Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Option #3 - 2022 Determination Plus Challenge

Books 1-10. Pick 10 books any format you want that you'll been wanting to read. Could be off your own to be read mountains or library etc.
1. **FINISHED 17/01/22 Best Served Cold by David J. Gatward
2. **FINISHED 17/01/22 The Rock by L.J. Ross
3. **FINISHED 13/01/22 A Test of Mettle by Kevin Hearne
4. **FINISHED 21/01/22 Corpse Road by David J. Gatward
5. **FINISHED 20/01/22 Strings by Kendall Grey
6. **FINISHED 20/01/22 Black and Gold by Solomon Carter
7. **FINISHED 31/01/22 A Knock at the Door by T.W. Ellis aka Tom Wood
8. **FINISHED 26/01/22 Relentless by Solomon Carter
9. **FINISHED 01/02/22 Shooting Season by David J. Gatward
10. ** FINISHED 02/02/22 Kill Them Cold by J.M. Dalgliesh


The next 12 books is the "Plus" part of the challenge. Hope you enjoy and are able to find some great books that will fit in.

11. **FINISHED 07/02/22 The Killing Pit by Wes Markin A book set in a different country than you live in.

12. ** FINISHED 04/01/22 Grimm Up North by David J. Gatward. Read a book by an Author that you never read before or one by a new debut author.

13. **FINISHED 20/01/22 A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller by J.D. Kirk A book that someone recommended to you. Recommended by a friend on another forum (Thanks Fatima).

14. **FINISHED 14/01/22 The Time Hunters and the Box of Eternity by Carl Ashmore A book that is a different genre than your normal type of read. (could be out of your comfort zone).

15 & 16. Two books from a series you haven't completed yet. (Everyone has that one or two books to still read to catch up in a series)
**FINISHED 11/01/22 Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin &
**FINISHED 16/01/22 A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin

17. **FINISHED 04/02/22 Quicksilver by Dean Koontz A book that comes out in 2022.

18. **FINISHED 06/02/22 Truth or Dare by M.J. Arlidge A book that you mean to read in 2021 but never got around to it.

19. **FINISHED 07/01/22 For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming A book that came out before you were born. (this one might be harder to do but we know you can handle it)

20. **FINISHED 16/01/22 Make Them Pay by Craig Martelle. A book that is done by more than one author (it can be a book of short stories by different authors, or one book that is one story with more than 1 author like Patterson or Evanovich and I'm sure there are others.

21. **FINISHED 28/01/22 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir A book that won an award. (Goodreads Choice 2021 Winner)

22. **FINISHED 24/01/22 Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky One of the oldest to be read books on your unread mountain. (Been sitting in my audiobooks folder for several years and first published Feb 3rd 1982 - 40 years old)

Welcome Brad. Good luck.

Brad: if your listening/ reading habits are the same as last year - I predict you’ll do nicely with option #3! I selected that option as well. Good luck!

Donnajo wrote: "Welcome Brad. Good luck."

Thank you, it does make me explore a few other options away from my normal reading material.

Ann wrote: "Brad: if your listening/ reading habits are the same as last year - I predict you’ll do nicely with option #3! I selected that option as well. Good luck!"

Thanks Ann, I'll do my best. Good luck to you too.

One down, #12, a new author to me. Enjoyed this first-in-series and can't wait to read the next.

Good luck Brad! You're off to a good start!

Great start.

#15 & #19 finished. Loved the Rebus book, the Bond book not so much.
The Bond book, For Your Eyes Only came out before I was born but the first Bond film, Dr. No, came out 4 days after I entered the world.

Brad, WTG. You are going to zip though this challenge for sure.

Donnajo wrote: "Brad, WTG. You are going to zip though this challenge for sure."
Thanks, I think my next one is a YA novel for my "different genre" book, kindly donated for free by the narrator.

A few more completed.
#3 (from my TBR)
#16 (Rebus series)
#14 (young adult, not my usual genre)
#19 (anthology, 20 different authors)

WTG.

#1 & #2 finished. Both excellent audiobooks while driving the work van

My library just went from cloud library too Libby. Beginning of the year I just put the app on my iPad yesterday. I'm still a beginner when it comes to audio. Never really could get into doing them. rather read print or Ebook. But with some books that I know would take me longer the audio with the print book is better. Not going to do any audio at the moment until I catch up with Arcs.

Brad: Audiobooks definitely are good road companions! You've listed several new to me I will have to check out. Looks like you breezed right into the David J Gatward DCI Harry Grimm books.

Brad wrote: "#1 & #2 finished. Both excellent audiobooks while driving the work van"

Brad: Also it is great that several are on Kindle Unlimited. Looking forward to getting to the DCI Logan Crime thrillers series too.

Donnajo wrote: "My library just went from cloud library too Libby. Beginning of the year I just put the app on my iPad yesterday. I'm still a beginner when it comes to audio. Never really could get into doing them..."
I resisted audiobooks at first as my first few attempts were from my local library, first on cassette tapes then on CDs and it was a hassle. Much easier now with phone apps, streaming, fast downloads etc. I drive close to 2000 miles a week for work and far from a distraction I find listening to audiobooks makes the journeys seem shorter and more enjoyable.
There are not so many ARCs for audiobooks though there are certainly some around. There are however a lot of Review Codes around for audiobooks, especially when you follow the narrators or authors. They get reviews, I get free listens, a win/win.

Ann wrote: "Brad: Audiobooks definitely are good road companions! You've listed several new to me I will have to check out. Looks like you breezed right into the David J Gatward DCI Harry Gri..."
Ann: Great road companions indeed, though I also do a lot of cooking and have several hobbies where I can stick my earphones in and listen while I cook or whatever.
The Harry Grimm books are great, crime thrillers with great banter between the main characters.

Now I understand how you get the amount of books done. The only longer times in car I do is when I go to shore in the summer and I rather do music I did at one point way back do audios for a short time but I think it was when I listened to some David Sedaris I found I didn’t like listening to regular books because I wasn’t doing it enough and couldn’t concentrate on stories. Now when i feel like audios I only do it very early in morning, when I’m tired of reading or meal times. Haven’t done any this year since the library is still moving things over plus I’m trying to get these arcs out of the way and library books but hoping Once I’m caught up I’ll get a better system going and can start working on challenges. I think the top part I’ll go back to doing any owned print rather than narrowing it down.

I agree with DJ; now I see how you plow through so many books. I'm impressed at how quickly you're going through your DL! I get distracted by all the books that come out by my favorite authors and I can't really consider them DL books for one reason or another.

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "I agree with DJ; now I see how you plow through so many books. I'm impressed at how quickly you're going through your DL! I get distracted by all the books that come out by my favorite authors and ..."
I don't get distracted by them as much as overwhelmed and my TBR folders seem to grow by the day, both Audio & Kindle books filling up faster than I can ever read them. I keep telling myself not to get any more until I get through what I already have but of course it never works.

Brad wrote: " I keep telling myself not to get any more until I get through what I already have but of course it never works..."

This is me and borrowing from the library. At the moment I have 18 books out. 18!!! Of course most of them get returned unread, and re-borrowed, and.... you get the drift!

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Brad wrote: " I keep telling myself not to get any more until I get through what I already have but of course it never works..."

This is me and borrowing from the library. At the moment I have 18 ..."
Haha, yeah, I know what you mean, I had to join several different libraries because of the limit on the number of loans I was allowed at the same time. Annoyingly reserving a book/audiobook counts as a loan even if it won't be available for several months so it counts towards the limit.

Brad wrote: "Annoyingly reserving a book/audiobook counts as a loan even if it won't be available for several months so it counts towards the limit. ..."

Now that is just cuckoo!

And...that's me done. Obviously much easier with audiobooks though some were Kindle reads too. There were a couple I probably would never have read without the challenge, one of which, Project Hail Mary, was absolutely awesome but being Sci-fi it would have been skipped over otherwise.

It's been enjoyable and, no, I'm not competing with anyone here, just enjoying books at my own pace. Are there any other decent challenges around?

Good luck to everyone else.

WTG Brad. February and you finished it already.
If you want you can do the top 10 version challenge one. I figure if I finish early enough or even just the top 10 section I might still do another top 10.
If you mean other groups. I sometimes look at some of the two other groups for ideas that would work. One is the Ultimate Popsugar Reading challenge and I can't find what the other one is. I think Popsugar has two versions one is a little harder.

Wow Brad, that is amazing. You clearly are very purposeful in your use of audio time! I hope you find another DL to challenge you. Or, you could start a second one here, LOL!

Brad - Congrats! I loved Project Hail Mary too. The audio was terrific. If I run across any other group challenges I'll pass it on.

Brad wrote: "And...that's me done. Obviously much easier with audiobooks though some were Kindle reads too. There were a couple I probably would never have read without the challenge, one of which, Project Hail Mary was absolutely awesome.
"