LShelby Tries Again

I'm back. I'm not the most chatty member, but I do read everyone else's lists and I love the "ambiance". :)

For those that don't remember me, I'm a Canadian living in the USA, the mother of six (ages 13-23), and I read a wide variety of books including fantasy & science fiction, YA romances, and non-fiction.

When I'm not reading, I'm usually writing, painting, songwriting, building my website... and sometimes I manage to fit in some crafty stuff too.

I've been an LT member since 2006, and I've done the 75 Group Challenge a few times, but 2013 started out really busy for me, and I never got around to signing up. For 2014 I wanted to try again, but I thought maybe I would feel more at home in a smaller group. Attempting to stretch seemed like the best thing to do, so I joined the 100 Books, and whether or not I made it, depends on whether or not I was counting the Manga. This time, I'm definitely NOT counting the Manga. So I'll have to try a little harder I guess.


103 books read in 2015

Sub-goals:
20 New Authors

18 new authors in 2015

20 Old Favorites (SFF->RR->C/YA->O)

20 rereads in 2015

20 Non-Fiction Books (Largely to prevent me from counting these as new authors)

16 non-fiction in 2015

50 Manga/Graphic Novels (Not included in Total Book Count.)

40 graphic novels in 2015

Welcome back!

>1 LShelby: I love how you're tracking your books! :) Best of luck!

Interesting sub goals! I hope it's a great reading year.

Welcome back LShelby! Looking forward to your reads again in 2015.

Hi everyone, thanks for the welcomes!

And Roni, thanks for the picture!
Wow! (The 2015 I can see out of my window doesn't look anything like that!) :)

1: A Voice for Princess by John Morressy (reread)
2: Questing of Kedrigern by John Morressy (reread)
3: Kedrigern in Wanderland by John Morressy (reread)
Books 1-3 of the Kedrigern Chronicles. Cute, humorous fantasy series about a stick-in-the-mud, stay-at-home wizard, who somehow always ends up going travelling even though he hates it, and his beautiful wife, Princess.

4: A Susceptible Gentleman, by Carola Dunn (reread)
Yet another of my collection of fluffy regency romances. My daughters avoid this one, because a guy with 3 mistresses at once seems a little much to them, even trying to give leeway for the genre's apparent obsessions with rakes. I guess I'm more forgiving -- he dumps them all right at the beginning anyway.

Also read:
The Tower of the Elephant by Robert B. Howard
Conan short story. Very Conan-ish. (Which, btw, is better than most of the people who have never actually READ Howard's Conan stories expect.)

Xeethra by Clark Ashton Smith
Another short story. This one seemed largely pointless to me -- I'm not into tragedy.

5: Dying to read, by Lorena McCourtney
6: Dolled Up to Die by Lorena McCourtney
Books 1 and 2 in a Mystery series. I don't know that it's the greatest series ever, but it works for me as light reading. I'd be looking for the sequel if it was out.

7: Hundred-Dollar Baby by Robert B. Parker
Very different from the sort of chick-lit mysteries that were the other mysteries I picked up this week. A bit more two-fisted, and gum-shoe-ish. In a way it was a nice break... in other ways it wasn't quite as fun. I think maybe if I try any more by this author I will try to come in at the beginning of a series. This was probably not the best book to have started with.

8: The El Dorado Adventure by Lloyd Alexander
This is one owned by my kids that was knocking about the house so I picked it up and read it. I can't remember if I'd read it before when I was a kid or not. I'm thinking not. Anyway, I'm reminded that Vesper Holly is a fun heroine, and I'm planning to try find the whole series to read if I can.

9: Lye in Wait by Cricket McRae
This mystery is part of a series about "Home Crafting" which sounded a bit less specialized than trying yet another knitting mystery -- I don't even knit! Anyway, I've got the second one in the series on my "to request" list, as the local library branch doesn't have it.

10: Big Book of Loom Knitting by Kathy Norris
11: Loom Knitting Primer by Isela Phelps
Okay, a bit ironic when I just said I don't knit, but my youngest daughter got a knitting loom set from Grandma this Christmas, and somehow I'm the one who ends up reading the books and then teaching her how to do things. The first one listed was shorter, and easier to read. The second one has more information. I'm glad the library has both. The two of them together seem to give a pretty rounded over-view for the beginning loom-knitter.

12: Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome
Either book 2 or book 3 in the Swallows and Amazons series, depending on who you ask. This is classic children's lit (written in the 1930s) about two families of children their adventures exploring camping and sailing and so forth. I really like these. I wish I didn't have to inter-library loan them.

Also read:
From Far Away, Volume 1 Kyoko Hikawa
Manga. A girl is swept off to a fantasy world type story. This is a re-read. This series used to be my favorite manga series ever, until I fell for Skip Beat! And unlike Skip Beat!, it's finished, and I can read it all in one go (always a plus in my mind).

I bought up the Vesper Holly series recently and have had fun with rereading it so far. I read a couple when I was 11 or 12 and absolutely adored them. I've tended to want to read them in a single sitting, so I've hesitated to open them up when it's too late in the day or I have things I'm supposed to be doing (not that that's really helped...). The series is one of those rare exceptions where they were better than I had remembered.

>10 mabith: Would you believe the local library system doesn't have a single one of that series? ::sigh::

I can believe it all too well! The way the people running children's and YA collections in libraries seem to handle discards often ignores the worth of the book itself in favor of the age or inexplicable whims. Obviously they were just overwhelmed by other adventure books with whip-smart female main characters...oh wait, no.

Just noticed you live in Jamestown! I used to go through quite a lot for a period traveling between Yellow Springs and Adams county (where my dad lived for a bit).

>12 mabith: Yeah, I can't figure out how they make their purchasing/discard decisions either. My favorite solution would be for them to have so much money and other resources available that they could afford to keep much larger collections. It's a nice dream, anyway.

The only time I've ever wrote a nasty letter to a politician was when he was threatening to cut funding to the Public Library.

And you've actually been to Jamestown? Wow. I never expect anyone to know this place -- it's not exactly a major metropolis. And it doesn't have an atmospheric folksy main-street type area like Yellow Springs does either.

We settled here because my husband's coin-op route covered Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton, so Jamestown put us right about at the nexus of all the highways he needed to be close to.

My dad was a librarian from before I was born until just a couple years back. I think I have all his rants about libraries being misrun memorized and as a former children's librarian himself I think he's especially harsh on them!

Sometimes I feel like my whole childhood was spent driving around Ohio (relatives in various areas, went to boarding school in Ohio, etc...). In many ways I know it better than WV, as we didn't go off the major interstates all that much and my relatives lived elsewhere. When my dad was in Adams County, well, there's basically nothing to do there barring the Serpent Mound (which is great, it just doesn't change much).

I was disgustingly in love with Yellow Springs as a young teen and pre-teen (the way most non-mainstream kids get over college towns, probably). We spent a lot of time at the Glen Helen Nature Reserve.

>14 mabith: If I'm in Yellow Springs, it's usually because I'm visiting Glen Helen. I'm pretty much allergic to people (technically it's perfume and tobacco smoke, but it mostly works out to the same thing) so I avoid crowds, but I love spending time outdoors. :)

Ha, I never remember it being crowded ever, but we went at odd times and probably went less frequently when school was in session (and again, mostly stayed in the park barring a visit to the comic/used bookstore). I don't know if I'm technically allergic to tobacco smoke, but it affects me hugely, so I feel you there. I was overjoyed when they finally banned smoking in restaurants (and bars, though that's not somewhere I'm likely to be).

13: Scotched by Kaitlyn Dunnett
This is a mystery series that I'd already read a couple books in about a woman who runs a "scottish emporium" in a small town. Obviously I like it enough to be willing to read more. :)

14: The lost heir, by Tui Sutherland
15: The hidden kingdom, by Tui Sutherland
Books 2 and 3 of a series I started at the tale end of last year. In the second installment we me the "smart" queen -- by which I can only assume they mean, smart in comparison to anyone else. But other than the IQ quotient isn't impressing me, I'm finding it quite readable, and I intend to finish out the series.

16: History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides
I read this for research purposes... but not for research on ancient Greeks. Rather it's research for a character who is a classical scholar and historian. :)

I'd actually started the week before last, but although I appreciate Thucydides goals and desire for accuracy, I did find the book heavy going. So I've been reading it in chunks while taking breaks for fluffier reading.

17: Heaven preserve us by Cricket McRae
Book two of the Home Crafting series. I am still enjoying these enough to keep going. I have book three on request. :)

18: And if I perish : frontline U.S. Army nurses in World War II by Evelyn Monahan
This is one I saw someone else reading here last year and said, "Oh, I'll need that for research!" :)

19: The hedgehog's dilemma, by Hugh Warwick
This one, though, I have no particular researchy reason to read. I just spotted it while scanning the shelves and it looked cute. And it was. A delightful read, full of humor and charm.

The author did seem to assume that his readers would be from the UK, however. The thought that someone on the other side of the pond who had never actually encountered a hedgehog ever didn't seem to have occurred to him.

I also read...
Manga:
Jing: King of Bandits, Book 1 Not terrible, but with no strong draw for me, and I found the action a bit hard to follow. I don't think I'll be continuing with the series. (Pity, I could really use a new manga series.)

From Far Away, Vol 2-3

Short Stories
Jirel Meets Magic, by Catherine L. Moore
The Bleak Shore, by Fritz Leiber
Homecoming, by Ray Bradbury

These are from the Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories, which I started working my way through early last year, and then abandoned for a while. But I'm back at it again this year...

... and now that I've worked my way up to authors with whose other works I'm somewhat familiar, I think I can say that the editor's criteria for picking stories for this anthology, and my own criteria as to what constitutes a "good read" are not very similar. I'm sure I can find stories by those authors that I like better than these.

I'll probably keep gradually plowing my way through the anthology anyway, just so I can someday say I've finished it.

>16 mabith: "I never remember it being crowded ever"

My view of crowded might possibly not match most people's, but since I'm there so I can go hiking with my husband (and kids if they feel like it) I am usually there on a Saturday afternoon when the weather is nice -- so I'm stacking the deck against myself. Under the circumstances it probably isn't surprising that there always seem to be quite a few people enjoying the main street district. :)

I've hit the used bookstore there once, but it wasn't a good environment for me. I've also been to the library a couple times, as it's one of the larger branches in Greene County. (Usually, though I just request the books to be delivered to the tiny little Jamestown branch so that I can just walk over and pick them up.)

Sounds like there are other Ohio folks! Grew up outside of Cleveland, went to school in Columbus. Took a lot of weekend trips all over the area. Now transplanted out West. Love going home!

>19 swimmergirl1: I'm transplanted in the opposite direction, having been raised in Calgary. I love Ohio's trees, but I miss my mountains. I tell my husband that my ideal way to work things would be to continue living out here, but to own a cabin "back home" where I can spend a couple months each summer. :)

That's part of why I hated living in Findlay, south of Toledo. SO FLAT. I love parts of Ohio, but I need my mountains and West Virginia will always be my home (I'd take Santa Fe as a second, NM is definitely the WV of the southwest). I went to boarding school in Belmont county Ohio, and at least we had hills and ridges there.

I live outside of Vegas, but my husbands family is from Santa Fe so we spend a good deal of time there.

20: The wolf's tooth by Cristina Eisenberg
Non-fiction. This book explains why if you re-introduce wolves to Yellowstone Park, you get an increase in the numbers and varieties of songbirds. I love ecology and I was fascinated by the material in this book. I did feel like I was getting the same concept explained to me over and over and over and over, though. Not recommended for anyone who isn't specifically interested in the topic.

21: The gingerbread bump-off, by L. J. Washburn
Mystery picked up at random off a shelf. Couldn't figure out which order the series was in, and ended up grabbing #6.. Grumble. I had a really hard time "connecting" with the protag and her assorted friends. I can't tell if coming in at book six was the reason or not.

22: Needled to death by Maggie Sefton
Yes, a knitting mystery. The next home-crafting mystery was checked out. :)
This was #2, but I had actually read the first one a few years ago. I found the knitting and the alpacas more interesting than the mystery. ::rueful::

23: The dark secret, by Tui Sutherland
24: The brightest night, by Tui Sutherland
Books 4 and 5 of the children's fantasy series mentioned earlier. Apparently we have finished part one of the series, but there remains more books to come. I wouldn't seek out more, but if a book wanders into my house there's a good chance I'll read it.



Also read:
From Far Away Vol. 4-5

25: Ramayana, by William Buck
A re-writing in the spirit of the original, rather than a direct translation, apparently. According to the introduction it mostly follows the action of traditional versions pretty well, with only one really notable exception.

26: Dinosaur odyssey : fossil threads in the web of life, by Scott D. Sampson
This takes a look at dinosaurs from an ecological and evolutionary viewpoint. Which I very much appreciated. A lot of the ecological, evolutionary and geological background information was old news to this particular reader, but that wasn't the author's fault. :)

27: The Illyrian Adventure, by Lloyd Alexander
I decided I might as well interlibrary loan these. Great fun.

28: Whose body? : a Lord Peter Wimsey novel, by Dorothy L. Sayers
An old friend. (Everyone who reads mysteries already knows about the Peter Wimsey stories, right?)

I also read:
From Far Away Vol. 6-8.

29: Quilt as desired, by Arlene Sachitano
My home crafting mystery is still on hold, and I liked the knitting better than than the mystery in the last knitting mystery, so: Quilting mystery. Not too bad, I'll probably pick up the next one sometime.

30: The Iliad, by Homer
Booorrrinng. I wouldn't have finished it if I wasn't reading it for research purposes. Plus I hate the Greek/Roman Gods. I won't even read Percy Jackson, I hate the Greek/Roman Gods so much. The more I have to read about them, the worse I hate them.

31: Working stiff, by Annelise Ryan
This mystery I wasn't so fond of. I finished it, but the humor doesn't quite work for me. Watching someone else be embarrassed is uncomfortable, not amusing.

32: Royal airs, by Sharon Shinn
I no longer need to feel guilty for my propensity for writing princes, I guess. :)
This is the sequel to Troubled Waters. I really love the world in these. Except... why is the magic limited to just the one nation?

33: Crystal dragon, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Sequel to Crystal soldier. I would actually have preferred not to have the Dramliza viewpoints I think. Especially not the opening ones. Other than that, well, it's a Liaden novel.


I also read:
From Far Away Vol. 9-11

Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon are really only for Liaden groupies, I think.

I wouldn't be surprised. They did seem more interesting for what they were setting up, than in and of themselves.

Exactly. They are there just to fill in the story from all the fascinating hints that came down in the original Liaden series from the quotes and the tree.

34: Peter Duck, by Arthur Ransome

35: Bewitching Season, by Marissa Doyle
People keep describing this as a Fantasy Regency, but it's actually set afterward.

36: The Odyssey, by Homer
Not as boring as the Iliad, thank goodness.

Also:
From Far Away 12-14

37: Quilter's knot, by Arlene Sachitano
Second in the Quilter series. I might continue picking these up.

38: Madam, Will You Talk?, by Mary Stewart
Classic romantic thriller, I believe. Generally fun but it surprised me how irritating I found the heroine's constant need for cigarettes.

39: The Octopus's Garden: Hydrothermal Vents and Other Mysteries of the Deep Sea, by Cindy Lee Van Dover
I actually found this a bit frustrating in how little "hard" information I felt I was getting, but no worries, I am now working my way through a textbook on the same subject by the same author, which has the opposite problem. ::rueful grin::


Also, manga:
MeruPuri, Vol. 1-2 -My goodness what a over-played bit of romantic nonesense! One girl surrounded by... we're up to 5 georgeous guys, I think. Of course one is nuts, one may be an enemy and one is actually only about 12 years old, he just doesn't look like it most of the time. Still, eye-roll worthy. But so far also quite cute, and not sufficiently stupid for me to have given up on it quite yet. :)

40: The Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents, by Cindy Lee Van Dover
The above mentioned textbook. Great stuff, very informative and interesting. But I had to read it with a search engine open, because although I was in a ecology related major, I am NOT sufficiently knowledgeable about marine biology that you can pull out a scientific name, and have me know what you're talking about. :(

41: Spin a Wicked Web, by Cricket McRae
The third Home Crafting mystery finally appeared. I'm starting to get irritated with the protagonist, though. I may not make it through the rest of the series.

42: The hand of poetry : five mystic poets of Persia : translations from the poems of Sanai, Attar, Rumi, Saadi and Hafiz, by Coleman Barks
I found the tone of much of the discussion about these poems a bit overly mystical for my tastes, but of the work of the actual poets only Rumi effected me in a similar way. I also didn't much like the Hafiz selections -- I found them incoherent. I enjoyed the poems of the other three, however.

43: The Pride of Chanur, by C. J. Cherryh
44: Chanur's Venture, by C. J. Cherryh
45: The Kif Strike Back, by C. J. Cherryh
First three of a classic science fiction series. I'm pretty sure I've read the first one before, but not the other two. There is much about this series I like, but at the same time, I'm debating whether or not I want to hunt up the remaining two books. I'm just getting tired of all the subterfuge and lies and etc. Maybe I'll come back to it after a break.

Also, manga:
MeruPuri, Vol. 3-4. The story ends in 4, only maybe it's more accurate to say that it fragments? Anyway, it became rather incoherent, and I'm not sure I can recommend the series, even as super silly fluffy troped-to-death romance, because of that.

Alice in the Country of Hearts Volume 1. Super strange take on Alice. Also, I think I counted nine guys ALL of whom are fated to fall in love with her -- the book says so straight up, its one of the rules of the game, apparently. This is a reread, because its been a while, and I can't remember getting to the end. I think maybe they weren't all out yet when I picked the series up the first time?

46: Something borrowed, something bleu by Cricket McRae
Fourth Home Crafting mystery.

47: Spheres of Influence by Ryk E. Spoor
Sequel to Grand Central Arena. Space Opera clearly written by a true blue E. E. Doc Smith fan.

48: Death At Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn
Fun little mystery set in the twenties, that I checked out of my library as an ebook, when all the ebooks I had been hoping to check out were unavailable.
The author's name looks familiar. I believe I own regency romances by her.

49: Creatures of the deep by Erich Hoyt
More research on the underwater realms. :) This one is a fairly light read, with some fun pictures.

50: Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce
51: Liar's moon by Elizabeth C. Bunce
YA fantasy. I had read the first one before, but I figured I'd refresh my memory before trying the sequel. I don't think I'm all that excited about where the story headed, though.

Manga:
Bakuman 1-4
This is about two boys who team up to try create a hit manga. I'm enjoying it so far. :)

>31 LShelby: Oh, you HAVE to read the fourth book, which ties everything up absolutely satisfactorily! The fifth book, it happens 10 years later showing some of the results and you can skip that if you must, but books 2 through 4 are really just one story and you really, really need to finish it. Trust me on this!

I, of course, am referring to the Chanur books here.

What did you think of Spheres of Influence? I read the first book, which was okay and interesting but didn't wow me, so I haven't read this second one yet. (I had to go check my shelves to see if I'd bought it, but I hadn't--there's a different Spoor in my tbr pile, a fantasy titled Phoenix Rising.)

>33 ronincats: I will trust you about me needing to get to the end of the story, but there's a slight complication. Book 4 of the Chanur series does not seem to appear in either my library's catalog or the interlibrary loan catalogs. :(

It's been a while since I read Grand Central Arena, but Spheres of Influence struck me as being more of the same ...not in a boring same thing all over, way, just in that it didn't strike me as changing style or mood or anything. Although I enjoyed the newly introduced Monkey King character more than the continuing characters, for whatever that's worth. :)

Check for Chanur's Endgame as well--that has both books 4 and 5 in it. And Ammy has used copies cheap if you were to get desperate.

I actually have read a few books since March, I just haven't been posting them. Oops!

52: Tales from the underground : a natural history of subterranean life by David W. Wolfe
Non-fiction, all about soil and the stuff that lives underground. What was there was fascinating, but it was a little on the light-weight side for me. I'd love to find a bit more substantial book on the same subject.

53: Cast in Shadow, by Michelle Sagara West
I actually ended up reading this one, because I had been asking people who had read my books Cantata in Coral and Ivory, and Pavane in Pearl and Emerald for suggestions of authors whose readers they thought might also like my books. Apparently West is known for her "emotional impact". Is that another way of saying "lots of drama?" Anyway I think my books are a little lighter and that we don't have quite the same sense of humor. (I can't imagine writing a main character who thinks that 'tell so-and-so to piss off' is a witty come-back.) Other than that, I guess I could see similarities in our dedication to worldbuilding and character maybe?

54: The Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure: Classic Tales of Dashing Heroes, Dastardly Villains, and Daring Escapes edited by Lawrence Ellsworth
My eldest son brought this home from the library, because it "reminded him of me". I enjoyed it a lot, too. :)

And then, naturally, I went on a Burroughs kick, grabbing some less widely known titles off of Project Gutenberg.
55: The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Ruritarian Romance. ("Romance" in this context does NOT mean "sexy" it means "adventure". "Ruritarian" refers to an imaginary European country. One of these days I need to get around to actually reading the original Ruritarian romance, Prisoner of Zenda.)

56: The Mucker, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
57: Return of the Mucker, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
58: The Efficiency Expert, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

59: Death in Zanzibar, by M. M. Kaye
This was an old paperback I picked up somewhere. It almost counts more as a romance than a mystery. Don't expect anything resembling mystery-solving or deductive ability from the heroine.

60: Isabella, by Loretta Chase
The LT recommendations seemed to think it strange that I did not have any books by this author in my catalog. So I checked this ebook out of the library. It was okay.

61: The Persistent Earl, by Gail Eastwood
I tried this Regency next. It was also okay.

62: Enter a Murder, by Ngaio Marsh
Another automatic recommendation that I thought was only okay and didn't get too excited about.

63: Miss Wonderful, by Loretta Chase
I gave Ms Chase a second try and was liking it better than the last one, until I found myself flipping past several pages worth of sex scenes. Not what I read romances for, sorry. Probably won't try again.

64: Midnight Riot, by Ben Aaronovitch
This was a pretty good book, I think, but there wasn't anything that particularly appealed to me. Didn't push any of my buttons? Something like that.

MANGA
Skip Beat #34 - Finally! But now I have to wait for the library to get #35. ::whine::

Alice in the Country of Hearts #2-4. Apparently the reason I didn't finish this series the last time, is because our library doesn't own the final volume. Ouch. I'm telling myself I don't really want to know how something this strange and potentially unpleasant turns out.

Bakuman #5-15 - Vol. 15 felt filler-ish to me.

65: Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers
I had read this before a loooonggg time ago. I find it interesting that the only thing that stuck with me, really, was the actual means of carrying out the murder. All the surrounding stuff, character, motive and the detecting was... faintly familiar only in retrospect.

66: The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham
I'm rereading a bunch of my favorite mystery series when I'm too tired to do much else. Really loving the ability to check books out of the library and read them without leaving home.

67: The Wagered Heart by Rhonda Woodward
68: Sweet Vixen by Maggie MacKeever
69: The Reluctant Cavalier Karen Harbaugh
Random Regency romances, 'cause I wanted a break from reading mysteries. :)

70: Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
I know someone who considers this her favorite book of all time, but the sad truth was I was mostly going "When will this end already?" through most of it. As the daughter of an engineer, I was taught to be intelligent in everything I did from sweeping floors to cutting cheese -- I have no inclination toward, nor do I idealize the academic ivory-tower existence. Our detective didn't show up until very late, and when he did the pov spent so much time angsting about her and him, and how she felt, and what she should do about it that my boredom was not very relieved. Frankly I just don't get why there was a problem with that at all: marriage never ate my brain, spoiled my life, or prevented me from writing books. Also, if he thinks you're good enough for him, believe him -- he's not stupid. Probably my least favorite of the entire series.

71: Lab Rat One by Andrea K Höst
72: Caszandra by Andrea K Höst
Books two and three of the Touchstone Series that started with Stray.
Fun! Supposedly science fiction, but only if you're not expecting any actual science. I was eye-rolling a bit over the narrator taking so long to identify the Anime-esque aspects of her experiences: I'd been going "Almost might be a manga" since the middle of book one.

73: Mystery Mile, by Margery Allingham
74: Fer-de-Lance, by Rex Stout
More classic detective stories.

75: No Size Fits All : From Mass Marketing to Mass Handselling by Tom Hayes
This book had lots of interesting things to say about why selling in an online world is different than selling previously. But I couldn't translate anything they said into actual practical advice. They explained that you needed to be subtle, you needed to become a member of a community, you needed to be aware that intangibles like trust were important. But then they pull out the term "mass hand-selling"! How? The need to become a member of each group you sell to limits your market. According to the books own claims, you can't maintain a "social relationtionship" with more than about 150 people. At one point they mentioned maybe paying bloggers and other people with a platform to promote for you, which kind of contradicts everything they said about "trust" also. So, er... some fascinating analysis and insights, but...

MANGA
Bakuman 16. I may stop here, I've stopped believing in the forward progress of the story, and feel like it's just treading water. Story stuff happens so that story stuff can be happening, so that they can keep selling it for forever. Well, maybe they can: but not to me.

All but four of these were ebooks checked out of the library, via my iPad and Overdrive. :)

76: Daring Deception, by Brenda Hiatt
It's a regency romance, that uses both the "sold in a game of cards" and the "disguises herself as a governes"s tropes. Not too bad, but I found my suspension of disbelief stretched a bit by the peacock.

77: My Lady Nightingale, by Evelyn Richardson
Another regency romance, this one about a French emigree who wanted to be a professional singer, only of course her artiso of a father disapproved. Oddly, even though my memory of this one is clearer, I can't remember liking it better than the previous one. Perhaps it was just more unusual so it stands out in my mind better? ::puzzled::

78: Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett
I liked this one. I've heard people saying it's not PTerry at his best, but I've always been a Moist fan.

79: A Turn of Light, by Julie E. Czerneda
I'm not sure what to say about this one. It's the author's first fantasy book, IIRC, she's a well established SF writer drawing on her biology background to create awesome aliens. Her fantasy story also has awesome aliens fantasy creatures. It felt very slow to me. I didn't get bored and want to put it down... but I had an impression that I'd been reading for a very long time for the amount of story I had got through.

80: The Red Box, by Rex Stout
A Nero Wolfe story that I somehow had never actually read before. :)
I never know what to say about books I like other than that I like them.

81: Too Many Cooks, by Rex Stout
This one was a re-read. Nero Wolfe out of his house! (Not that he's enjoying himself much.)

82: Perfect Couple, by Jennifer Echols
I didn't really enjoy this one much. One of those romance books that left me dubious that the author actually knew how to hold a relationship together.

83: I am Princess X, by Cherie Priest
Young adult adventure. With bits of webcomic embedded into it. I thought this was reasonably fun.

84: The Golden Spiders, by Rex Stout
85: Some Buried Caesar, by Rex Stout
More Nero Wolfe re-reads. One of which got Nero out of his house again! (And here Archie keeps saying it never happens.)

86: The Unknown Ajax, by Georgette Heyer
87: Black Sheep, by Georgette Heyer
Two books by a favorite author that I don't own so I haven't read in a while. All the time I was reading Black Sheep, I kept asking myself "are there really as many similarities as I think I remember between this book and Lady of Quality, or am I just getting the two books mixed up in my memory, somehow?"

I find the whole ebook library books thing is great for comfort reads, but I find it a bit awkward to discover new material that way. Just browsing an entire genre seems to give me too much material to choose from, and I feel overwhelmed, but in order to do a search, I need to know exactly what I'm looking for -- so how do I find anything new?

Yes, there are as many similarities as you think you remember between Black Sheep and Lady of Quality! But Black Sheep came first and is by far the stronger story. LoQ was Heyer's last book, written when she was tired and failing, and she basically copied the plot with new characters.

I loved A Turn of Light! Yes, it's not a book you can read quickly, but it felt like I was just immersing myself in sunshine, savoring the moments I spent in that world.

ETA ANd The Unknown Ajax is one of my top favorite Heyers.

I absolutely love Going Postal and Making Money, but Raising Steam felt so different. The original thought/rumor/whatever was that the third Moist book would involve the taxation system, which felt much more in keeping with the other books (vs something so mechanically based which isn't a basic govermental/city service/industry). For me it felt like Moist was just shoved in in order to have a main recurring character there. The last 12 Discworld books all involve recurring characters, so I wonder if there was any specific reason he stopped writing stand-alone books.

>39 ronincats: The Unknown Ajax is one of my top favorite Heyers.

Mine too. I'm supposed to own a copy, but it ended up with my sister, and since I am the one that ended up with our only copy of Devil's Cub, I didn't feel I had a right to complain. :)

>40 mabith: ::shrug:: I'd heard people complaining about it, but as I said, I liked it. Taxes might have been good, but I like trains. I'm not going to waste time fussing about what might have happened but didn't.

...I can't believe I really haven't read any books since August though. :(

Some years I think I would be willing to write September totally off the calendar, except that one of my sisters was born that month, and I wouldn't want to risk that not having happened.

At any rate, my mental where-with-it-ness degenerated to the point of watching tv taking precedence over books. Bleh!

And ever since I got my brain back, I've been busy. The current book that I'm writing is at ~120 000 words, and nearing conclusion, and for reasons known only to that demon who lurks in the back recesses of my brain, I am working on a newer fancier electronic paperdoll (pardon me, Avatar Builder!) for my website.

Oh, and I just posted a new tatting design to my website, because: Halloween!

...I've got too many Muses and they bully me.

I continue to plow my way through the Nero Wolfe Series via ebooks checked out of my library...

88: Black Orchids, by Rex Stout
89: Where There's a Will, by Rex Stout
90: Not Quite Dead Enough, by Rex Stout

...With occasional diversions in other directions, for example this non-fiction book I kept seeing pop up all over other people's lists...

91: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
I immediately told my youngest daughter that she wanted to read this one. Not so much for the introvert thingy -- like me she wobbles back and forth over that line -- but for the sections on "very sensitive/high reactive". That's her, and she really needed to hear that there was nothing wrong with her from someone other than her Mom.

92: Over My Dead Body, by Rex Stout
93: Trouble in Triplicate, by Rex Stout

My attempt to try a regency romance as my next break from Nero Wolfe ironically led me to another mystery:

94: In Milady's Chamber, by Sheri Cobb South
Regency mystery. Very young Bow Street Runner falls for a lady suspected of killing her husband. It was okay, although I figured out everything waaaayyyy before the detective. I checked out the second book in the series too...

95: A Dead Bore, by Sheri Cobb South
I didn't like this one quite as much as the first one. Also, once again I figured out a bunch of stuff long before the detective. I would have stuck around anyway just to see where the romance between the principals went, but the third book wasn't available at my library.

96: Too Many Women, by Rex Stout

97: Persuasion, by Jane Austen
I probably wouldn't have reread this one so soon, but my youngest daughter wanted something to listen to while knitting. That got me started, and I just don't seem to have the patience to listen to anything all the way through, so I ended up checking out the book for myself. This may be my favorite Austin next to Pride and Prejudice.

98: Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
The last time I read this I was in my teens and I didn't finish, because the older sister, (who was the only one I liked) did something (I can no longer remember exactly what) that made me annoyed with her. On re-reading I cannot pin down the precise thing that led me to put down the book before, but I suspect it had something to do with the heroine just sitting around and letting the fiance of the guy she liked verbally torment her.

99: The Captain and the Wallflower, by Lyn Stone
The heroine's constant complaints about the hero wanting to protect her annoyed me.

100: The Second Confession, by Rex Stout
I must have read this one before, because I remember the orchard room being destroyed. But the only thing I remembered is the orchard room being destroyed. ...I find it interesting what I do and don't remember on re-reading a book from twenty years or more ago.

101: Triple Jeopardy, A Nero Wolfe Threesome, by Rex Stout

102: Carousel of Hearts, by Mary Jo Putney
I really should have paid more attention to the title. All that swapping partners back and forth was not fun for me.

103: The League of Frightened Men, by Rex Stout

...I also have two books on jQuery checked out of the library, but I don't know that I've actually read enough of either of them to count them as "read". I've just been picking and choosing chapters, as seemed relevant. I need to remember to enter them into LibraryThing anyway, thought, so I'll know which books they were two years from now. Otherwise, I willl forget the titles and the authors and won't be able to tell one jQuery book from another from just the descriptions on the website.

And, I've passed 100!
:)

Congrats on hitting 100!

Woo hoo on hitting the 100 book mark!

For my Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice/Holiday image this year (we are so diverse!), I've chosen this photograph by local photographer Mark Lenoce of the pier at Pacific Beach to express my holiday wishes to you: Peace on Earth and Good Will toward All!