Lisa's 2016 R&D Category Challenge

Wanted to snag a place here. 2015 has been great so far - read far more than I have in the last few years, and I'll give the credit to re-joining the category challenge and setting a lofty goal.

So that leads me to 2016, which I have designated as the R&D (rip-off and duplicate) Category Challenge - an idea that I have shamelessly stolen, but let's just say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and so in an ode to my fellow (more creative) LTers, I will choose 16 categories for 2016, each one a category that someone else has put to good use, and that inspired me or made me laugh (or snort)!

So, thank you fellow category challengers (is that what we are, hmm...).

Now to come up with the list.

Gotta have a couple of tickers of course:

So, here we are already 5 days into the new year and I haven't had any time to be 'creative' and 'R&D' categories from others and put together my new thread. So, I think I will do something similar to last year, which was successful for me in that I read more books in 2015 than I have since 2008.

Good news is that I've finished 5 books already!

Well done on having 5 books finished already!

5 books in 5 days is a great way to start the new year. Congratulations on getting ahead of the curve already.

>3 lkernagh: and >4 AHS-Wolfy: - Thanks! I've just gone back to work today, so will probably slow down a bit now, ah well.

2016 BingoDOG
This was really fun last year - maybe I'll cover the card if I focus a bit more before the end of the year.



24. Published before you were born: A Train of Powder by Rebecca West
3. Less than 200 pages: Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill
1. Debut book: Desperate Measures by Cindy Cromer
2. Comics, Graphic Novel, Manga or BD: Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
20. Senior citizen as the protagonist: No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
13. Read a CAT: More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl
12. In translation: Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
25. Survival: The Unincorporated Man
7. You want the protagonist's job or hobby: Grave Peril
16. One-word title: Jamilia
10. Self-published: The Martian
17. About an airplane flight: The Ghost of Flight 401
15. Features a theater: The Transit of Venus
21. Autobiography or memoir: The Bookseller of Kabul
4. About a writer: The Man in the High Castle
9. Food is important: The Year of Living Biblically
23. Coming of Age Story: Arrows of the Queen
22. Adventure: The Engines of God
6. Title uses wordplay: The Inhuman Condition
11. About/by an indigenous person: The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
8. A body of water in the title: The People from the Sea
14. Author born in 1916: The Dying Earth
5. Title has a musical reference: Song
18. Focus on art: 100 Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum

And why not two bingo cards for 2016!
Here is the Woman BingoPUP card:



2. Author over 60 years old: A Train of Powder by Rebecca West
16. Women in non-traditional roles: Desperate Measures by Cindy Cromer
12. Award winner: Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack
13. By or about a woman: More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl
10. Set in Europe, Australia or NZ: The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
6. Set in Latin America or Asia: The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad
1. 'New to you' author: It's a Chick Thing: Celebrating the Wild Side of Women's Friendship by Ame Mahler Beanland and Emily Miles Terry
18. From your TBR pile: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
9. Published before 2000: Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
7. Made into a movie: The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey
21. Short story collection: Open Secrets by Alice Munro
17. Less than 10 years old: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
4. Male pseudonym: The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson AKA Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson
14. 1920's-1930's detective fiction: Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
22. Woman in science: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
23. Women in combat: Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner
19. Autobiography, memoir or correspondence: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
20. About a spy: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
15. Poetry or plays: Song by Brigit Pegeen Kelly

Agree, excellent start to the reading year. Now if we could only have more holidays in which to read... :)

Good luck with filling up the Bingo cards and have a great reading year! :)

Great to see you all set up. I'm looking forward to seeing how you fill up those Bingo Cards.

Here's to having another year of fun with the Bingo!

>8 -Eva-: Where's the like button! More holidays for reading please!

>9 rabbitprincess:, >10 DeltaQueen50:, >11 MissWatson: Thanks - I'm looking forward to it!

And here are my categories - I'm going for 4 books each in 16 categories. These are almost the same as last year however I'm combining the Virago Secret Santa and Gifts categories, deleting the misc/overflow category (which I didn't use last year - I guess not needed with so many categories and that it'll be a huge stretch to read 64 books anyway!), and adding three more.

So, I have R&D'ed three categories that others have used that I haven't before - CATs, book bullets/recommendations and chunksters (500+ pages).

1. Books from Lisa (my book-loving friend from across the pond - got another 12 from her this year!)
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts
3. Sci-fi
4. Fantasy
5. Series
6. Non-fiction
7. Mystery/crime
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008)
9. Easton/Franklin Press
10. Virago Modern Classics
11. Books from the 1001 list(s)
12. Authors new to me
13. Graphic novels
14. 2016 category challenge CATs
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages)

Category 1: Books from Lisa
1. Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2.
3.
4.

Category 2: Virago Secret Santa/other gifts
1. Stone Cold by David Baldacci
2.
3.
4.

Category 3: Sci-Fi
1. The Martian by Andy Weir
2. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
4. Return From the Stars by Stanislaw Lem

5. Years in the Making: The Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp

Category 4: Fantasy
1. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
2. Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
3. The Inhuman Condition by Clive Barker
4. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance

Category 5: Series
1. The Engines of God - The Academy: Priscilla Hutchins (1) by Jack McDevitt
2. The Twelve - The Passage (2) by Justin Cronin
3. Shift by Hugh Howey
4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Category 6: Non-fiction
1. A Train of Powder by Rebecca West
2. More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl
3. The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad
4. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer

Category 7: Mystery/crime
1. Desperate Measures by Cindy Cromer
2. The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie
3. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
4. The People from the Sea by Velda Johnston

Category 8: Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008)
1. Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack
2. The Ghost of Flight 401 by John G. Fuller
3. 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses
4. Go Figure!: The Numbers You Need for Everyday Life

5. Just After Sunset
6. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
7. 100 Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum

Category 9: Easton/Franklin Press
1. Aesop's Fables by Aesop
2. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
3.
4.

Category 10: Virago Modern Classics
1. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
2. The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey
3. The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson
4. The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor

Category 11: Books from 1001 list(s)
1. No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
3. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
4. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

5. Life and Death of Harriett Frean by May Sinclair
6. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
7. Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Category 12: Authors new to me
1. The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin
2. Jamilia by Chinghiz Aitmatov
3. The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs
4. Open Secrets by Alice Munro

5. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
6. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Category 13: Graphic novels
1. Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill
2. Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
3.
4.

Category 14: 2016 Category Challenge CATs
1. Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities by Russell Ash and Brian Lake
2. It's a Chick Thing: Celebrating the Wild Side of Women's Friendship by Ame Mahler Beanland and Emily Miles Terry
3. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
4. The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History by Allan Lazar, Dan Karlan and Jeremy Salter

5. The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
6. I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy

Category 15: Book bullets/recommendations
1. Wool by Hugh Howey
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
3. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
4. Song by Brigit Pegeen Kelly

Category 16: Chunksters (500+ pages)
1. Press Start to Play edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams 502 pages
2. Counterfeit Unrealities by Philip K. Dick 724 pages
3. The Passage by Justin Cronin 766 pages
4. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin 602 pages

I've finished 6 books so far this year.

First was A Train of Powder by Rebecca West which includes several essays from her days as a journalist. The essays covered the Nuremberg trials, a lynching trial in South Carolina, a murder trial in the UK and a treason trial in the UK. Very interesting reading!

I read two graphic novels - the first volumes of Locke and Key and Saga - very good!

I also read the first novel published by a girlfriend of mine from high school - Desperate Measures by Cindy Cromer - not bad.

Also finished Stone Cold by David Baldacci, the third entry in the Camel Club series.

And then I started Grave Peril, the third book in the Dresden Files, before I started to look at the various CATs and KITs for January...I know I'll blaze through it, so I put it aside momentarily to start a book for the GeoCAT, the DeweyCAT and one that'll fit both the AlphaKIT and SFF KIT.

And so I've finished No One Writes to the Colonel, a short novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I'm halfway through More Book Lust and 80 pages into Unquenchable Fire.

>30 LisaMorr: Glad to see another who's enjoying both those graphic novel series. Both are excellent imo.

I think you've set up a nice comfortable challenge for yourself. Hope you find a lot of good books to fill up the categories in 2016!

Howdy Lisa! Save your Dresden for February. The letters in the AlphaKIT are J and B, Jim Butcher!

>31 AHS-Wolfy: I agree - will definitely be reading more of both in 2016.
>32 mamzel: Thanks - I'm sure I will, with everything on my TBR and all of the book bullets I will be collecting...
>33 luvamystery65: Hi Roberta! Good idea, thanks!

You're off to a good start this year! I will b reading Rebecca West later this year for the British Authors challenge.

>35 cbl_tn: Thanks. I should read more by Rebecca West this year - I have a few Virago Modern Classics of hers, so that will fit a category.

I've finished Unquenchable Fire, which fit the AlphKIT and SFFFKIT. This book won the Arthur C. Clarke award, but it didn't work for me. I was contemplating using the Pearl rule because it just started out so blech for me - and I rarely don't finish a book (well, I might set it down, but I usually always return and finish them). It takes place in Poughkeepsie NY, in a post-revolutionary America that is hard to describe. There is a whole new religion with a very bizarre set of creation myths and everyone is always performing various rituals. The new religion is also very commercialized - you can buy all kinds of kitschy junk to support all the rituals that people are performing. The book would alternate telling the new mythology and progressing the protagonist's story. The protagonist is a very ordinary divorced woman who isn't very happy and just goes from day-to-day. She falls asleep after completing her work rounds one day and has a bizarre dream and ends up pregnant. This is at about page 50. She has the baby on p.385 and the book ends on p. 390, when her 17-old daughter goes off to College.

One little interesting point I picked up on was that people who follow the old religions, worship God for example, were called 'secs' or seculars and were looked down upon.

Anyway, I guess I'm glad I can cross this off the TBR list - it's been on my shelves since before I joined LT in 2008 and started cataloging my books.

Book #8 was More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl which fit the January Dewey CAT. I liked it and filled it full of post-it flags; for some reason I didn't enjoy it as much as I remember enjoying the original Book Lust. Still, tons of reading ideas (which I need desperately of course...) and it helped me pick out one of my books for February's RandomCAT. It also gave me some ideas for books to get for my friend Lisa - she is really good at giving me books around a central theme - I usually just pick books out that I have read and liked or that I think I will like (and then get a copy for myself of course), and the way Nancy writes her books, I could get ideas on themed book gifts for Lisa.

While looking around for books for February CATs and KITs, I found one more for this month's DeweyCAT - another book about books, Bizarre Books.

>39 LisaMorr: Bizarre Books sounds like a fun read Lisa.

>38 LisaMorr: I have another Pearl book on my wishlist - I love the thought of a book about books :)

A Train of Powder sounds interesting. Adding it to the wishlist, an ever-expanding category.

>40 luvamystery65: Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities offered a few chuckles - there were several titles and descriptions that I read aloud to my husband. A good diversion!

>41 Jackie_K: Yes - we need more books about books!
>42 pamelad: I definitely recommend it, very well written and interesting topics.

#9 Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities is probably not a book that you intend to read through in one sitting. And I didn't, but I did read it quicker than I might have planned - I think it's more of a book you dip in and out of - but I wanted to finish it for the DeweyCAT this month.

The book is organized by chapter and many of the entries are just the name of the book, the author, the publisher and the date published. Sometimes there will be a picture of the cover or some other illustration in the book.

Sometimes there will be a quote, a blurb from the cover or something from the introduction. It's organized by chapter: Double Entendre titles, authors, sport, leisure, food & drink, etc. There is a also a section in the back entitled Remarkable Names of Real Authors.

So, there was a lot of rather juvenile and non-PC stuff in the book - making fun of author's names for example.

There were some things that made me laugh out loud - here are a few examples:

From Language:
Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names

From Health & Medicine:
The Romance of Proctology
Memoirs of an Amnesiac
How to Get More Fun Out of Smoking

From Transport & Tourism:
The Little I Saw of Cuba
How To Abandon Ship (NOW with 40 more pages of NEW material)

From Death:
The Beginner's Guide for the Recently Deceased. A comprehensive guide to the only inevitable destination.
Premature burial and how it may be prevented.

I didn't really plan a lot of my January reading - mostly because I hadn't really set up my thread until after I got back from vacation in early January. I did manage to pick out several books from my TBR piles here to meet all of the January CATs and KITs and I'm making good progress with them.

So, now that all the February CATs and KITs are up, I've been collecting a big pile of possibilities for February. I really think this year's CATs and KITs are going to help me read a lot of the books I already own and make a bit of a dent in my massive TBR pile.

So, here's February possibilities from my own shelves:

GeoCAT: Jamila, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Bookseller of Kabul, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

DeweyCAT: The Ghost of Flight 401, The Philosophy and Literature of Existentialism, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times, The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations, The Bell Jar

RandomCAT: The Road and The Transit of Venus

SFFF KIT: Press Start to Play, Starters, Robopocalypse, Earthfall

AlphKIT: Grave Peril and Summer Knight by Jim Butcher - and looking at the list above, a couple more fit - An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, The Philosophy and Literature of Existentialism by Wesley Barnes, Beautiful Souls, Jamila and The Bell Jar.

I think I counted 18 books, so I won't be reading them all! It's nice to have a friendly pile of books to get after.

#10 Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Loved this book! Beautiful, lyrical writing and an interesting story about a young woman bitten by a rabid dog who does not get rabies and is eventually thought to be possessed by demons. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't, that's how Marquez's fiction goes.

This fits in my Books from Lisa category. I read this for the January GeoCAT and it filled the BingoDOG square for In Translation.

I am also loving how this year's Kits, Cats and Dogs are helping me whittle away at my TBR. :)

I too am hoping the KITs and CATs help me take books off my TBR. The problem is that, when I read the threads, I succumb to the recommendations and end up acquiring more books.

>49 mathgirl40: Yes, there is that little problem...
;)

#11 The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin

While I liked the story, this book annoyed me. I felt like I was being lectured pretty constantly. I was reminded of Atlas Shrugged, but Ayn Rand didn't really annoy me that much. This just left a bitter taste in my mouth. Also add to it that I didn't find that the main character was very well fleshed out and neither was his love interest. Still, I carried on to the end, because I was interested in seeing how the story played out. And the future world that was laid out was based on a unique premise.

It's a day before the end of the month, and based on the housework, catch-up work for work and packing for a trip that I need to do today and tomorrow, it's likely that I won't finish another book before the end of the day tomorrow, so I'll do my January summary today.

Read 11 books, which is pretty great for me - never mind that there were a couple of graphic novels in there and one novella shorter than 100 pages - average page count per book was 268.

I'm trying to read more books that I've had around for a while, and I did OK with that in January, with 7 books acquired at least a year ago:
books acquired before 2008: 2
2009: 1
2011: 2
2012: 1
2013: 1
2015: 4

More statistics:
4 books by women authors
3 non-fiction books
countries visited: 6 (Italy, Colombia, Germany, UK, St. Kitts, US)
CATs: All 3
KITs: both
Bingo Cards: 8 on BingoDOG and 4 on WomanBingoPUP

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi
4. Fantasy
5. Series
6. Non-fiction - 2
7. Mystery/crime - 1
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 1
9. Easton/Franklin Press
10. Virago Modern Classics
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 1
12. Authors new to me - 1
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 1
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages)

Best of the month: Of Love and Other Demons

#12 Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
436 pages
category: fantasy
read for the AlphaKIT and meets the DeweyCAT as well
BingoDOG square: You want the protagonist's job or hobby

This is the third installment in the Dresden Files and Harry is again stretched to his limits to save those he cares about and do the right thing. He battles ghosts, vampires, a dead sorcerer and his faerie godmother. Another good entry in this series.

#13 Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov
96 pages
category: authors new to me
read for the GeoCAT and fits the AlphaKIT as well
BingoDOG square: one-word title

A short novel of 96 pages, Jamilia is told from the point of view of Jamilia's young brother-in-law, Seit. Seit, Jamilia and Daniyar, a newcomer to the village, toil everyday carrying sacks of grain to the train station. Jamilia's husband went to war shortly after they were married, and it doesn't take long for Jamilia to be drawn to the quiet newcomer. The imagery was beautiful in this novel.

#14 The Martian by Andy Weir
369 pages
category: sci-fi
read for the SFFFKit
BingoDOG square: self-published

Great book. As a chemical engineer, I followed along reasonably well with the science, but there were some times when I just let it flow over me and didn't worry about it too much. I definitely cringed when he was playing around with hydrazine and hydrogen. I loved the humor - I laughed out loud quite a bit and was reading some of those passages to my husband.

>55 LisaMorr: The Martian was a fun read, was't it. I have no knowledge of science yet was able to go with the flow of the story easily.

>55 LisaMorr:
I am interested in science, but my knowledge isn't vast, so I enjoyed it a lot. The most important part, though, I thought was the voice of the main characters!

>56 DeltaQueen50: Yes, very fun! I haven't seen the movie yet and I do want to see it; hopefully I'll enjoy it.

>57 -Eva-: Definitely!

#15 The Ghost of Flight 401 by John G. Fuller
272 pages
category: Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008)
read for the DeweyCat (133) and fits the AlphaKit
BingoDOG square: About an airplane flight

The Ghost of Flight 401 was about the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Everglades in 1972 and the supernatural happenings that were reported afterward. I vaguely remember the crash as my dad flew for TWA and airline crashes would be a hot topic at our house. My dad gave me the book some time ago, and now that I've read it I'll have to ask him if had heard of any of the ghost sightings - TWA leased some of Eastern's L-1011's during their slower periods.

The best and most well-written parts of the book for me were the descriptions of the passengers and crew and timeline up to the crash and its aftermath, including the rescue efforts, crash investigation and then the reporting of the ghost sightings.

The weakest parts for me were when the author waxed philosophical about the possible meaning and cause of the ghost sightings. He went on and on about how difficult it was for him to even investigate this aspect because everyone would think he was crazy and he writes about real science like nuclear power, etc. I was thinking, just get on with it - tell us what you found.

>51 LisaMorr: Oh no! I have The Unincorporated Man on my 'to read' list.

>60 VictoriaPL: Well, you might like it more than me!

>55 LisaMorr: Glad to hear that a chemical engineer approves of the book! My own background is in math and computer science and I loved the part where he's using the hexadecimal system to communicate.

>55 LisaMorr: My resident engineer liked the book well enough, but he can't skim-read, so he found the problem-solving passages a bit much. I think he preferred the movie.

>62 mathgirl40: This guy knew everything didn't he!

>63 rabbitprincess: I'm definitely looking forward to the movie - thinking about seeing it tonight.

#16 The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
337 pages
category: Virago Modern Classics
read for the RandomCAT
BingoDOG: Features a theater
WomanBingoPUP: Set in Europe, Australia or NZ

I read some reviews of this book after I finished it to see if others felt the same way I did - boy did I see a lot of reviews that were just gushing about it! Not so much for me.

This book is about two sisters that are orphaned in Australia when their parents die in ferry accident. They are taken in by their much older half sister. They move to England, where the story starts, and the book follows their lives and loves for the next ~20+ years.

This book went a lot slower than I expected (and hoped) it to go. I was regularly flipping forward saying to myself, Really???. The language that was used to write it had me constantly thinking that it took place in a much earlier time, and then I'd catch a reference and realize it starts maybe 20 years after the end of WWII and towards the end there is even a veiled reference to the start of the AIDS epidemic.

Another thing I didn't like about the way it was written was that it seemed to me that important parts of speech, like verbs, nouns and objects, were sometimes left out of sentences.

I toyed with the 50-page rule (in my case it's 48 pages... ; )), but I soldiered on and I'm glad I finished it. The back of the book referred to two tragic secrets and I wanted to know what they were. I guess one of the secrets explains some things, but it didn't really work for me.

Happy to check another Virago Modern Classic off of my list though.

#17 The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad
276 pages
category: non-fiction
read for the GeoCAT, also fits the AlphaKIT
BingoDOG: Autobiography or memoir

This was a pretty fast read for me. I liked how the author set it up - each chapter was a pretty self-contained episode about life in Afghanistan, giving a feel for what it was like under the Taliban and directly after, with some historical flavor of the war against Russia and even earlier. Her chapter entitled, Billowing, Fluttering, Winding, made me feel for the first time what it must be like to wear a burka. There was a short chapter describing the 16 decrees that the Taliban broadcast when they took over in September 1996. Another beautiful but short chapter called Suicide and Song about a woman's longing for love in Afghanistan, which is pretty much taboo. It included some lovely poem snippets.

After I finished, I happened to look up the Wikipedia listing for the book and found out that the real bookseller of Kabul sued the author for defamation of character. He won, but the judgment was overturned on appeal.

Good read - I recommend it.

Edited to add book cover - woohoo, it worked!

Howdy Lisa! I see you are reading some very varied books. I love that. I'll have to look for Jamilia.

The part about what it was like to have to wear a burqa stood out to me, too. The cooking and having to recognize friends and family by their shoes, etc...

>67 luvamystery65: Thanks - without the category challenge I know I wouldn't be reading very broadly. On the other hand, I don't make much progress with series! Maybe next year I'll build a lot of the categories around series.

>68 RidgewayGirl: So funny you mentioned about that; I was taking a walk today (sunny and almost 60 F, very nice for Pittsburgh in February), and I was telling him about that very same chapter and how when they went shopping in the bazaar, with all the other burkas around, how tough it was to tell the difference and people were concentrating on the shoes and the bottoms of pants.

February Summary

12. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
13. Jamilia by Chinghiz Aitmatov
14. The Martian by Andy Weir
15. The Ghost of Flight 401 by John G. Fuller
16. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
17. The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad

Read 6 books, which I'm very happy with; average page count per book completed was 298. I've also read six short stories in Press Start to Play.

I'm trying to read more books that I've had around for a while; 3 of 6 books acquired at least a year ago:
books acquired before 2008: 1
2012: 1
2013: 1
2015: 3

More statistics:
2 books by women authors
2 non-fiction books
countries visited: 8 (UK, US, Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sweden, Portugal, Kyrgyzstan)
planets visited: 1
CATs: All 3
KITs: both
Bingo Cards: 6 on BingoDOG and 2 on WomanBingoPUP (and no bingos yet!)

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi - 1 (+1)
4. Fantasy - 1 (+1)
5. Series
6. Non-fiction - 3 (+1)
7. Mystery/crime - 1
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 2 (+1)
9. Easton/Franklin Press
10. Virago Modern Classics - 1 (+1)
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 1
12. Authors new to me - 2 (+1)
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 1
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages)

Best of the month: The Martian

Glad you posted your opinion of The Transit of Venus. It's one of those titles that sounds intriguing.

I sympathize with your bingo score. I've checked off a number of bingo squares too but no Bingo yet.

Ideas for March from my shelves:

GeoCAT:
The Accident by Ismail Kadare - Albania
The Siege also by Kadare - Albania
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst - Bulgaria
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - Lithuania
City of Thieves by David Benioff - Russia
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht - Serbia
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka - Ukraine (also a 1001 book, and that's one of my categories, so that moves it up the list)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - Ukraine (also a 1001 book)

RandomCAT:
It's a Chick Thing: Celebrating the Wild Side of Women's Friendship

DeweyCAT:
The Year of Living Biblically
God is not Great
Gilead
Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam (also good for AlphaKIT)
The Confessions of St. Augustine

SFF/SFKit:
Arrows of the Queen (also good for AlphaKIT)
The Road
The Man in the High Castle

AlphKIT:
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana - in memory of Umberto Eco
Quantico
A Dark History: The Kings and Queens of Europe

Plus I'm planning on reading short stories regularly from the umpteen unread anthologies and collections I have lying around the house. Probably should have included a category for this. but anyway...

Also, maybe I'll try to squeeze in a short biography of Martin Van Buren - I need to re-fire up my US presidents challenge!

>71 VivienneR: But your mileage may vary - there were lots of great reviews...

I always let the bingo markers fall where they may, at least until perhaps the 4th quarter anyway!

Looks like a great March lined up for you! I have had The Master and Margarita on my list for a very long time so if you do read it this month, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts (especially on the translation you read).

>65 LisaMorr: I share your lack of enthusiasm for Shirley Hazzard. The Great Fire won the National Book Award, but I gave it one star.

The Martian looks good. I've downloaded it onto the Kindle. They're a trap!

#18 The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
218 pages
category: sci-fi
read for the SFF/SF Kit
BingoDOG: about a writer

This has been on my shelves for a long time and when I saw it listed as a possible read for this month's SFF/SF Kit, I thought now's the time to check this one off the list. I knew generally what it was about - an alternate history where Germany and Japan win WWII and divvy most of the world up between them.

Most of the book takes place in San Francisco in the Pacific States of America (PSA), which is run by the Japanese, with a little bit in Colorado and Wyoming, which is part of the Rocky Mountain States, a buffer between the PSA and the Nazi-occupied USA (the eastern half of the old US). It centers around 4 main characters and the crises they go through. Most of the characters have read, are reading or at least have heard about a book, banned in the German occupied areas, that posits that the US and the UK win WWII. The 'man in the high castle' is the man who wrote that alternate history - kinda neat, an alternate history within an alternate history.

I wanted to like this classic, award-winning novel more than I did, but I just didn't connect well with the characters - they were all pretty flat to me.

Glad I read it though.

>74 rabbitprincess: My copy is translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor - I'm not familiar with either of them, and I guess I also haven't seen a two-person translation team before either.

>75 pamelad: Glad I'm not alone! Enjoy The Martian!

>76 LisaMorr: sorry you did not enjoy it more Lisa. I still look forward to reading it later this year. In the series the book is changed, it's actually a film and 'the man in the high castle' is Hitler himself, who secretly collects all of these films through his agents.

>78 VictoriaPL: That's OK! Still happy I read it, and I'm sure you'll get something out of it also.

I took a look at Wikipedia info on the book, which also talked about the series. It also mentioned that the characters were fleshed out more, which I guess you would have to do to make the series appealing. The series does sound interesting, and I do plan to check it out sometime.

>79 LisaMorr: I'm sure it will be fun comparing the two!

#19 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
294 pages
category: 1001 books
read for the GeoCAT
BingoDOG: none! (first one that doesn't fit)
Woman BingoPUP: from your TBR pile

It was great that the GeoCAT pointed me in the direction of this 1001 book. I definitely enjoyed it. It was touching, funny and also somewhat painful at times. It is told from the point of view of the daughter of an elderly Ukrainian widow who has decided to marry a Ukrainian woman 48 years his junior. The daughter joins forces with her sister (this crisis has brought them back together after a two-year estrangement) to try to deal with the ensuing problems. Then name of the book is the name of the book that the Ukrainian widow is writing, and excerpts are included (in fact the entire history of tractors might be in there!). A good read.

#20 It's a Chick Thing: Celebrating the Wild Side of Women's Friendship by Ame Mahler Beanland and Emily Miles Terry
171 pages
category: 2016 category challenge CATs
read for the RandomCAT
BingoDOG: none, suppose I could try to force fit it into Adventure or Coming of Age, but I'm sure I'll read books that are better fits
Woman BingoPUP: A 'new-to-you' author

Not sure why I picked this up, because it's really not for me. The book is made up of a series of essays on women friends getting together to do the kinds of things women friends do, along with some trivia here and there, like chick bands, chick movies, chick lit, cocktails to make when you're having your girlfriends over, etc. A few of the essays were mildly entertaining. I guess I'm just not the kind of chick this book was written for.

#21 The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
449 pages
category: 2016 category challenge CATs
read for the Alpha KIT
BingoDOG: none again

I had a real tough time with this one. I decided to read it because Umberto Eco had just passed away and I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum and it happened to hit both letters for the March AlphaKIT. I was seriously thinking about the Pearl rule on this one, but I carried on.

The book is told from the point of view of Yambo, a bookseller who has had an 'incident' with the result that he has a strange case of memory loss - he can remember everything he has read, but not his personal memories. Part of the reason that I kept putting the book down is that I really didn't like Yambo very much. I think the only reason I would pick the book up again is because the other book I was dipping into was It's a Chick Thing, which I wasn't enjoying very much either. For the longest time nothing really happens. And then there is a part in the book where he is re-discovering his memories, and the most interesting part of the book for me (maybe the only interesting part) was when he re-tells a story from his boyhood during WWII where he helps some partisans escape from some German soldiers. I spent a lot of time skimming through this book, which I rarely do, but it was the only way for me to get through it.

#22 The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs
332 pages
category: authors new to me
read for the DeweyCAT, also counted for the AlphaKIT
BingoDOG: although not the entire theme of the book, food was important to author during his year of living biblically, so I'll put it into the 'food is important' square

Just like the title describes, this book was about one man's attempt to spend a year living as biblically as possible. A self-described secular, agnostic Jew, A. J. Jacobs year-long biblical living challenge was very entertaining and I read this book very quickly. I also learned a lot about all the different rules in the bible and how those rules were interpreted differently by different groups. I liked how the author had a number of different people he used as biblical advisors and it was also recently interesting to me that he spent some time with the New Testament as well. I think some of the things he did were a bit over the top and I felt offended by his refusal to touch his wife or anything that she touched during her period because according to the bible she's unclean (she didn't like it either). At the end of the book when he shaved off that Moses-like beard, I wanted to know how his life was going to change going forward - I felt like the book could've been extended a bit to describe this. Glad I read it.

>84 LisaMorr:
His wife is my hero - her patience should make her a shoo-in for sainthood. :)

>85 -Eva-: I agree! I thought it was funny when she used a code word to try to pull him back from the edge. And it made more sense when I understood his OCD tendencies.

#23 Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey (picture from the omnibus version I own, which also includes Arrows Flight and Arrows Fall)
216 pages
category: fantasy
read for the SFF/SF KIT and the Alpha KIT
BingoDOG: I'm going to put this one under 'coming of age story'
WomanBingoPUP: published before 2000

Talia, a 13-yr old girl raised in the Borderlands, is chosen by a Companion, a horse with special powers, to become the Queens Own Herald. This book follows her introduction at the Collegium and what she learns there about what it means to be a Herald and specifically the Queen's Herald, and with the political intrigues of the day, the inherent dangers of such a role. Very good introduction to this series, and I intend to continue it.

March Summary

18. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
19. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
20. It's a Chick Thing by Ame Mahler Beanland and Emily Miles Terry
21. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
22. The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs
23. Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey

Another 6 books read in March, in 4 different categories, which I'm very happy with; average page count per book completed was 336 - higher than January and February. I only read one short story from Press Start to Play - I would've read more, but I was trying to finish The Master and Margarita by the end of the month, and I just didn't quite manage that.

I'm doing well with reading books off my shelves that I've had for a while - all 6 books were acquired at least a year ago:
books acquired before 2008: 2
2010: 1
2011: 1
2013: 2

More statistics:
3 books by women authors
2 non-fiction books
countries visited: 3 (US, Ukraine, Italy)
CATs: 1 each for GeoCAT, RandomCAT and DeweyCAT
KITs: 2 for SFF/SF KIT and 3 for AlphaKIT
Bingo Cards: 3 on BingoDOG and 3 on WomanBingoPUP (and still no bingos yet!)

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi - 2 (+1)
4. Fantasy - 2 (+1)
5. Series
6. Non-fiction - 3
7. Mystery/crime - 1
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 2
9. Easton/Franklin Press
10. Virago Modern Classics - 1
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 2 (+1)
12. Authors new to me - 3 (+1)
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 3 (+2)
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages)

Best of the month: Arrows of the Queen

April Reading Plans

First off is I'll be finishing The Master and Margarita. Then, I need to re-start my US Presidents Challenge with a biography of Martin Van Buren, which will also fit the AlphaKIT.

For the RandomCAT, my first choice is Hot, Flat and Crowded which will also work for the AlphaKIT and the DeweyCAT. I'm also considering Galapagos if I have time, which also fits the GeoCAT.

Other possibilities for the GeoCAT are The Orchid House and Old Glory: An American Voyage.

For the DeweyCAT, I'm planning on reading Millennium Hall, which is a Virago Modern Classic, one of my categories for this year. I have a bunch more short-listed if I have time this month:
Common Sense Leadership
Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism
Veiled Kingdom
Honeymoon in Tehran
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived

And for the SFF/SF KIT, I will pick from the following:
American Gods
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Road
Neverwhere
I Am Legend

>85 -Eva-: I had the same thought when I read this book but it seems she is used to it. Could you imagine living with someone reading an entire encyclopedia and wanting to share stuff with you all the time?

>90 mamzel:
He seems a very intense man - I couldn't have anyone like that around for too long. :)

Mid-month update - I finished The Master and Margarita and Press Start to Play. Yesterday I finished The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived for the DeweyCAT and The Road for the SFF/SFFF KIT (I think The Road will also fit the RandomCAT). And started on Hot, Flat and Crowded for the RandomCAT - it will also fit the AlphaKIT and the DeweyCAT.

I'll be working on posting some additional comments on those books shortly.

I set Hot, Flat and Crowded down and picked up The Orchid House instead. Lovely book; finished on Saturday.

I then started on Martin Van Buren - really need to kick-start my US Presidents Challenge!

I'll post my reviews of my April reads eventually and my April summary - have been very busy getting ready for a total knee replacement on Thursday.

May Reading Plans

For the GeoCAT:
Open Secrets by Alice Munro (Canada)
Cat's Eye or Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Canada)

For the RandomCAT:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
By the Light of the Silvery Moon edited by Tricia Goyer

For the DeweyCAT:
Aesop's Fables
Arabian Nights
The Virago Book of Fairy Tales edited by Angela Carter

For the SFF/SF KIT:
Angelmass by Timothy Zahn
The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
Old Man's War by John Scalzi

Good luck with the knee replacement!

>93 LisaMorr: Prayers for a speedy recovery from your surgery!

>94 rabbitprincess:, >95 VictoriaPL: Thank you both very much!

>93 LisaMorr:
Hope the surgery goes well and that recovery is as smooth as possible.

Wishing you success with your knee replacement.

Good luck for your surgery!

Good luck, Lisa. Wishing you a speedy and relatively pain-free recuperation. And lots of reading time.

>97 -Eva-:, >98 DeltaQueen50:, >99 MissWatson: Thank you very much! I feel pretty confident about it and at this point I am soooooo ready. Especially after being off of anti-inflammatories and lots of supplements for almost a week now - I know there are real medical reasons for doing it, but I gotta believe one reason is so that we won't mind the acute pain of surgery so much because the knee hurts so much right beforehand!

>100 RidgewayGirl: Thanks! The reading part is a big positive! I imagine I will bring more books into the hospital than pretty much anyone else - reading is recommended to keep your mind off the pain.

Good luck with your knee replacement Lisa! I know you are active and I think you are a great candidate for a speedy recovery. Enjoy your reading time.

Hope the op goes well. Good luck with your recovery!

>102 luvamystery65:, >103 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks! Only one more day...

Oh, and I have a limerick for my surgery - hope you like it!

Happy Cinco de Mayo to me,
Today I go in for surgery,
There'll be no margarita,
But I'll get anesthesia,
And I'll come out with a brand new knee!

I love it!

>104 LisaMorr: Ha Ha!!!

>104 LisaMorr: Hee! I think you'll deserve a margarita after the surgery! :)

>104 LisaMorr: - Love it! Hope your surgery went well.

Thinking about you, Lisa, and hoping everything is going well.

>105 RidgewayGirl:, >106 luvamystery65: Glad you liked!
>107 rabbitprincess: Haven't had a margarita yet, darn - doesn't mix well with the pain pills, they say...
>108 LittleTaiko:, >109 DeltaQueen50: Thank you! Surgery was a complete success!

The doc said the kneecap was totally destroyed (how did I manage to do that?), with no cartilage left and no space left in the joint, i.e., bone-on-bone, and he was surprised I've managed as well as I have before this.

I'm coming along fine I think - good days and better days, no real bad days. Some days I'm exhausted and haven't read as much as I would've liked - although in thinking about it, I have read three books already - Open Secrets by Alice Munro, Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys and Aesop's Fables (I thought this would be a re-read, and while most were familiar, some of the fables were completely new.

Still need to get around to posting some reviews from April, my April summary and what I've read in May so far.

>110 LisaMorr: So glad to hear that your recovery is going well! I will be looking forward to your review of the Sepetys.

I'm glad the healing process is progressing! Keep in mind that four or six months from now you'll be so happy to have a pain-free knee.

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery!

Great news on the recovery, you'll soon be up and at 'em!

Happy to hear that your recovery is going so smoothly!

Stopping by to get caught up and happy to see that the knee replacement surgery went well. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Sounds like recovery is going according to plans - happy to hear! Knees are very good to have in a functioning state... :)

>111 VictoriaPL: Thanks! I will get around to putting some reviews here and catching up in general, including my thoughts on Between Shades of Gray, which I really liked if you can say that about such a grim, gray book.

One thing about going through this is that doing all this physical therapy takes a lot out of you. I've been going 3 times a week since the surgery and it lasts for 1.5 hours and it's 20 minutes there and back, so I'm out 6 hours of the work week, and I'm usually pretty tired when I get back. And I'm super busy at work, normally working a few late evenings and on the weekend, and now I just can't make it up. And I just don't want to work that much on the weekend...

And I like to read and come on LT from time to time...!

>112 RidgewayGirl: I do think about a 'mostly' pain-free knee. My doctor said 95% pain-free - he said some say 100%, but he doesn't. So, we'll see! 95% will still be wayyy better.

>113 MissWatson:, >114 DeltaQueen50:, >115 LittleTaiko:, >116 lkernagh: >117 -Eva-: Thank you! Definitely looking forward to having a fully-functioning bionic knee!

I can now bend it 145 degrees, which is pretty much as far as anyone can really bend a knee anyway, so that's good. And it's finally straight (the straightening exercises and stretches were NOT fun), although not when I have to hold is straight in the air and my physical therapist pushes on (not fair, right?).

Go back for the ~6 week check-in on Monday. I can go upstairs pretty easily, downstairs is still a bit scary, but I can do it with help from railings. Need to start working on being able to twist and turn and pivot - so I can get back to ballroom dancing and golf!

Let's see, in May I also read The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt and a brief biography of Martin van Buren by Ted Widmer.

In June so far I've read The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson for the GeoCAT (also credit for AlphaKIT) and 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses for the DeweyCAT.

I'm currently reading Counterfeit Unrealities by Philip K. Dick for the SFF/SFKit and I have The Wedding Group on deck for the RandomCAT.

And very much enjoying the 2016 category challenge!

Golf was my mom's motivator for all that physical therapy. And despite her somewhat uncertain health, she's golfing with her friends again at 78, although she only does nine holes, as a full 18 exhausts her for a few days.

>118 LisaMorr:
That sounds like excellent progress! Congrats!

>118 LisaMorr: - How'd the 6 week check-up go? Are you able to start tangoing anytime soon? :)

>122 LittleTaiko: Thanks for checking in! Doc said I was 'crushing it' - he was really happy with my progress and said he'd actually ask me to slow down a bit if it would work... I still have some swelling that he wants to see go down and he doesn't want to drain it - really don't want to stick a needle in and risk infection.

He said I could start hitting a few golf balls in about 4 weeks. As far as dancing, he didn't want me to do anything with rise and fall for about 6 weeks, and avoid twisting and turning.

So what did I do Monday night! Yup, you guessed, tango! Had my first dance lesson, and we worked on sharpness and quality of movement in American tango, which doesn't have any rise and fall, and we just stayed with very basic figures.

It did make me sore though, but by the end of the next day I was OK again. So I plan to take 1-2 lessons a week.

#24 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
360 pages
category: books from 1001 lists
started for the GeoCAT, but didn't finish in April

I guess I get why this is on the 1001 list, but it didn't really do that much for me. I read the Burgin and O'Connor translation, which is supposed to be pretty good, and it included annotations by Bulgakov's biographer, Proffer. The annotations were very helpful in understanding the context. I thought the novel within the novel about Pontius Pilate was really interesting.

>124 LisaMorr: I still need to get this.

I am glad to hear how well you are doing with your knee Lisa. I love that you are already tangoing.

#25 Press Start to Play edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams
502 pages
category: chunksters (just barely!)

Started reading this in February and dipped in and out of it until I finished it off in April. I thought this collection of sci-fi stories arranged on a theme of video/computer games was pretty good. I was familiar with some with a couple of the authors (e.g., Andy Weir and Hugh Howey). I've been rating the individual stories on my anthology thread and copied that here:

God Mode by Daniel H. Wilson
NPC by Charles Yu
Respawn by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Desert Walk by S. R. Mastrantone
Rat Catcher's Yellows by Charlie Jane Anders
1Up by Holly Black
Survival Horror by Seanan McGuire
REAL by Django Wexler
Outliers by Nicole Feldringer
<end game> by Chris Avellone
Save Me Plz by David Barr Kirtley
The Relive Box by T. C. Boyle
Roguelike by Marc Laidlaw
All of the People in Your Party Have Died by Robin Wasserman
RECOIL! by Micky Neilson
Anda's Gamer by Cory Doctorow
Coma Kings by Jessica Barber
Stats by Marguerite K. Bennett
Please Continue by Chris Kluwe
Creation Screen by Rhianna Pratchett
The Fresh Prince of Gamma World by Austin Grossman
Gamer's End by Yoon Ha Lee
The Clockwork Soldier by Ken Liu
Killswitch by Catherynne M. Valente
Twarrior by Andy Weir
Select Character by Hugh Howey

There were two 5-star reads for me here - All of the People in Your Party Have Died, about a teacher and her relationship with the computer lab teacher and her obsession with the game on school computers that all the kids play, and Select Character, about a stay-at-home mom who starts playing her husband's favorite war game at home secretly, and goes about playing it in completely different way.

>125 luvamystery65: Thanks Roberta!

I'm so behind on threads here, I only just saw on your thread about Bruce - my condolences!

#26 The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History by Allan Lazar, Dan Karlan and Jeremy Salter
314 pages
category: 2016 category challenge CATs
read for the DeweyCAT, also met AlphaKIT

I have been looking forward to reading this one for quite some time, and I'm glad the DeweyCAT let me to it. I expected to like it but thought that it might be a little dry in places. It exceeded my expectations. Each entry was of a fictional character, and the characters were grouped together into such topics as Folktales, Monsters, Literature, Movies, Commerce, Propaganda, etc. The background of the fictional character was discussed and why it was important. Lots of humor as well. I was familiar with 98% of the characters; here are a few: the Marlboro Man, Rosie the Riveter, Big Brother, Scrooge, HAL 9000, Godzilla. The book included a list of those that didn't make the list, and there were amusing interludes as to how the authors came up with the list, how they wrote the individual entries, etc.

#27 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
241 pages
category: Sci-Fi
read for the SF/SFFKit and RandomCAT

A very bleak post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son trudging through the world during what I'm guessing is a nuclear winter (the exact nature of the end is not described in detail). Well-written.

#28 The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey
246 pages
category: Virago Modern Classics
read for the GeoCAT and AlphaKIT
WomanBingoPUP: made into a movie

A lovely Virago Modern Classic set on the island of Dominica where three sisters come home to deal with issues with the men in their lives that stayed on the island.

April Summary

24. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
25. Press Start to Play edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams
26. The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History by Allan Lazar, Dan Karlan and Jeremy Salter
27. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
28. The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey

Five books read in April, in five different categories, which I'm very happy with; average page count per book completed was 332 - about the same as March.

I'm doing well with reading books off my shelves that I've had for a while - four of five books were acquired at least a year ago:
books acquired before 2008: 1
2009: 2
2012: 1
2015: 1

More statistics:
1 book by women authors
1 non-fiction book
countries visited: 3 (US, Russia, Dominica)
CATs: 1 each for GeoCAT, RandomCAT and DeweyCAT
KITs: 1 for SFF/SF KIT and 2 for AlphaKIT
Bingo Cards: 1 on WomanBingoPUP (and still no bingos yet!)

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi - 3 (+1)
4. Fantasy - 2
5. Series
6. Non-fiction - 3
7. Mystery/crime - 1
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 2
9. Easton/Franklin Press
10. Virago Modern Classics - 2 (+ 1)
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 3 (+1)
12. Authors new to me - 3
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 4 (+1)
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages) - 1 (+1)

Best of the month: The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History

29. Open Secrets: Stories by Alice Munro
294 pages
category: authors new to me
read for GeoCAT

A collection of short stories set mainly in Ontario that are somewhat inter-related. I liked it.

Carried Away
A Real Life
The Albanian Virgin
Open Secrets
The Jack Randa Hotel
A Wilderness Station
Spaceships Have Landed
Vandals

My favorite story was The Albanian Virgin, two stories in one actually, one about a woman kidnapped in Albania and forced to live amongst a tribe, and the other about a woman running a bookstore - a woman she knows tells her the kidnap story from her hospital bed.

30. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
341 pages
category: authors new to me
read for the RandomCAT
Woman BingoPUP: less than 10 years old

Fifteen-year-old Lina, her brother and her mother are picked up by the Soviet secret police in Lithuania and transported on a harrowing train journey to Siberia. I thought this was very well done.

>133 LisaMorr: As you enjoyed this book, you should seek out her most recent one, Salt to the Sea. It would fit in the "Body of Water" box on your Bingo card.

>134 mamzel: Thanks for the idea - if I want to fill the card, I know I need to start planning now, because I ran out of time last year.

>133 LisaMorr: I'll be reading Between Shades of Gray next month with christina_reads. I am so excited about it! I have already read Salt to the Sea which is a related book but not a direct sequel and it's awesome!

>133 LisaMorr: Two thumbs up for Salt to the Sea - I'll definitely pick that one up and get to it soon!

31. Aesop's Fables by Aesop
130 pages
category: Easton/Franklin Press
read for the DeweyCAT

I consider this a re-read - I can't quite remember when I read this previously, but most of the 100 fables included in this collection were familiar. I always knew that each fable included a moral - it was interesting in reading these that sometime I didn't think they moral fit all that well.

32. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer
130 pages
category: non-fiction
read for the US Presidents Challenge

This short biography was well-written and told me a lot about Martin Van Buren's political career. I would've liked to learn more about his personal life and also how he managed to create the modern political party as we know it - unfortunately he got rid of his personal letters and did not write down the specifics on how he actually created the political machine that is his legacy. He did write an autobiography, but as was noted in the biography, it was short on these details as well.

33. The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
419 pages
category: Series
read for the SF/SFF Kit
BingoPUP - adventure (first bingo - double!)

It's the year 2197, earth is in a bad way (famine, drought, overpopulation, and general suffering due to the effects of climate change) and has been looking for another planet to colonize for quite some time. In the search for habitable planets, monuments from another race are discovered. On one planet that is on the schedule for immediate terraforming, a connection between the monument-makers and the previous inhabitants is discovered which could lead to solving why the previous inhabitants are gone - and potentially to saving earth from the same fate.

I enjoyed this well enough to continue with the series but I found the end to be a bit anti-climatic.

May Summary

29. Open Secrets: Stories by Alice Munro
30. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
31. Aesop's Fables by Aesop
32. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer
33. The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

Five books read in May, in four different categories; average page count per book completed was 271 - a bit less than the last couple of months - a couple of shorter books included in the mix.

I'm doing well with reading books off my shelves that I've had for a while - four of five books were acquired at least a year ago:
books acquired before 2008: 2
2011: 1
2012: 1
2015: 1

More statistics:
2 books by women authors
1 non-fiction book (can't believe I'm reading at least one non-fiction book a month! I will thank the DeweyCAT for that, although this month my non-fiction book was for the US Presidents Challenge)
countries visited: 4 (Canada, Soviet Union/Russia, Lithuania, US)
CATs: 1 each for GeoCAT, RandomCAT and DeweyCAT
KITs: 1 each for SFF/SF KIT and AlphaKIT
Bingo Cards: 2 on WomanBingoPUP (and still no bingos yet!) and 1 on BingoPUP (and finally a double-bingo)

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi - 3
4. Fantasy - 2
5. Series - 1 (+1)
6. Non-fiction - 4 (+1)
7. Mystery/crime - 1
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 2
9. Easton/Franklin Press - 1 (+1)
10. Virago Modern Classics - 2
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 3
12. Authors new to me - 5 (+2)
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 4
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages) - 1

Best of the month: Between Shades of Gray

34. The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson
233 pages
category: VMC
read for the GeoCAT and AlphaKIT
WomenBingoPUP - male pseudonym

This Virago Modern Classic is about a twelve-year old girl sent to boarding school from her home in the country where she lived with her Mom and sister and two brothers. The title is a bit of an oxymoron in that boarding school doesn't teach her to be wise at all, but to fit in. Kind of sad.

35. 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses by the editors of American Heritage Dictionaries
120 pages
category: books I've owned since before joining LT in 2008
read for the DeweyCAT

I thought this short book (it only covers a 100 words after all) might be educational but dry and not very enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised!

Each word is defined and for each definition the word is used in a sentence - one of the cool things is that the example sentences are often from great works of literature we all know, like Shakespeare's plays, Dracula, Little Women, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, The Age of Innocence, etc. Then there are usage notes explaining the problems with the word and also sometimes commentary on what percentage of the Usage Panel agrees on the usage of the word in this way, and how that percentage has changed over time.

I felt comfortable with the great majority of the words (i.e., right or wrong, I don't think I'm one of the 'almost everyone' in the title), but I still learned some things.

Enjoyable little book that I would recommend to those who like to read about etymology.

36. Counterfeit Unrealities by Philip K. Dick
724 pages
category: chunkster
read for the SF/SFF KIT

This book is a collection of four novellas by Philip K. Dick:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ubik
A Scanner Darkly

My favorite was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner was based on this story; I loved Blade Runner and of course no movie can ever really include everything in a book, even a 162-page novella like this one. Well done. The last novella was pretty good too - about an undercover cop trying to find the source of the drug Substance D; I found it to be a bit uneven, but it ended very well - and there was a very interesting and personal author's note at the end about drug misuse.

P.S. I've been watching The Strain on FX network. There's a character named Eldritch Palmer - I gotta believe that Guillermo del Toro is paying homage to Philip K. Dick.

>140 LisaMorr: This one is on my tbr shelves. Glad that you mostly enjoyed it but shame about the ending. I'll get to it one of these days.

>144 LisaMorr: I've read 3 of those 4. Ubik is still on my tbr shelves with a few others. Always surprises me how much stuff PKD manages to put in to his novels without them being too overwhelming.

37. The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor
230 pages
category: VMC
read for the RandomCAT

This was my first Elizabeth Taylor and having looked around at some other comments on the book, probably not her best. It tells the story of Cressida, Cressy for short, who leaves her home in a religious (Roman Catholic) artistic community, to live and work in an antique shop in the town. She eventually marries a man who lives with his mother. Interesting to see how this cloistered young girl changes with marriage, a child and a mother-in-law!

June Summary

34. The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson
35. 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses by the editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries
36. Counterfeit Unrealities by Philip K. Dick
37. The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor

Four books read in June, in three different categories; average page count per book completed was 326. This is the fewest number of books I've read in a month all year, but it was almost as many pages as May.

Still doing great with reading books that have been on my shelves for awhile:
books acquired before 2008: 2
2012: 1
2015: 1

More statistics:
2 books by women authors
1 non-fiction book
countries visited: 3 (Australia, US, England)
CATs: 1 each for GeoCAT, RandomCAT and DeweyCAT
KITs: 1 each for SFF/SF KIT and AlphaKIT
Bingo Cards: 1 on WomanBingoPUP (and still no bingos yet!)

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi - 3
4. Fantasy - 2
5. Series - 1
6. Non-fiction - 4
7. Mystery/crime - 1
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 3 (+1)
9. Easton/Franklin Press - 1
10. Virago Modern Classics - 4 (+2)
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 3
12. Authors new to me - 5
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 4
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages) - 2 (+1)

Best of the month: 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses

>144 LisaMorr: Love me some PKD. It's been awhile since my brother-in-law gifted me a copy of Ubik and even longer since I read Do Androids Dream. I have not yet been able to approach The Three Stigmata.

>148 VictoriaPL: I'm surprised that I've read so much PKD this year - read The Man in the High Castle earlier in the year. I just took a look at what else I have on my shelves and I have one more PKD collection - Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick which includes 21 short stories. I may have to get to that one this year as well.

>149 LisaMorr: I am so excited! I have been in the library's queue for Man in the High Castle for months. Months. Today, I am #1!

July Reading Plans

So far I've read Treasure Island for the GeoCAT and Go Figure: The Numbers You Need for Everyday Life for the DeweyCAT and I'm currently working on the short stories in Stephen King's Just After Sunset collection for the RandomCAT (and AlphaKIT).

Then I'm planning on re-reading The Passage for the SF/SFFKit and will probably go right into the final two books of the trilogy, The Twelve and The City of Mirrors.

I'm also working on Arabian Nights.

That would make a lot of reading for July, so I'm not planning on putting anything else on the list just yet!

>150 VictoriaPL: It's great to be #1!

I need to read/reread more PKD too. I found Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep quite different from the movie. Both are fantastic in their own ways.

>153 mathgirl40: I agree - I found the aspects that weren't really addressed in the movie (or not that much or not in the same way as in the book) very interesting, like the pets, the empathy boxes, Penfield mood boxes, Mercerism. Like AHS-Wolfy's comment in >145 AHS-Wolfy:, he definitely does cram a lot in!

My you've been quite busy reading! How's the tangoing going?

>155 LittleTaiko: Thanks and thanks for asking!

It's interesting, this process I'm going through right now with my ballroom dancing. My instructor is very excited about it, and me not so much, although I'm trying to appreciate it.

It appears that I've developed some bad habits after re-taking up ballroom dancing 5 years ago, mostly to protect my knees. So, the first tango lesson was all about re-learning footwork (toe release-ball-heel and sometimes heel-ball-toe (when I actually get to go forward!)). And then working on making the staccato foot action sharper - the first two steps being SLOW, and the next two quick-quick! And that last dragging step, S-L-O-W. It does actually look pretty cool in the mirror to do it that way (the correct way).

Been working on foxtrot footwork as well and working on balance and always on frame.

At the end of the month I can start twisting and turning and rise and fall, so that will open up a lot more dances and figures for me!

Since it's the second half of the year already (oh my!) I've started to think a little more seriously about how I may be able to fill some more bingo squares. I would like to do it as much as possible with books already on my shelves, although I think I may have to pick up a couple.

I wandered around my shelves and have come up with these as potentials:

BingoPUP:
Title has a musical reference: Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro or The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
Title uses wordplay: The Inhuman Condition - Clive Barker
A body of water in the title: People from the Sea by Velda Johnston, Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier, No Signposts in the Sea by Vita Sackville-West, Hudson River Bracketed by Edith Wharton, Cable Harbor by Donald Bowie, A View of the Harbor by Elizabeth Taylor, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
About the environment: finish Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman or read Earth in the Balance by Al Gore
Focus on Art: 100 Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum
Author born in 1916: Dying Earth by Jack Vance

I don't really have anything for About/by an indigenous person - I think I will pick up The Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian.

WomanBingoPUP:
African author: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexandra McCall Smith or Knots by Nuruddin Farah
Author from Middle East: The Veiled Kingdom by Carmen Bin Ladin
Different genre by same author: Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart or the second book in Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos: Archives series
1920's-1930's Detective Fiction: I found two Agatha Christie books on my shelves, and I think The Mousetrap (originally titled Three Blind Mice and Other Stories) will fit given the publication dates for several of the stories.
Autobiogrpahy, memoir or correspondence: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, True to Both My Selves by Katrin Fitzherbert or Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto by Janina Bauman
About a spy: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Women in combat: The Swordswoman by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
African American author: How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan
Female ruler: The Royals by Kitty Kelley
Women in science: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison

I must have something on my shelves that is about a female critter that I haven't read yet (or want to re-read), just haven't stumbled across it yet. I'll look to see what others have read.

Also don't have any poetry or plays. I found a listing of 13 poetry collections for people who think they don't like poetry on the Huffington Post; I may try one of these:
Gold Cell by Sharon Olds
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton
The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
The Best of It by Kay Ryan
Song by Brigit Pegeen Kelly

Looks like a good assortment to fill up your Bingo challenges. Frenchman's Creek is a lighter Daphne du Maurier -- I didn't like it as much as I liked Rebecca or Jamaica Inn, but it was still interesting. And Agatha is always a good choice!

>156 LisaMorr:
That sounds like so much fun! My dancing skills are limited to the Pogo, so I'm impressed by anyone who can move on the dancefloor and look coordinated at the same time. :)

I don't think you will regret picking up The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, it was an amazing read!

>158 rabbitprincess: Thanks - I have lots of du Maurier on the shelves to read, including Jamaica Inn, always good to have an excuse to move one up the pile.

>159 -Eva-: How silly am I - I had to go look up the Pogo! And of course it's exactly what it sounds like - I will admit to having danced that a bit at concerts and nightclubs and other general movements that make up dancing back in the day...

I had my best dance lesson last night so far - was able to dance an entire tango song, foxtrot song and rumba song and it actually felt good! Started doing some turns and promenades and working on rise and fall, I'm so excited. It's like I've turned a corner - my last dance lesson was about a week and a half ago, and there is a huge difference between then and now. So cool!

I am actually amazed with myself that I can do the steps and actually do styling with my arms and I don't always look like a complete weirdo all the time!

>160 DeltaQueen50: I just got it a couple of days ago - I might try to fit it in this month as it would fit the AlphaKIT; otherwise next month for sure. I'll be taking a ton of books with me on vacation!

I finished The Passage trilogy which was excellent. And I still have a couple days left in the month. So, I've just started The Mousetrap (formerly titled Three Blind Mice and Other Stories) by Agatha Christie which will get me the 1920's-1930's detective fiction square on my WomanBingoPUP and also A for the AlphaKit.

Well, I just finished Three Blind Mice and Other Stories which I have just realized is my 44th book of the year, which ties how many I read last year. I'm not entirely sure why I am reading so much more this year, but I'll take it!

>163 LisaMorr: Woo hoo!!! Glad to hear 2016 is a successful reading year for you!

>163 LisaMorr: - Wow! Look at you go - and there are five months left in the year too!

>164 rabbitprincess: and >165 LittleTaiko: - Thanks! Who knows how high I'll go!

I am behind on reviews and my July summary, and I'm getting ready to go on vacation and I won't have access to easy, free Wi-Fi most of the time. So, I'll just post a list of July reading and August reading plans:

38. Go Figure!: The Numbers You Need for Everyday Life by Nigel J. Hopkins, John W Mayne and John R. Hudson
39. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
40. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
41. The Passage by Justin Cronin
42. The Twelve by Justin Cronin
43. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
44. Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

August
45. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

August reading plans:
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim for the RandomCAT (currently reading)
An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison for the DeweyCAT
Wool by Hugh Howey for the SF/SFFCAT

On vacation I hope to do a lot of reading - I want to make progress with my Bingo cards (see >157 LisaMorr:), 1001 books and Virago Modern Classics (for AVAA - all Virago all August!). Actually hope to combine the last two and read 4 Viragos that are also 1001 books: Summer Will Show, Return of the Soldier, Memento Mori and The Life and Death of Harriet Frean.

Quick vacation reading update (I have a lot of reviews and monthly summaries to catch up on when I get back!):

46. The Caravaners
47. An Unquiet Mind
48. Return of the Soldier
49. Wool
50. Life and Death of Harriett Frean

I'll finish Memento Mori by tomorrow and maybe Summer Will Show on the long flight home.

>167 LisaMorr: Can't wait to hear what you thought of Wool. Hope you had a great vacation!

I'll be interested in your thoughts on Return of the Soldier. I have it on my iPad from Project Gutenberg.

Where are you headed for vacation Lisa? It's difficult to relearn dance once you've learned it a certain way. Kudos to you and I bet it's great rehab for your knee.

>168 VictoriaPL: Loved Wool! Wished I had the next book with me to start right away. Vacation was awesome!

>169 rabbitprincess: The Return of the Soldier was a beautifully written book and a bit sad. I definitely recommend it.

>170 luvamystery65: Hi Roberta! Just got back Wednesday evening from a 2-week cruise to the fjords of Norway and on up to Iceland. We were blessed with awesome weather at every port. Really enjoyed it - glaciers, waterfalls, mountains, geothermal areas, lava fields, mountain lakes - just gorgeous!

I overdid it on vacation though with my knee - oh well! Nothing serious, but I was hurting and limping a lot.

And you're right the dancing has been great rehab. I think the things we're working on are things we learned properly once but have developed some bad habits, and going back to the basics affords us the opportunity to clean this stuff up.

My 8-yr thingaversary was August 25. I was on vacation and didn't really think about it, but I did end up buying a few books from the ship bookstore and also a book on the history of Iceland for a total of seven; I think that means I still get two more, but I don't have any ideas at the moment about what to get!

Here's my haul so far:
False Impression by Jeffrey Archer
Holding the Zero by Gerald Seymour
four Georgette Heyer's:
Arabella
Cotillion
Bath Tangle
Beauvallet
and
A Brief History of Iceland by Gunnar Karlsson

Happy Thingaversary!

Thanks Victoria!

September reading plans:

finish Summer Will Show
I Am Spock for the Dewey CAT
Return From the Stars for the SF/SFF CAT and the Random CAT
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum for the GeoCAT and Alpha KIT

then I'm hoping to get to Shift after really enjoying Wool last month
then hopefully some more Bingo books - The Inhuman Condition, How Stella Got Her Groove Back
maybe another book for the SF/SFF CAT/Random CAT - Loups Garous

Great Thingaversary haul!

Happy Thingaversary! Holding the Zero is my favorite Gerald Seymour book of the ones I have read. It surprised me as I didn't think a book that had so much detailed information about snipers would end up being one that really loved! I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

Happy thingaversary! Hope you enjoy the Heyers!

Happy tingaversary! I'm glad you enjoyed your vacation. A cruise along the Norwegian coast plus to Iceland is one of the things I really want to, or rather need to, do, must be incredibly beautiful!

Sounds like you had an amazing trip!! Happy thingaversary as well.

38. Go Figure!: The Numbers You Need for Everyday Life by Nigel J. Hopkins, John W. Mayne and John R. Hudson
326 pages
category: Books I've Owned Since Before Joining LT (2008)
read for the GeoCAT

Not a great book for me, but might be useful to others. It purports itself to be the kind of reference book you keep next to your dictionary or cookbook - not sure anyone would really do that! I either already knew about the subjects - what is pH, how to calculate simple and compound interest, how vision is measured, what do the numbers mean in your blood pressure reading - or I didn't really care (what biorhythm cycle am I in, fabric for your pattern, gambling probabilities).

39. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
305 pages
category: Easton/Franklin Press
read for the GeoCAT

Can't believed I missed this one growing up. What a good swash-buckling tale! Long John Silver was not what I expected.

40. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
367 pages
category: Books I've Owned Since Before Joining LT
read for the RandomCAT and the AlphaKIT

Willa
The Gingerbread Girl
Harvey's Dream
Rest Stop
Stationary Bike
The Things They Left Behind
Graduation Afternoon
N.
The Cat From Hell
The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates
Mute
Alyana
A Very Tight Place

My favorites were:
The Gingerbread Girl - about a runner where running got her in trouble and swimming ended up saving her.
The Things They Left Behind - a poignant tale in remembrance of 9/11.
N. - don't read this letter!

>175 rabbitprincess: Thanks!
>176 DeltaQueen50: Thanks! Good to hear about the Seymour book - I've received two others as gifts (Dealer and the Dead and Harry's Game), which I haven't read yet (have you?) - need to get to them.
>177 MissWatson: Thanks! I look forward to the Heyers (another author I have been collecting based on LT comments, and still haven't read one yet, darn!).
>178 Chrischi_HH: Thanks! I highly recommend it - it's really amazing how far a cruise ship can go down the fjords.
>179 -Eva-: Thanks!

41. The Passage by Justin Cronin
766 pages
category: Chunksters
read for the SF/SFF CAT

I received this in 2010 as part of the LT early reviewers program - still the best book I've received from that program. Here's my review from the first read:

The Passage, by Justin Cronin, is an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it novel - part one of a trilogy.

In this case, the apocalypse is created by government experimentation in bioweapons run amuck. As in other books in this genre (e.g., The Stand by Stephen King), the virus is released accidentally when the test subjects escape. Most of the test subjects are former death row inmates and have become something else, no longer human, incredibly strong with amazing physical powers. These creatures proceed to kill 90% of the population, infecting many along the way to create more like themselves.

The novel proceeds to tell the story of the spread of the virus and how the few survivors are able to continue. A key part of the story revolves around Amy, the 13th test subject, a young girl who did not appear to change like the rest, and who may hold the key to hope for the human race.

I gave it 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed the story and the 766 pages flew by. I thought the character development and interaction were very good - I was definitely drawn in and interested. The negative that comes to mind is that I believe that this story could definitely have been done in one novel and while I am interested in reading the rest of the trilogy, I would really rather have had it all done and tidied up in those 766 pages.

New thoughts - I enjoyed the re-read of this book perhaps even more than the first read. It really drew me in, and perhaps I enjoyed it more because I knew I could go directly to the second and third books in the trilogy.

42. The Twelve by Justin Cronin
568 pages
category: Series
read for the SF/SFF CAT

I thought this second book in The Passage trilogy was well done. I really like that the book continued from the end of The Passage, but also continued with the direct aftermath of the release of the virals. It wasn't quite up to par with The Passage mainly because I found myself skipping ahead to see the outcome of the current situation (I would go back and read it all the way through), but I find this a flaw if I do this with a book (didn't do it at all with The Passage).

43. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
602 pages
category: Chunksters
read for the SF/SFF CAT

Lots of people changing into vampires, and also the kinds of changes that occur over 1000 years, which is the time period the trilogy covers.

Really enjoyed the trilogy - I think the first book, The Passage, remains my favorite though.

44. The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie
224 pages
category: mystery/crime
WomanBingoPUP - 1920's-1930's detective fiction

Three Blind Mice
Strange Jest
Tape-Measure Murder
The Case of the Perfect Maid
The Case of the Caretaker
The Third-Floor Flat
The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
The Love Detectives

These short stories were just OK. I haven't read any Agatha Christie in a long time and maybe the short story is not her best length.

July Summary

38. Go Figure!: The Numbers You Need for Everyday Life by Nigel J. Hopkins, John W Mayne and John R. Hudson
39. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
40. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
41. The Passage by Justin Cronin
42. The Twelve by Justin Cronin
43. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
44. The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie

Seven books read in July, in five different categories; average page count per book completed was 451, highest so far, helped by The Passage trilogy, which averaged 645/book.

Still doing great with reading books that have been on my shelves for awhile:
books acquired before 2008: 4
2010: 1
2012: 1
2016: 1

More statistics:
1 book by a female authors
1 non-fiction book
countries visited: 3 (BVI, US, England)
CATs: 1 each for GeoCAT, RandomCAT and DeweyCAT
KITs: 1 each for SFF/SF KIT and AlphaKIT
Bingo Cards: 1 on WomanBingoPUP (and still no bingos yet!)

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi - 3
4. Fantasy - 2
5. Series - 2 (+1)
6. Non-fiction - 4
7. Mystery/crime - 2 (+1)
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 5 (+2)
9. Easton/Franklin Press - 2 (+1)
10. Virago Modern Classics - 4
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 3
12. Authors new to me - 5
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 4
15. Book bullets/recommendations
16. Chunksters (500+ pages) - 4 (+2)

Best of the month: The Passage

I stopped by B&N last night to look for some presidential biographies - I found a recently published one on Abraham Lincoln called Founders' Son; I also picked up a couple of books by Helen Oyeyemi: White is for Witching and The Icarus Girl. I also got Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli and The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore.

So - I was only supposed to get two more for my thingaversary, but I think it's pretty much impossible for me to go into a bookstore and only get two books...

I'm reading White is for Witching in November for my diversity month in my Horror! group. Maybe we can do a shared read?

Hi Roberta, that sounds like fun! Have you read anything else by Oyeyemi? I just saw a general review saying read anything/everything by her, and thought I would give her a try.

I've been tempted by the Cronin trilogy, but it's a LOT of pages to invest in. At some point in time it'll get read, I promise. :)

>191 LisaMorr: No I haven't read anything by her, but the folks at Brazos Bookstore are always tooting her horn.

>192 -Eva-: I recommend The Passage trilogy highly - lots of pages, but they go very fast!

>193 luvamystery65: I'm looking forward to the November read!

45. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
233 pages
category: mystery/crime
read for GeoCAT, also fits AlphaKIT

I really enjoyed this first entry in the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I felt like I was in Botswana with a dry wind blowing. The mysteries that Mma Ramotswe solves are mostly cozy mysteries and most are pretty simple to solve. A pleasant diversion.

46. The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
331 pages
category: 2016 Category Challenge CATs
read for the RandomCAT

Ugh, the main character was so loathsome! A German officer before WW1 goes camping in England with his wife and some friends and some people they don't know that get paired up with them. The author married a German and lived in Germany and so maybe she knew some people like this. Here's an example of how horrible he was: He was married for about 20 years to his first wife, who then passed away. He then marries Edelgard, and the story starts after they've been married for 5 years - he tells her and all of their friends that they are going on a 25th anniversary trip! Counting the 20 years he was married to his first wife, he believes he should get credit for being married that long...I put the book down then and wasn't sure I could finish it. He treats everyone on the camping trip so terribly, but he doesn't have a clue they can't stand him. His wife, in the presence of the English folks that are on the trip, blossoms, and he can't stand that either. The saving grace is seeing how the others, including his wife, treat him, and seeing the wife evolve.

47. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
219 pages
category: Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008)
read for the DeweyCAT

This book was very well done. Written by a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, an authority on manic-depressive illness, and also a sufferer of manic-depressive illness, this memoir described the author's journey in dealing with her illness and also helping others with it.

48. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
188 pages
category: books from 1001 lists
fits AlphaKIT

A beautifully written short novel, The Return of the Soldier tells the story of a soldier returning from war with shellshock - he doesn't remember his wife and instead can only think of the girl he was in love with when he was young. It can't end well.

49. Wool by Hugh Howey
509 pages
category: Book bullets/recommendations

I remember exactly when this book was recommended to me - I was in China on a work trip, and the bus ride to and from the plant was interminably long. One of my colleagues and I got into great book discussions, and he told me about Wool. I bought it right away, and I should've read it right away! It's languished on my shelves since 2013... I intend to complete the series this year.

Post-apocalyptic and dystopian, Wool is about people in the future living in a silo that is 144 floors deep into the earth. The atmosphere outside is toxic and so is the atmosphere inside the silo, in another way. An interesting civilization has developed in the silo, very structured, lots of rules, use of technology in certain ways is allowed, other obvious technological advancements are not utilized in order to control the society, limit communication and prevent revolution. I thought it was hilarious who ended up being the bad guys in this one, considering the world today - I'm sure you chuckled as well if you've read the book.

50. The Life and Death of Harriett Frean by May Sinclair
184 pages
category: books from the 1001 lists
also fit AlphaKIT

An interesting study on Victorian mores covering the life of Harriett Frean from birth to death; Harriett's self-sacrifice actually ends up hurting several people's lives, rather than just her own. I can see how it made the 1001 list - not saying that I enjoyed it though!

51. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
226 pages
category: books from the 1001 lists

Several senior citizens start receiving ominous phone calls - "Remember you must die."; Muriel Spark's novel than proceeds to describe each of these folks and what their lives are like. Each has a different set-up, either living alone, in a government hospital/nursing home ward, private nursing home, hotel or with their significant other. They have interconnected lives - some were servants to others, others had affairs, secrets abound. I've read one other by Spark (Loitering with Intent), which I liked a lot more, but this novel was unique in its treatment of senior citizens.

August Summary

45. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
46. The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
47. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
48. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
49. Wool by Hugh Howey
50. Life and Death of Harriett Frean by May Sinclair
51. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark

Seven books read in August, in five different categories; average page count per book completed was 270.

Still doing great with reading books that have been on my shelves for awhile:
books acquired before 2008: 1
2013: 2
2014: 1
2015: 3

More statistics:
5 books by a female authors
1 non-fiction book
countries visited: 4 (Botswana, Germany, England, USA)
CATs: 1 each for GeoCAT, RandomCAT and DeweyCAT
KITs: 1 for SFF/SF KIT and 3 for AlphaKIT
Bingo Cards: 1 on WomanBingoPUP (and first bingo!)

Category Summary:
1. Books from Lisa - 1
2. Virago Secret Santa/other gifts - 1
3. Sci-fi - 3
4. Fantasy - 2
5. Series - 2
6. Non-fiction - 4 COMPLETE
7. Mystery/crime - 3 (+1)
8. Books I've owned since before joining LT (2008) - 6 (+1) COMPLETE
9. Easton/Franklin Press - 2
10. Virago Modern Classics - 4 COMPLETE
11. Books from the 1001 list(s) - 6 (+3) COMPLETE
12. Authors new to me - 5 COMPLETE
13. Graphic novels - 2
14. 2016 category challenge CATs - 5 (+1) COMPLETE
15. Book bullets/recommendations - 1 (+1)
16. Chunksters (500+ pages) - 4 COMPLETE

Best of the month: Wool

52. Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner
406 pages
category: books from the 1001 lists
Women in combat square for the WomanBingoPUP

I started this in August as part of All Virago/All August. I thought I would be able to blaze right through it, but it dragged on. I just didn't like the writing and the main character was not very likeable. I was committed to finish it though. I actually went and checked out the entry in the 1001 book and it gave me some information on the plot that made me think, "That's interesting, I'll have to finish it now." Some would say spoilers!

But anyway, this is about an English woman, one of the landed gentry, taking care of her estate and her two children while her husband is in France with his mistress. After her children die (no spoiler - it's on the back cover!), she doesn't have a purpose in life and so journeys to France to get her husband back. She falls in love with her husband's mistress as the revolution of 1848 gets under way in France.

As I mentioned, I didn't like the writing, it was very slow going, but I decided to finish it for the plot. It was interesting to see how the main character changes her views on the revolution as the novel progressed.

53. I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy
333 pages
category: 2016 category challenge CATs
read for the DeweyCAT

I've had this for a while and the September DeweyCAT gave me the impetus to pull it off the shelf and read it. I've classified this an autobiography, but Nimoy only spends about 20 pages before we find out how he got involved with the Star Trek TV series, so perhaps it's more of a memoir about his Star Trek life.

Either way, I enjoyed this. It was interesting to hear how the TV series got going, and then the movies, and the work Nimoy did in between. There were some interesting behind-the-scenes moments - and by the way, he and Shatner got along just fine. Being a trekkie from way back, I always loved Spock and Leonard Nimoy turns out to be a good guy, which is the sense I had anyway. I was very sad about his passing last year.

Well, all caught up!

Currently reading Return From the Stars by Stanislaw Lem for the SFF/SFCat and RandomCat. Then The White Tiger for the GeoCat.

For the rest of the year, I think I'm going to focus on completing my Bingo cards versus participate in the CATs/KITs - although I may still be drawn in, we'll see - and I think some will be able to do double-duty! I have books picked out for all but one square. Over the two cards, I think I only had to pick up three books, so the cards have helped me read from my shelves.

That's 16 more books to read, which should be doable with my current pace. I'm traveling a lot, so that should help - lots of airplane flights for reading..

Just keeping track of what I've read before having time to update this more fully:

54. Return from the Stars
55. The White Tiger
56. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Now reading Code Name Verity.

57. Code Name Verity
58. The Inhuman Condition

Starting The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.

Howdy Lisa!

Hi Roberta - how are you doing? I'm still up for White is for Witching next month.

>208 luvamystery65: I'm good Lisa. I've had good news from my doctor concerning my RA flare. Yay! Still not out of it but headed in the right direction. I have White is for Witching ready to go.

>210 luvamystery65: Awesome news!

59. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
60. Shift by Hugh Howey

I'm enjoying your VMC reviews. I picked up a few VMCs recently, including The Return of the Soldier, in anticipation of next year's CATWoman challenge.

>213 mathgirl40: That's great! I've sent you an invite to the Virago Modern Classic group here; if you aren't already a member, you might like it!

More updates...just been super busy lately, only 2 books in November, how terrible!

61. White is for Witching
62. Years in the Making: The Time-Travel Stories

December
63. The People from the Sea

That being said, my goal was 64 books for the year, a goal I did not expect to reach and since I'm on vacation starting 20 December, there's no question I'll meet and exceed my goal!!! Woo-hoo!!! And 64 is way more books than I have read in any year in the last 8 years!

>215 LisaMorr: Woo hoo to being so close to your goal! That is awesome! It is so wonderful to see people having great reading years :D

>215 LisaMorr: Congrats! It's such a wonderful feeling to look back on a year and find you've read more than you hoped for.

Yey! So close!

And #64 is: The Dying Earth!

Thanks >216 rabbitprincess:, >217 MissWatson: and >218 -Eva-:!

I didn't complete my categories as envisioned, but I still read broadly and that's why I do these category challenges.

Taking the afternoon playing catch-up on all the threads in the group and have enjoyed getting caught up with all of your reading. The Road is such an amazing story, even if it is very bleak.

How fascinating that you are re-taking up ballroom dancing! Sounds like a lot of fun.

I own copies of the first two books in the Passage trilogy. May consider dipping into those books in 2017. Great reviews.

Memento Mori is my favorite Spark read to date. Making note of your appreciation for Loitering with Intent, one of the Spark's reads that I haven't read, yet.

>220 lkernagh: Wow - you've caught up on all the threads! That's amazing! Good job!

I'm continuing to enjoy ballroom dancing. Just started to learn a really difficult step called samba rolls - this one will take a while to perfect!

I was really happy with The Passage trilogy; can definitely recommend!

What other Spark's books have you read? I have Symposium, The Comforters and Aiding and Abetting and The Go Away Bird on my TBR to read.

>219 LisaMorr: Yes, definitely. It's the journey that's worthwhile, and meeting your goals is just a bonus but not essential!

I read two more in December, bringing my grand total to 66 for the year.

65. Song
66. 100 Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum

I still needed one more book for my BingoPUP, but that's better than I've done in previous years.

I read 44 last year, and the most in recent years was 47, so I'm really happy about reading so much this year!