MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

My stuff this year.

Main plans for this year is to buy fewer books/audiobooks and read/listen to what I already have.

Goal 1: Complete Murder She Wrote Series: 2 read

Goal 2: Complete Undying Mercenary series

Goal 3: Complete MB Storybook challenge: 10

Books read
1. Just Desserts - Simon Haynes
2. Antiques Ravin' - Barbara Allen
3. The Long Shadow - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
4. Murder on Thames - Matthew Costello
5. Close-up on Murder - Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain
6. The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
7. Aloha Betrayed - Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain
8. Another Time, Another Place - Jodi Taylor
9. Spellbreaker - Charlies Holmberg
10. Death In Disguise - Caroline Graham
11. War Brides - Helen Bryan
12. Making Over Mike - Lisa Plumbley
13. Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes Without Drugs - PETA shill
14. The Tree of Hands - Ruth Rendell
15. The Evolutionary Void - Peter F Hamilton
16. Kiss and Kill - Ellery Queen
17. Monday Is Murder (Novella) - Jess Lourey
18. Death of a Blue Blood - Jessica Fletcher
19. The Cat Who Went Bananas - Lilian Jackson Braun
20. Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett
21. Accidental Sire - Molly Harper
22. Slow Burn - G M Ford
23. The Smiler With the Knife - Nicholas Blake
24. Think Like a Pancreas: A Practical Guide to Managing Diabetes with Insulin - Gary Scheiner
25. The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic - Emily Croy Barker
26. Leviathan Wakes - James S A Corey
27. The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives - James Blaylock
28. Cancelled in Red - Hugh Pentacost
29. Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
30. 7 Hours Omnibus - Tindale
31. Written In Blood - Caroline Graham
32. Eyes of Justice - Lis Wiehl
33. Earthlight - Arthur C Clarke
34. Heart of Ice - Lis Wiehl
35. A Catalogue of Catastrophe - Jodi Taylor
36. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish - Dr Suess
37.Driving Heat - Richard Castle
38. The Toast of Time - Jodi Taylor
39. Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor (audio cast)
40. Murder on the Orient Elite -Larry Correia
41. Sinners and Saints - Helena Marchmont
42. Under the Eagle - Simon Scarrow
43. The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury
44. Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge- Mike Resnick
45. Losers, Weepers - Ellery Queen
46. Bimbos of the Death Sun - Sharon McCrumb
47. A Nice Class of Corpse - Simon Brett
48. The Hanover Square Affair - Ashley Gardner
49. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
50. A Regimental Murder - Ashley Gardner
51. All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
52. Crime 101 - Don Winslow
53. Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Volume One - Ashley Gardner
54. Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman - E W Hornung
55. Mistworld - Simon Green
56. The Long and Short of It - Jodi Taylor
57. The Viscount Who Lived Down the Lane - Elizabeth Boyle
58. The Spy Who Loved Me - Ian Flemming
59. Space Platform - Murray Leister
60. Cattitude: The Best Cat Stories from the First Three Years of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine - Dean Wesley Smith
61. The Good, the Bad and the History - Jodi Taylor
62. Mistletoe, Moonlight, & Murder - Caroline Dean
63. Moby-Dick or, The Whale - Herman Melville
64. The Hangman - Louise Penny
65. Mean Streets - Jim Butcher ed.
66. Tower of Dawn - Sarah Maas
67. Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here! - Ed McBain

Series

Undying Mercenaries

Murder She Wrote


Cherringham


Morland Dynasty

Series finished:
Void Trilogy - Peter F Hamilton Done: February 2023
Chronicles of St Mary's - Jodi Taylor Done: December 2023

Magazines
Lightspeed November 2010

reserved

First!?! :D

Second! I'm improving.

Wrapping up January as I won't finish anything more before end of month. 13 books this month! Most were good but there were a couple of questionable books that I gave a 1 star. I was surprised - one book I bought because I really enjoyed it when I had read it in paperback a few years before. Bought it in 2012. Now it bores me to tears. I guess tastes do change every 10 years! Even though I did buy some books/audiobooks, I am currently below my starting number of owned TBR in January (yay!). Bad weather means Mom isn't sending me for endless errands giving me a lot more uninterrupted time. It won't last, but I enjoy it while it does.

This year's goal is to limit purchases to only completing series or books of authors I very much enjoy on deep discount - in other words, no new series or new authors. I have too much money tied up in unread/unlistened books and audiobooks. Some of those series were intended for Mom, but I want to read them too. Mom has asked me to stop buying books for her, so I will just finish up Morland Dynasty by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles and The Eagles of the Empire series by Simon Scarrow. My local library doesn't have these in any form. I have 9/35 left to buy in the Morland Dynasty and together are about $35, so I'll get the lot next month (hopefully they remain discounted until then!). Simon Scarrow ones remaining are just too expensive ($10-12) and I need 9 books to complete the 22 book series, so I have to wait for a discount.

BTW, Mom will be 89 next week! She finally gave me training yesterday on the snowblower just in case she is unable to do it. Yep. Still shovels too. Honestly, I think her semi-hyperactivity is what keeps her in good shape.

Congratulations on a fantastic reading month, and a very Happy Birthday to your Mom!! :)

Happy birthday to your mom! And that's a great reading month! I've been trying to do a "finish (or at least catch up on) these series, please!" goal for myself but I always seem to find another I can't do without. LOL I do try to limit myself to KU and library reads for most of them, though.

Happy Birthday to your mom. It is great that she is still so active. I have a couple of great aunts that are similarly motivated with doing stuff.

Thanks for the birthday cheer for Mom! I passed that on to her and she was happy. February was a productive month despite being short, 8 books plus a novella. Finished off the purchases for the Morland Dynasty (excellent historical fiction!) and another 2 books from the Eagles series by Simon Scarrow, but still have 10 to go on that one. I have someone I can swap ebooks with if Mom gets to that series before I can get the rest so she won't have to be delayed.

I was disappointed that The Cat Who Went Bananas, book 24 of 29 of Cat Who series. It was a total bore. I normally like this series by Lilian Jackson Braun, but had only read the first few books. This one happened to be on special in January for $1.99. Don't think I will acquire any more of this series, although honestly, they don't come on special very often so acquisition has been pretty spotty anyway. A quick check shows that my library has most of the volumes in ebook, so I can always go that way.

Looking forward to March. Planning on 3 series books, some literary magazines, and The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, which is this month's long book. I have had the audiobook in my library since 2014 and still haven't listened to it so it's about time!

March wrap-up. 5 books done, but 2 were pretty long. However, we had seepage in my living area and I spent the evening sucking up water. Nothing lost except reading time. I had a book that I was giving until the end of March before tossing aside, but had to move that to today (April 1) due to not reading yesterday. I did give it up today (steampunk just isn't for me).

Hoping to get more sewing in this month, so a lot more listening to books. Historically, May and June are light reading months as I'm doing more outdoor things.

April Wrap up - Only 4 books done this month. No outdoor stuff to blame. Instead, Mom had some real trouble with arthritis so that pretty much sucked up much of my free time. She's doing a little better.

Wishing you and your family the best!

May Wrap-up. Not much different from last month. Only 3-4 books. Should improve a little in June. Cancelled my Audible account again to play some catchup for awhile. They'll have another good deal for me to rejoin, but in the meantime, I need to catch up on my ever expanding TBR in both audio and ebook. I'm trying very hard not to buy any more new series or even new authors, as even on severe discount, it's costly to do fill in for series I'm already listening to.

Highlights for this month are Written in Stone by Caroline Graham (Midsommer Murders) and Earthlight by Arthur C Clarke (author of 2001). Both excellent and I recommend them.

Stephanie wrote: "Highlights for this month are Written in Stone by Caroline Graham (Midsommer Murders) and Earthlight by Arthur C Clarke (author of 2001). Both excellent and I recommend them."

I've been meaning to read some Graham, so thank you for mentioning that and reminding me! :D

I've been trying to only do library and KU books and the struggle is real. Even with all those books to choose from, I still see so many that aren't in either that I really want to read.

Haven't posted in awhile but did update my reading list. July and August have mostly been taken up by sick brother and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It's a great book but best read/listened to in chunks of 2-3 hours which I never seem to have. I hope to have finished by the end of this month. If you like historical fiction, you will enjoy War and Peace. It's set during Napoleon's attack on Russia.

Family wise, my brother was in and out of the ER twice. He's doing ok. Home again. Mom got sick from the heat but she is much better today. So far, none of us have had Covid yet.

FINALLY finished War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The last 2 hours (2nd epilogue) were boring as heck. Not really part of the story. Trying to decide on a Scifi story next. This 3 day weekend is going to be hot as heck, so I did my errands today to avoid going out. Working on sewing this weekend (and audiobooks).

Stephanie wrote: "FINALLY finished War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The last 2 hours (2nd epilogue) were boring as heck. Not really part of the story. Trying to decide on a Scifi story next. This 3 day weekend is going..."

Congratulations on finishing. :)

Have a safe and happy weekend.

Caught up my listing of books. Just finished Moby Dick by Herman Melville. That's been one of my goals for several years - it's the favorite book of a relative. I have tried to read it several times but it took the audiobook narrated by William Hootkins to get through those first chapters. It's a fictional memoir but very detailed. Enjoyed.