Proposed December Reads from Favorite Authors- Go!

Proposed December Reads

UPDATE:December has come and gone and I read only two and a half books of the ones pictured above. The two I finished were Tides of Fire by James Rollins and Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. The half was Starter Villain by John Scalzi!

So yesterday I wrote that I would like to read four to five more books before the end of 2023. The above picture shows the five books I currently have check out of the library. These are my proposed reads for December. The order in which I am going to read them is bottom to top. I have read books written by all of the authors. So let’s take and look at the books and authors for these Dcember Reads! read more

The EK’s Life Safari’s 2019 Reading Challenge

The EK’s Life Safari’s 2019 Reading Challenge

So since we are now into month two of 2019, I think it is time to final commit to my 2019 Reading Challenge. I have written earlier that my overall goal is to read 72 books in 2019. That’s seven books over my 2018 Challenge Goal. And  while I thought that goal of 65 books was unreachable I made it.So this ea I thought I’d  added some more!

Though the years I have read mostly mysteries and thrillers. Occasionally I read history and political books. and maybe even a few self-help books. A four years ago when I started creating my Reading Challenges my goal was to expand the genres of the books I read. I created challenges to read more science fiction, more general fiction  as well as a variety of non-fiction books. read more

An Update on the Books Read in May 2018.

So my last post was written and posted on May 26th. Since then I have started to write several posts. Then I get distracted, do something else and they never get posted! Maybe I can catch up by writing two posts. The first will be about the books I read in May and the second about my May runs.

I read five book in May. That brought the total number of books that I have read in 2018 to 26. My 2018 Reading Challenge goal is 65 books so I’m on pace to reach my goal.

My May Reads

The five books I read in May are: =&0=&by John Hart =&1=& C.J.Box =&2=& Louise Erdrich =&3=& – Gregg Hurwitz =&4=& – Stefan Ahnhem I didn’t do a lot of world traveling this month. =&4=&, which is set in Denmark and Sweden, is the only book that is set outside of the United States. Within the US, I traveled to North Carolina in The    Hush, Wyoming in The Disappeared, =&6=&is set in Minnesota. While =&3=& is mostly Set in California Evan Smoak does make a side trip to Alabama. Four of the five books are  books in a series that I currently read. They are:
The Disappeared - C J Box
The Disappeared – C.J. Box
=&10=& is book 18 in Box’s Joe Pickett series. And I do believe that I have read every one except one!  The series shows no signs of slowing down!  In this installment Joe is asked by the new governor to help on a case out of  Joe’s district. A wealthy English woman has vanished after leaving an exclusive ranch. A ranch where Joe’s oldest daughter Sheridan works. In addition there is a side story about two shady characters dropping off things to be burned in a lumber mills incinerator. Is that where the English lady ended up??
Hell Bent Gregg HurwitzHellbent – Gregg Hurwitz
=&3=& is book # 3 in the Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz. Evan Smoak is the Nowhere Man.  Before that he was a trained killer  working for a secret government agency. The agency took Orphan children, like Evan, and trained them from a young age to be elite killers. After many years as a killing machine Evan left and  became The Nowhere Man a man who helps people when they have nowhere else to turn.  Now someone wants to wipe out everybody associated with the Orphan Project particularly Orphan X. They attempt to get to Evan  through the man who trained him Jack Johns. The man who was the  only father Evan knew and Jack ends up dead. The hunted (Evan) becomes the hunter. And the question becomes who will survive!  
The Ninth Grave - Stephan AhnhemThe Ninth Grave – Stefan Ahnhem
=&14=&is the second book from Ahnhem featuring Swedish Detective Fabian Risk. However, the book is actually a prequel to =&15=& It chronicles the case  that lead Fisk to leave Stockholm and return to his hometown. In that case Fabian and his fellow officers were chasing a sadistic killer who not only kills their victims but removes their organs?  A fast paced page turner for me and I can’t wait for the next book! =&16=&
The Hush – John Hart
=&17=& is the second book written=&18=&by John Hart featuring Johnny Merrimon. The first was =&19=&So while The Hush is technically a sequel it just doesn’t feel like a series. At least not like the other series books. =&17=& picks up Johnny  ten years after the actions in =&21=&….from JohnHart’s website…

It’s been ten years since the events that changed Johnny Merrimon’s life and rocked his hometown to the core. Since then, Johnny has fought to maintain his privacy, but books have been written of his exploits; he has fans, groupies. Living alone in the wilderness beyond town, Johnny’s only connection to normal life is his old friend, Jack. They’re not boys anymore, but the bonds remain. What they shared. What they lost. read more

Reading Challenges Update for Mid- April 2018

So far this month, I have finished two books. The first one was Dark Sky the second book in the Keiko series from Mike Brooks. The second was I’ll Keep You Safe from one of my favorite authors Peter May. By finishing those two books I have upped my total books read to 19 books. I am also slightly over halfway through Building the Great Society:Inside Lyndon Johnson’s White House by Joshua Zeitz.

18. Dark Sky – Mike Brooks ( Keiko #2)  

This is the second book in the series featuring Captain Ichabod Drift and the crew of the Keiko And after reading the first Keiko book I knew that the easy data extraction from the mining planet of Unagan would not be easy.So I was not surprised when the Captain and crew ended up in the middle of a revolution on the planet. Now the fact that they ended of on opposite sides was surprising!! read more

A Recap of My 2017 Reading Challenges – A Great Year of Reading!

Recapping My 2017 Reading Challenges

So this morning I finished The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of

Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. It is the 63rd book  that I have read in 2017. I will write about it and book 62 Visitation Street by Ivy Pochoda soon. For now though, I want to review my performance on my various Reading Challenges. I will also provide some thoughts about my 2018 Reading Challenges.

Here are the final statistics regarding my 2017 Reading Challenges…..

2017 Reading Challenges Goal Total % of Goal
2017 Literature Reading Challenge      
General Fiction 2 4 200.00%
Classics (Books I should have read but didn’t)
Award-Winners 2 1 50.00%
2017 Mystery/Thriller Reading Challenge
 
Mystery – New Series 6 12 200.00%
Series that I am behind on (i.e. Gabriel Allon) 6 6 100.00%
Current Mystery Authors (series or non-series) 12 16 133.33%
New Mystery Authors  (non-series)
0
2017 Science Fiction /Fantasy Challenge 6 6 100.00%
2017 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 12 13 108.33%
Totals 60 63 105.00%

As you can see overall I did great in meeting most of my Reading Challenge Goals. There were only three challenges that I did not meet: Classics, Award-Winners and New Mystery Authors. read more

August Reads Recap and Reading Challenges Update….

Where I spent my August 

Ok so for a week in August I was in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. But for the rest of the month I was all over the place thanks to the five books that I read. Well actually only four of them took me someplace other than my own mind, which is where You are not Your Brain took me!

My Travels Via My August Reads

A Fool for a Client - Parnell Hall

First, Parnell Hall’s latest Stanley Hastings adventure took me to New York City. In A Fool for a Client Stanley must discover who murdered his boss Richard Rosenberg’s girlfriend. Of course the prime suspect is Richard!  I always have a good time when I visit with Stanley and this trip was a good one! read more

Reading Challenges Update – End of June, Start of July

Reading Challenges Update and Proposed July Reads

So I wrote the other day, that I am slightly behind the pace I need to maintain to reach my goal of reading 60 books in 2017. Right now I am at 29 books and I will need to read 6 books by the end of July to get back on pace. The following chart provide a tabulation of  where I am on my various reading challenges

2017 Literature Reading Challenge Kindle Bookshelves Library Total Goal % of Goal
General Fiction 0 1 2 3 2 150.00%
Classics (Books I should have read but didn’t) 0 0 0 0 2 0.00%
Award-Winners 0 0 1 1 2 50.00%
Sub-total
2017 Mystery/Thriller Reading Challenge
Mystery – New Series 1 0 8 9 6 150.00%
Series that I am behind on (i.e. Gabriel Allon) 1 1 0 2 6 33.00%
Current Mystery Authors (series or non-series) 1 1 4 6 12 25.00%
New Mystery Authors 0 0 3 3 12 8.00%
2017 Science Fiction /Fantasy Challenge 0 1 1 3 6 50.00%
2017 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 1 1 0 2 12
Totals 3 5 14 29 60 38.00%

Overall I doesn’t seem that I am doing to badly. It looks like I have to read a couple of books that are part of a series that I am behind on. And of course I need to read a classic or two  that I have never read! But we’ll worry about those books in the months ahead! read more

Mid-May 2017 Reading Challenges Update

Mid-May Reading Challenge Update…

Ok so I really must apologize for not posting here for a fairly long time. But just because I haven’t posted doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading or listening. So in the next few posts I will try to catch up and then maybe get back on a more regular schedule for posting.

My April – May Reads

in my last post about reading I presented the four books that I planned to read in the remaining days of April and on into May. The four books were: Exit West by Moshin Hamid, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, The Nowhere Man from Gregg Hurwitz and The Fifth Element by Jorgon Brekke read more

Four Reading Challenge Reads for the Rest of April

Four Reads for the Remainder of April……

In my post for The Blood Strand, I indicated that I have currently read 18 books on a goal of 60 books. So to stay on pace I only need to read two more books before the end of the month. That should be doable! Here are four books that I am currently reading or plan to read over the next few weeks

Exit West - Mohsin Hamid

Exit West – Mohsin Hamid

One of my individual Reading Challenges is to read the Literature Reading Challenge. This challenge is to move me a little out of my comfort zone and challenges me to read books that I just don’t read. Knowing that I am not going to read a lot of general fiction the goal is to only read six books of this type. I have already read one All That Man Is by David Szalay. read more

Five Books for the End of February…..

And the Beginning of March..….

Since there are only six days left in February, I will probably not finish any more books. That means I will end the month having read five books.And I will have read thirteen books in 2017. But maybe just maybe one I will be able to finish one of the following five books. Even if I don’t finish any of the books I will a good start on March;s reads!

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Five Proposed Reads for the End of February and March

Books I am Currently Reading….

I have already started two of the five books I currently have checked out from the library. Here are the two that I have started

Long Days of Night – Graham Moore read more