TBR List Update: March

      

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 March 2024

Books read: 5

Books I decided NOT to finish: 1

The Outrun: I didn't realize that it's an addiction recovery memoir, not fiction. I'd honestly rather read about imaginary people's struggles sometimes, especially when real life is being difficult.

I quailed at the size of Stephen King's Desperation, which I've started a few times in the past, but decided I really do want to finish it, so I won't include it here. Just... set it to the side.

Life Undercover

Books left on the TBR List: 75 (It went up -- I found new titles to add)

Best book of the month: The Murder of Mary Russell

A selection in the Mary Russell series that actually had very little to do with Mary! Most of the book was taken up with the backstory of Mrs. Hudson, the landlady/housekeeper for Sherlock Holmes. As previously intimated, she led quite a different sort of life when she was younger. I adored this (and in my mind I kept seeing the fashions from the TV series The Gilded Age).

Worst book of the month: Dancing Girls

Having loved The Handmaid's Tale and its sequel, The Testaments, I thought I'd explore Margaret Atwood's short fiction. I found the collection uneven, though; the first few stories were confusing to me and I didn't find much that resonated with my experience. A standout: "When It Happens", which played to my looming sense of dread and social apocalypse. "Rape Fantasies" was a clever conceit. But overall, it was a slog, and I'm reconsidering the other two anthologies of her work on my list.

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.

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!

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.