Max Reads "Whatever" in 2016

I have long been wanting to just have the time and freedom from pressure to just sit and read whatever I wanted, especially to sit down with all my books from an author, or lots of books on the same subject or theme, in a row, even if my series isn't complete, or to throw in newly acquired whatevers as they appear.

So, in honor of the year 2016 I have made 8 challenges: 4 are "whatevers" and 4 are for the CATs and Kits. (4 X 4 = 16) The ONLY goal I have set for myself is to read 192 books. Some categories may become more than filled than others; my goal is just the total. I think these categories should fit all circumstances...




The challenge of 192 books is not going to happen! WHAT was I thinking? I have started this crazy project... writing a mystery... Who Me? and have discovered that writing takes up 90% of the time I spent reading. I don't know what I will do... maybe give up sleep? I'm dumping my hope of doing the CATs - maybe next year.

ALPHAkit



I've listed what I hope to read and will add touchstones when they are done.

Jan: D & U - Death of a Lake - Arthur Upfield
Feb: J & B - Arthur and George - Julian Baines
Mar: L & Q - An Loyal Character Dancer - Xiaolong Qiu
Apr: V & H - Doomsday Vault - Steven Harper
May: O & P - Between Ourselves - Karen Payne
June: F & R - Book of Five Rings
July: K & A - Amethyst Box - Anna K Green
Aug: G & S - any Maigret book
Sept: C & M: ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
Oct: I & W: In the Wet - Nevil Shute
Nov: N & Y: New York Murders - Ellery Queen
Dec: T & E: Case of the Terrified Typist - Erle Stanley Gardner
Year long: X & Z: XYZ - Anne K. Green

I'll leave this up in case someone is looking for the name of a book that will fit.

GEOcat



January: South America - High Adventure by Donald Westlake

DEWEYcat



Intended Reads:

January: 000: Computer science, information & general works: computers, libraries, encyclopedias, journalism, museums and rare books - Sarajevo Daily (079) 3.0 stars

RANDOMcat



January: The Great Big Trenchcoat in the Sky by Marc Lovell - a book with no other listing on LT - 4.6 stars
February: Arthur & George - a book featuring a duo, also fits my AlphaCAT

"I'm for whatever gets you through the night" - Frank Sinatra



Mysteries and such will probably wind up here!
1. Death of a Lake by Arthur Upfield
2. High Adventure by Donald Westlake
3. The Spy Game by Marc Lovell
4. The Spy With His Head in the Clouds by Marc Lovell
5. Spy on the Run by Marc Lovell
6. How Green Was My Apple byMarc Lovell
7. Bryant & May and the Burning Man by Christopher Fowler
8. The Spy Who Got His Feet Wet by Marc Lovell
9. The Spy Who Barked in the Night by Marc Lovell
10. That Great Big Trenchcoat in the Sky by Marc Lovell
11. Good Spies Don't Grow on Trees by Marc Lovell
12. The Spy Who Fell Off the Back of the Bus by Marc Lovell
13. Snapshot by Linda Barnes
14. The Drifter by Nicholas Petrie
15. Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell
16. Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell
17. Hawkwood by James McGee
18. The Resurrectionist by James McGee
19. Lock 14 by Georges Simenon
20. Jimmy the Kid by Donald E. Westlake
21. Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay by Reed Farrel Coleman
22. An Obvious Fact by Craig Johnson
23. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
24. Revenge in a Cold River by Anne Perry
25. Four Complete Dr. Fell Mysteries by John Dickson Carr - read The Blind Barber
26. Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich
27. Pass the Gravy by A. A. Fair
28. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
29. The Terra Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri
30. The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri

"Only time (whatever that is) will tell." - Stephen Hawking



Seems like a likely place for science fiction type stuff.

"Listen, smile, agree and then do whatever the **** you were going to do." - Robert Downey, Jr.



All that other fiction will probably land here.

1. Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen
2. The Black Ice Score by Richard Stark
3. Blackmailers Don't Shoot by Raymond Chandler
4. Point Blank by Richard Stark
5. The Crossroads by John D. MacDonald
6. One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane
7. Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark
8. Emperor: The Gods of War by Conn Iggulden
9. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
10. No Shred of Evidence by Charles Todd
11. Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan
12. Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle
13. Bibliomysteries by Otto Penzler
14. The Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction by Maxim Jakubowski
15. Black Sheep, Run by Bart Spicer
16. The Body Came Back by Brett Halliday
17. The Late Lamented by Fedic Bown
18. They Never Say When by Pete Cheyney
19. The One That Got Away by Helen McCloy
20. Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
21. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Badley
22. Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman
23. The Hammett Hex by Victoria Abbott
24. Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
26. Say No More by Hank Phillippi Ryan
27. Rounding the Mark by Andrea Camilleri
28. Patience of a Spider by Andrea Camilleri
29. The Case of the Vagabond Virgin by Erle Stanley Gardner
30. The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth

"My job is to tell it like it is, or whatever." - Alan-a-dale (1973 movie: Robin Hood)



A good place for non-fiction.

1. Sarajevo Daily by Tom Gjelten
2. This Moment is Full of Wonders by Thich Nhat Hanh
3. Harry Potter and the Classical World by Richard A. Spencer
4. A Good Month for Murder by Del Quentin Wilber
5. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
6. Your First Novel by Ann Rittenberg
7. How to Write a Mystery by Larry Beinhart
8. Writing Mysteries by Sue Grafton
9. Rain : A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett
10. Pulp Icons by Jeffery Marks
11. Hidden Figures by Marrgot Lee Shetterly
12. Rogue Heroes by Ben MacIntyre

Bingo
There were four items which I knew I wouldn't fill since this is my year to read "whatever", so I have borrowed items from the Woman's Bingo Card.

1. Less than 200 pages: That Great Big Trench-coat in the Sky by Marc Lovell
2. Senior citizen as the protagonist: Bryant & May and the Burning Man by Christopher Fowler
3. Survival story:
4. About an airplane flight: Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler
5. About a female ruler:
6. About a female critter:
7. Author born in 1916:
8. 1920s - 1930s detective fiction: Four Dr. Fell Mysteries by John Dickson Carr
9. Adventure:
10 One word title: Snapshot
11 Title has a musical reference:
12 Title Uses Wordplay: {Birds in Fall
13 Read a CAT:
14 A body of water in the title: Death of a Lake by Arthur Upfield
15 About or by an indigenous person:
16 Food is important: Pass the Gravy by A. A. Fair
17 Published before you were born:
18 Features a theater:
19 Debut book:
20 In translation: Lock 14 by Georges Simenon
21 Focus on art: Chasing Cezanne by Pete Mayle
22 Coming of age:
23 Women in combat:
24 Self-Published: Pulp Icons by Jeffrey Marks
25You want the protagonist's job or hobby:

Wow... 192 books is an awesome goal to aim for, considering I think it is a good year when I am able to read 100 books. ;-)

I like the flexibility you have given yourself and I love the GeoCAT picture!

I'm sure you will have another great reading year. I'll be following along.

Wow, 192 books. I'd never manage that one. Please keep us posted on how you're doing.

>12 lkernagh: and >14 TheGingerDetective: It will force me to not lolly-gag about like I have this past month. It is actually 8 books over my past four year average, so it is a challenge. But I think having more flex with what I read will make it easier. I read the most when I can get into a series or group of books that I really want to read... and a lot of those pulp fiction books are gone in an evening...lol.

Great setup! Sounds like it will give you a lot of leeway to enjoy those series binges! Looking forward to hearing about all that pulp fiction too :)

I'm going with an open plan too, because I want to get to more series and not feel guilty about it. Good luck with yours!

Some wonderful quotes here! I'll be curious to see where your reading will take you.

I'm doing a more open plan as well in 2016. I hope you have fun with it!

Great idea for a challenge! And I'll be expecting a book bullet or two!

Nice! A whatever challenge is always nice!

Nice setup! Looks like you are on your way to a fun 2016 reading year.

I can't believe you used a quote from Robin Hood! I just rewatched that movie recently and still loved it. It was a favorite of my brother and mine when growing up.

Good luck with your whatever challenge.

>23 LittleTaiko: Robin Hood and The Jungle Book are my two favorite Disney movies.

Great setup and quotes! That will be a fun reading year. :)

Nice setup. Freedom to pick whatever is always nice.

>24 mysterymax:, I just read somewhere that they are making a new version of The Jungle Book movie.

>26 Roro8:. How can you mess with perfection?

Great setup. I generally read over 200 books in a year, though many are children's, YA and graphic novels which makes it doable. Good luck with hitting your total.

I like your casual approach to your challenge! I think (I hope) I did the same thing; I just based my categories on things I do actually read so, hopefully, I am not making it too hard on myself!

>30 thornton37814: I've had such a difficult time coming up with a "theme" for 2016 that I think I'm just going to do categories that tell what is included unless I'm inspired in the next few days.

>30 thornton37814: One of the problems I kept having was that a book could often fit it more than one group. I seriously considered doing just fiction and non-fiction, figuring that would be pretty clear cut.

My biggest challenge isn't in reading outside my normal pattern, instead it is to get the books on my shelves read. It's a losing battle since I keep bringing more home... our library offsite booksale closed for the winter and had a blow out sale. There weren''t a lot that I hadn't read, had at home, or wasn't interesred in but for $1.50 I got four hardcovers and two pAperbacks. One of the hardcovers was to replace a paperback I had, but nevertheless there are five more books to read. I don't know if I can live long enough to read them all!

>30 thornton37814: that's exactly what I have done. I looked at all my TBRs and worked out 11 categories that pretty much covered them all (plenty of them straddled more than one category, but that's OK). So I am going to aim for a minimum of 1 book read from each category plus one for luck (hopefully I will manage much more than that, but 12 is certainly do-able!).

Wow! Impressed with categories and number of books you are going to read!

>33 Tess_W: Lots of them are fairly quick reads...not a lot of 500 page ones in there, lol.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I think we all count LT as one of the things we are thankful for, that and the freedom to read whatever we want.

The challenge of 192 books is not going to happen! WHAT was I thinking? I have started this crazy project... writing a mystery... Who Me? and have discovered that writing takes up 90% of the time I spent reading. I don't know what I will do... maybe give up sleep? I am determined to finish the Mark Hodder book I am now in plus my ER book in December, but it will be pushing it.

We'll allow you to drop to a more manageable number or to splurge to reach your goal by choosing picture books.

Writing a book?? How dare you! ;-)
As far as I'm concerned there aren't many better excuses for not reading than this so write away!

>37 thornton37814: & >38 mamzel: Thanks to both of you! We'll see what happens. At least I will have something to do if writer's block hits.. when, I mean.

I like your whatever quotes and accompanying photos. Good luck with writing your book and getting in what reading you can!

>36 mysterymax: Good luck with your book. I hope we'll soon be seeing rave reviews here!

Writing a book sounds like an awesome way to spend time! And really, the time spent rereading drafts should count as reading for the challenge ;)

>42 rabbitprincess: Good idea! And thanks for the card that came in the mail... and no sparkles... how did you do that?

>43 mysterymax: Not sure how that happened! That batch of cards must have eluded the Glitter Police. I found them at Hallmark.

>44 rabbitprincess: Very funny!

Good luck with your book. And hope there's no writer's block.

Good luck with your book! Maybe every page you write can count as a book.

>36 mysterymax:
How exciting! Good luck with the writing!

Writing sounds way more exciting and ambitious than reading! Good luck.

>36 mysterymax: - Ooooohhhhh, you are writing as book?! How exciting! Good Luck!

Oops... Double post. Stupid browser. :(

Good luck this year! And it's nice to see a fellow Arthur Upfield fan. I'm very slowly working my way through the Boney series.

Book One of the New Year was Sarajevo Daily. Informative, especially since my hubby had spent six months there with NATO, but it was written with all the flair of a newspaper article. (By which I mean, info but no flair). 3 Stars. This was one for the DeweyCAT, its number being 079.

Book Two - A great start on my binge reading. To fulfill the RandomCAT I chose That Great Big Trench-coat in the Sky. I have read most of the Appleton Porter series, but this one fit the RandomCat as I seem to be the only one with the book in their library. Now I am going to reread the whole series.

The Appleton Porter series is what I call 'cozy spy'. The books are fun and Appleton is a wonderful guy. In this one he joins Blushers Anon. and has to paint Ethel (his London cab that has been used by the Department for many years) black in order to disguise her. Appleton had previously given her a more cheery look.

I know the books can be hard to find, as I found while trying to complete my collection, but they are fun reads.

Book Three - Starting over with the Appleton Porter series, I have read The Spy Game at least three times now. I think I have always just given them all 4 stars, but this time I am not going to rate them until I have finished. That way I can try to judge the subtle differences. I did rate the first one read, which was actually number 11 in the series a 4.6, so when I do the rating of the series I will use that as a bench mark.

In this first adventure you meet Appleton and his Control, Angus Watkin. Appleton is sent on a "fools-rush" in a case involving twins, Russians, and mind readers. It's a book to make you fall in love with dear Appleton, who introduced me to lemon marmalade on toast with tea.

Book Four - Continuing the Appleton Porter series, The Spy With His Head in the Clouds, Appleton gets sent on an actual mission. He has to find a Russian scientist who has invented a truth serum and who is working in a circus.

Book Five - The next Appleton Porter, Spy on the Run has Apple running in a race in Paris in order to meet a Russian informant. Of course there is a girl involved, this time a pretty CIA operative. And his boss Angus is there of course.

I have to admit I have never heard of this series. I'm glad you are enjoying them!

Your Appleton Porter-athon sounds most satisfying! :)

>58 mamzel: I don't think many have, as the number of people on LT that have his books ranges between 1 and less than ten. Well worth requesting from interlibrary loan. Appleton is just a sweet guy who loves being a spy. He usually gets sent on 'Fools Rush' jobs... where the spy is so inept that the other side thinks he can't possibly be a spy. The bane of his life is that he is too tall, 6'7", to blend into the crowd. Also, he blushes, he's frightfully sentimental, falls for girls at the drop of a lace hankie, loves tea with toast and lemon marmalade, eventually buys Ethel - a retired London cab that the Service has used for many years - when she is to be retired. He also gets a dog on one of this adventures, simply because the guard dog likes him and follows him everywhere. = all in all, they are 'cozy spy'.

Just finished Apple Spy in the Sky. Here Appleton is once again, misused by his control, in that he is told one thing but Angus is using him in a totally different way. He is supposedly sent to Ibiza to find out what has happened to a missing spy. This is the book where he gets his dog, whom he names Monico. Not only does the dog like Appleton, he bites Angus, thereby earning himself a home.

Taking a BB on this series. Will need to check the local libraries.

>61 dudes22: Excellent!

>60 mysterymax: - they are 'cozy spy'.

Joining Betty in taking a BB on that series.

And I'll take one too!

I'm going to have to add this to my wishlist. Definitely not a series I'm familiar with but it sounds fun.

>63 lkernagh: >64 LisaMorr: >65 LittleTaiko: I am thrilled to be widening Appleton's fan base. I least I hope I am. I've always been sad that it is so unknown. Here's hoping you can find them, and that you enjoy them. Apple introduced me to lemon marmalade, bless his soul.

Apple to the Core (interesting, first touchstone brings up Treasure Island instead of a book with the exact title). Here Apple buys Ethel. He's also given a mission by his Control. To kidnap one of four octogenarians from the Russian Rural Quartet, causing Russia to lose face. Of course, Watkins is using Apple for his own purpose, this book is delightful in that at the end, it's Apple who triumphs.

How Green Was My Apple has Apple trying to ransom Ethel who has been 'carnapped' and held from ransom. He's also been teamed with a tall, beautiful girl named Kate to follow a Russian spy... all part of one of Watkins' clever plots.

Taking a break from Apple to read a couple of CATs and one of my ER books... then I'll go back to him. Had lemon marmalade on my scone this morning.

>69 mysterymax: Scones and marmalade! I'll be right over ;)

We really should plan a US gathering!

>71 mysterymax: We really should. I'd love to finally meet all of you guys!

Me too! Me too! I'll make some scones.

>70 rabbitprincess: They were the best scones I have ever had, made by a friend.

Must thank YOU for the Arthur Upfield book you gave me at our get-together. Just finished it! Death of a Lake Excellent as are all the Napoleon Bonaparte books. The mystery was good, and Bony was his usual self. What was amazing was that this centered around the drying up of a lake, due to a tremendous heat wave and drought. Temperatures were 115 - at night - and yet the men kept working. Because of the drought animals come in droves to the lake to drink at night. I can't conceive of Australia having so many, but thousands of rabbits come every night. The birds also. All in all a great Bony story. Thank you so much for the addition to my collection.

High Adventure by Donald Westlake finished off my reading for Jan. It also meant I got the three cats read.

Bryant and May and the Burning Man was for a spot in the BingoCAT. Parts are brilliant, parts are boring.

I have some Bryant and May books in my TBR. (I think my original BB was from you.) we've missed you here. How's the book coming?

>77 dudes22: Glad to know I've been missed! Thank you. Yes, the book is to blame. I really don't know how writers do it. I see them blogging, reading, attending events - and I assume they occasionally do the dishes and the laundry.

I just took a mammoth bag downstairs to the laundry because I had not one stitch of clean underwear, lol. Dishes... can't put the dirty ones in the dishwasher because I haven't gone the clean ones out yet!

The house hasn't been touched. The floors are there somewhere, I think.

But the BOOK! I think there are three or four more scenes to do and then the FIRST DRAFT, so called, because I have been editing as I go as well, will be done. I am really amazed that I have done this. I never ever in my whole life thought of writing a book.

I also found some things out. I read one time that Alan Bradley said that he never meant to write about Flavia, but she stepped onto the page and took over. I thought, humbug, you're the writer. The characters will do what you have them do. Right? Wrong! I had the sequence of events sort of outlined, and I knew that this one character had to be in London, in order to get some information for the detective, and he would call her with the info in two days time. So I was quite amazed when I was typing his dialogue in an early scene to find him saying, 'right now I am sitting in the Air Canada lounge at Heathrow. I'll be in Ottawa at 2:55!'
I said, what did you say, I don't think so bud. But he was determined, later he had to take part in a scene in Ottawa and I realized why he had to come. Your characters seem to know more about what's going on than you do. VERY WEIRD.

Yay, your character is coming to Ottawa! Will he stop in at Book Bazaar? ;)

It's a she, and who knows? She's been busy solving some murders... one on her doorstep, so to speak, but she and one of her friends are scones addicts.

Excellent! I identify with this character already.

How exciting that you're almost done with your book! That's a great achievement!

>82 paruline: I think done is a relative word! lol. I'll have to have some readers, make changes, and all that, but at least I won't be sitting here for hours on end, I hope anyway.

I actually had to go get the kitchen timer and put it by the desk so that every hour I would remember to get home, walk around and stuff.

And I am so far behind on my reading. I tried to read before I go to sleep but I'm only getting about a page a night, bummer.

How absolutely wonderful that you're almost finished with the first draft! Way to go!

Whoot for your book! How exciting that you are getting so close to completing your first draft!

>78 mysterymax:
That's excellent news - congrats on the progress!! The floors will be there to clean whenever you get around to them, no rush :)

Thanks for the support everyone! I don't feel so lonely, now.

By reading just about one page a night I finally completed The Only Good Apple in a Barrel of Spies Enjoyable, but not my favorite in the series, but that could be because I was so tired every time I started to read it.

But the good news is that after burning the 2am oil I finally typed THE END at the bottom of my first draft. Advice is that you walk away from it so that when you go back you can read it with fresh eyes, so I am going to spend a few days binge reading! I have one article to write for the Sherlockian quarterly but then I am going to read, read, read.

Yay! Binge reading! And congrats on putting a THE END on your first draft!!

That's great - you've finished your book!

Woo hoo!!

Happy binge reading! You've earned the break.

Congrats on "finishing" your book! Enjoy the well-deserved binge reading. :)

Thanks everyone! The binge reading didn't come to pass. Now the rewrites begin. I never knew how much trouble writing was!

Have finished The Spy Who Got His Feet Wet, Four more Appleton Porter books to go.

Yesterday, the temp dropped 30 degrees during the day and now we have ice under an inch of snow. A really bad flu combined with bronchial pneumonia is going around our town so I am staying indoors! Company for dinner tomorrow so I am going to stay away from the manuscript and clean house. Hope to check in here once in a while when I need a rest.

Congratulations on finishing the first draft! A dinner party should change your focus and leave you ready for the rewrites.

>95 VivienneR: Thanks. Rewrites are the hard part!

Finished The Spy Who Barked in the Night. Still trying to read through the Appleton Porter series. This one took a long time because I lost it! I was so tired when I was reading it and I was in bed and for some reason instead of putting it beside the bed, I tucked it under the mattress. Don't ask why, I don't know. Anyway I searched for days for it. Thought I'd lost my mind. I knew it had to be some place stupid. I have on the rare occasion put non-food items in the fridge, so who knows, right. Anyway, it was a good one. Monico, his dog, takes part. And Appleton gets to be Number One on a real case.

Another Porter done. Good Spies Don't Grow on Trees Apple once again gets to be Number One (head agent on a case) and manages to outwit both the KGB and Angus, his control.

Also an ER book done: Harry Potter and the Classical World. It is a book for people more interested in the Greek and Roman classics than in Harry Potter. Read like a thesis. I'm donating it to the library.

>97 mysterymax: I'm sure I have one friend who is a nerdy enough H.P. fan to want to read that one.

>98 thornton37814: I wish I had checked back during the day, but this is the first time I have logged on. I already took the book to the library as a donation, otherwise I would have happily packed it up and sent it to you. So very sorry

The Spy Who Fell Off the Back of the Bus is one of my favorite Porter books because not only does Porter get to be Agent One again, he is sent by his Control, Angus Watkin, to obtain a manuscript that is most vital to the British citizens and their morale: a manuscript supposedly written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle maligning his supposed hero, Sherlock Holmes. It's wonderful.

Library Book Sale today! 17 books for $12Among others - 2 Maigret, a Ngaio Marsh, an Estleman, a Kurt Wallander, a Asa Larsson and Japanese mystery by Fuminori Makamura - never read him but it looked interesting. Library book sales are the best bargain in the world!

>101 mysterymax: Woo Hoo!!! Sounds like a great haul!

>101 mysterymax: - I LOOOOVE library sales! Can't wait til they start the spring ones around here.

>101 mysterymax:
I've been keeping away from library sales, but I'm getting a real hankering. They're addictive!!

Our library decided to hold the sale at this time of year so we weren't in competition with all the other libraries in the area. This is the second year and it seems to be working.

Only one more Appleton Porter book to go, just finished Ethel and the Naked Spy. As you can guess Appleton is slipped a mickey and when we wakes Ethel - and all his clothes are gone, He's stark naked, in a field. (Ethel is his old English taxi) For once he is grateful for his tendency to blush as it is keeping him warm.

Several books done:
A Good Month For Murder - my ER book, a non-fiction book about one month in a homicide squad in a Washington DC suburb. Very well written, holds your interest, highly recommend.
Snapshot a Carlotta Carlyle mystery. She's one of my favorite characters.
Man's Search for Meaning read because a good friend wanted to discuss it.
Your First Novel Written by an agent, excellent help.
Writing Mysteries Edited by Sue Grafton, each topic is handled by a different writer. Good for getting various viewpoints.
How to Write a Mystery Also a good resource.

The book has gone off to be read by a mystery author. So I pace the floor and chew my nails! Hopefully I won't have to re-write the whole thing.

Have also been busy. I have a photography exhibit in a local gallery coming up in a month, so I have been busy with publicity, framing, etc. Keeping my fingers crossed that I sell some. It's all photographs from the Nova Scotia trip.

So that's why I haven't been around. I see that some people have 200 unread messages. I don't know if I can catch up!

>106 mysterymax: Good luck with the photography exhibition! Glad to hear you've also got an author looking over your book. Hope the feedback is constructive!

PS I also have a mystery-writing book, You Can Write a Mystery, by Gillian Roberts. Or I did last time I checked. If it's still at my parents' place, do you want it?

My fingers are crossed for you too. And the posts will all wait patiently for you to return.

God luck with your photography exhibition! How exciting!

Good luck with the exhibition! Photography exhibitions a re fantastic, I love to walk around and look at beautiful/interesting pictures. And I love to take pictures myself, but mine are not ending up on exhibitions (only on Flickr).

Good luck!! Keeping fingers and toes Xed things go well.

I finally managed to carve out some time for LT. Thank you all for your good wishes. I am hoping that something sells as I just got the bill for framing. Good grief!

>107 rabbitprincess: I'd appreciate the book, keep it for when I come up this summer! Do we have a place yet?

Managed to read one more book, this year is going to be a record "low" for me when it comes to books read.

Read The Drifter by Nicholas Petrie. Normally I would say it was a 'couldn't put down book, but sometimes I could only get a page and a half done before I fell asleep. The book was excellent, exciting. Good plots, wonderfully drawn characters, esp. returning Marine Peter Ash. While it was basically a thriller, with a suitcase full of money and some explosives it dealt with PTSD in a very real and understanding way. And it forms a vital part of the story as it is what makes Ash do things the way he does. Highly recommend.

>112 mysterymax: How about this place? It just opened this year. http://www.thevanitearoom.com/dining-2/

The website seems to be down right now, I'll try again tomorrow. Looking forward to my time up there.

Finished Murder as a Fine Art. It's an excellent historical mystery. Glad it is first in a series and the characters are ones you want to follow.

Three more historical ones, as I have a column due in a couple of weeks and I was thinking of historical mysteries...Inspector of the Dead a follow up to the one above, Hawkwood, and The Resurrectionist both by James McGee. I now have to do an ER book

You're a columnist as well as an author? Awesome! :)

I do a column in a Sherlockian quarterly. And I still haven't gotten my article done - good reminder.

Two books done so I can start on the column (I must be procrastinating).
Rain by Cynthia Barnett = interesting, but too many examples in places and I just had to skip large portions
Lock 14 by Georges Simenon - Maigret is out of Paris. Not my favorite.

Have finished:
Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen. Touchstone not working, brings up The Hunger Games. Gave it a 3.5.
Jimmy the Kid by Donald Westlake. A Dortmunder story, which I always enjoy.
And I am almost finished my ER book The Scam by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg.

Lots of things seem to be not working on the site today.
Finished three stories in Blackmailers Don't Shoot and started in on my pile of pulp fiction acquisitions with The Black Ice Score,

Point Blank was the first in the Parker series by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake). He was more violent in this one that in the Black Ice one.

I've had the Parker series on my wishlist for some time, must make a point of picking up the first one.

>123 DeltaQueen50: I have a couple more on the shelf, too.

Just finished The Crossroads by John D. MacDonald.

Found I like Mickey Spillane more than John D MacDonald. According to my other half that is heresy... what can I say. Just finished One Lonely Night. Mike Hammer is so much better in the books that he was on TV. (Not a big surprise of course.)

LOL. I've only read one Spillane and no MacDonald, so I guess you'd have to say that, at this moment, I prefer Spillane to MacDonald too.

I haven't read any Spillane but I do have a couple of his on my shelf. I did really like the one John D MacDonald that I read, so now I am looking forward to trying Spillane!

I am so far behind on my reading, more Spillane for sure this year...goodness knows when! Just finished Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark, who is really Donald Westlake. Another heist tale, but not a Parker book. A high body count.

I finished the Conn Iggulden series Emperor with Emperor: The Gods of War. I loved the series. Iggulden writes in an easy flowing way and the books move quickly. The Emperor series is about Caesar. His next that I'll try is about Genghis Khan.

>129 mysterymax: I want to try his Wars of the Roses series!

Looks like you guys had a great time at your "summit". Those desserts looked yummy!

>131 dudes22: It was nice to see both of them again. They give me a great sense of energy!

It was great to see you too! It is so good to get together with both of you and talk books in the way only LTers can :) Hope you had a good trip home and that you weren't caught in the huge downpours we had on Saturday! (And we're getting more of them tomorrow...)

>133 rabbitprincess: It rained the entire trip, plus when we got home it was to a huge thunder and lightning storm.

I had to go on a binge reading session for an article I needed to write. The best ones were:
A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny - I'd rank it right up there with How The Light Gets In} as one of my favorites in the Gamache series.
Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan - a book about Dr Watson. He leaves Sherlock in England and goes to serve as a doctor in WWI. Excellent.
and Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle

I'm not going to write more as the r key is sticking and every time I hit it it takes me four and five times to get it.
Hope everyone is having a good September.

>135 mysterymax: I need to get caught up on the series before I read that one. I've got the next one checked out, but it will probably be a couple of weeks before I get around to reading it.

>135 mysterymax: I really didn't enjoy the 'retired Gamache', but this one was really good.

Just finished The One That Got Away by Helen McCloy. This was one of those sweet Dell paperbacks with a map on the back cover. Love those. It's part of the Dr. Basil Willing series, the first one I have read, but I will look for more. Here he is searching for an escaped German soldier on the moors of Scotland and becomes involved with a family and their troubled teenage boy who continually tries to run away.

The new Longmire book will arrive soon - oh happy day.

I'm considering a binge read of Longmire next year to get mostly caught up.

>137 mysterymax: Still uncertain whether to read about "retired Gamache". Maybe I'll just skip The Long Way Home and go straight into the next book.

>139 rabbitprincess: Well some people liked it, but I didn't. I was worried that for me it would be the end of a series I loved, but this one is very good. The only think you'll miss if you skip The Long Way Home is the update on the Three Pines characters as something major does happen to one of them.

>138 dudes22: I binge everything Longmire - a least once a year.

Finished two more:
The One That Got Away by Helen McCloy which was a tale in Scotland just after WWII. Basil Willing is searching for an escaped German soldier and gets involved with a family with a runaway lad. Very good.

Mycroft Holmes was okay. I couldn't see the young man in the story becoming Doyle's Mycrroft, so I felt a bit letdown.

>135 mysterymax: - Agreed that this was one of the best. This next step in the series made sense to me and gave everything a better balance.

Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay was a Jesse Stone entry. I prefer Brandman's Jesse to Coleman's but it was still enjoyable.

An Obvious Fact is the new Longmire by Craig Johnson. I love this series.

I'm thinking of a binge read of Johnson to catch me up (sort-of) next year.

>144 dudes22: What an enjoyable goal!

Hidden Figures by Shetterly is a story of Afrrican-Amerrican women, who during WWII were hired as "computers" - mathematicians working at Langley and follows them and their work through the space flights. It was a great read and painted the broad context of their lives - war, peace, the Cold War, segregation, women's rights, history of flight all in very readable prose. Enjoyed it immensely.

>145 mysterymax: Very glad to hear that Hidden Figures is good! I have it on request from the library. :)

Also thinking of going to Bouchercon next year, since it's in Toronto...!

>145 mysterymax: What a coincidence, I read about this just this morning in my newsfeed. Great review!

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Allen Bradley is the newest episode with Flavia de Luce. It was good to have her home again, but this one didn't resonate with me the way most have.

>148 mysterymax: Someone else didn't like that one as well as others. I'm playing catch-up on Flavia at the moment. I'm listening to an earlier installment.

Finished Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman. Hadn't intended to read it next, but it was sitting on the table and I picked it up to see what it was like and wound up reading the whole book. A retired Jewish policeman in Memphis, who is now in his 80s gets roped into an investigation. Entertaining.

>150 mysterymax: - well, that sounds like fun. Definitely adding it to my wishlist.

>151 LittleTaiko: I should mention that our senior citizen uses very colourful language!

The Hammett Hex by Victoria Abbott didn't measure up to the others in this cozy series, in my opinion. Seemed less book related, also a change of local. Good, I'll keep going with the series.

>153 mysterymax: I did notice the change of locale in this one (from the back cover). I expect to receive it for Christmas from a friend who has dibs on giving me new installments in that series ;)

>153 mysterymax: Sorry that one didn't work for you.

Just back from Crime Bake. It was so good. Learned a lot, Meet amazing writers. Loved it.

Catching up:
Revenge in a Cold River by Anne Perry - great Anne Perry Monk novel, as always
Four Dr. Fell Mysteries by John Dickson Carr - loved his writing
Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler - didn't work for me

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - fantastic book, all the reviews say everything I could say, but better. This is an amazing book, a story told by Death. A 5 star book in my library.

>157 mysterymax:
He really gave Death a great voice!

I love that Roger Allam played Death in the movie :D

Started in to read all the Andrea Camilleri books I have and have managed to finish three:
The Shape of Water, The Terra-Cotta Dog, and The Snack Thief also read Pass the Gravy by A. A. Fair, which is the pen name (his favorite apparently) of Erle Stanley Gardner. Very good.

We missed you. Any news about your book?

Glad you liked the A.A. Fair! :)

>160 mysterymax: I'm midway through the Inspector Montalbano series myself and enjoying them very much.

Merry Christmas to you Max:

>161 dudes22:, >162 rabbitprincess:, >163 mathgirl40: Merry Christmas and I Happy New Year to you all!

The Montalbano series is going well. Have just finished Patience of the Spider. The part in Rounding the Mark, where he hauls the dead body in from the ocean and then sees the nude picture of himself on TV with the caption "Insp. Montalbano saving a dead body" had me in stitches. To have happened to him was just beyond funny.

I am still trying to go the traditional publisher route rather than self-publishing. Right now three agents have the complete manuscript and two others have the first three chapters. So, I still don't have an agent. I do have a web-site up for the character at www.bakersomerset.com. Feel free to take a look. I am working on the next book, but my mind is still on bringing the first one to life and so I find it hard to concentrate.

I do like the A. A. Fair books.

The year has had lots of highs - birth of a great-grandson in PEI, finishing the book, having my photographs on exhibit and three exhibits lined up so far for 2017, and the Cubs won the world series; but a couple of lows as well - great-grandson had a couple of heart problems, but seems to be doing just fine, my car battery and our furnace both went dead during the coldest week we had, Trump won the election, and a person I spent a Friday evening with at a Sherlock Holmes gathering, disappeared on Saturday. Her body was found on Thursday. She was a young girl from Palestine. That kind of put a damper on the holidays. All the bad stuff happened in the last two months so its been a down time. I am trying to focus on the highs.

I am going to try to get one more book read for the year. (2 actually as I didn't get The Shepherd by Forsyth read on Christmas Day, but it is really small.

LT and the people on it remain a highlight in my life.

After I get my reading down I'll try to do a year-end LT review.

Have also finished:
Rounding the Mark by Andrea Camilleri and Patience of the Spider by Cammilleri.

>165 mysterymax: I'm so sorry to hear about your Sherlock Holmes friend.

Wishing you and your family all the best for 2017 (and hoping you get an agent!).

Your highs were definitely something to celebrate. My mother would say we have to pay for them. But the disappearance and death of your friend is tragic indeed.

Just a few days ago I was telling someone what a good year I had. A short time later I slipped on ice, bounced my head on the concrete and was concussed. I hope that's all I have to "pay".

I hope you get to The Shepherd, it is one of my favourite books.

Best wishes for the success of your book and for 2017.

Wishing you lots of highs in 2017 and a minimal number of lows. And hopefully we can continue our traditional annual meet-up/face-stuffing-with-delicious-food!

>169 paruline: Seconded! I'll start scouting venues ;)

>168 VivienneR: I did get to The Shepherd. I try to read it every Christmas. One of my favourite books as well.

Also did a Perry Mason, The Case of the Vagabond Virgin. Perry is so much better on page than on tv! So that brings

2016 In Review
Working on the computer tired my eyes and since I spent a lot of the year writing, by the time I could read I was too tired and as a result I read less than half my normal amount - and did not complete my challenge.

Books Read - 72
Books Added - 92 (oh dear)

Binge Reading - Read the entire Marc Lovell spy series (14 books) and 5 Camilleri books

Best Reads:
Most Enjoyed - The Drifter by Nicholas Petrie
Best Non-fiction - Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Best Historical - Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan
Best Pulp - The Body Came Back by Brett Halliday
Best Book in a Series - The Spy Who Fell Off the Back of the Bus by Marc Lovell

Biggest Disappointments
Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler
Harry Potter and the Classical World by Richard A. Spencer
This Moment is Full of Wonders by Thich Nhat Hanh

>161 dudes22: Following your example ~ from books I read this year

Describe yourself: Patience of a Spider

Describe how you feel: Don't Ever Get Old

Describe where you currently live: The Crossroads

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Lock 14

Your favorite form of transportation: Turbo Twenty-Three

Your best friend is: The Spy Who Fell Off the Back of the Bus

You and your friends are: Playing with Fire

What’s the weather like: Rain

You fear: One Lonely Night

What is the best advice you have to give: Say No More

Thought for the day: Blackmailers Don't Shoot

How I would like to die: Chasing Cezanne

My soul’s present condition: This Moment is Full of Wonders

Last Year I had this year's challenge all planned out. Here it is Jan 1st and I haven't thought of a theme yet. I'd better get in gear.

Great answers! The soul one is magical :)

>176 rabbitprincess: Yes, the title is, but unfortunately the book was lovely but not very deep. Not all that I had hoped for.

Great meme answers!