Thursday, February 29, 2024

TBR List Update: February

     

I'm working my way through #VirtualMountTBR2024. Here's my current To-Be-Read List, and here's the list of titles I have read this year.

In February 2024

Books read: 7

Books I decided NOT to finish: 2

The Tropic of Serpents: #2 in a series I started last year. Just not compelling enough to keep.

Secrets of Happiness: Honestly, I got it in person, flipped through it, and decided, "Too literary." It won a lot of awards, though.

Life Undercover

Books left on the TBR List: 72

Best book of the month: Hench

This is the first title I added to the 2024 list, way back about a year ago. I deeply enjoyed the witty repartee between the main character and her friends.

Worst book of the month: 

Most of them were disappointing, but none were really bad. I'm not going to name a "worst".


I've started adding a few new titles to the current TBR List, rather than maintaining a separate one for next year. I'm hoping that I'll have it whittled down enough by the end of 2024 that I won't need to keep up the challenge next year and can just read what I want to and happen across.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

TBR List Update: January

    

I'm working my way through #VirtualMountTBR2024. Here's my current To-Be-Read List, and here's the list of titles I have read this year.

In January 2024

Books read: 7

Books I decided NOT to finish: 3

The Devil in Silver: This one seemed like it would make a good suspense film, but the novel opened too slowly for me. I wanted to know more about either the police corruption angle or the supernatural factors, but I didn't stick with it.

Life from Scratch: I picked this up again after a couple months and just couldn't get through it. Is the whole book about the author's disrupted childhood, or does she do something interesting later? Dunno.

Unexpected Magic: I'd already read this! Didn't remember having done so from the title/cover, but as soon as I opened the first story...

Life Undercover

Books left on the TBR List: 78

Best book of the month: Dreaming Spies

This is one of the handful of remaining titles in the Mary Russell series that I started two decades or more ago and have been trying to finish up. Although there was a definite whiff of Orientalism (suitable to the era in which the story is set), I think the implausible storyline -- ninjas! the emperor of heaven himself! -- acquitted itself well. I also found myself reading with... anticipatory nostalgia? the scenes of the shipboard travel, as I was lucky enough to book a cruise this coming summer.

Worst book of the month: Garment of Shadows

Funny that the least interesting of the half-dozen this month would be the novel directly preceding the most interesting (in the same series)! Russell had amnesia throughout the first half of this book, which did cut down on any reminiscing about past cases or training with Holmes if not her quick-witted deductions. Maybe I missed that.

Not a bad start to the year!

Monday, January 1, 2024

Reading List 2023

Here's an archived copy of my reading list for this year. I'll be keeping up the new list here: http://mlisunderstanding.blogspot.com/p/reading-list.html

I would recommend the bolded titles with enthusiasm, and I enjoyed the italicized titles but probably wouldn't read them again.

#VirtualMountTBR2024

I'm doing this for a second year! The Virtual Mount TBR (to-be-read) challenge is hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. Participants start with a list of books they don't own but have been meaning to read, and the challenge is scaling a virtual mountain by either reading or deciding to remove them unfinished from the list. You can sign up here! (If you have a literal pile of books, #MountTBR2024 is for you.)

Here is my list of books read in 2024: https://mlisunderstanding.blogspot.com/p/reading-list.html

Here is my TBR List: https://oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/v2/users/1947049039/shelves/for_later

I am aiming for Mt. Mindolluin (75 books). I will be updating at the end of each month (and sporadically otherwise) with a running total and some commentary.


Sunday, December 31, 2023

TBR List Update: December

   

I'm working my way through #VirtualMountTBR. Here's my current To-Be-Read List, and here's the list of titles I have read this year.

In December 2023

Books read: 5

Books I decided NOT to finish: 4

The Family Upstairs: I dunno, I just re-read the book summary in the catalog and decided it sounded like too many characters with names I was going to mix up.

Yours Cheerfully: A sequel to a book I read last year and just didn't enjoy that much.

The Orphan Collector: I don't want so many downers on the list; I read a sample of the ebook and it didn't grab me.

Yes, Chef: Eh. Perhaps my recent push through a mountain of food memoir has dulled my appetite for a back-of-house kitchen diary.

Life Undercover

Books left on the TBR List: 27*

Best book of the month: Any Other Family

This fictional work about an extended family formed through open adoption (birth parents, 3 sets of adoptive parents, 4 kids) seemed very relatable for someone in my current stage of life. The birth mother character was, frustratingly, off stage for the whole novel and seemed pretty two-dimensional. But I identified with various facets of the three adoptive mothers, and the story made me think about family relationships and community.

Worst book of the month: I Shudder at Your Touch

It would probably be this collection of short horror stories, only because they were imbalanced. I wasn't particularly inspired to keep reading, so I failed to finish it when I got sick a couple days before the end of the challenge.



*At two weeks until the end of the year, I reviewed the 27 books remaining on the TBR List and determined which would remain for next year. Then I added my collection of titles that has been growing all year, and the ones I currently have checked out/in my possession, for a total of 90 books I would like to read in 2024. Oh, and there are a few (not available at the library) on my Amazon list, which I might get around to.



All in, I completed 96 new books this year, re-read several more, and made the freeing decision NOT to read about 25 more, out of a starting list of 150. I finished the epic space opera series with Honor Harrington as the main character, and polished off several from the Mary Russell (and Sherlock Holmes) collection -- both of which I started in college. Not a bad result for #VirtualMountTBR (2023); depending on how you count it, I stopped within sight of Mt. Seleya or vaulted past and got halfway to Mount Olympus!