Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Read first and / or last (final*) book in series

How to:
>Go to "My Books" (above)
>View your Read shelf by most recent dates read and check the latest serial book (the last book that is part of a series) you read in 2022, that serial number is the number of books you should read for this task. For example, if the last series book I read was Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #2) then my goal for this task is 2 books.

>Go to https://justflipacoin.com/
>Flip coins the number of times following your goal for this task and read:
--> First book in series for Heads
--> Last/final* book in series for Tails

*book must be the conclusion of the series

My last serial book was The Wreath (Kristin Lavransdatter, #1)

1. Heads. Resurrection Bay (Caleb Zelic, #1)

My last serial book is Bleeding Heart Yard (Harbinder Kaur #3) So I need to read 3 books

1.Heads - An Easy Death
2.Heads - Hide
3.Tails - The Last Remains - the final book in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths.

My last serial book was The Nursing Home Murder (Roderick Alleyn #3). I got 3 Tails, just my luck lol! I'll have to think this over.

1. Tails: Il Visconte di Bragelonne (The d'Artagnan Romances #3)
2. Tails: TBD
3. Tails: TBD

Prompt 2: Heads or Tails COMPLETED

Well, this keeps changing. Currently: My last serial book was A Sense Of Place (Alison Plantaine #2)

1. Heads: Curiosity Thrilled the Cat by Sofie Kelly Read 1/20/23 - 4*
2. Heads: Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen Read 1/31/23 - 4*

Fifteen in Fifteen - Prompt #2: Heads or Tails - Complete

My last book was Twisted Lies by Angela Marsons. This is book #14 in the DI Kim Stone series. Yikes!

✔︎ 1. Heads - Reflections by Nora Roberts
Read: January 30, 2023
✔︎ 2. Heads - Calculated Risk by Janie Crouch
Read: March 10, 2023
✔︎ 3. Heads - The Secrets We Bury by Debra Webb
Read: April 8, 2023
✔︎ 4. Tails - The Viscount and the Vixen by Lorraine Heath
Read: January 10, 2023
✔︎ 5. Tails - A Lady Never Surrenders by Sabrina Jeffries
Read: February 8, 2023
✔︎ 6. Tails - A Farewell to Charms by Molly Harper
Read: February 9, 2023
✔︎ 7. Heads - An English Bride in Scotland by Lynsay Sands
Read: April 12, 2023
✔︎ 8. Tails - The Darkness We Hide by Debra Webb
Read: May 10, 2023
✔︎ 9. Heads - Deadly Descent by Kaylea Cross
Read: April 18, 2023
✔︎ 10. Heads - Against the Wall by Rebecca Zanetti
Read: May 1, 2023
✔︎ 11. Tails - Ruby Fever by Ilona Andrews
Read: May 15, 2023
✔︎ 12. Heads - Murder at Haven's Rock by Kelley Armstrong
Read: June 11, 2023
✔︎ 13. Tails - The Wedding Bargain by Yvonne Lindsay
Read: June 16, 2023
✔︎ 14. Tails - Beautiful Sinner by Sophie Jordan
Read: July 19, 2023

Me!!!

Question are we using cut off as today to determine last series book or something else?

Fifteen in Fifteen - Prompt #2: Heads or Tails

last series book read in 2022:
12/27 finished The Skull Beneath the Skin (Cordelia Gray #2)

1. HEADS: Sand (The Sand Chronicles, #1)
2. TAILS: Camouflage (pub 2012, and no news of another one)

Oh, dear. My last series book was Mortal Causes (Inspector Rebus 6) Picture Perfect Cowboy (Original Sinners 8.5). I guess I'll be working through this one for a while.

Whew! Finished Girls with Razor Hearts (Girls With Sharp Sticks 2) just in time.

1. Heads - The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty 1) - completed 2/17/23
2. Heads - Perdido Street Station

Last books of 2022 were Song of the Forever Rains (Mousai #1) and A Girl from Nowhere (The Firewall Trilogy #1) (both finished on the same day)

TAILS -Grave Phantoms by Jenn Bennett May 8, 2023 ★★★★★ (#3 Roaring Twenties trilogy)

Ed. After posting below, I actually read another book which is only number 2 Æthelred the Unready: The Failed King, but I will stick with my target of 7 and see how I go)

Last book read: Ruddy Gore, Number 7

Last book read: Ruddy Gore, Number 7

Read: 7/7

✔ 1. Heads: The Warden (book 1 of 6) 13/12/24
✔ 2. Heads: The Crime at Black Dudley (book 1 of 21) 8/4/23
✔ 3. Heads: Winter Pilgrims (book 1 of 4) 24/2/23
✔ 4. Heads: The Giver (book 1 of 4) 21/4/23
✔ 5. Heads: A Study in Scarlet (book 1 of 9) 28/2/25
✔ 6. Tails: World of Trouble (book 3 of 3) 13/1/23
✔ 7. Heads: Stormbird (book 1 of 4) 4/4/25

Prompt #2: Heads or Tails ~ COMPLETE

Last series book read (updated 1/1/23): A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor (The Chronicles of St Mary's #2)

✓ 1. Heads - The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver (Lincoln Rhyme #1) Read: 1/11/23
✓ 2. Tails - Anything for You by Kristan Higgins (Blue Heron #5) Read: 2/20/23

Prompt #2: Heads or Tails
January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023
COMPLETED

Read first and / or last (final*) book in series.
You can read for all Prompts concurrently.

Last series book read: (will add this on Dec 31, 2022):

My last two series were both #1, the last being
Fresh Brewed Murder.

1. Heads - The Existential Worries of Mags Munroe: The Mags Munroe Series (Mags Munroe #1), Jean Grainger, 9 Jan 2023

My last series book for 2022 was August Kitko and the Mechas from Space #1 in series.

1. Tails The Golden Enclaves completed Jan 5

Fifteen in Fifteen - Prompt #2: Heads or Tails

Last serial book was Island of Graves (Unwanteds #6).

1. Heads - The Forgetting (The Forgetting #1) - 7/6/2023
2. Tails - Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7) - 6/17/2023
3. Heads - The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1) - 8/16/2023
4. Heads
5. Tails - The Knowing (The Forgetting #2) - 7/15/2023
6. Heads

Fifteen for Fifteen
Prompt 2: Heads or Tails
Completed 5/5

I am currently reading The Botanist (Washington Poe, #5) so I will count 5.
(ETA: This did indeed turn out to be my last series book of the year.)

✔ 1. Tails - last book in series
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence, 3 Jan 23

✔ 2. Heads - first book in series
Blood on the Cowley Road by Peter Tickler, 20 Jan 23

✔ 3. Heads - first book in series
The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton, 2 Mar 23

✔ 4. Heads - first book in series
The Lake District Murder by John Bude, 22 Mar 23

✔ 5. Tails - last book in series
The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell, 15 Jan 23

Fifteen for Fifteen -- Prompt #2 Heads or Tails - DONE.

Last book in a series from 2022 -- A Hard Day for a Hangover Book #3

1. Heads -- Throne of Glass 1/2/23
2. Heads -- Sleeping Giants 1/5/23
3. Tails -- Paint It All Red 2/22/23

Fifteen For Fifteen prompt 2
January 1-December 31 2023
The last book in a series I read was Murder on the Orient Express #9

1) Mistletoe Murder heads Leslie Meier completed 06/3/23
2) tails Easter Bonnet Murder by Leslie Meier
3) heads This Pen for Hire Laura Levine
4) heads Magician: Apprentice Raymond E. Feist
5) tails Pink Lemonade Cake Murder Joanne Fluke
6) tails Murder Gets a Makeoverby Laura Levine
7) heads The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
8) tails Killer Cupid by Laurien Berenson
9) tails Triple Crossby James Patterson

Dee wrote: "Question are we using cut off as today to determine last series book or something else?"

Thanks, Dee!! I was just about to post a reminder that we've still got some days left to the year so please check again on your serial number on Jan 1st :) OR you can update your post each time you finish a serial book from now to Dec 31st

Lauren wrote: "Fifteen in Fifteen - Prompt #2: Heads or Tails

My last book was Twisted Lies by Angela Marsons. This is book #14 in the DI Kim Stone series. Yikes!..."

oooh!!! You might still fit it another lesser in series book before 31st if you're quick!

Kristina Simon wrote: "

Whew, glad I saw this before finishing my current read... #54 in the In..."

And I thought 14 was bad! Lol!

Tien wrote: "Lauren wrote: "Fifteen in Fifteen - Prompt #2: Heads or Tails

oooh!!! You might still fit it another lesser in series book before 31st if you're quick!.."

I probably will finish a couple more, but I might go with this one anyway. I'll see closer to the date :)

Same here...I'm listening to Going Rogue which is #29 in the Stephanie Plum series. Glad I can do my planning today!

My last book was Sugar (Sugar Lacey #1)

I flipped Tails and will read This Bitter Earth (Sugar Lacey #2) - Completed 2/14/23

My last series book was Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry #1).

I flipped Heads and will read She: A History of Adventure

My last serial book was - Murder in the Mews #16.5
I am ignoring the number after the point and have 16 books to read - this is going to be some task!!!

1. Heads no 1 in series The Secret of Chimneys 24/01/2023
2. Heads no 1 in series The Unspoken
3. Heads no 1 in series Malice 04/01/2023
4. Heads no 1 in series The Girl Beneath the Sea 25/02/2023
5. Heads no 1 in series Essex Dogs
6. Tails last in series Blackout
7. Heads no 1 in series Iron Lake
8. Tails last in series The Bullet That Missed 02/01/2022
9. Tails last in series The Rosie Result
10. Heads no 1 in series Silence
11. Heads no 1 in series Blind Goddess
12 Heads no 1 in series 1st to Die 23/02/2023
13. Heads no 1 in series The Duke and I OR Yesterday's News
14. Tails last in series Misrule
15. Tails last in series Encore in Death
16. Tails last in series The Strawberry Thief 25/01/2023

I had a small heart attack when I thought the last series book I read was Shadows Reel, #22 in the Joe Pickett series.

I forgot that I read Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History, #1 in the Maus series after that.

Dodged a real bullet there! I do not read series books as a general rule. I know I'm in the minority here. LOL

#1. Heads ~ The Shaman Sings (Charlie Moon #1)

Last series book is Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel #2)

1. Heads: The Verifiers (The Verifiers #1) 2/8

2. Tails:
The Rosewater Redemption (The Wormwood Trilogy #3) 1/16

Just in case you missed it, Tails mean the last book in the series as in the conclusion not just the latest one published

Tien wrote: "Just in case you missed it, Tails mean the last book in the series as in the conclusion not just the latest one published"

So what do we do if the latest one published is not yet the conclusion lol?

Well, just update post 5 as the last serial book I have finished was not a #1, but a #2.

Marina wrote: "Tien wrote: "Just in case you missed it, Tails mean the last book in the series as in the conclusion not just the latest one published"

So what do we do if the latest one published is not yet the ..."

then you can't use that one, sorry!
you'll have to find another book that actually qualifies :)

Tien wrote: "then you can't use that one, sorry!
you'll have to find another book that actually qualifies :)"

Ooops, that's going to be tough!

Tien wrote: "Just in case you missed it, Tails mean the last book in the series as in the conclusion not just the latest one published
... if the latest one published is not yet the not yet the conclusion ... then you can't use that one, sorry!
you'll have to find another book that actually qualifies :)"

Hmm. I'm not sure it's always possible to know that. For example, I assume Camouflage is the conclusion of its series, since it was published in 2012. Ditto The Labyrinth of the Spirits, pub in 2018.

But how do we know, with something relatively new like The Golden Enclaves, for example, whether the author will write a #4 or not? I have the same concern about A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. It seems like sometimes we might have to read a book and decide at the end whether it feels like things have been drawn to a close.

Any suggestions?

Susan, I was wondering the same. I wanted to read About Time, which is the latest instalment in the Time Police series – but since it was only published a few months ago, I have no idea whether the author intends to go on with the series... I decided to only read books that I know to be conclusive for this challenge.

Why would you read the final book in the series if you have not read all the ones leading up to it? Or am I misunderstanding this challenge? Please help.

Prompt 2: Heads or Tails

2/2 - DONE

Last series books, It Starts with Us (#2)

1. Heads - Dreamer, 1/17/23, 3 stars
2. Heads - Vanishing Edge, 1/3/22, 3 stars

Apparently, I had a whole ton of series books on hold at the library that I forgot about! They are, of course, now coming available all at the same time. I finished a #54 and then went on to a #2 and a #4. Currently reading a #2, hoping to get to the #3 that's next in the line up before the end of the year. I'll update my post with last serial book for 2022 when I know what it is!

Sometimes it's very clear that it's a conclusion to the series and it'll say so in the book description that it's a 'thrilling finale' etc etc etc

That's the safest to go for. I do know that sometimes, after say 5 years or so, there'll be another book in the series set after the main plot of the series like an epilogue of sorts. In that case, it's fine because the 'last/final' book usually would have a description to say that it is the conclusion or finale.

It is a bit harder but it is supposed to be a challenge...

Beth wrote: "Why would you read the final book in the series if you have not read all the ones leading up to it? Or am I misunderstanding this challenge? Please help."

You'd read the final book of a series you've already started... the challenge is to finish that series that's been hanging about on your shelf for some time.

Tien wrote: "Sometimes it's very clear that it's a conclusion to the series and it'll say so in the book description that it's a 'thrilling finale' etc etc etc

That's the safest to go for. I do know that somet..."

Thanks for clarifying, Tien :)

I do think a lot of trilogies will have that last "thrilling finale" comment, but many other series do not. And I think a lot of times we'll just be guessing. After all, it makes sense for the authors to hedge their bets a little bit, go on to another one if the last one they wrote does well.

As an example of how hard it is to predict, Lois Lowry published The Giver in 1993. Then and second and third in 2000 and 2004. For all the years between 2004 and 2012, most people believed the series was over. Then came Son.

Can we perhaps establish a number? Decide that if it doesn't really say, but you think it's the last of a series (perhaps because the author has gone on to other things), then we'll trust it if it's been more than 6-8 years since its publication with no hint of another one coming?

Tien wrote: "Beth wrote: "Why would you read the final book in the series if you have not read all the ones leading up to it? Or am I misunderstanding this challenge? Please help."

You'd read the final book of..."

Thank you Tien.

Susan wrote: "Can we perhaps establish a number? Decide that if it doesn't really say, but you think it's the last of a series (perhaps because the author has gone on to other things), then we'll trust it if it's been more than 6-8 years since its publication with no hint of another one coming?"

I don't think we can establish a series number however I'm happy for the book to be 'last/finale' if it's been 6+ years [by 2023] with no news of another one.

Fifteen for Fifteen - Prompt 2: Heads or Tails
January - December 2023 ➖ COMPLETE

My Prompt 2 Plan (msg 44)

Prompt🔹Read first and / or last (final*) book in series
last series number 🔹#1 Wishing Tree series🔹The Christmas Wedding Guest

coin flip🔹heads



#1 Thunder Mountain Brotherhood🔹Midnight Thunder🔹01.10 ★★★

Happy New Year, all!!

So 3 flips of the coins:
> HEADS: Secret Ones (Dream of Asarlai #1) by Nicole Murphy -Read 01/03
> HEADS: Legend of the Highland Dragon (Highland Dragons #1) by Isabel Cooper -Read 01/16
> TAILS: Poor Man's Orange (Harp in the South #3) -Read 02/28

oh thank the beejeebus - my last series book of 2022 was WWW: Wake - #1 in the WWW series...(i was worried i was going to get stuck with one of the high numbers in a series because of where i was on the one challenge)

Flipped a coin

HEADS - first in a series

1. Grave Reservations - #1 in The Booking Agents - finished 1/28/23

LOL - this one turns out real easy for you, Dee! You'll finish by end of first day of 2023, I'm sure ha ha ha

The last series book I read was A Song of Comfortable Chairs number 23 in the series. ( Yikes!)

1. H Crazy Rich Asians
2. H Odd Thomas
3. T The Winners
4. T Gwendy's Final Task ✅ 3/4
5. H The Wedding Date
6. T Any Way the Wind Blows
7. T Rich People Problems
8. H The Kiss Quotient
9. H The Love Hypothesis
10. T Saint Odd
11. T The Heart Principle
12. H Under One Roof
14. T Below Zero
15. T The End of Oz
16. T Allegiant
17. H Divergent
18. H Ready Player One
19. T A Very Merry Bromance
20. H A Study in Charlotte
21. T Ready Player Two
22. H Hakim's Odyssey: Book 1: From Syria to Turkey ✅ 1/29/2023
23. H The Maze Runner

Last series book read: Barbarian's Hope

1. Heads Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition Book One (1/14)
2. Heads Carry On (2/2)
3. Tails Rich People Problems (5/5)
4. Tails Summer Morning, Summer Night (6/7)
5. Heads Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation, Vol. 1 (3/5)
6. Heads East of West, Vol. 1: The Promise (4/3)
7. Tails Barbarian's Bride (6/8)
8. Heads The Final Empire (4/27)
9. Heads The Bromance Book Club (5/3)
10. Heads The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (6/10)

Prompt #2: Heads or Tails

Last series book finished in 2022 was The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz (Hawthorne & Horowitz Mystery #4)

Heads - Nobody's Fool (Sully #1) by Richard Russo
Heads - Cannery Row (Cannery Row, #1) by John Steinbeck
Heads - The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (The Road to Nowhere, #1) by Meg Elison
Tails - The Orenda (Bird Family Trilogy, #3) by Joseph Boyden

Other options:
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
The Eight by Katherine Neville
Brightness Falls by Jay McInerney
Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
Vanished by Joseph Finder
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka
Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse
Finding Claire Fletcher by Lisa Regan