My Kind of Mystery Challenge

Catch your breath:  we launch February 1^st, 2014 – February 28^th, 2015!

Carolyn over at Riedel Fascination has drunk the challenge-sponsor Kool-Aid and is launching not one, but three new challenges for those of us who love to challenge ourselves when reading.  I've opted to jump in for her My Kind of Mystery Challenge.  To sign up--click on the link.

Here's her message to mystery readers:

My kind of mystery needs no murder!  I love hidden passageways, places, eerie phenomenon…  “Dan Brown” meets Nancy Atherton!  Many love classics, gothic greats of the 1960s-1980s, modern releases.  I am launching a reading challenge that welcomes the lot:  criminology textbooks, mystery author biographies, fiction…  Whatever your style, it fits my all-encompassing theme.  Keep an eye out for fun riddles to solve throughout the year!

Any format. Any demographic
but non-adult must be published by 1990 or earlier.  
Limitless length.
A short story, compilations;  bring them to the table!
Reviews wanted.
A link to Book Depository, Goodreads, etc shows you finished.  One line is fine.

Levels

I'm joining up for the "Lost Artifacts" Level--40 of my kind of mysteries by February 28th, 2015.  The trick will be waiting to log any successes until Feb 1.

1. Death by Chick Lit by Lynn Harris (2/1/14)

2. Exit Actors, Dying by Margot Arnold (2/4/14)

3. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocamp (2/5/14)

4. Shelf Life by Douglas Clark (2/6/14)

5. Gambit by Rex Stout (2/8/14)

6. You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts (2/9/14)

7. Dandy Gilver & the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains by Catriona McPherson (2/12/14)

8. Death Walks on Cat Feet by D. B. Olsen (2/13/14)

9. Cursed in the Act by Raymond Buckland (2/16/14)

10. Made Up to Kill by Kelley Roos (2/18/14)

11. Ellery Queen's 20th Anniversary Annual by Ellery Queen, ed (2/22/14)

12. The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie (2/25/14)

13. The Purple Parrot by Clyde Clason (2/25/14)

14. To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas (2/26/14)

15. The Darker the Night by Herbert Brean (3/3/14)

16. Murder in the Vatican by Ann Margaret Lewis (3/5/14)

17. The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd (3/8/14)

18. Shelf Life by Douglas Clark (3/11/14)

19. Endless Night by Agatha Christie (3/13/14)

20. India Black & the Gentleman Thief by Carol K. Carr (3/19/14)

21. A Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan (3/21/14)

22. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout (3/23/14)

23. Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train (3/25/14)

24. The Clue of the Leather Noose by Donald Bayne Hobart (3/31/14)

25. The Coral Princess Murders by Frances Crane (4/5/14)

26. Decoded by Mai Jia (4/5/14)

27. After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman (4/6/14)

28. A Hangman's Dozen by Alfred Hitchcock, ed (4/7/14)

29. Naked Is the Best Disguise by Samuel Rosenberg (4/8/14)

30. The Mammoth Book of the Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Denis O. Smith (4/13/14)

31. Gale Warning by Hammond Innes (4/15/14)

32. Murder at the Museum of Natural History by Michael Jahn (4/18/14)

33. Death by the Book by Julianna Deering (4/21/14)

34. The Lady of Sorrows by Anne Zouroudi (4/26/14)

35. Dorothy Dixon & the Double Cousin by Dorothy Wayne (4/26/14)

36. For Old Crime's Sake by Delano Ames (4/29/14)

37. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (4/29/14)

38. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin (5/6/14)

39. Death at the Medical Board by Josephine Bell (5/16/14)

40. Whispers of Vivaldi by Beverle Graves Myers (5/21/14)

Challenge Complete: Mount TBR

I did it!  I finally conquered a Mt. Everest stack of books from my very own TBR mountain range in the back room.  For the rest of the year I'll be roaming around on the peak...I don't think I'll manage 49 more books to get me to Mars....

Here's the trail I took up the mountain side:
1. The Man Who Went up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1/8/13)
2. The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey (1/13/12)
3. The Puzzle of the Silver Persian by Stuart Palmer (1/15/13)
4. Slippage by Harlan Ellison (1/19/13)
5. The Web Between the Worlds by Charles Sheffield (1/21/13)
6. Four Lost Ladies by Stuart Palmer (1/23/13)
7. The Case of the Negligent Nymph by Erle Stanley Gardner (1/24/13)
8. Veiled Murder by Alice Campbell (1/28/13)
9. The Cavalier's Cup by Carter Dickson (2/5/13)
10. Corpses at Indian Stones by Philip Wylie (2/7/13)
11. Aaron's Serpent by Emily Thorn (2/22/13)
12. The World's 100 Best Short Stories, Vol. III: Mystery by Grant Overton, ed (2/24/13)
13. Three English Comedies by A. B. De Mille, ed (2/27/13)
14. The Other Side of Tomorrow by Roger Elwood, ed (2/28/13)
15. The Green Plaid Pants by Margaret Scherf (3/3/13)
16. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (3/6/13)
17. The Lady in the Morgue by Jonathan Latimer (3/10/13)
18. Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers (3/11/13)
19. The Diplomat & the Gold Piano by Margaret Scherf (3/16/13)
20. The Lady Vanishes (aka The Wheel Spins) by Ethel Lina White (3/17/13)
21. A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield (3/22/13)
22. Unhappy Hooligan by Stuart Palmer (3/24/13)
23. Sally's in the Alley by Norbert Davis (3/25/13)
24. Black Widow by Patrick Quentin (4/3/13)
25. In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (4/9/13)
26. The Mountains Have a Secret by Arthur W. Upfield (4/16/13)
27. The Devil's Stronghold by Leslie Ford (4/21/13)
28. The Silence of Herondale by Joan Aiken (4/21/13)
29. Holiday Homicide by Rufus King (4/23/13)
30. A Private History of Awe by Scott Russell Sanders (4/27/13)
31. Death Has Green Fingers by Lionel Black (4/30/13)
32. Inland Passage by George Harmon Coxe (5/2/13)
33. The Talking Sparrow Murders by Darwin L. Teilhet (5/6/13)
34. Sleep No More by Margaret Erskine (5/21/13)
35. Death at Crane's Court by Eilis Dillon (5/23/13)
36. The Curse of the Bronze Lamp by Carter Dickson (5/27/13)
37. Miss Silver Deals With Death by Patricia Wentworth (finished 5/28/13)
38. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (6/7/13)
39. Murder on Safari by Laura Lippman (6/8/13)
40. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Sanders (6/12/13)
41. Murder Within Murder by Frances & Richard Lockridge (6/14/13)
42. Break Any Woman Down by Dana Johnson (6/17/13)
43. The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers (6/18/13)
44. The Father's Day Murder by Lee Harris (6/18/13)
45. Death in Zanzibar by M. M. Kaye (6/25/13)
46. Jack on the Gallows Tree by Leo Bruce (6/26/13)
47. The Listening by Kyle Dargan (6/28/13)
48. Mystery Train by David Wojahn (6/28/13)
49. Death & the Gentle Bull by Frances & Richard Lockridge (6/29/13)
50. The Mummy Case Mystery by Dermot Morrah (7/3/13)
51. Dead Man Control by Helen Reilly (7/6/13)
52. The Hollow Chest by Alice Tilton [Phoebe Atwood Taylor] (7/12/13)
53. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (7/14/13)
54. Spotted Hemlock by Gladys Mitchell (7/18/13)
55. London Particular (aka Fog of Doubt) by Christianna Brand (7/22/13)
56. The Case of the Careless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner (7/23/13)
57. Mist on the Saltings by Henry Wade (7/26/13)
58. The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers (7/31/13)
59. Till Death Do Us Part by John Dickson Carr (8/2/13)
60. The Long Farewell by Michael Innes (8/3/13)
61. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (8/6/13)
62. Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (8/20/13)
63. The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart (8/22/13)
64. Poems & Prose by Christina Rossetti (8/27/13)
65. A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon (8/28/13)
66. This New & Poisonous Air by Adam McOmber (9/3/13)
67. Murder & Blueberry Pie by Frances & Richard Lockridge (9/3/13)
68. The Croquet Player by H. G. Wells (9/4/13)
69. Malcolm Sage, Detective by Herbert Jenkins (9/8/13)
70. Famous Ghost Stories edited by Bennett Cerf (9/13/13)
71. The Temple of Death by A. C. & R. H. Benson (9/16/13)
72. The Dreadful Hollow by Nicholas Blake (9/19/13)
73. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (9/24/13)
74. Death Knocks Three Times by Anthony Gilbert (9/27/13)
75. The Mystery Lovers' Book of Quotations by Jane Horning (9/27/13)
76. The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson (10/1/13)
77. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (10/4/13)
78. The Haunted Dolls' House by M. R. James (10/9/13)
79. Murder at Cambridge by Q. Patrick (10/15/13)
80. Dead of a Counterplot by Simon Nash (10/20/13)
81. The Water Room by Christopher Fowler (10/25/13)
82. Gently Go Man by Alan Hunter (10/27/13)
83. Once Upon a Crime by M. D. Lake (10/28/13)
84. Through a Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy (10/29/13)
85. Mystery & Crime: NYPL Book of Answers by Jay Pearsall (10/30/13)
86. By a Woman's Hand by Jean Swanson & Dean James (11/2/13)
87. Maid to Murder by Roy Vickers (11/3/13)
88. Shell Game by Richard Powell (11/4/13)
89. Kemp's Last Case by M. R. D. Meek (11/4/13)
90. The Murder Stone by Charles Todd (11/8/13)
91. Death Is in the Air by Kate Kingsbury (11/10/13)
92. Evidence of Things Seen by Elizabeth Daly (11/12/13)
93. Check-Out Time by Kate Kingsbury (11/13/13)
94. The Small Hours of the Morning by Margaret Yorke (11/15/13)
95. The Dorothy Parker Murder Case by George Baxt (11/19/13)
96. The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon G. Eberhart (11/20/13)
97. The Tragedy of X by Barnaby Ross [Ellery Queen] (11/25/13)
98. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (11/27/13)
99. The Tragedy of Y by Barnaby Ross [Ellery Queen] (11/30/13)
100. The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin (12/1/13)

Yippee!  Complete!

101. The Tragedy of Z by Barnaby Ross [Ellery Queen] (12/3/13)

The XYZ Murders: Part III

The XYZ Murders is a 3-in-1 volume by Barnaby Ross (aka Ellery Queen aka Frederic Dannay & Manfred Lee)--the star of which is Drury Lane, retired actor and amateur sleuth extraordinaire.  Since the three novels included in this volume were originally published as separate works, I will treat them as such and review them accordingly.

The third and final novel in this collection, The Tragedy of Z, is written in a different style from the first two.  The Tragedies of X and Y are each written in the third person and center on Drury Lane with Inspector Thumm and District Attorney Bruno in supporting roles.  This third story is written in the first person and our narrator is Patience Thumm, the Inspector's intelligent, observant, and outgoing daughter.  Here, Thumm has retired from the force and is making his way as a private investigator.  He is also getting reacquainted with his daughter--who had been shipped off to Europe and parts unknown for finishing school and travels in the company of a companion.  Patience is determined to share in dear old dad's investigations and she opens her career as sidekick with murder amongst the crooked politicians of up-state New York.

Thumm is initially hired by Elihu Clay to investigate his "silent" partner Dr. Ira Fawcett, who Clay suspects of underhanded dealings in the form of crooked contracts for their marble business.  It would be no surprise if Dr. Fawcett were crooked--his brother Joel is a senator rumored to be as corrupt as they come.  The Thumms have barely begun their checks on Ira when Joel is discovered murdered with the oddest little trinket propped before him on his desk.  It is what looks to be a third of a miniature chest.  

Patience and her father quickly pick up on clues strewn about the Senator's study, but the local DA (and also, incidentally, the man who planned to run against Fawcett in the next election) fastens on a recently released prisoner with an unspecified grudge against Fawcett and hustles the poor man through the fastest trial in East.  Dow (the prisoner) is sentenced to life and has just gotten settled back into prison when he makes an escape.  And, lo and behold, if Dr. Fawcett isn't murdered that very night....with another third of the miniature chest in his possession.  Bet you can't guess who the DA picks on as suspect number one.  And who, by the way, is NOT the killer.  [That's no spoiler...anybody with reasoning skills could figure that out with the first murder.]

Patience comes up with a dandy partial solution that her dad just doesn't buy...so they toddle off to present her logic to the old master, Drury Lane.  Who absolutely agrees with her...as he says, as far as she goes.  Between the two of them, Patience and Drury will pinpoint the killer.  But it will take a grand finale in the execution chamber of the prison to bring  everything together.

This particular story was a mixed bag for me.  On the plus side, it read more quickly than the first two.  It seemed a little more action-packed, and Drury Lane didn't take quite as long to explain every little detail of the explanation.  I like Patience...but on the negative side, I wasn't as comfortable with the first person narrative.  I did like her interactions with her father--trying to convince him that she could manage in a murder investigation and didn't need to be wrapped in cotton wool and protected.  I did think it a shame that Drury was taken from the extremely fit and youthful older man in the first two novels to pretty sickly (at first) and somewhat doddering elderly man in this outing.  I'm not sure if Queen thought it necessary to make him so weak in order to have an excuse to feature the Thumms so prominently...but it was a disappointment.  Three stars only.  

For reviews of The Tragedy of X and The Tragedy of Y, please click the links.

You Read How Many Books?

You Read How Many Books?
Reading Challenge

2014

This year's host is Gina @ Book Dragon's Lair.  Amy at My Overstuffed Bookshelf has hosted the 150+ challenge the last few years, and is allowing Gina to host this year, with changes :-).

Challenge begins January 1st, 2014 thru December 31, 2014. Books started before the 1st do not count. You can join at anytime.  This time 'round we have three levels to choose from--having sailed along at the 150+ level for a couple of years, I'm going to go ahead and sign up for Level 2.

For full details and to join the fun, click on the Challenge link below the picture.

1. The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(1/2/14)

2. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (1/5/14)

3. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak(1/6/14)

4. The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (1/8/14)

5. Dangerous Visions #3 by Harlan Ellison, ed (1/11/14)

6. Angels & Spaceships by Fredric Brown (1/12/14)

7. Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell (1/13/14)

8. The Wonder Chamber by Mary Malloy (1/15/14)

9. Triumph by Philip Wylie (1/18/14)

10. The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton (1/18/14)
11. The Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux (1/20/14)
12. Seven Footprints to Satan by A. Merritt (1/22/14)
13. The Winter Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1/23/14) 
14. Death on the Aisle by Frances & Richard Lockridge (1/24/14)
15. The Adventure of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons by James Francis Thierry (1/26/14)
16. Other Times, Other Worlds by John D. MacDonald (1/26/14) 
17. Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton (1/27/14)
18. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1/29/14) 
19. Darkness at Pemberley by T. H. White (1/30/14) 
20. Death by Chick Lit by Lynn Harris (2/1/14) 
21. Exit Actors, Dying by Margot Arnold (2/4/14) 
22. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocampo (2/5/14) 
23. Shelf Life by Douglas Clark (2/6/14) 
24. Gambit by Rex Stout (2/8/14) 
25. You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts (2/9/14) 
26. Dandy Gilver & the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains by Catriona McPherson (2/12/14) 
27. Death Walks on Cat Feet by D. B. Olsen (2/13/14) 
28. Cursed in the Act by Raymond Buckland (2/16/14)
29. Made Up to Kill by Kelley Roos (2/18/14)
30. XCIA's Street Art Project by Hank O'Neal (2/20/14) 
31. Ellery Queen's 20th Anniversary Annual by Ellery Queen, ed (2/22/14)
32. The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie (2/25/14) 
33. The Purple Parrot by Clyde Clason (2/25/14) 
34. To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas (2/26/14)
35. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick (2/27/14) 
36. The Darker the Night by Herbert Brean (3/3/14) 
37. India's Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope (3/4/14) 
38. Murder in the Vatican by Ann Margaret Lewis (3/5/14) 
39. The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd (3/8/14) 
40. It's Not All Flowers & Sausages by Jennifer Scoggin (3/10/14) 
41. Vicious Circle by Douglas Clark (3/11/14) 
42. A Girl Walks Into a Bar by Helena S. Paige (3/12/14) 
43. Endless Night by Agatha Christie (3/13/14) 
44. John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars by Roland Hughes (3/17/14) 
45. Harlan Ellison's 7 Against Chaos by Harlan Ellison (3/17/14)
46. India Black & the Gentleman Thief by Carol K. Carr (3/19/14) 
47. A Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan (3/21/14) 
48. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout (3/23/14) 
49. Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train (3/25/14) 
50. Grimms' Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (3/28/14)
51. The Clue of the Leather Noose by Donald Bayne Hobart (3/31/14) 
52. The Coral Princess Murders by Frances Crane (4/5/14) 
53. Decoded by Mai Jia (4/5/14) 
54. After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman (4/6/14) 
55. A Hangman's Dozen by Alfred Hitchcock, ed (4/7/14)
56. Naked Is the Best Disguise by Samuel Rosenberg (4/8/14) 
57. The Mammoth Book of the Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Denis O. Smith (4/13/14) 
58. Gale Warning by Hammond Innes (4/15/14)
59. Murder at the Museum of Natural History by Michael Jahn (4/18/14) 
60. My Antonia by Willa Cather (4/20/14)
61. Death by the Book by Julianna Deering (4/21/14) 
62. The Lady of Sorrows by Anne Zouroudi (4/26/14)
63. Dorothy Dixon & the Double Cousin by Dorothy Wayne (4/26/14) 
64. For Old Crime's Sake (aka Lucky Jane) by Delano Ames (4/29/14)
65. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (4/29/14) 
66. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer (5/1/14) 
67. Ships of the Line by Doug Drexler & Margaret Clark (eds) [5/1/14] 
68. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin (5/6/14)
69. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (5/9/14) 
70. Death at the Medical Board by Josephine Bell (5/16/14) 
71. Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton (5/16/14)
72. Sinners & the Sea by Rebecca Kanner (5/21/14)
73. Whispers of Vivaldi by Beverle Graves Myers (5/21/14) 
74. Mind Fields: The Art of Jacek Yerka/The Fiction of Harlan Ellison by Yerka & Ellison (5/22/14)
75. By the Watchman's Clock by Leslie Ford (5/23/14) 
76. Red Herring by Edward Acheson (5/25/14) 
77. Beyond Uhura: Star Trek & Other Memories by Nichelle Nichols (5/29/14)
78. Steampunk Poe by Edgar Allan Poe; illustrated by Zdenko Basic & Manuel Numberac (5/30/14) 
79. Invisible Green by John Sladek (6/2/14)
80. Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (6/5/14)
81.12.21 by Dustin Thomason (6/6/14)
82. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo (6/8/14) 
83. Plain Sailing by Douglas Clark (6/11/14)
84. The Corsican Caper by Peter Mayle (6/11/14)
85. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkein (6/12/14)
86. Total Harmonic Distortion by Charles Rodrigues (6/12/14)
87. A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell (6/15/14)
88. Undead & Unpopular by MaryJanice Davidson (6/17/14)
89. The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker (6/19/14)
90. No. 9 Belmont Square by Margaret Erskine (6/21/14)
91. The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (6/23/14) 
92. This Private Plot by Alan Beechey (6/26/14)
93. DeKok & Murder in Ecstasy by A. C. Baantjer (6/27/14)
94. The 7 Professors of the Far North by John Fardell (6/29/14)
95. The Day They Kidnapped Queen Victoria by H. K. Fleming (7/2/14)
96. A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott (7/3/14)
97. The Chief Inspector's Daughter by Sheila Radley (7/5/14)
98. On the Beach by Nevil Shute (7/7/14)
99. Selections from the Essays of Montaigne by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (trans & ed by Donald M Frame) [7/7/14] 
100. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (7/8/14) 
101. The Forgotten War by William R. Horstchen (7/9/14) 
102. Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout (7/12/14) 
103. Murder at the Villa Rose by A. E. W. Mason (7/14/14)
104. Death in an Ivory Tower by Maria Hudgins (7/16/14) 
105. The Tattooed Man by Howard Pease (7/17/14)
106. Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (7/20/14) 
107. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (7/21/14) 
108. Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (7/22/14)
109. Who Guards a Prince by Reginald Hill (7/23/14) 
110. Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym (7/25/14)
111. Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (7/30/14)
112. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (7/31/14)
113. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Angel of the Opera by Sam Siciliano (8/4/14)
114. The Mangle Street Murders by M. R. C. Kasasian (8/5/14)
115. Introducing C. B. Greenfield by Lucille Kallen (8/6/14)
116. Date With Danger by Roy Vickers (8/11/14) 
117. Button, Button by Marion Bramhall (8/13/14)
118. Book of the Dead by Elizabeth Daly (8/14/14)
119. Book Clubbed by Lorna Barrett (8/16/14)
120. New Orleans Requiem by D. J. Donaldson (8/17/14)
121. Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card (8/19/14)
122. Zingers, Quips, & One-Liners by Geoff Tibballs (8/25/14)
123.  The Bigger They Come by A. A. Fair (8/28/14)
124. The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh (8/29/14)
125. The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh (8/30/14)
126. The Shakespeare Mask by Newton Frohlich (9/2/14)
127. Vertigo 42 by Martha Grimes (9/5/14)
128. Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh (9/6/14)
129. The Unfinished Crime by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (9/8/14)
130. Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet by Harry Kemelman (9/8/14)
131. Red Cent by Robert Campbell (9/10/14)
132. Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie (9/11/14)
133. The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie (9/12/14)
134. The Herb of Death & Other Stories by Agatha Christie (9/14/14)
135. Death Takes a Sabbatical by Robert Bernard (9/16/14)
136. The Edison Effect by Bernadette Pajer (9/20/14)
137. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (9/21/14)
138. The Footprints on the Ceiling by Clayton Rawson (9/25/14)
139. Two for Sorrow by Nicola Upson (9/27/14)
140. A Death for a Dancer by E. X. Giroux (9/28/14)
141. Bleeding Maize & Blue by Susan Holtzer (9/30/14)
142. Blood on the Stars by Brett Halliday (10/4/14)
143. The Witch's Grave by Philip DePoy (10/5/14)
144. Death by Hitchcock by Elissa D. Grodin (10/6/14)
145. Lament for a Maker by Michael Innes (10/8/14)
146. The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie (10/11/14)
147. Death on Allhallowe'en by Leo Bruce (10/11/14)
148. Only a Matter of Time by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley (10/13/14)
149. Murder on Mike by H. Paul Jeffers (10/15/14)
150. Appleby's Answer by Michael Innes (10/17/14)
151. The Haunted Lady by Mary Roberts Rinehart (10/19/14)

Challenge Complete!

One Million Pages in a Lifetime

Julie over at Smiling Shelves has developed a blog-version of the Read One Million Pages Challenge that she found out on Goodreads.  This is a perpetual challenge with one simple goal: to read one million pages during your lifetime.  If you'd like to join us on this ultimate quest, then please click on the link above to sign up on Julie's page.

We are welcome to use page counts that we have already documented to give us a launching pad to boost us towards our goal.  According to Goodreads, I have read 206,286 pages from 1975 (my earliest sure date) through 2012.  I'm quite sure that's a little shy of the mark--there are lots of books that I didn't have a date for when I logged my books on Goodreads (my lazy, good-for-nothing younger self didn't seem to think putting a date read by the books in my reading log was necessary most of the time) and those books don't seem to be counting towards the total--but at least what I've got will give me a good start.  I'll keep a running total of pages below. And...in order to count this toward my yearly challenge goals, I will pledge to read at least 40,000 pages each year to merit counting the year's goal as complete.

Update (1/1/17): After two years in a row where I did not meet my 40,000 page goal, I am going to reduce my challenge commitment. In 2017, I will need to read 35,000 page to count the challenge as complete for the year. We'll see if I meet that before making it my standard goal.

2nd Update (12/31/17): The older I get, the fewer hefty tomes I read. For 2018, I'm lowering the goal to 30,000. If I make that again, we'll make it the standard goal till I can't do it anymore. 

3rd Update (1/3/26): Didn't make my goal in 2025 😔I really don't want to have to lower my goal again. Going to aim for 30,000 again.

Starting Page Count: 206,286

2013 Page Count: 43,939           Grand Total: 250,225

2014 Page Count: 43,558           Grand Total: 293,783

2015 Page Count: 37,873           Grand Total: 331,656

2016 Page Count: 34,390           Grand Total: 366,046

2017 Page Count: 32,727           Grand Total: 398,773

2018 Page Count: 31,512           Grand Total: 430,285

2019 Page Count: 34,408           Grand Total: 464,693

2020 Page Count: 36,998           Grand Total: 501,691

2021 Page Count: 49,357           Grand Total: 551,048

2022 Page Count: 54,990           Grand Total: 606,038

2023 Page Count: 48,001           Grand Total: 654,039

2024 Page Count: 38,801           Grand Total: 692,840

2025 Page Count:  28,320          Grand Total: 721,160

2026 Page Count:

The Birds' Christmas Carol: Review

The Birds' Christmas Carol (1886) is a very sweet short novel written by Kate Douglas Wiggin and illustrated by Katharine R. Wireman. It centers around Carol Bird--originally destined to be named Lucy until she arrived unexpectedly on Christmas.  She grows to be an exceptionally happy, loving, and generous girl--despite the fact that she is diagnosed with an unspecified illness at age five and is bedridden by the time she is ten.  As the story says, "perhaps because she was born in holiday time, carol was a very happy baby...she may have breathed in unconsciously the fragrance of evergreens and holiday dinners; while the peals of sleigh-bells and the laughter of happy children may have fallen upon her baby ears and wakened in them a glad surprise at the merry world she had come to live in."  Just by being Carol, she manages to influence her unruly brothers to behave more generously to one another and her entire family learns lessons about the true meaning of Christmas from their very own Christmas Carol.

Carol manages to teach her family and readers alike that it really is better to give than to receive.  Her fondest wish is to prepare a gala Christmas celebration for the nine Ruggles children who live in a small house behind her own.  She finds a way to earn her own money to provide a Christmas dinner that the children will never forget as well as presents the likes of which they have never seen.  While the story is primarily a moral tale about a very angelic child with an incredibly giving heart , it also features some very humorous scenes--particularly when the Ruggles matriarch is attempting to prepare her large brood for their first fine social occasion.

Even though it is tinged with sadness at the end, this is a truly lovely story--entirely suitable to the Christmas season. Five stars.

Quotes:
It is very funny, but you do not always have to see people to love them. (p. 17)

Each girl had a blue knitted hood, and each boy a red crocheted comforter, all made by Mamma, Carol, and Elfrida. ("Because if you buy everything, it doesn't show so much love," said Carol. (p. 58)

"Mamma, dear, I do think that we have kept Christ's birthday this time just as He would like. Don't you?" [Carol]
"I am sure of it," said Mrs. Bird, softly. (p. 62)

November's Wrap-Up and P.O.M. Award

Holding steady  this month with another 15 books. I'm still behind behind on Goodreads by one book.   Keep reading, Bev. Keep reading!   Anyway...I'm continuing to combine my monthly wrap-up post with Kerrie's Crime Fiction Pick of the Month over at Mysteries in Paradise. .  So....here we go, November's number look like this:


Total Books Read: 15
Total Pages:  3,545 (a few more pages...) 
Percentage by Female Authors:  47%
Percentage by US Authors:  53%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors:  7%
Percentage Mystery: 80%
Percentage Fiction: 87%
Percentage written 2000+: 20%
Percentage of Rereads: 0%
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: 24 (71%)


AND, as mentioned above, Kerrie has started us up for another year of Crime Fiction Favorites. What she's looking for is our Top Mystery Read for each month. In October, thirteen of the books I read count as mysteries or mystery-related:
 
By a Woman's Hand by Jean Swanson & Dean James [NF] 
Maid to Murder by Roy Vickers (4 stars)
Shell Game by Richard Powell (3 stars) 
Kemp's Last Case by M. R. D. Meek (2.5 stars) 
The Murder Stone by Charles Todd (4 stars) 
Death Is in the Air by Kate Kingsbury (3 stars) 
Evidence of Things Seen by Elizabeth Daly (3.5 stars)
Check-Out Time by Kate Kingsbury (2 stars)
The Small Hours of the Morning by Margaret Yorke (3 stars)
The Dorothy Parker Murder Case by George Baxt (3 stars) 
The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon G. Eberhart (3.5 stars)
The Tragedy of X by Barnaby Ross [Ellery Queen] (3.75 stars) 
The Tragedy of Y by Barnaby Ross [Ellery Queen] (3.75 stars)


This month I wound up awarding four stars to two of these books: Maid to Murder a vintage-era novel by Roy Vickers and The Murder Stone a more modern novel set during World War I by Charles Todd.  Each of these novels were delightful in their own way.  Maid to Murder was like sitting down for one of those old, black & white, B-movie, mysteries that used to get shown on Saturday and Sunday afternoons (back in the dark ages when there weren't hundreds of channels--before AMC and any others dedicated to classic movies).  Madcap mystery! Hero hiding out from the law and trying to clear his name!  Beautiful dames!  Rotten crooks!  A bit of amnesia!  Cursed jewels!  Lots of mysterious goings on and a big reveal at the end.  There really isn't much of a surprise when the crooks are fingered--but it's so much fun getting there that you really don't mind.  A rollicking good time with a wonderful protagonist--it's great fun watching to see how Habershon's going to prove his innocence.  And The Murder Stone was an absorbing, gripping story.  Told with all the assurance of good research, Charles Todd made me absolutely believe that I was in England during World War I.  There is an air of tension running throughout that is tied not only to the mystery itself, but to the backdrop of the conflict.  There are wounded men who have been invalided out and those who have escaped hospital who don't quite know who or where they are.  As other reviewers have pointed out, this is more of a Gothic mystery story than a straight crime or detective novel.  But it is a Gothic mystery done well.

I can't give out two P.O.M. awards, so the winner of November's Pick of the Month goes to:
 

Adam's 2014 TBR Pile Challenge

Adam from Roof Beam Reader is taking us on another round of TBR Tower Taming with his 2014 TBR Pile Challenge. I finished up my 2013 pile back in August, so I've been waiting oh-so-impatiently to sign up for the 2014 challenge.  I love challenges and I'm all about the ones that will help me knock out some of those stacks in my back room.

Here's the main point: If you join Adam's challenge, then you will sign up to read 12 books (one for each month) from your TBR list. Each of these books must have been on your TBR list for AT LEAST one year. None of the books can have a publication date of 1/1/13 or later (yes, Adam will be checking).

For the full run-down of challenge details, hop over to Adam's blog (click on link above), read the rules, and join me in my quest to reduce the teetering stacks.

Here's my list:
1. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (pub 1962) [2/27/14]
2. For Old Crime's Sake by Delano Ames (pub 1959) [4/29/14]
3. My Antonia by Willa Cather (pub 1918) [4/20/14]
4. Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (pub 1952) [7/20/14]
5. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak (pub 1976) [1/6/14]
6. By the Watchman's Clock by Leslie Ford (pub 1932) [5/23/14]
7. Death on the Aisle by Frances & Richard Lockridge (pub 1942) [1/24/14]
8. Plain Sailing by Douglas Clark (pub 1987) [6/11/14]
9.  Made Up to Kill by Kelley Roos (pub 1940) [2/18/14]
10. Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout (pub 1938) [7/12/14]
11. The Clue of the Leather Noose by Donald Bayne Hobart (pub 1929) [3/31/14]
12. The Forgotten War by William Forschten (pub 1999) [7/9/14]

Alternates:
1. Alone Against Tomorrow by Harlan Ellison (pub 1971) [11/30/14]
2. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (pub 1991) [1/5/14]