Samantha_kathy plans her reads again in 2015!

I'm Samantha, I live in the Netherlands. I found out last year that not planning my reading doesn’t really work for me. So for this year, I’ve once again signed up for quite a few challenges, as well as having some plans of my own.

One of them is to catch up with some of my series. I am currently reading 80 series. I am current with 8 of them. That’s 10 %. I’m hoping to end the year with a better percentage.

Another one is to read from my own shelves (including my Kindle). I am aiming for 80 % of my total reads of this year coming from my own shelves.

My Rating System

1 star: I hated it, don't waste your time reading it.
2 stars: I didn't like it very much, I wouldn't recommend it.
3 stars: It's ok. You might want to read it.
4 stars: Great book, I recommend it.
5 stars: Absolutely brilliant book! Highly recommended.

Currently reading:

Books read in 2015

January

1. From Mother to Daughter by Oksana Vitruk (2.5 stars)

February

2. Paleo Mexican: Amazingly Good Tex-Mex Paleo Recipes at Home by Kat Samson (4 stars)

March

3. Mediterranean Cookbook: 40 Easy and Delicious Mediterranean Diet Recipes by Patrick Smith (3.5 stars)
4. Kindle Buffet by Steve Weber (2.5 stars)
5. Shout at the Devil by Wilbur Smith (4.5 stars)

April

6. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (3.5 stars)

May

7. Path of the Assassin by Brad Thor (3.5 stars)

June

No books read

July

No books read

August

8. How to Write a Mystery by Larry Beinhart (3.5 stars)
9. Handboek tijdsverloop by Tjerk Noordraven (4 stars)

September

No books read

October

10. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (5 stars)

November

No books read

December

11. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (5 stars)

Don't think I've stopped in before, but my eye was caught by the word 'eclectic' in your intro.

I worked hard last year to keep my series reading under control and it does feel MUCH better!

Hi SK! You have a good plan for the year. I haven't counted the series I'm reading, but it's probsbly more than 100. My current percentage is probably lower than yours.

Welcome back!

>4 sibylline: I've found that doing challenges like Book Around the World and the CATs and BingoDOG (from the 2015 Category Challenge) makes for eclectic reading as it forces me to pick different authors, genres, and books than I normally would. But it's fun and sometimes I discover books I really like that I never would've picked up otherwise.

Series are my great weakness - mystery series in particular. But I am going to read more of my series this year. There's a lot of them that are finished - as in, there won't be more books in them - that I could get current with (and then easily stay current *grins*), so I'm trying to get that done this year.

>5 cbl_tn: I've started using fictfact a year or two ago and I've found it really helps me keep my series straight. And made me evaluate if I really did want to read the rest of a series, or if I was just no longer interested in it. Of course, I add some new ones each year, so progress is...debatable.

>6 drneutron: Thank you! Glad to be back.

I hope 2015 will be a great year for you, reading wise and everything else wise too.

Hi Samantha! That's funny, too much structure to my reading plans is what does me in. But I guess that's because I tend to be obsessive and completionist about it, and then I get frustrated when I don't have the time to fit all my goals. This year I'm taking it easy and not joining group reads or challenges. Well, except that I've already joined the BINGO one over in Category group. Oh well. That'll be the ONLY one. ;)

Happy I have found your thread! I am with you on the eclectic reading that forces you to read books you probably otherwise wouldn't pick up. I love LT for this 'book expansion' service! ;-)

I'm dropping my star here as I'm trying to find the threads for 2015. I still have many more to locate!

>8 majkia: Thank you! It wont take much to make 2015 a better year, reading or otherwise, for me. Let's hope it'll be a great year!

>9 The_Hibernator: I tried unstructered reading, but found it was too easy for me to put reading off in favor of other things that needed doing - or other hobbies. Too little time, too much to do. Planning my reading 'forces' me to set aside time to read. I won't sweat it too much if I don't get to read everything I want to in a month, but I'll at least attempt to stick to the plan.

>10 lkernagh: Happy to have you here! LT and the challenges I've found here have certainly expanded my reading. Other people's threads (and those darn book bullets) certainly have as well. On the other hand, the TBR stack and reading wishlist have both grown considerably since joining LT also! Ah well, I'll deal ;)

>11 thornton37814: Welcome! Glad to have your star :D

Hi Samantha. Thanks for dropping by my thread. I managed to find you and drop a star. I think I will be joining you in trying to read more from my shelves, but I don't mind having a huge TBR, I think of it kind of like a working library, I like having a big range of books to choose from. I look forward to following you and your reading progress over the course of 2015.

Happy New Year, Samantha!

>13 NicolePatrick: I like a big range of books to choose from too, but I think I've got close to 600 books - physical books on my shelves and Kindle books together - that are unread at the moment. And that's just ridiculous, in my eyes. That needs to go down - big time. Hopefully, I'll knock out some of them this year.

>14 scaifea: Thanks! Happy New Year to you too!

*********

I couldn't help but join the meme that always goes around at this time of year, even though I barely read enough books in 2014 to answer everything. So, this is what I made of it this year:

Describe yourself: A thing of beauty

Describe how you feel: In Pursuit of Reason

Describe where you currently live: Home of the Braised

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: I really have nothing that would even vaguely fit this. Closest I can get is The Book of Chameleons

Your favorite form of transportation: Met de trein door China (By Train Through China)

Your best friend is: An Undeniable Rogue

You and your friends are: The Lions of Lucerne

What’s the weather like: Moon Dance

You fear: Rachel’s Secret

What is the best advice you have to give: Save with Jamie

Thought for the day: Quilt Romance

How I would like to die: Booked to Die

My soul’s present condition: Badge of Honor

Great end-of-year meme answers!

>16 lkernagh: Thank you! With only 15 books read last year, it was a bit of a challenge to fill it in.

********

First full week of the new year has begun and I started with...the flu. Yep, I've definitely got a mild case of the flu. Not sick enough to crawl into bed and sleep the day away, but not feeling well enough to do much of anything.

On the upside, I've started Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell and I like it. It does take a bit of concentration to follow - but that might be the flu talking.

Get well soon, Samantha. Or at least well enough to do the reading if nothing else!

Here is hoping you are feeling better soon!

I hope you start feeling better soon, Kathy!

Thank you all for the get well wishes. I'll need them, as I'm actually feeling worse today :( I'm a bit too scatterbrained to read Stonehenge, but maybe I'll pick up something easier. I need to do something when I'm not sleeping, and I've caught up on watching my TV series while hanging on the couch already.

Hi! I just found your thread. Good luck with your reading this year! I'm hoping to catch up on some of the series I've started, too. Feel better soon!

>17 Samantha_kathy: >21 Samantha_kathy: Oh dear, not a nice way to start the year off. I hope that you are feeling much better very soon!

I'm finally feeling somewhat human again! I even managed to read a bit last night, although I picked up The Golden Compass and not Stonehenge. Still not entirely better - mostly tired, achy, and a sore throat - but at least I can think again!

Yay for feeling at least a little better!

I feel a lot better right now. Not at 100% just yet, but at least 85%. I can focus on reading again - and have been reading The Golden Compass, although my edition actually has the title Northern Lights.

Tomorrow, I'm going back to applying for jobs. *sigh* Also, I need to do some cleaning and grocery shopping. But, I think I'll skip my workouts - at least for the next week. I don't want to push too far, too fast. Besides, I'm still coughing and I like breathing.

Glad to see that your are feeling better.

The worst is when you are so sick you can't even read!

Just dropping in to say Hi, hope all is well on your side of the world.

Things have been crazy around here - we've been passing the flu around since the start of January, and we're still not entirely done with it. My grandmother's in the hospital on top of that. I've been busy helping out where I can, as I am the most fit one - if one forgets my shoulder injury that I somehow aquired two weeks ago. Plus I have a job interview tomorrow that I've been getting ready for. So yeah, crazy times.

I am tentatively back now, though. I managed to read 1 book in January that I need to review - it was a cookbook, but hey, it counts! And I want to try and finish Shout at the Devil this week. I picked up a pile of books at a second hand store yesterday - all books which are on my 'collect' list. I need to add those to LT as well. And...that's about it, really. Here's to getting back in the swing of things (hopefully).

Flu seems to be THE thing that's been going around everywhere across the globe. Welcome back!

Sorry for the craziness and the flu - and good luck with the interview!

>31 connie53: Yes, and it's of the 'once I infect you, I won't ever go away' variety! Let's hope that maybe we'll shake it in March, because February is a lost cause I'm afraid.

>32 scaifea: Thank you! I think it went well, but who's to say? I will hear back from them sometime next week if I am invited back for a second interview... I hate waiting :(

Here's a list of my 'loot' from last Saturday:

The Hammer of Eden by Ken Follett
On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett
A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
Jackdaws by Ken Follett
Night over Water by Ken Follett
A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
Politika by Tom Clancy
Ruthless.com by Tom Clancy
Shadow Watch by Tom Clancy
Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy
Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy

1. From Mother to Daughter by Oksana Vitruk (2.5 stars)



This cookbook started as a way for Oksana Vitruk to pass on her family recipes to her daughters, but she decided to make it available for everyone. Some of the recipes are familiar ones, others are unfamiliar – mainly those that are more traditional Eastern-European ones. I always like discovering new recipes and this book delivers on that. The pictures that accompany each recipe give you a nice look at what a dish is supposed to look like, even if you’ve never heard of it before. It’s clear the photography isn’t professional, although it’s nicely done, but that makes it more accessible I think.

The chapters are Soups, Main Dishes, Meat Dishes, Seafood Dishes, Breakfast Ideas, Pancakes, Appetizers, Dumplings, Salads and Preserving, Drinks, and Desserts. It’s a good distribution of types of dishes. I also liked the comments on other options for the recipes (like which other ingredients you could use, or what to serve it with) but not all the recipes had those comments.

There were some, rather big, downsides to this book, though. Some of the recipes felt like they were missing some essential information about, for instance, cooking time. Or in the case of the breakfast dish, soaking time for the bread in the egg and milk mixture. Some recipes just say ‘use any desired amount’ which personally I find very irritating. Give me an amount and then say I can play around with that amount, but at least I’ll have a starting point then. Also, there’s no directions for how many people you can feed with the recipes. Having to guess how many people I can feed based on the amount of ingredients is not a good way to get me to try out a recipe.

All in all, I’d give this 2.5 stars. It has potential, but especially not knowing how many people I can feed will prevent me from cooking much with this book.

>35 Samantha_kathy: Sorry the cookbook was so disappointing. The Eastern European focus sounds interesting. Sounds like the author needed an editor for her work.

You have made a nice haul there, Samantha! Lots of Follet and Clancy I see.

2. Paleo Mexican: Amazingly Good Tex-Mex Paleo Recipes at Home by Kat Samson (4 stars)



The book starts with an introduction, ingredient list and tools/equipment chapters. Then the actual recipes come, divided into chapters for appetizers, dips & salsa, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The introduction gives a bit of information on how a paleo diet – which excludes beans, corn and wheat – can be combined with the Tex-Mex kitchen that so heavily features these ingredients. The ingredients chapter gives some basic information about the main ingredients used in the recipes, like chili peppers and tomatoes, and the tools/equipment chapter does the same for the basic kitchen tools needed to make the recipes. No specialty tools required!

The recipes are a joy to read. They include information like prep time, cooking time, serving size and nutritional information per serving. The directions in the recipes are clear, concise and laid out in a step by step format. There’s a variety of dishes in each chapter, so there’s something for everyone’s taste. Of course, it’s also easy to take a dish like Mexican Breakfast Soup and eat it for dinner if you wish, so the diversity found in this book is awesome. Because the recipes are paleo, there’s some less common recipes found in this book, and that makes it better than many run-of-the-mill Tex-Mex books I’ve seen. To top it off, the recipe I tried – Egg and Sausage Lettuce Wraps – was very tasty! The only downside to this book is that there are no pictures of the dishes. All in all, recommended for anyone who likes Tex-Mex, the paleo diet, or both!

3. Mediterranean Cookbook: 40 Easy and Delicious Mediterranean Diet Recipes by Patrick Smith (3.5 stars)



This cookbook is as much a diet book as a cookbook. It’s divided into two parts. The first part is about the diet, including a part about what should be in your kitchen, both ingredient and equipment wise. It talks about the diet, which is based on eating like the people in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea do. A lot of it sounds like common sense, actually. Reserving sweets for special occasions, downsizing on the amount of meat consumed, eating breakfast every day, and eating lots of vegetables all sound like good eating practices, no matter the type of world cuisine that’s on your plate. One thing I really liked about this first part is the emphasis on exercise that needs to coincide with the diet, as the two combined make for a healthy lifestyle. Also, I liked that the focus was on getting healthier in general and not on losing weight.

The second part of the book contains the actual recipes. It’s divided into chapters covering breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. The recipes include the serving size and the calories per serving. The recipes are easy to follow. There’s a good variety of recipes, although the snacks are more appetizers than true snacks as I see snacks. Unfortunately, there’s no pictures of the recipes. I tried out the recipe for Carrot Garlic Soup and it turned out pretty well, although I’d make it a bit thinner next time. That’s a personal preference though, and the taste was great. I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes Mediterranean foods, or who is looking to adopt a healthier diet.

4. Kindle Buffet by Steve Weber (2 stars)



Kindle Buffet is a book that promises to help you find and download the best free books, magazines and newspapers for your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or Android. Now doesn’t that sound great? It probably would be greater if it didn’t feel like a giant commercial for the author’s website, Kindle Buffet. Now granted, he comes right out and tells you Kindle Buffet is his website and therefore his favorite. And Kindle Buffet does publish some links to free Kindle books. But I want more than just that!

To be fair, the author does give out some other sites that also show you free Kindle books. But it’s not much. Then he goes on about books that are free because they’re in the public domain. He gives the link to the Kindle section for those books, as well as Project Gutenberg. But he mentions there’s a lot of places to find these books…except he doesn’t tell you where. Then he goes on about Amazon Prime. Which, while it may be a good deal, is not free. And I’m honestly not even sure if it’s available for non-USA customers. But even if it is, it’s still 79 dollar annually!

The weird part is, that despite the title, there’s a part in this book about Adobe Digital Editions that lets you loan e-books from your library. What this has to do with finding free content for my Kindle, I don’t know. The part about loaning books with your Kindle from libraries or friends with a Kindle was more appropriate. There’s also a bit about using the Kindle’s Document Service…which didn’t, so far as I could see, have anything to do with getting free content. Neither did telling me that I can search within an e-book’s content with my Kindle.

One good part I found was about recognizing illegal content. If you’re searching for legal, free books, it’s good to be aware of this so you don’t accidentally steal an author’s work. They’ve got enough trouble making a living as it is. Another plus of this book was the part about Apps, but that’s only useful if you have a Kindle Fire. Since I have a first-generation Kindle, that’s not me. Getting free news with Calibre on my Kindle sounds nice, but honestly, I think it’s quicker just reading the news on the internet. But that might just be me. There’s actually a big section about working with Calibre, because it can convert things to a Kindle format, including books. It wasn’t news to me, but it’s a good section.

Basically, this book could’ve used a good editor. There’s some good bits of information in there, but it’s scattered. I also found the book very disorganized. Not really recommended, as I’m sure there’s a better way to find the same information without having to slog through this.

You seem to be on a culinary road, Samantha, even with the Kindle Buffet :-)
I hope you're doing fine and life's treating you kindly.

Have some very overdue reviews! (Except for The Help, I finished that one one New Year's Eve).

Shout at the Devil by Wilbur Smith - 4.5 stars

I’m writing this review nine months after reading this book and the plot and characters are still clear as day in my mind. That alone says how much impact this book had. It’s a brilliant book, although it had its flaws regarding attitudes towards race since it was written in 1968. But the characters and the plot are very strong and the book resonated with me.

Although the blurb on the back of the book talks about the story being set in the early days of World War One, about half of the book is actually set in the early 1930s. It starts off slow, but that slow beginning drew me in masterfully and made the impact of the second half of the book even harder. The main story is about elephant poacher Flynn O’Flynn and his feud with a German Commissioner, Herman Fleischer. When the war breaks out, that feud is a reflection of the world at large, and their personal conflict suddenly reaches global importance. There is, however, a small subplot running through the book that also centers around Flynn and reminded me of the storyline in Moby Dick, only instead of the hunt for the white whale, this was the hunt for a very specific elephant. I’m not quite sure I liked that subplot, even though it did much to show Flynn’s character.

I do want to give one word of warning to those wanting to read this book. There is one scene that, while not even the most graphic I’ve ever read, deals with extreme violence against a very young child and that might be disturbing to read. It certainly was disturbing to me and while it was important to the plot and not gratuitous violence, I think it’s worth warning for.

All in all, I really liked this book. For history lovers who want to read about World War One in the African theater this is definitely a book I’d recommend.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett - 3.5 stars

A satire with typical British humor is the best way to describe this book, in which Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain discovers reading. This discovery leads to many situations which the royal household isn’t too happy about. But while I liked the humorous look at how restricting a royal life would be, I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would. I think that while it’s a good book, it was too short to really be immersed in the story. It felt more like a series of scenes instead of a book. I liked it, and since it’s a quick read I’d recommend it to people who like British humor, but I think I would’ve liked it more if this idea had been written out in-depth in a longer book.

Path of the Assassin by Brad Thor - 3.5 stars

Path of the Assassin is the second book in the Scot Harvath series. I loved the first book and in comparison this one fell short. An average thriller instead of a good one. Scot’s on the trail of the terrorists from the previous book, which left us with a finished story but lots of loose threads. Eventually, he needs to team up with a civilian, Meg Cassidy, who is the only one who can identify the leader of a terrorist cell. Thinking back on it – having read it about seven months ago and only now getting around to reviewing it – I liked the parts at the beginning and all the way at the end, where it was just Scot instead of Scot-and-Meg. That, alongside the ineptitude of the CIA, definitely lost this book some points. I don’t mind if the hero is better than everyone else, but don’t write most agents of an agency as incompetent. That cheapens the plot and the hero at the same time.

In conclusion, I have to admit this wasn’t a bad book. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous one. Having said that, I will be picking up the next one in the series. Especially since one of the scenes I loved the most in Path of the Assassin was at the end. Can’t say much more about it without spoiling it, but it had me snickering and left me closing the book with a good feeling.

How to Write a Mystery by Larry Beinhart -3.5 stars

Nothing special. That’s what sticks in my mind the most when thinking about this book. Most of it was general writing tips with examples from mysteries, with what felt like very little information that was specific to the mystery genre. And when I pick up a book about writing mysteries, I do expect information that’s specific to the mystery genre. If I want general writing information I can pick up any ‘how to write’ book. So while the writing advice in the book is solid and there are some good tips pertaining to the mystery genre, on the whole it was fairly average.

Handboek tijdsverloop (Manual for Periods of Time) by Tjerk Noordraven -4 stars

A book that’s all about time as it pertains to writing. Past, present, or future tense and what the effects are on a story, Flashbacks, time-jumps, it is all discussed by the author. It’s not even a hundred pages long, but filled with useful information. The only downside I could find was that the author might have been a bit too rushed in his explanations. Sometimes I would’ve liked him to give some more examples and explain just a little bit more. Still, I think it’s a must-read for any writer. Highly recommended.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo -5 stars

Suddenly this book was popping up all over the place and it seemed like everyone was talking about it on the internet. Curious, and seriously needing some tidying in my own life, I bought it. I can honestly say I have not regretted it. I read it completely, then started at the beginning again and actually used the book. I’ve tried many systems, some which didn’t last at all and some which lasted a few weeks before the mess took over again. Using the Konmari method took me a month and a lot of work, but the result at the end was a tidy house. And it’s been tidy for two months now and counting! Marie Kondo wasn’t lying when she said that you only have to tidy once and then it just sticks. It really does and I would recommend the book to everyone. Just try it, perhaps it will work for you too!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - 5 stars

An awesome book that’s set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. Racial segregation is in full swing, but civil rights protesters are trying to make a change. Tensions are high, and so is the fear in the black community. In the midst of that are two black maids – one who has always spoken her mind, to her detriment – and one who has kept silent for years but finds that since her son died she cannot keep the bitterness inside anymore. And then there’s the white socialite who wants to be a journalist. Together, these women embark on a dangerous project because all three of them are fighting against the invisible lines and rules that restrict them.
This is a book that makes the big issues of the 1960s very personal. It’s a difficult book to capture in words, so I am just going to suggest you read it. This is by far the best book I’ve read this year, and I might even say that it’s the best book I’ve read in years. Highly recommended.

>42 Samantha_kathy: That's what I rated The Uncommon Reader when I read it. You liked The Help better than I did.