Laurel’s
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(group member since Dec 30, 2013)
Laurel’s
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from the All About Books group.
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138 books is quite impressive! I too have enjoyed the 44 Scotland Street series. And still have a number to go... I read one book about Trump in 2020 and that was enough. So good for you!
January plans:Currently reading:
READ Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
READ War and Peace
READ Troubled Blood
READ The Mistletoe Matchmaker
One for Sorrow
Queen By Right
Outlander (reread)
Next up:
READ Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
READ The Library Book (for Daytimers)
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky (for A Good Yarn)
Untimely Death (for A Good Yarn)
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier (Netgalley ARC)
LEFTOVERSThemes
Stars:
READ The Giver of Stars
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
The Movement of Stars
READ Where the Forest Meets the Stars
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky
Written in their Stars
Children of the Stars
READ Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
Star of the Sea
Macbeth/Thorfinn/Vikings:
King Hereafter
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth: A Novel
Macbeth
A Sacred Storm
Tomb for an Eagle
Flight of the Wren
Random Reads
Wales/Arthurian:
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur
The Story of the Champions of the Round Table
The Book of Joby
To Carry The Horn
Next in Series:
His Dark Lady
City of Masks
New Series:
A Game of Thrones
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga #1)
Themes (old and new):
The Sparrow
The Sparrow Sisters
The Plover
READ *The Chocolatier's Wife (Wife titles)
*Railsea (Moby Dick)
*Orfeo (Music and musicians)
*A White Wind Blew (Music and musicians)
Historical Fiction:
Courting Mr. Lincoln
Wolf Hall
The Pillars of the Earth
The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers
Kristin Lavransdatter
*The Golden Horn (11th cent. Vikings)
*Season of the Raven (12th cent. England)
*When Knighthood Was in Flower
Other:
Hounded
Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love
...And Ladies of the Club
Awayland
*The Evening Chorus (WWII)
*Letters from Skye (dual timeframe, 1912, 1940)
From the library:
Library of Souls
A Map of Days
Awayland
The Evening Chorus
Dark Winds Rising
The Sparrow Sisters
READ Boone: A Biography
City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan
Dark Fire
Heartstone
The 12 Oldest in My TBR Ocean:
The Long Walk Home (owned)
Within the Fetterlock
Thirteenth Night
Kilt Dead (owned)
The Tale of Hill Top Farm
Her Royal Spyness (owned)
The Last Troubadour
The Book of Joby (owned)
The Fall of Atlantis (owned)
Mozart's Sister
Vivaldi's Virgins
The Expected One (owned)
AUTHOR AND SERIESDiana Gabaldon
Virgins - short story
Outlander
The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel
Dragonfly in Amber
A Fugitive Green -short story
Voyager
Lord John and the Hellfire Club - novella
Lord John and the Private Matter
Lord John and the Succubus - novella
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
Lord John and the Hand of Devils - novella
The Custom of the Army - short story
The Scottish Prisoner
A Plague of Zombies - short story
Besieged - short story
Drums of Autumn
The Outlandish Companion: Companion to Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes
An Echo in the Bone
Written in My Own Heart's Blood
A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows - short story
The Space Between - short story
The Outlandish Companion, Volume Two
Madeleine L'Engle
Here is "sort of" a chronological list of books featuring the Murrays, the O'Keefes, the Austins, and a few other crossover characters, and maybe a few books that don't have any crossover but I'm including them anyway...
The Other Side of the Sun
READ 2018 Ilsa
The Small Rain
And Both Were Young
The Joys of Love
Camilla
A Winter's Love
Love Letters
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READ 2019 A Wrinkle in Time
READ 2019 A Wind in the Door
READ 2019 Many Waters
READ A Swiftly Tilting Planet
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Meet the Austins
The Moon by Night
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The Arm of the Starfish
Dragons in the Waters
A House Like a Lotus
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The Young Unicorns
A Ring of Endless Light
Troubling a Star
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An Acceptable Time
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Certain Women
A Live Coal in the Sea
A Severed Wasp
Other leftovers from previous years:
Alexander McCall Smith:
44 Scotland Street series:
#09 Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
#10 The Revolving Door of Life
#11 The Bertie Project
#12 A Time of Love and Tartan
Corduroy Mansions series:
#3 A Conspiracy of Friends
Rita Mae Brown:
Mrs. Murphy series:
#13 Cat's Eyewitness
#14 Sour Puss
#15 Puss 'N Cahoots
Alan Bradley:
Flavia de Luce series:
#01 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (reread)
#02 The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (reread)
#03 A Red Herring Without Mustard (reread)
#04 I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (reread)
#05 Speaking from Among the Bones
Next in series of recently read books:
READ The Mistletoe Matchmaker (Finfarran #3)
READ The Transatlantic Book Club (Finfarran #4 US, #5 UK)
The Month of Borrowed Dreams (Finfarran #4 UK, #5 US)
---------------------------
Key Witness by Morley Torgov (Hermann Preiss #2)
Two for Joy (John the Eunuch #2)
A Rose for the Crown (not really a series, but the next book chronologically...Wars of the Roses)
--------------------------------
READ All Things Bright and Beautiful (James Herriot #2)
READ All Things Wise and Wonderful (James Herriot #3)
READ The Lord God Made Them All (James Herriot #4)
Every Living Thing (James Herriot #5)
----------------------------------------------------------
The Chocolatier's Ghost
Death at Gallows Green (Kathryn Ardleigh #2)
Murder in a Scottish Garden (Scottish Shire Mystery #2)
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READ Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (Meg Langslow #4)
READ We'll Always Have Parrots (Meg Langslow #5)
Owls Well That Ends Well (Meg Langslow #6)
-----------------------------------------------------
A Brush With Death (Nosey Parker #2)
A GOOD YARNA book club with monthly themes or challenges.
JANUARY:
U is for Un-
Untimely Death
U is for Under
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky
Title beginning with U:
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky
Untimely Death
FEBRUARY:
V is for Victorian
READ Death at Bishop's Keep
V is for Valley
Lonely is the Valley or
The Valley
Title beginning with V:
Veil of Lies or
The Valley
MARCH:
W is for Who, What, Why, When, or Where
READ Where the Forest Meets the Stars
W is for Wives
READ The Chocolatier's Wife
Title beginning with W:
READ Where the Forest Meets the Stars
APRIL:
X is for X marks the spot Read a book about pirates or buried treasure.
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
Treasure Island
X is for any X in the title, author, or location
Anglesey Blue (DI Tudor Manx, #1)
Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa
Title beginning with X (or maybe that contains an X):
The Xenophobe's Guide to the Welsh
MAY:
Y is for Yellow
Neverhome
Y is for Yarn
READ Murder in a Scottish Shire
Title beginning with Y:
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur
JUNE:
Z is for words in the title that begin with Z
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise
Z is for words in the titles that contain a "double z"
READ Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
Title beginning with Z:
Zorrie
JULY: No new themes (catch-up month)
AUGUST: No new themes (catch-up month)
SEPT: Starting a new alphabet focusing on GEOGRAPHY.
Each month will have two options: a place NAME that begins with the letter. And a generic place that begins with the letter.
Around the world with A:
Anglesey Blue (Anglesey)
READ The Alehouse Murders (an alehouse)
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER:
Around the world with B:
READ The Bungalow (Bora Bora, a beach, AND a bungalow)
READ The Giver of Stars (Baileyville, Kentucky)
READ 2020 Left Neglected (Boston)
DECEMBER:
Around the world with C:
The Cornish Coast Murder (Cornwall AND a coast)
City of Masks
READ Murder on the Menu (Cornwall)
Bonus: Christmas
Leftovers:
B is for Body Parts
From Hand to Hand: the Welsh novel O Law I Law
I is for Ice
Independent People
J is for Jungle
J is for Japan
Title beginning with J
O is for One
One for Sorrow
P is for Pioneers
Q is for Queens
Queen By Right
T is for Trees
The Plum Tree
BOOK CLUBSDaytimer's Book Club
Read all 12.
READ Jan: Non-fiction: The Library Book
READ Feb: Woman author: Mrs. Everything
READ Mar: Prize Winner/Nominee: The Dutch House
READ Apr: Children's fiction: The Book of Boy
READ May: Suspense/Thriller: The Secrets We Kept
READ Jun: Mystery fiction: The Lions of Fifth Avenue
READ Jul: Contemporary fiction: Dear Edward
READ Aug: Memoir: The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
READ Sep: Historical fiction: The Book of Longings
READ Oct: Laurel's Choice: The Book of Lost Friends
READ Nov: Books to TV: Normal People
READ Dec: Love stories: One Day in December
Perspectives Book Club
Jan: Cantoras
Feb: This Is How It Always Is
Mar: Sing, Unburied, Sing
Apr: The Year of Magical Thinking
READ 2010 May: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
READ 2019 Sep: Pachinko
READ 2020 Oct: Left Neglected
READ 2020 Nov: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Dec: (meeting postponed until Jan. 2022) The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life
Online group reads:
The Crystal Cave March pick, The Reading Loft
RANDOM READS30 titles drawn at random from the TBR ocean... These are all new this year. Previous Random Reads that I still want to keep on the radar are under Leftovers.
Non-fiction:
Decoding the Celts: Revealing the legacy of the celtic tradition
Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
Wales/Arthurian:
The Snowdonia Killings
Crimson Shore
The Chinese Sailor
Next-in-Series:
Real Tigers
Demons are a Ghoul's Best Friend
The Dark Rose
New Series:
A Mortal Bane
Hot Tea & Cold Murder
Ink and Bone
Old Themes:
Bel Canto (music)
Black Dove White Raven (birds)
The Odyssey
142 Ostriches (birds)
The Butterfly and the Violin (music)
READ Peregrine
Historical Fiction:
The Game's Afoot
Bertie And The Tinman
Simon the Fiddler
In the Company of the Courtesan
Minds of Winter
The Second Sleep
Other Fiction:
The Cornish Coast Murder
Margot
The Secret Keeper
The Department of Sensitive Crimes
The Murmur of Bees
The Eight
THEMESI have several ideas for themes this year. WINTER is a big one, but not sure I'd call it my "annual" theme. A Daytimer's theme is LIBRARIES and books with BOOK in the title, but I don't think that is my annual theme either. The ODYSSEY is a theme I have wanted to do for awhile, but I think it will end up being a multi-year theme...
1. Winter
Midwinter of the Spirit
Rebecca
Mrs de Winter
Winter's Tale
Winter of the World
The Winters
The Winter's Child
Winter Counts: A Novel
The Winter King
Winter Solstice
The Winter Vault
Winter in Madrid
A Wild Winter Swan
Winter of Despair
Death and Nightingales (main character: Beth Winters)
Midwinter Folk
READ The Winter Hare
Minds of Winter
Winter Sisters
Beautiful Evil Winter
Cruel Winter
The Winter Guest
2. Libraries and Books
READ The Library Book
The Book of Joby
Library of Souls
READ The Book of Lost Friends
READ The Book of Longings
The Lost and Found Bookshop
The Midnight Library
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
The Book of Life
The Book of Lost Things
Book of a Thousand Days
The Book of Speculation
The Book of Fires
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
The Book of Uriel: A Novel of WWII
READ The Book of Boy
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts
READ The Lions of Fifth Avenue
READ The Transatlantic Book Club
READ The Giver of Stars
La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust #1)
3. The Odyssey
The Odyssey and The Iliad
A Short History of Myth
Ulysses
Ulysses: Complete Text with Integrated Study Guide from Shmoop
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
Circe
Sing, Unburied, Sing
The Penelopiad
Homer's Odyssey
Ilium
Ransom
Over the Wine-Dark Sea
The Siege of Troy
Lavinia
Omeros
A Thousand Ships
4. The Plantagenets/Wars of the Roses
The Summer Queen
Queen By Right
Bloodline
Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England
The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
Blood & Roses: the Paston Family and the Wars of the Roses
Blood Sisters: The Women Behind The Wars Of The Roses
Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses
Cecily Neville: Mother of Richard III
The Queen’s Rival
The Game's Afoot
WARWICK - The Man Behind The Wars of the Roses
Overview:I always want to read far more than I will ever accomplish. And I have over 2,000 books in my TBR lists. So I like to create various lists from which I pick books. I don't try to read a certain number of books from these lists. Some are fixed lists, and some are random, and there are always leftovers from previous years that I still want to read. This helps these books to not get lost in the ever expanding TBR!
1. Themes
I like to pick an annual theme every year. And then there are always leftovers! I never seem to be able to let go of a theme. I keep adding new titles year after year! These end up as one of my "Random Reads" categories (see below.) I also usually have several mini-themes.
2. Random Reads
I draw 30 titles from my TBR lists to highlight as Random Reads each year. This is no guarantee that I will read many of them, but it gives me something besides leftovers to read, and brings long buried items to the fore. Previous Random Reads either just go back into the TBR ocean or they might be added to the Leftovers list.
3. Book clubs and online group reads
My face to face group, Daytimers, is a guaranteed 12 books. I usually have at least one theme within this group to help me pick titles. At the time of posting this, I haven't finalized the list yet, but our theme will be Libraries and titles with "Book" in the title. I'll read other online group picks as I please.
4. A Good Yarn - Reading the Alphabet
This is another face to face book group that I am in, but we pick monthly themes rather than titles. I'm also reading at least one book for each letter. We have 6 more months to finish "reading the alphabet" and then I am not sure what we will do. Probably start the alphabet over again - LOL!
5. Authors and series
I'm not picking an author of the year this year, but I have a multi-year goal to reread all of the Outlander books. I also like to list some prioritized authors and series that I want to start, continue, or finish.
6. Leftovers and library books
A combination of old and new. Sort of a catch-all for anything that doesn't fit above.
My overall goal is 48 books - I want to be a little more relaxed this year! I hope to read at least 15,000 pages.
Finally, I don't like the limitations of Goodreads 1-5 star rating system, so I add colors to my ratings to give it a little more nuance. Here is my rating scale:
Ratings
5 + stars = Gold (Gold medal, nothing higher. Well maybe Platinum but let's not go there....)
5 stars = Purple (Grand Champion ribbon)
4.5 = Blue (Blue ribbon, 1st prize)
4 stars = Red (2nd prize ribbon)
3.5 = Pink (tickled pink, in the pink, ...but not quite red?)
3 stars = Green (Green for Go, not outstanding, but I'd read more by this author - or not)
2.5 stars =Yellow (Caution)
2 stars = Orange (Hazard Warning, LOL!)
1 star = Black (Black-balled)
DNF (not rated) = Gray
Year End Stats:52 books, 17,249 pages
Stars theme: Read 8 books
Russia mini-theme: Read 6 books
Arthurian/Medieval mini-theme: read 1 book
Macbeth mini-theme: Read 1 book
Random Reads:
Non-fiction: Read 3 books
Wales: Read 1 book
Series: Read 1 book
Old themes leftovers: 0 books
Historical fiction: Read 1 book
Other: 0 books
Daytimers: 12 out of 12 books
Other group reads: 5 books
A Good Yarn:
Not bad overall! Completed all but 4 challenges:
O is for One
P is for Pioneers
Q is for Queens
T is for Trees
Still leftover from 2019:
B is for Body Parts
I is for Ice
J is for Jungle
J is for Japan
and a title beginning with J
Leftovers and library books:
Read 4 on my list....
On to 2021!
I'm going to go ahead and list these two to finish out the year. I'm close enough and only fudging by a few days. So goal accomplished at 52 books and 17,249 pages.#51
Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia5 enthusiastic gold stars. Non-fiction at its finest.
#52
War and Peace5 blue stars. A classic for a reason. Just about the best book about "life" ever written.
#49
The Demon's Brood: A History of the Plantagenet Dynasty4 blue stars - a breezy overview of the most entertaining bits of the lives of the Plantagenet kings. I started this for a book talk at the Minnesota Library Association conference in 2016, and finally got around to reading the last 100 pages!
#50
Rest You Merry3.5 pink stars - not sure if this was meant to be a bit of a farce, but it was certainly entertaining enough. I like her off-the-wall humor, but I like the Madoc Rhys series better...
Pages: 15,171
Tweedledum wrote: "Laura you are such an inspiration. I’ve had next to nothing to do all year and still couldn’t plan anything properly . But in my defence I did spend hours late at night listening to a lonely and is..."I've struggled a bit at times, myself, this year. Couldn't concentrate at all in March and April. I'm sure your daughter appreciated the time you gave her, and here's hoping 2021 will be a much better year!
#48
Frequencies of God: Walking through Advent with R S Thomas3.5 rounded up. A pink star for the commentary. Purple for the poetry itself. A nice introduction to the poetry of R.S. Thomas. I would have liked more stories about him and his life, less analysis. But I will definitely read more of his poetry.
Pages: 14667
One week to go, plus a few extra vacation days thrown in. I took the whole week off, so anything finished by Jan. 3 counts as 2020 (my rules!) I think I can do this!READ 1. War and Peace
READ 2. Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
READ 3. Frequencies of God: Walking through Advent with R S Thomas
READ 4. Rest You Merry
READ 5. The Demon's Brood: A History of the Plantagenet Dynasty
And just added for good measure:
The Mistletoe Matchmaker
#47
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek4 red stars - a fascinating and realistic look at the Pack Horse Library Project and the (real) blue people of Kentucky. I happen to also be related to them through my Fugate line.
Pages: 14492
5 books left to go, or 508 pages to reach my goal.
6 more books to go by the end of December. I'm two behind at this point...Currently listening to
READ 1. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Two more (added since my last list) that I'm pretty sure I will finish
READ 2. Frequencies of God: Walking through Advent with R S Thomas
READ 3. Rest You Merry
Really hoping to finish
READ 4. War and Peace
READ 5. Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
READ 6. The Demon's Brood: A History of the Plantagenet Dynasty
#46
This Tender Land5 purple stars - a marvellous tale reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn and the Odyssey.
Pages: 14063
Oh yay! Been waiting for this....
Dec 01, 2020 11:09AM
I loved the movie, and thought it was pretty true to the book. What struck me the most about it, was how the photographer played with light. I watched it a couple of times.
