When I decided to renew my Pick of the Month Awards, I was amazed to find that it had been three years since I put together a monthly list of books read, stats, ratings, and overall My Reader's Block P.O.M. Award winner. So far, I'm sticking to the plan. I had participated in Kerrie's Pick of the Month meme which focused on mysteries, but it doesn't look like she's got that up and running. My plan is to focus on mysteries (since that's the bulk of what I read), but if there are non-mysteries worthy of a P.O.M. award then I will hand out two awards. So...let's see what I've been up to in May--which turned out to be an extremely productive reading month!
Total Books Read: 28
Total Pages: 5,957
Average Rating: 3.3 stars
Top Rating: 4.5 stars
Percentage by Female Authors: 44%
Total Pages: 5,957
Average Rating: 3.3 stars
Top Rating: 4.5 stars
Percentage by Female Authors: 44%
Percentage by Male Authors: 37%
Percentage by both Female & Male Authors: 19%
Percentage by US Authors: 67%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors: 8%
Percentage Mystery: 75%
Percentage by US Authors: 67%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors: 8%
Percentage Mystery: 75%
Percentage Fiction: 92%
Percentage written 2000+: 19%
Percentage of Rereads: 29%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}
Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 16 (62%)
Percentage written 2000+: 19%
Percentage of Rereads: 29%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}
Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 16 (62%)
Mysteries/Mystery-Related Reads:
The Trolley to Yesterday by John Bellairs (3.5 stars)
Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie (3.5 stars)
The Ultraviolet Widow by Frances Crane (3.5 stars)
The Z Murders by J. Jefferson Farjeon (3 stars)
Look Behind You, Lady by A. S. Fleischman (3.75 stars)
The Venetian Blonde by A. S. Fleischman (2.5 stars)
Who Buries the Dead by C. S. Harris (4.5 stars)
The Montmartre Investigation by Claude Izner (2.5 stars)
Innocent Blood by P. D. James (3.5 stars)
I'll Kill You Next! by Adam Knight (2 stars)
The Black Thumb by Constance & Gwenyth Little (2 stars)
Accent on Murder by Frances & Richard Lockridge (4 stars)
Murder by the Book by Frances & Richard Lockridge (4 stars)
Preach No More by Richard Lockridge (3 stars)
With One Stone by Frances & Richard Lockridge (4 stars)
Theoretically Dead by Tinker Marks (2.5 stars)
The Haunted Attic by Margaret Sutton (3 stars)
The Rainbow Riddle by Margaret Sutton (3 stars)
The Clue of the New Pin by Edgar Wallace (4 stars)
Handing out the P.O.M. award isn't going to be difficult this month. Only one book, Who Buries the Dead by C. S. Harris, came in with a 4.5 rating.
Harris's Regency-era historical mysteries are very enjoyable. She often weaves actual events into her stories and manages to give a great deal of information about the period without turning the books into info-dumps. The developing relationships are interesting and dynamic. My one complaint is she keeps killing off interesting characters--she can stop that any time now. If she hadn't done so again in this one, I probably would have given WBtD a full five stars. The mystery was well done and the development of the relationship between Devlin and his wife was handled well also. This is the tenth book in a series that really does need to be read in order.
The cover makes it look like a paranormal regency romance.
ReplyDeleteYour reading list for May is quite impressive.
ReplyDeleteFor a while, I had a problem with spam comments also. By going to the Design page and clicking on Comments, I would delete the spam comments each day until the system could identify them and stop them from actually posting. I still check every so often but seldom have spammers now. Hope you can work out the problem.
Ryan: Yeah, it does, doesn't it? Maybe it's because the area where the first body is found is supposed to be haunted.
ReplyDeleteGail: Thanks! I delete the span as well--I don't seem to have as much problem as I did--but they still pop up occasionally (and they seem to come in groups when they do--I'll have nothing for a good long while and then all of a sudden there will be like 5-10 spammers leaving messages).