Lisa's Big Screen Reading Adventures the Sequel

My 2014 challenge will consist of various movie titles. It worked for me this year so I decided to repeat it. I have 14 categories and plan to read 10 books in each one for a total of 140 books. I think I will allow myself 14 overlaps this year, which I may or may not use depending how things go.

I think I left myself enough wiggle room for my favorite genre , which is of course mysteries. I never figured myself for a western person, but I found that I enjoyed them and would like to read more. Also new is a category for biographies/memoirs. Other than that, most of the categories are the same, with different movies of course.

I'm looking forward to next year!

The Philadelphia Story

CATEGORY COMPLETE

Books written by authors born in Philadelphia or set in the city.



1The Gravedigger's BallROOT
2Blood and Bone March ***ROOT
3Philadelphia Noir May 11 ****
4Father's Day June 1 ***
5Courting Trouble June 19 *** ROOT
6Night Squad July 8 ***
7Hostile Witness *** July 21
8 Philly Stakes August 26 ***
9 The Dead Man's Wife August 28 ***1/2
10 Rough Justice September 2 ***

Hunger Games

Foodie mysteries of course or books with food in the title.

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1Bedeviled Eggs January 12 ***1/2 ROOT
2Home of the Braised January 9 ****
3Blackberry Pie MurderMarch 3 ***
4The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie
5Sugar and Iced April 5
6Mint Julep Murder July 1 ***
7Assault and Batter July 12 ***
8Sweet Suspects July 15 ***
9 Stake & Eggs August 21 ***1/2
10 Eggs in a Casket August 27 ***1/2

The Birthday Party

Each month I will read a book in honor of an author born in that month.

CATEGORY COMPLETE

i

1Six Years January 16 *** (January 4)
2The Man Who Smiled February 28**** (February 3) ROOT
3The Leopard March 14 **** (March 29th)
4 Pigs in Heaven April 19 **** (April 8) ROOT
5My Cousin Rachel July 13 ****
6Deadlock *** June 18 (June 8) ROOT
7Baby in the Icebox**** July 19 (July 1)
8 Devices and Desires **** August 4 (August 3)
9 Acid Row September
10The Echo September

It's A Wonderful Life

CATEGORY COMPLETE

Biographies and memoirs



1True Grace January 26 ***
2Vanity Will Get You Somewhere February 2 ***
3American Rose March 24 ****
4This Time Together April 18 ***1/2
5When We Were The KennedysMay 28 ****
6You Must Remember This June 9 **
*1/2
7 Twitch Upon A Star August 15 **
8 Pioneer Woman" Black Heels to Tractor Wheels August
9 You Have No Idea August
10 Mom & Me & MomAugust ****

The Color of Money

Books with a color in the title or by an author with a color in their name.

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1The Black Book January 1 **** ROOT
2Blood Orange Brewing Jan 25***1/2 ROOT
3Silver Needle Murder March 16 ROOT
4Anne of Green Gables February*****
5Dead White and Blue April 20 ***1/2
6The Girl in the Green Raincoat April 19 ***
7Violets of March ***1/2
8The Man in the Brown Suit May 2 **** ROOT
9White TeethAugust 20 ROOT ****
10 Black and Blue

Dial M For Murder

Self explanatory

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1Mortal Causes February 22 ****
2The Fifth Woman****
3We Need To Talk About Kevin *****May 15
4NemesisMay 19 ***1/2
5Death of an Expert Witness **** June 3
6The Draining Lake June 16
7Witness in Death June 27 ****
8One Step Behind June
9 Betrayal in Death August 8 ****
10 The Secret Place September

The Departed

Actual physical books (not electronic) that I will read from my shelves and donate either to the library or Bookmooch.

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1Chamomile Mourning Jan 22 ***1/2 ROOT
2 Dragonwell Dead Feb 14 ***1/2ROOT
3Not In The Flesh ROOT
4Let It Bleed February 26 ROOT
5The Other Daughter *** May 13 ROOT
6The Brimstone Wedding June 6 ***
7Shutter Island June 9 ****
8Yankee Doodle Dead July 2 ***1/2
9Judgment in Death July 16 **** ROOT
10 Something Wicked September 4 ****

The Prize
CATEGORY COMPLETE

Books that were either short or long listed or won an award.



1Brooklyn January 11 ***1/2 Booker Longlist 2009
2If Ever I Return Pretty Peggy O February ROOT, Anthony Award nominee 1991
3A Land More Kind Than Home March 12 ****1/2 CWA Blood Dagger 2012
4Sidetracked April 7 ROOT **** CWA Gold Dagger 2001
5The Interpreter of Maladies May 4 Pulitzer 2000
6The Accidental Tourist May 4**** ROOT Pulitzer finalist 1986
7Burial Rites June 11 ****1/2 Bailey 2014 Shortlist
8The Confession July 8 2005 Edgar Award
9Mr Churchill's Secretary July 11 2013 Edgar nominee
10 The Gods of Gotham July 25 **** 2013 Edgar nominee

Random Harvest

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1The Body in the Gazebo March 2 *** ROOT
2Oolong Dead ROOT
3Say Goodbye April 8 **** ROOT
4Easter Bunny Murder April ***
5Dreams of Joy April 29 ****
6Wolf to the Slaughter June 15 ROOT
7The Maid's Version June 13 ***1/2
8Just After Sunset June
9 Ordinary Grace August 10 *****
10 Seduction in DeathSeptember 1 ****

The Detective Story
CATEGORY COMPLETE



1Hope To Die January 5 **** ROOT
2 W is for Wasted March 29
3All The Flowers Are Dying March 30 ROOT
4The Keeper of Lost Causes April 14 ****
5Another Thing to Fall*** June 23
6The Way Some People Die
July 2 ****
7 The Goodbye Look
8 The Cuckoo's Calling
9 Black Money July
10 The Silkworm **** August 24

Stormy Weather

Books that feature some sort of weather element in the title, not restricted to storms though.

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1Winter of the Wolf Moon ***1/2 January ROOT
2The Hunting Wind February 9 ROOT
3Winter in June March 31 ROOT
4Sun Storm ROOT
5Our Picnics in the Sun
6The Chill May 24 ****
7Lowcountry Summer June 1 ***
8Arctic Chill July 28 ****
9 Right As Rain August 16 ***1/2
10 Snow Falling on Cedars *****September

How The West Was Won

Westerns

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1Doc ***** January 4
2Another Man's Moccasins February 5 ****
3The Son March 21 *****
4The Dark Horse****
5Junkyard Dogs **** May 16
6The Outcasts June 21
7Dead Man's Walk July
8Comanche Moon July
9True Grit August 29 ****
10 AppaloosaSeptember ****

Big

I'm thinking books that are 500 pages plus.


1Bleak House January 19 ***1/2
2Night Film February 19****
3The Goldfinch March 18 *****
4Playing for the Ashes **** May 8 ROOT
5Natchez Burning May 27 *****
6PlantationMay 29 ***1/2
7The Luminaries August 13 ****1/2
8 The Valley of Amazement September
9 Lonesome Dove reread September
10 Original Sin

Heat

CATEGORY COMPLETE



1After I'm Gone
2Fear Nothing January 23 ****
3Children of the Revolution April 10 ****
4Unlucky 13 May 11 ****
5This Dark Road To Mercy ***1/2 June 4
6Cop Town June 12 ****
7The Farm June 22 ****1/2
8The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress ****1/2 July 17
9 Designated Daughters August 14 ****
10 The Fever August 23 ***1/2

Love your theme, and you've picked some great movies! "The Philadelphia Story" is one of my all-time favorites. And the birthday category is a fantastic idea!

Ah, it's a clever way to use film title, love it. The Birthday Party category should be fun !

Yay, Jimmy Stewart! And oh, How the West Was Won. That was an interesting movie.

Great theme and categories, Lisa. We are going to have some categories in common so we'll have to see if we are planning on any of the same reads.

Great idea for a theme - looking forward to seeing what you fill the categories with!

Love The Philadelphia Story!!! Your Big category is clever too.

Besides your foodie mysteries, I'll have to keep an eye on your weather category. I have a cold category and might include cold-weather titles, such as A Week in Winter, Christmas mysteries, and the like.

I'm aiming for 14 categories of 10 books each with 14 overlaps, too.

Enjoy!!

Very clever indeed!

I'm going to have a weather category too when I set up next week (if I can hold off that long). A few other categories in sync with you also. Love the birthday category - putting that in the back of my mind for another year.

>24 dudes22: The Birthday category is interesting as it opens the door for random choices.

Thanks everyone for stopping by, it's not often I get a creative spark, so this was fun to repeat!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's threads in the coming months.

I plan to try a few more westerns next year, its nice exploring a new genre! Good luck & cool theme.

I haven't read a western in a long time. Maybe I'll get a nudge by one of your reads! I love the birthday idea, too. Happy reading!

I'd like to give westerns a try. It seems to me that, either in the 2013 challenge or else maybe in the 75ers group, there's a "western month" group read coming up. November?

I figure I'll stash a few westerns into my Novels category, with these being all fiction except mysteries.

In the 2013 group we're having a Zane Grey November. Most people are reading Riders of the Purple Sage (including me). I also have Rangers of the Lone Star in the pile.

Great movie selections for your categories! I don't think I've read too many books set in Philadelphia so I'll be curious to see what ends up in that category.

I'll be following your thread! Good movie pics, looks like we are thinking along the same lines for 2014.

looking good!

Its a Wonderful Life is my favorite holiday movie!!! What a great setup for your challenge!

Very appropriate categories. 'It's a wonderful life' is a Holiday favorite at our place.

Looks like you have some good categories lined up! Looking forward to how you fill them.

Looks like it'll be a great reading year. I look forward, as always, to seeing what you read.

Hey Lisa! Where is the Bogey film? No more love for The Man, eh? LOL.

Hey Victoria: I know not a Bogey to be found, I do however always seem to have a Paul Newman movie selected though! ***swoon*** This year is the movie Winning and next year are The Color of Money and The Prize.

I'm with you on Paul Newman. Even in a vinyl suit (Slapshot) he's amazing.

Wow, I can't believe I haven't been visiting my own thread in months, but I guess I put it out of my mind while working on finishing 2013. I hope to do a better job this year of posting my reads and staying away from the time wasting Candy Crush.

Book number one finished today; The Black Book.
Rebus goes against orders and investigates a five year old hotel fire which it appears that his colleague was also investigating when he was seriously injured.

I like the introduction of Siobhan to shake things up a bit and also the return of Rebus's brother Michael.

I desperately want to get caught up with this series, but in due time, I must pace myself!

Books # 2 and #3:

2.Doc
3.Hope To Die

I hope to add comments here sometime soon before I get behind as I did last year. I'm back to work after some wonderful holiday time off, so that will cut down on my LT time a bit, but I'll try my best!

Regarding Doc, I loved this well written story about the infamous Doc Holliday and his relationship with the Earp brothers. Excellent! I found it interesting that there wasn't too much mention of the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral, but I found the book to be the just right mix of fact with fiction mixed in.

Hope to Die was another excellent entry into the long running Matt Scudder series. It feels like he's winding down now, and I think there's one book left for me to read. In this one, when wealthy society couple Bryne and Susan Hollander are brutally murdered and the alleged suspects are also found dead, it seems as though the case is closed. But for Matt, there are nagging suspicions that someone else was involved, a third man who seemingly will get away with several murders.

4. Home of the Braised As usual, another solid entry in the White House chef series.

Oh, westerns! Looking forward to your picks and hoping for BBs.

I was planning on pacing myself when I read the Rebus-series, but I went crazy and mowed through the whole thing at once. There's always rereading. :)

Lisa> I need to get caught up (or at least making progress) on that a White House chef series.

Just trying to catch myself up here: I don't do reviews per se, but I hopefullly I will be able to provide comments about the books at some point.

Hopefully I won't get too far behind:

5. Brooklyn
6. Bedeviled Eggs
7. Six Years
8. Bleak House
9. Chamomile Mourning

I want to get further along with the Laura Childs teashop mysteries soon. I want to be able to pass them along (along with other books)to the library for their spring sale in May. I've been avoiding the library in order to concentrate on my TBR, but I do want to help out with the sale.

Responding to posts above:

#44 MissWatson, I having fun picking out various westerns to read. I got hooked on Lonesome Dove a few years ago, and have been wanting to read more in this genre evre since but never got around to it. I'm glad that I decided to make it a challenge category.

#45 Eva, I have a feeling you're right, I won't be able to resist the lure of Rebus lol!

#46 Lori, I love the White House Chef series, I do look forward to it every January. This series is one of the ones that I always pre-order no matter what.

I enjoy the tea shop series too.

I too am hoping to get back to the tea shop series - maybe next month for the series CAT.

I think I'm caught up until the next one is released.

Getting caught up here and congrats finishing Bleak House.... and all of your other reads so far this year!

10 Fear Nothing- Detective D.D. Warren is back! I like this character, she's a bit grating on the nerves, but marriage and motherhood have softened her just enough for her to still be a good police detective. When D.D. returns to a crime scene alone, somehow she falls and can't remember what happened to her. This book was creepy and may not be for everyone. It involves cutting of the skin by the killer(s), a dead serial killer and his two daughters, one in jail for murder and one who cannot feel pain.

11 Blood Orange Brewing I'm delving into the Teashop mystery series, I had amassed many of them for my mom to read, now that she has finished with them I'm going through them pretty quickly. They are such fun reads and I learn so much about various teas. I really like all of the characters but Delaine cracks me up every time!

12 True Grace- This was a just ok story about Princess Grace of Monaco, who has a Philly connection even though she trained her voice to sound like she was from England lol. Her family home here in Philly was recently in the news because the owner had at least twenty cats living in deplorable conditions.

This biography gives pretty good family background, a glimpse at the making of her hit movies and her romantic relationships with many of her fellow actors including: Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and William Holden.

I suppose what was missing for me with this bio was some sort of synopsis of what happened after Princess Grace's death in 1982. The book ended there, and I think some sort of update of what happened to the members of the Kelly and Grimaldi families would have been a better ending to the book.

13. Winter of the Wolf Moon

I did not know Grace was from Philadelphia. I flashed on her doing a Stallone version of "Yo, Adrienne!"

Delaine is an interesting character. I just wish the shop actually existed so I could sample some of Haley's creations and Drayton's blends.

Hi, Lisa! I really like your theme and categories. And you're making good progress!

Working backwards:

#56 Hi Terri, thank you. I hope I can keep the reading pace up throughout the rest of the year. We'll see.

#55 Hi Lori, I know, I would love to sample some of Haley's baked goods and Drayton's tea blends too!

#54 Lol, Mamzel, yes Grace was Philly born, she lived here until about age 19 or so then went off in search of an acting career. I can usually tell when someone is from Philly or the general area, but she really worked hard on getting rid of her accent. Can you imagine a princess saying "youse"?

#52 Hi Lori: Thank you, completing Bleak House was an accomplishment. I am famous for joining in these group reads and then my mind and attention start wandering onto other books.

#51 and #50 Lori and Betty, I see that the latest Teashop installment will be released on March 4th. I won't be totally caught up by then, but I am making good progress with the series!

So it's the end of the month, seriously, where has the month gone? The month isn't quite over but I'm posting a January recap/February reading plan as I will be at work tomorrow and will probably forget about it for a few days.

January recap:I read 13 books this month, which was good for me. I hope that the reading pace continues, I think this month's reading was aided by a holiday, a snow day or two, and putting that blasted Candy Crush to the side for a little bit. It's a serious time waster, fun but addictive at the same time. Sometimes when I leave work I have a slight headache or I'm just fried, so I've been playing the game instead of reading. I'm also starting to see progress with my actual physical books that are boxed waiting to donate to the library, so that's a big incentive for me to keep the reading pace going.

My best read of the month was Doc it was excellent, I also enjoyed the latest White House Chef book Home of the Braised and Lisa Gardner's lastest D.D. Warren offering, Fear Nothing, be warned that it's definitely not for the squeamish!

I wasn't overly thrilled with Harlan Coben's Six Years or the biography of Princess Grace of Monaco True Grace.

Here's what I hope to get to in February:

Another Man's Moccasins
The Man Who Smiled MysteryCat
After I'm Gone
If Ever I Return Pretty Peggy O MysteryCat
Not in the Flesh
Anne of Green Gables RandomCat
The Ox-Bow Incident
Night Film
Dragonwell Dead MysteryCat
Gravedigger's Ball
Hunting Wind Mystery Cat
Vanity Will Get You Somewhere

Now that I look at this list it seems pretty ambitious for a short month but we'll see what happens.

Have a good weekend everyone!

So glad you liked Doc, Lisa! I read it last year, and it was definitely one of my favorites.

Looks like a good plan for Feb! I'll be interested to hear what you think of The Ox-Bow Incident.

14. I finished my first book for the month. Vanity Will Get You Somewhere, the autobiography of the dashing and debonair actor, Joseph Cotten.

I found this book to be just an ok read, I think I was expecting more background about some of his best known movies, instead he wrote a great deal about his relationships with David O Selznick, Orson Welles, and Jennifer Jones, then launched into an endless litany of his many travels.

Not a bad read, just not quite what I was expecting.

My favorite movies in which he appeared are:

Shadow of a Doubt, a Hitchcock movie where he is the most horrible uncle ever, Duel in The Sun, where he played brother to Gregory Peck and they both fell under the spell of Jennifer Jones.

I also liked The Third Man, but the zither music drove me crazy!

15. Another Man's Moccasins- I enjoyed this fourth in the Walt Longmire series. When a young Vietnamese woman is found dead with a picture of Walt and a barmaid he met during the war, Walt has flashbacks of his time in Vietnam during the war.

He is also facing inner conflict with the women in his life, as he realizes that Cady, may not need him as much any more and has a new love in her life and his relationship with Vic may become more complicated than he bargained for.

I found the back and forth glimpses between the Vietnamese flashback and the present day effective and well plotted. There were however, a few parts in the book where I had to re read the paragraph to make sure.

I'm looking forward to the next book in this wonderful series. Now that I think about it, I need to figure out where I stopped with the television series, it's been a while and I don't remember.

Hi Lisa, I really enjoyed Another Man's Moccasins, it was good to have Walt back in Wyoming.

I love that Longmire series!

#63 and #64 Hi Judy and Terri: I agree, the Longmire series is better with Walt and company in Wyoming where they belong. I'm looking forward to obtaining the rest of the series at some point. I haven't been to the library in ages and the e-books are just a tad pricey.

So let's see I've had a couple of snow days and I am working the holiday in an effort to catch up,but I'm also here on LT until my boss comes in shhhhh.

I've read the following since my last post:

16 The Hunting Wind
17 After I'm Gone
18 Dragonwell Dead
19 Gravedigger's Ball
20 If I Ever Return Pretty Peggy O

I'm still reading the creepy Night Film and have delved into Anne of Green Gables.

I see you read The Hunting Wind. I'm really enjoying the Alex McKnight series, even though he sometimes drives me a little crazy. I love the setting! We visited that area on vacation the past two summers. I can't imagine living there in the winter!

> 67

Yes, I am enjoying the Alex McKnight series also. The descriptions of the setting is so vivid! I intend to continue on with the next installments very soon. Maybe in summer when it's hot and humid and it makes more sense to read about ice, wind and snow?

What do you think of Night Film so far?

68 I'm reading Ice Run now from that series, and it's making me feel more content with the bad weather we've had this winter!

So it's March, and I see I am very behind in posting as well as some sort of commentary about my reads. Work was really stressful in February but it all got done. I hope to catch up here eventually.

Here's what I've read since my last post:

21 Anne of Green Gables
22 Night Film
23 Not in The Flesh
24 Mortal Causes
25 Let It Bleed
26 The Man Who Smiled

I read 13 books for the month of February.I read everything I planned except for The Ox-Bow Incident I think because I read a Rebus book that was unplanned.

The only dud of the month was the Joseph Cotten autobiography which read more like a travel memoir than anything else.

Here's what I have planned for March:

The Leopard
A Land More Kind Than Home
The Goldfinch
All The Flowers Are Dying
Sweetness at The Bottom of the Pie
Winter in June
The Silver Needle Murder
Blackberry Pie Murder

>69 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay I missed you back there, I found Night Film to be a very engrossing read, quite different, but I think just a bit too long. I found Scott to be very arrogant and irritating, but I found myself a little angry when he put his daughter Sam in danger while chasing down one of his numerous leads.

It had a great darkness to it, a perfect read for a long winter.

Yay, Rebus! Haven't read one in a while. Looks like you have a good March lined up too.

Hi Lisa! I hope you like A Land More Kind Than Home. I really did!

>75 tymfos: Hi Terri: the book looks good, I will begin reading it fairly soon.

So I was digging through my bookcase looking for books that my mother swore I had and I didn't think so, but there they were. She wants to reread A Woman of Substance. I found it along with the next two books in the series. Nice big meaty tomes which fell on my foot! Only our family would laugh about being in pain while getting excited about books! I love that my mother (83) and my two sisters are readers although we all have different tastes.

Another book that fell out during my towering book adventure was The Body in the Gazebo, which I just finished. I really enjoyed the interwoven tale of Pix's mother Ursula. Not too much mystery but a good story.

# 28 Blackberry Pie Murder

I'm finding this series just a bit tiresome. I'm ok with Hannah and her two boyfriends but the fact that they all sit around in her house eating meals together is a bit much. And I like that the recipes are included, but they should probably be placed in the back of the book with less commentary. This time Hannah accidentally commits vehicular homicide and her mother can't make up her mind about her upcoming wedding plans.

I will probably finish the series since I've read all 18 books, but I hope the author shakes things up a little bit next time.

>76 lsh63: I like those Faith Fairchild mysteries. I don't think I've read The Body in the Gazebo yet.

Lisa> I agree that Blackberry Pie Murder was only mediocre.

>78 tymfos: Hi Terri, I'm finding that I am enjoying the Faith Fairchild series, I got them for my mom thinking she would like them and I wouldn't read them, but *ahem*, no book leaves my home unless I've read it first :)

>79 thornton37814: Hi Lori: Good, I thought it was just me and I had grown tired of the series.

29 Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie What can I say about Miss Flavia, loved her! I thought a story of a precocious know it all child would get on my nerves, but I enjoyed it tremendously.

30 Blood and Bone I decided to pick up a stand alone by William Lashner who is also the author of the Victor Carl series, a Philadelphia lawyer who gets himself into trouble all the time.

Blood and Bone was kind of boring, I kept waiting for something suspenseful to happen but it never did. Kyle Byrne is the son of Philadelphia lawyer Liam Bryne, who supposedly died 14 years ago of natural causes. Kyle drfits through life, like a child in his late twenties, playing video games, drinking and crashing on his friend's couch etc.

The reader is led to believe that Kyle is haunted by his father's death which just didn't ring true to me. Most of the storyline involved a missing case file from his father's practice and all of the people involved who wanted to get their hands on it. Ho hum.... I need to get back to the Victor Carl series which I started reading out of order when I didn't realize it was actually a series.

Welcome to the Flavia fan club! ;-)

I'll definitely skip Blood and Bone.

31. A Land More Kind Than Home this book was a very well written piece of Southern fiction. I can see why some have compared this author to John Hart, another great author who writes in a similar style.

The story of how Pastor Carson Chambliss affected the main characters of the story: Adelaide, the midwife who saw the Pastor as a threat to the children of the community and vowed to protect them at all costs, Jess Hall- a very intuitive young boy who had to go through so much in his young life and tried his best to look out for his brother Stump, and Sheriff Clem who has faced his own tragedy in the past and vows to get to the bottom of what happens when another tragedy takes place.

I will definitely read more of this author.

32. The Leopard This 8th? installment of the Harry Hole series was quite long and sometimes I do have to concentrate to keep track of all the characters, but it was a great read as usual.
This time we find Harry spinnng out of control in Hong Kong right after the Snowman case which put Rakal and Oleg in grave danger. Harry's father is gravely ill and there is a power struggle going on between the Oslo Crime Squad and the National police. Harry isn't really interested in police work right now, but his boss brings him back to help catch a serial killer whose victims are found with mysterious puncture wounds in pools of their own blood with no obvious clues to go on.

Lisa, I'm glad you liked A Land More Kind Than Home. I absolutely loved it. I actually considered driving about 2 hours to a book signing Cash did near Pittsburgh, but sub-zero wind chills made me think better of making the trip.

I do like reading about Harry Hole - need to get back to that series. I've got The Redeemer on deck and I've heard it's a good one.

I have A Land More Kind than Home on my TBR. I'm glad you liked it!

33 The Silver Needle Murder Number nine in the Teashop mystery series takes place during the Charleston film festival. There's not too much for me elaborate about this series, they are great cozies with wonderful characters, descriptions of food and baked goods that make my mouth water. I can't wait to continue working my way through the series!

34 The Goldfinch- This book was a five star read for me, for a big book, it read rather quickly, with the exception of the woodworking descriptions.

There's a lot going on in Theo Decker's life from the time he is thirteen and a tragedy shapes his life forever. Theo spends his childhood lonely and taken advantage of and begins to use drugs quite heavily. He also spends most of his young life trying to figure out what to do with a painting that was placed in his hands which has become a moral dilemna for him. I understood his behavior in his younger years, but I didn't get why he didn't take action in his later years.

I thought the ending was kind of meh, but after finishing this book I was still thinking about the various characters: Hobie, Boris, Pippa and Theo's friend Andy. All in all, The Goldfinch was a great read.

35 The Son Another five star read for me, The Son is a multi generational western tale of the McCullough family told from the point of view of three main characters:

Eli aka as "The Colonel"who was captured by the Comanches in the 1800's and lived among them for years until they all died, his son Peter who is conflicted about his family's wealth and the things that they do to keep it, and his great granddaughter Jeanne, who became a powerful oil businesswoman but whose story took a long time to be revealed.

This is a graphic and brutal novel that is very descriptive of the acts committed by whites versus Indians, Indians versus whites, and treatment of Mexicans, which may not be for everyone. It is however, a wonderfully written story. I did have to refer to the family tree in the front of the book a few times, as there were a few characters introduced throughout each person's pov that I couldn't remember where they fit in the story's timeline.

36 Oolong Dead I've a had a good time reading through this series. In this installment, Jory Davis, Theo's ex-boyfriend returns, but not for a happy occasion as Theo has once again stumbled upon a dead body, this time it's one of Jory's family members. I suppose I will take a break from this series for a little bit while I track down Teaberry Strangler which is next and the one book that I do not own.

I guess I could get it at the library, but I've been trying to stay away from there, not because I don't love it (I do!), but to concentrate on the various mount TBR's at home.

Hi Lisa, your two recent five star reads, The Goldfinch and The Son, are patiently waiting for me on my Kindle. Great to know you liked them so much. I have just started my first Dorothy B. Hughes mystery, The Fallen Sparrow, I feel like I just jumped into a 1940's movie. I think this is going to be a good one.

I hear you about trying to stay away from the library! This evening I had to go drop off a bunch of items and it took a great deal of willpower not to go in and browse as well. Looks like you've been on a roll, reading-wise! :)

Oh the ongoing war between the library and the TBR pile. I keep getting books and then have to take them back since I've run out of time. Sigh.

91> I took back several unread this morning too. I could have renewed them again, but the truth is that I have a couple of NetGalley books to finish, an ER to finish, and I'm really in the mood for something lighter than the books I had checked out. I also really want to read The Guns of August next month.

>89 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy: I think you will enjoy both The Goldfinch and The Son when you get to them. I have a couple of books by Dorothy B. Hughes that I have been meaning to get to also.

>90 rabbitprincess:, >91 LittleTaiko:, and >92 thornton37814: : The library is wonderful, but I found that I have no willpower. Either I look at the new books on display or scour the shelves for the books on sale. I always come out with way more than I can read in the given 3 week period. I think there was only one time when I ran in to get a book I put on hold and ran right back out!

It's the end of the month, and I won't finish anything else so:

I read 14 books this month, which was surprising considering that I had 2 chunksters: The Goldfinch and The Leopard. My five star reads this month were: The Son and The Goldfinch, with A Land More Kind Than Home right behind them.

There was nothing I read this month that made me want to throw the book across the room, but I found Blood and Bone to be rather ho hum.

Here's what I read since my last post above:

37 American Rose
38 W is for Wasted
39 All the Flowers are Dying
40 Winter in June

You've had a productive reading month, Lisa!

> 95 Thanks Terri!

Here's what I plan to read this month:

Pigs in Heaven
Children of the Revolution
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Sugar and Iced
Americanah
Sidetracked
The Killing Tree
Philly Stakes
The Bat
Black and Blue

We'll see what happens!

41
Sugar and Iced I was able to polish off this 6th in the Cupcake Mystery series (no pun intended) in no time at all. I wasn't feeling so great last week so I basically ignored household chores and read.

Angie and Mel are baking cupcakes for a beauty pageant that Mel's mom's best friend dragged them into, Mel's mom is angry with Mel about her relationship with Joe, and Tate and Angie's relationship is developing nicely.

The plot is filled with everything you might expect at beauty pageants: catty contestants with unbearable mothers and nasty judges.

I'd like to see a good plot twist next time, but overall a fun relaxing read, which is just what I needed.

42 Say Goodbye

I’m a big fan of Lisa Gardner’s standalone novels as well as her series featuring FBI profiler Pierce Quincy and police detective D.D. Warren.

This sixth in the FBI profiler series reads as though it is the final installment, which if it is, then I would have liked a more developed ending. The plot line is rather creepy, certainly not for the squeamish as it involves spiders, dead prostitutes and child molestation.

Kimberly Quincy is a FBI agent just like her father, married to another agent and expecting her first child. When she is approached by pregnant teenage prostitute Delilah Rose, she is compelled to help even though she is struggling just a bit with remembering she is pregnant herself and may just endanger her own child. She knows that she should switch to desk duty for a while, but just can’t bring herself to do it yet.

Although I figured out the ending pretty quickly, it did not detract from my enjoying the book. This author really knows how to write an edge of the seat thriller with well developed characters. At one point however, I did have trouble keeping the victims straight as there were children who grew into adults and a child whose points of view went back and forth. As I mentioned, if this is the last in the series, then I would have a liked a more developed ending.

According to Fantasticfiction.com, that is the last of that series so far. Since it was published in 2008, I'd guess that's it.

>99 dudes22: Hi Betty: 2008? I guess that was the end then. One thing I do like about this author is that every once in a while she will insert a character from one series into another or into one of her standalones, so maybe Quincy will show up one day.

43. Children of the Revolution

Another solid offering in the Inspector Banks series. The title refers to the turbulent 60's and 70's when there were hippies, political and social activism, lots of drugs, love ins etc.

Gavin Miller, a former college lecturer is found dead with his body at a very odd angle which does not sit well with Banks as a suicide. Miller, who was fired or misconduct is also found with a large sum of money on him which also goes against the suicide theory. As Banks digs deeper into the case, of course he ruffles the feathers of his superiors as well as other influential figures.

There were plenty of suspects, and at times the storyline moved just a bit too slowly as the details were revealed. I noticed that the detectives all worked on their own, but didn't really come together to brainstorm at all.

The end offers a bit of hope that Banks may find some happiness in his personal life after all.

>100 lsh63: I really like that series! Great review.

44 The Easter Bunny Murder

I was in the mood to read something holiday themed and decided to read this book. Lucy takes her grandson to an Easter egg hunt where unfortunately the Easter bunny dies in front of everyone.

Luckily the children didn't seem too traumatized!

I always enjoy the books in this series as the author has made the storyline of a working mother of four as realistic as possible, complete with never ending laundry, piles of bills, uncooperative kids etc.

>100 lsh63:
I'm barely half-way through the series, so I'm very happy to hear it keeps being good.

45. I finished The Keeper of Lost Causes, and found it to be excellent!

I read this book in two days, it was well written fast paced with interesting characters. Carl Morck is assigned to the newly developed Department Q which follows up on cold cases. His assignment is really just busy work so his colleagues don't have to deal with him after his last case went horribly wrong.

His first case is that of missing political figure Merete Lymgaard missing for five years. What happens to her is truly unbelievable, but the story line worked.

I am especially intrigued by the character of Assad. I know that there is more to his story, which I look forward to learning about soon.

>104 lsh63:
The whole series is full of great characters! Good to hear you liked it - you have lots of great reading ahead of you.

Just popping in to say hi. Love the movie theme.

>105 -Eva-: That's good to know Eva, I was reluctant about beginning yet another series, but it's useless to resist these things:)

>106 cmbohn: Hi Cindy, and thank you!

46 Sidetracked Another first rate installment in the Kurt Wallander series, this one had me on the edge of my seat with a serial killer who scalped his victims!

47 This Time Together- Carol Burnett was one of my favorite entertainers growing up, the show was great and it was always fund trying to see if Harvey Korman could keep it together in his skits with Tim Conway. I don't think he ever managed it. So many memories, so many great skits. My favorite was Mama which was later developed into a series.

48 The Girl in the Green Raincoat A novella featuring Tess Monaghan while she is on bedrest during her seventh month of pregnancy. It read as though this was the end of the Tess series, but you never know.

49 Pigs in Heaven the sequel to Bean Trees teaches an important lesson about acceptance of other cultures and doing what's best for a child.

50 Sun Storm Another Nordic mystery, I seem to be overdoing it with these. I found this one to be kind of meh, so I don't think I will continue with the series. There are just too many good ones to choose from.

51 Dead White and Blue- I enjoy Annie and Max's adventures, but one can tire of their clever repartee at times, so I try to space out my reading of them which I have been doing out of order.

52 The Violets of March a nice read about what happens when a woman named Emily, fresh from breaking up with her husband, goes to visit her aunt on Bainbridge Island. While there, she stumbles upon the diary of a woman named Esther and is startled to realize how their lives are parallel.

53 Our Picnics in the Sun- I like Morag Joss, but this book was a little lacking for me. It's the story of Deborah, her husband Howard and their son Adam, and the dynamic between the three of them. I will say that the conclusion was haunting.

54 The Fifth Woman- Another solid entry in the Wallander series. I think I will be sad when I get to the last book. This one involves a woman serial killer whose victims at first seem to have no connection to each other. Wallander is a great policeman, but I hope he finds happiness in his personal life too.

55 The Dark Horse- I enjoy the Walt Longmire series, but this book was a little different when Walt goes undercover to help a woman who confessed to killing her husband, but who Walt thinks is innocent of the crime. The usual supporting characters were not overly present in the plot, and I found that I missed them greatly.

56 Dreams of Joy

I was waiting to read this sequel to Shanghai Girls for a while now, it was excellent!

The sequel follows Joy's impulsive decision to go to China to find her "real" father and the havoc she wreaks upon the family when her mother travels to China in order to find her and bring her back home.

I'm hoping that there will be another book in this series.

APRIL RECAP

I read 16 books in April. I discovered the ease of borrowing e-books from the library so a great deal of what I read was not from my own TBR, and also not on my original planned reading list.

April's MysteryCAT found me revisiting the next two books in the Wallander series. I will be sad when I finish them! I also enjoyed the first in the Department Q series, The Keeper of Lost Causes. One book that I read for this challenge, I did not care for, Sun Storm, so I will not continue with the rest of that series.

I also enjoyedDreams of Joy, the sequel to Shanghai Girls, The Dark Horse, the next Walt Longmire installment and Pigs in Heaven, the sequel to Bean Trees.

I found Morag Joss's Our Picnics in the Sun, to be just an ok read.

For the month of May, I've decided not to plan the whole month, but go week by week to see what interests me.

Currently I am reading The Man in the Brown Suit and Playing for the Ashes. I've been wanting to revisit the Havers and Lynley series for a while, but I have to be in the right mood for them because they are chunksters!

Looks like a very productive April, especially on the series/sequels front! I have only a couple of Wallanders left and am holding off reading them as long as I can.

Hi Lisa, I loved Dreams of Joy as well. For some reason I felt it just wouldn't be as good as the first book and left it on the shelf for far too long, but when I finally got around to it, I thought it was just as good if not better! I'm with you, another book about these women would round out the story nicely.

So far this month I've finished:

57. The Man in the Brown Suit -classic Agatha Christie, and a nice mix of mystery and love story.

58Interpreter of Maladies- excellent collection of short stories featuring Indian protagonists either set in India or in America.

59The Accidental Tourist -love Anne Tyler, she never disappoints!

60 Playing for the Ashes- I enjoy the Lynley Havers series but my goodness sometimes I feel as though her books are about 200 pages too long. I have quite a ways to go in this series, but my reading of these books needs to be spaced out.

61 Unlucky 13 - the latest installment of the Women's Murder Club series. It was good, but the whole premise of the four club members working together didn't happen and I hope the series goes back to its original format soon.

62 Philadelphia Noir a nice collection of "noirish" tales set in The City of Brotherly Love. I enjoyed the layout of the book as each chapter featured a specific section of the city such as : Frankford, Strawberry Mansion, Chestnut Hill etc. My favorite story was "The Devil's Pocket".

I was only familiar with three of the featured authors : Solomon Jones, Duane Swierczynski, and Gerald Koplan. It was a nice collection of twisted ironic stories and I give the editor credit for not hammering the reader with a lot of Philly cultural references, there was just a few. There were also some good historical references that I would like to read more about in the future.

The Man in the Brown Suit is one of my favorites of hers.

Philadelphia Noir is one that would interest me!

Since my last post:

63.The Other Daughter
64.We Need to Talk About Kevin
65.Junkyard Dogs
66. Nemesis
67.The Chill

The Other Daughter was an ok thriller by an author I really enjoy, Lisa Gardner. I didn't think this was one of her better standalones.

I don't know what to say about We Need to Talk About Kevin. At first I was a little put off because I felt as though I needed a thesaurus. Is it me or did the author use a great deal of words not used in everyday language? At any rate, it was a 5 star read for me, haunting, and sad. I was torn throughout the whole books feeling sorry for Eva and being angry with her at the same time.

Junkyard Dogs was another solid entry in the Walt Longmire series, I'm looking forward to being caught up with the series very soon.

Nemesis features Miss Marple doing what she does best when a casual acquaintance from a cruise, who has since passed away, seeks her help in clearing his son of murder.

The Chill- I love the Lew Archer series, but in this one, a young man seeks Archer's help in locating his newly wedded wife. There were three murders to keep track of and it was a little difficult to keep it all straight. The writing style, however, is sheer perfection.

68.Natchez Burning
69 When We Were the Kennedys
70Plantation

I am certain that I will not finish anything else before the end of the month. I am exactly at 70 books read, which puts me halfway through my individual goal of 140 books. I read 14 books for the month, my five star reads or close to it were:

Natchez Burning, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

It was good to see Greg Iles back, and I do enjoy the Penn Cage character. Natchez Burning could probably have been trimmed by a hundred or so pages, but it was excellent.

It goes without saying that We Need to Talk About Kevin was haunting and disturbing and stayed with me a long time.

>117 lsh63: I just finally caught up with the Longmire series, including the one that came out last month, except for a couple of the "minis." I love that series, especially in audio format!

It appears as though I haven't visited my thread this month...

Since my last post I've read:

71 Lowcountry Summer
72 Father's Day
73 Death of an Expert Witness
74 This Dark Road to Mercy
75 Brimstone Wedding
76 Shutter Island
77 You Must Remember This
78 Burial Rites

I read Lowcountry Summer because I enjoyed Plantation, it was ok, but not as good as Plantation.

I only read Father's Day because the author was featured in the Phila Noir that I read recently, it was ho hum.

I want to get caught up with Insp Dagleish series, but this author is one that I can't seem to read back to back.

I found that This Dark Road to Mercy didn't wow me as much as the first book, A Land More Kind Than Home, I think it had something to do with the thriller aspect of the story.

I enjoyed Brimstone Wedding very much. It's funny about the Barbara Vine standalones, you know what happened and why but you still enjoy following through to the end.

I was nervous about reading Shutter Island for some reason. Maybe because I saw the movies first or maybe because it was a very different type of novel for the author, but of course I enjoyed it!

You Must Remember This is actor Robert Wagner's account of old Hollywood comparing and constrasting how things have changed over the years. As an old movie lover, I found it very interesting to read about the power of the studio on the actors' lives, how California became more inhabited through the years, and how the movie business saw a decline with the popularity of television. This is not so much a tell all about the actor's lives, but more of an account of the nightlife, restaurants etc. through the years.

Lastly,I found Burial Rites to be riveting and very well written. It's a slightly fictionalized account of the last person to be put to death in Iceland around 1830 or so. Even though you know the outcome, the slow, deliberate manner in which the doomed Agnes's story unfolds is well worth the read.

I'm now reading and almost finished an ARC of Cop Town the latest offering from another author who I think can do no wrong, Karin Slaughter. It's about the early 1970's Atlanta police department mandated to segregate and allow blacks and women due to governmental pressure.

>119 tymfos: Terri, I'm slightly jealous that you were able to get your hands on those Longmire books and get caught up.

I guess I could place a hold at the library for them but I am trying so hard to cull the books at home before the year is over. I do want to get caught up soon. Do you watch the tv show at all ?

I started Burial Rites in e-book form from the library but the format was too distracting for me. I'll have to request it in print form!

Congratulations on getting past 75 books!

>121 lsh63: I tried the series once, and the episode that I was watching just didn't grab me at all. The guy playing Longmire didn't match my mental image of him; the actress playing Vic didn't fit my image of her, either. I have the audio book narration of George Guidall so firmly established in my mind as the voice of Longmire that I just couldn't relate what I was seeing to the book character at all.

Good Morning:

Since my last post, I've read the following:

79 Cop Town
80 The Maid's Version
81 The Wolf to the Slaughter
82 The Draining Lake
83 Deadlock
84 Courting Trouble

>122 rabbitprincess: The e book format is distracting for you? I guess I can see that.

>123 thornton37814: Hi Lori, thanks! I'm at the point now where I am trying to fit books I want to read into my categories as they start to fill up!

>124 tymfos: Agreed Terri, I can see your point about the actress playing Vic, she doesn't fit my mental image at all, but the actor who plays Walt really does.

I love both the Longmire series in books and on the tv, but it did take a while for me to warm up to the tv characters. Now I am able to view these almost as two separate entities and although Vic is nothing like the book character, I really like how the actress portrays her. With Walt, I found the actor a little too good looking and a little younger than I pictured, but he has also grown on me. And hey, he's pretty easy on the eyes so what's not to like. I have always liked Lou Diamond Phillips so he got an immediate seal of approval.

Everyone likes Lou Diamond Phillips, Judy.

>126 DeltaQueen50: I found the actor a little too good looking and a little younger than I pictured,
That was my take, too.

>127 RidgewayGirl: You mean I have to share!!!

>128 tymfos: I've found that the tv series has really grown on me. They've gone in a different direction from the books which I like and the production value and acting is first class.

Since my last post:

85 Just After Sunset
86 The Farm
87 The Outcasts
88 Another Thing To Fall
89 One Step Behind
90 Witness in Death

I've been reading at breakneck speed this month. I have to make sure of the calculations, but I think I've read 20 books this month! Lots of doctor's appointments, which entailed waiting time and work frustration had led me to delve into the calming effect of my books:)

Just After Sunset was an interesting collection of short stories and novellas, some really good, some not so hot. The last story in the collection, was just gross. My favorite was Willa, and The Things They Left Behind, which was very moving.

The Farm was excellent, enough said, read it! It's a very gripping psychological thriller as a man desperately tries to figure out if his mother is having a psychotic breakdown or is telling the truth about a series of events which may involve his father. I realized after I finished the book that it was inspired by a real life event involving the author's mother.

The Outcasts is a western tale about three lawmen tracking a ruthless killer and his prostitute girlfriend in the 19th century Gulf Coast region. The book is very character driven and it's the relationships of these characters that makes the book a good read.

I thought The Girl in the Green Raincoat was the last in the Tess Monaghan series, which was actually a novella, but I see Tess will return early next year. I found Another Thing to Fall to be just an ok read though. Tess is hired to guard a young starlet appearing in a local tv show and something about the storyline just didn't work for me.

I'm almost finished with the Kurt Wallander series, I think I have three left to read, I may be sad when I finish them. In One Step Behind Kurt and his colleagues are deeply shaken when their latest case involves one of their own. Very well plotted. Doggone it when I finish these books I just want Kurt to be happy one day!

I am woefully behind in the Eve Dallas series, Witness in Death is the 11th book in the series or maybe 10th? I think the series is up in the 40's now? Sigh..... I may never get caught up!

It's not great that you got to 20 through doctor's visits, but it's awesome that you got to 20!!

>131 -Eva-: Hi Eva: Thanks, I don't know what I used to do while waiting for appointments before the Nook lol! Read the magazines I guess?

I took advantage of a use it or lose it day yesterday to tear through two Death on Demand books that were on my shelf, I finished one yesterday and one this morning, but they will both count for July. There's something about being off on a Monday that makes the work week just a tad easier, and a short week to boot! Yankee Doodle Dead and Mint Julep Murder both fit the bill for what I was in the mood for, nice light reading which didn't tax my brain.

I started The Way Some People Die this morning and have two other Ross Macdonald books that I will read this month:Black Money and The Goodbye Look. That may not be the end of the noir, I'll have to see what else I'm in the mood for. I'm also reading a collection by James M Cain The Baby in The Icebox, it's a very interesting collection of the author's short fiction and I'll be sure to write my thoughts about it when I'm finished.

July is going to be a good month for me, Thingaversary (7 years) and birthday within ten days of each other. ***Gleefully rubs hands together*** We all know what that means right?

Happy July! Looking forward to hearing about your Thingaversary and birthday book hauls ;)

Will be interested to hear what you think of the Ross Macdonalds, as I haven't read any of the three you mentioned.

Ooo - 7 years plus a birthday! Did I just hear your TBR pile groan?

Yey, legitimate loot is the best kind! Don't forget to get some supports for your bookshelves. :)

It's cheating to just load up the nook, ya know. Sounds like you had a great reading weekend. I'm at a readers convention this weekend trying hard not to get hit by book bullets!

Hi Lisa, great to see you really like The Farm as I have that one loaded on my Kindle - someday I will get to it!

Lucky girl, both a Thingaversary and your Birthday - sounds like it going to be raining books!

93 The Way Some People Die
94 Dead Man's Walk
95 The Confession
96 Comanche Moon

>133 rabbitprincess: Thanks, I will have a full report mid-month!
>134 dudes22:, Yes Betty, but the TBR will most likely be of the electronic kind!
>135 -Eva-:, I don't think I will be purchasing actual books, but loading the Nook up!
>136 cammykitty:, Lol, I know it's kind of cheating but umm, I am liking the decluttering of the shelves:) Although there is one mystery book shop that I might visit to see if I can find some of not widely available books I've been looking for. Of course when I usually stop in there I don't have my list with me!
>137 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy, yes, it's going to be fun! I hope you like The Farm when you get around to reading it.

I know! I never have my list either - and it's right on LT and it's a mile long! As for the decluttering aspect, I have one friend who replaced a ton of her books with ebooks and she still doesn't have enough book space!

Happy Birthday and Thingaversary this month!

97 Night Squad
98 Mr.Churchill's Secretary
99 Black Money
100 The Goodbye Look
101Assault and Batter

102 My Cousin Rachel
103 Sweet Suspects
104 Judgment in Death
105 The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress
106 Baby in the Icebox
107 Hostile Witness
108 Gods of Gotham
109 Arctic Chill
110 The Cuckoo's Calling

Ok, I'm too lazy to go back and write my thoughts about my reads...... I'll try to do better next month, or maybe I will go back and do a few at a time, we'll see.

But here's the list of the Birthday/Thingaversary haul:

Designated Daughters Deborah Knott series preorder
The Burning Room Harry Bosch series preorder
Holy Orders Quirke series from last year, not available at the library why??
The Cocktail Waitress Because it was noir month and I like James Cain
Lemon Larceny most recent in the Donut Shop series
Not Dead Yet Roy Grace series
Dead Man's Grip Roy Grace series
Top Secret TwentyOne Stephanie Plum series
Wild Swans I missed the group read, but I found it at a good price:)
We Two I always wanted to read more about Queen Victoria
Ten North Frederick I like John O'Hara and I wanted to read the book after watching the movie with Gary Cooper (love him)...

Only two of the books listed above are in actual print form: Holy Orders and The Cocktail Waitress. I can't read the Cocktail Waitress anywhere but at home, the cover is too vava voom! Lol.

Before the end of the month next week I would like to complete: Lonesome Dove, Gods of Gotham and The Cuckoo's Calling. Lonesome Dove is a tome, but an effortless read. It's a reread for me, I couldn't help myself after reading the two books in the series Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon. I'm still not sure if I want to read the last book in the series Streets of Laredo though.

Nice Thingaversary haul! I liked Wild Swans, but its size was a little intimidating. I've enjoyed the few books I've read about Victoria, and We Two looks like a good one to add to my list. Off to see if my public library has a copy in the system...

Have fun with your birthday/anniversary haul!

Great haul! And haha I agree about the cover of The Cocktail Waitress. I borrowed that one from the library and was very grateful that we had a self-checkout machine, so that I didn't have to hand it to the librarian :P

Love the Thingaversary haul and I had a good chuckle over the cover of The Cocktail Waitress. I love those hard boiled crime covers but I would be a bit embarrassed to be seen reading the book in public. Those books should come with an added 'brown paper wrapper'...... Although, that may generate a whole different interest in what one is reading. ;-)

Lemon Larceny? Book #15, I see. I've somehow managed to fall behind on the donut mysteries. I need to read 13 and 14 now, then move on to #15.

What a Birthday/Thingaversary haul!

Thanks everyone: I quite enjoyed myself with my haul! Of course I showed my mother The Cocktail Waitress and I haven't seen it since. At least I know it's in good hands! I think the cover made her kind of nostalgic. She is quite the fiesty 84 year old reader, and I love that we can discuss all types of books, although often we don't agree on various aspects of them.

>148 lindapanzo: Linda, those Donut Shop mysteries seem to be coming out at a very fast pace. I just happened to stumble on this last one, it was released July 16th. I think I read somewhere that the author, in response to reader feedback, has decided to make the books shorter with less recipes. This works for me, because although I do enjoy looking at recipes, I never for one minute imagine myself ever making doughnuts:)

# 111 Devices and Desires I was in the mood for P.D. James and thoroughly enjoyed this one. I am slowly making my way to the last book in the series, at least I think it will be the last.

In Devices and Desires, Adam has taken a two week leave from work to tend to his aunt's business affairs. He invariably becomes involved in the case of a serial killer known as the Whistler, and the murder of a horrible woman who had many enemies. The backstory of a nuclear power plant, is woven into the other two plotlines very effectively.

>150 lsh63: I asked for donut pans for Christmas and have been surprised at how much I've enjoyed baking the cake variety. I feel a little less guilty when they are baked instead of fried! They actually are pretty easy to make.

Great Birthday/Thingaversary haul, Lisa.

I have a James Cain novel that I can't take out in public as well. Mine is Jealous Woman, definitely for reading at home. :)

Oh my!

When I was a kid, I loved to read mysteries, particularly Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner. Well, some of those Perry Mason paperbacks had some pretty lurid covers back then (late 60s/early 70s). I remember being at the local drug store, browsing through the paperback book rack when a woman came up and scolded me. Asked me whether my mother knew I was reading such smutty books.

Well, thank goodness for Mom. She came up behind me and said "yes, she does and Linda can read whatever she wants."

Years later, when I took the bus to my summer job at the big Marshall Field's bookstore on State St in Chicago, I used to use a cloth book cover so that no one could see what I was reading.

>152 thornton37814: Hi Lori, baked doughnuts, hmmmm. I think I could justify that.... I'm off to research now.

>153 DeltaQueen50: Lol Judy that is some cover!

>155 lindapanzo: That is so awesome about your mom, Linda! My mom had a moment when I was reading Valley of the Dolls in 7th grade, but then she said, I'm so glad you're reading, read whatever you want. Her naughty cover book was Forever Amber.

HaHa! I looked up the cover of The Cocktail Waitress. My she is popping out of her clothes! You're mother likes it racy! ;)

>157 cammykitty: Lol, Hi Katie: yes indeed, she does, she practically pried it out of my hand before I had a chance to ask her if she wanted to read it!

Here's what I've read so far this month:

112 Betrayal in Death
113 Ordinary Grace
114 The Luminaries

Betrayal in Death of course the In Death series is highly addictive and I hope to get caught up one day. Not likely though because there seem to be at least three books released each year, I'm not even counting the in-betweens.

Ordinary Grace was excellent, in fact I think I devoured it in one day!

The Luminaries was also excellent, it was a whopping tale of historical aspects, murder, secrets, and lies. It took a lot of effort to keep all of the many characters and their relationships with each other straight, but it all tied together somehow and I am glad that I was able to tackle this tome!

Yay for The Luminaries! that one is still one of my favorite reads so far this year.

So glad you loved Ordinary Grace. Krueger is probably my favorite author these days.

115 Designated Daughters the latest entry in the Deborah Knott series, was very good as usual. The plot is centered around Deborah's aunt Rachel, who is in hospice care and during the last moments of her life, has a surge of energy where she mentions secrets and individuals from many years ago. It's always a little bit of work to keep up with Deborah's family, but this time as past events come to life, there were many minor characters to keep track of as well. All in all, it was still a satisfying read.

116 Twitch Upon A Star: Elizabeth Montgomery Let me just say I was quite the fan of Bewitched when I was a little girl, so I was looking forward to reading this biography of Elizabeth Montgomery. I'm sorry to say it was a chore to read, and quite frankly a convoluted mess. The events in her life were all over the place going back and forth between her childhood, young adult life, and later years. I supposed I expect a biography to flow in some sort of logical sequence and this book did not.

117 Right as Rain This was my first read in the Strange and Quinn series, I liked it. Strange and Quinn are both ex-cops, Strange is black and Quinn is white, which makes for an interesting pairing as they find that they have quite a few things in common.

Strange, now a detective, is hired by the mother of a black cop killed by Quinn, although Quinn is found not to be at fault, he leaves the force anyway. The mother of the slain policeman feels that there is more to the story of what exactly happened, and it turns out that she was right.

I devoured this book pretty quickly, it had just enough action to be believable and the black vs. white tension wasn't hammered to death. Even though Quinn is being investigated by Strange, they form a quasi friendship and really take to each other, which I assume sets the foundation for the rest of the series.

118 Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels was a cute combination love story/biography of food blogger Ree Drummond who has a cooking show on Food Network and calls herself an accidental country girl. This was a light and interesting read about how Ree met her husband and the birth of their first child. She writes very honestly about their courtship and how life laughs at us when we make plans. I found it funny that she was a vegetarian but quickly changed her tune when her husband starting cooking beef for her!

119 You Have No Idea is another honestly written biography written by Vanessa Williams and her mother Helen. Vanessa writes very candidly about her teenage abortion, nude photo scandal, her sometimes very tense relationship with her mother, her failed marriages and trying to balance motherhood and her career. She freely admits that she has made some very bad choices, but she learned from her mistakes and seems to have a better, more mature relationship with her mother now. Her mother's chapters in the book focus on what a "terror" Vanessa was to raise, and how she wasn't trying to be her daughter's friend, but that maybe her own upbringing affected how she raised her daughter. I can definitely relate to the fact that sometimes it takes being a mother yourself to finally "get" your own mother.

I suppose at the time I was preoccupied and while I remember the scandal, I didn't t remember that she was almost to the end of her reign as Miss America when the photos became public, which seems kind of pointless to me. Her mantra of "success being the best revenge" seems to have worked for her.

120 White Teeth
121 Stake & Eggs
122 The Fever
123 The Silkworm
124 Philly Stakes
125 Eggs in a Casket
126 The Dead Man's Wife
127 True Grit
128 Mom and Me & Mom

Good Morning Everyone and Happy September!

So far this month I've finished:

129 Seduction in Death
130 Rough Justice
131 Something Wicked

I have nine books left to complete my challenge, plus a few library books that all came in at once. Why does that seem to happen?

My goal is to finish everything on my plate, so to speak, by the end of the month and catch up on series, and see what's been hiding on my shelves. I've joined the 2015 group, but have no concrete ideas yet. I'm not exactly creative, so I'm toying with a very "loose" challenge which will allow me to focus even more on my TBR and factor in reading what I am in the mood for. I've made pretty good progress with clearing out some of my older books, but there is so much more to be done.

This looks like a sound plan.

Yay for being so close to finishing your challenge!

Hi Lisa, doesn't it always seem that those library books come in herds? I have 6 books to read in order to finish my challenge this month, but between library books and other committments it's going to take me the whole month to do so!

132 Valley of Amazement
133 Black and Blue
134 Snow Falling on Cedars
135 Appaloosa
136 The Echo
137 Acid Row
138 The Secret Place
139 Lonesome Dove
140 Original Sin

Good Morning Everyone:

With my last book finished yesterday, I have completed my 2014 challenge. I'm still going to hang out here and I will be setting up a new thread for the rest of the year where my categories will be minimal: Books from My Shelves, Books from the Library, and Books from My Nook.

I hope to catch up on a few series, clear some of my TBR in preparation for a library sale in November, and maybe read some scary books in October and holiday books in December.

I'll be back, my early morning peace in the office is now being interrupted :)

Congratulations on completing your challenge!

Big congrats on completing!

Congratulations, Lisa!

Congrats on finishing! And I'm glad you're sticking around.

Congratulations on finishing. I'm hoping I'll be almost finished (except for the Dec CATs) at the end of Nov and can do some catching up.

Congratulations!

Congrats on completing your challenge!

Congrats :)

Congratulations, Lisa!

Belated congratulations!