book Freebies

1. Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler. Gift.

2. Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid. Gift.

3. Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts. Gift.

4. On Love by Alain de Botton. Gift.

5. What is Mysticism? by David Knowles. No cover. The next 5 books were unexpected gifts from my friend.

6. The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works by Anonymous.

7. Body and Soul: Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism edited by Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff.

8. Nobility and Annihilation in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls by Joanne Maguire Robinson.

9. Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth Century Lives by Natalie Zemon Davies.

10. A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore. The next 3 are gifts from my partner.

11. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler.

12. An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan.

13. The Best of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. Gift.

14. Happy Adventure Tales by Enid Blyton. Gift.

15. Drive Around Portugal, 2nd: Your guide to great drives. Top 25 Tours. by Barbara Radcliffe Rogers & Stillman D Rogers.

16. Love Story by Erich Segal. Love this book.

17. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively.

18. The Initiation by Diane Hoh.

19. Death of an Airman by Christopher St John Sprigg.

20. Family Money by Nina Bawden.

21. Now That You're Back by AL Kennedy.

22. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Different cover.

23. Waterland by Graham Swift.

Kindle Freebies

1. Brown Boy Nowhere by Sheeryl Lim. Amazon First Read.

2. Facing The Enemy by M.E. Clayton.

3. My Stolen Life by Steffanie Holmes.

4. London Dynasty by Geneva Lee.

5. Bad Boy Blues by Saffron A. Kent.

6. Fighter's Heart by A. Rivers.

7. Rival by Ketley Allison.

8. Clearwater University: The Complete Series by Eva Ashwood.

Kindle Purchases

1. Wed to the Wild God by Ruby Dixon. Pre-order for August.

2. Stolen Crush by C.M. Stunich. Pre-order for later in July. Read August 2021.

3. Mafia Bride by CD Reiss.

4. Finale by Stephanie Garber. Read before, but it was 99p.

75. Silk by Alessandro Baricco.

3 stars. A dreamlike fable about a silk merchant who travels to Japan to buy cocoons and falls in love. Much better than it sounds!

On TBR since 31/12/2019.

I have climbed El Toro! Next book I will set up the next stage. Yay!