Cheryl’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2017)

Cheryl’s comments from the Challenges from Exploding Steamboats group.

Finished this one with Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

Just realized that the book that I just read counts, as Miss Maud Silver, Private Enquiry Agent is/was a professional investigator.

Danger Point, by Patricia Wentworth

My shelves are such a jumble I don't always know which books came from which sources. But, I just acquired and read a book that meets this challenge: The Cut-Throat Celts (Horrible Histories)

I completed this one with The Pilgrimage by Paolo Coelho

While "forced" suggests a book that I didn't like, I am going to interpret it as a book I would never have read if it were not required for a class. Lucky me, I am in grad school. I will count my textbook since I read the whole thing and not just the assigned chapters. Counseling the Culturally Diverse by Sue and Sue.

For this prompt, I am counting More Blood, More Sweat, and Another Cup of Tea, which is the book form of a blog on the life experiences of an EMT in London.

Just finished Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. Still too sadly accurate, despite the outward signs of progress.

My first challenge book of the year was Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley. Flavia deLuce lives in the small town of Bishop's Lacey. Lot of murder there for the size.

I was looking for a separate thread for the prompts at the bottom -- specifically A book set in a small town. But I am not finding them. Is there a reason (perhaps related to why you have them slightly separate)?

David Copperfield. Wrote a paper on the thing in undergrad but never read it. Still has no appeal.
The books that were required that I quit part of the way through are not ones that I will ever revisit. Both of them I threw across the room and contemplated burning because I hated them so much.

If you haven't read any of the books on Hamilton, you could jump on that bandwagon.
There's a book called April Morning that is YA (from before the category existed) that has been sitting on my shelf forever.
Also, Cokie Robert's did a book that I think was called Founding Mothers about the wives of the early leaders. I enjoyed that and learned a lot.

I read Manhunt by James Swanson, about the hunt for the assassins of Abraham Lincoln. This was the last one I had to complete for my personal goal of 18 of these books in 2018.

I finished this one with Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs

I cannot decide whether to be pleased with how many I have read or discouraged at how few. I will try to stick to the convention of naming only one book, probably going with the first one I read by that author

Brian Aldiss
Eric Ambler
Poul Anderson
{X} Isaac Asimov -- Prelude to Foundation
Clive Barker
{X} Peter S. Beagle -- The Last Unicorn
Alfred Bester
Robert Bloch
Lawrence Block
{X} Ray Bradbury -- Dandelion Wine
James Lee Burke
W.R. Burnett
James M. Cain
Ramsey Campbell
John Dickson Carr
C.J. Cherryh
{X} Agatha Christie -- A Pocketful of Rye (plus 99% of the rest)
Mary Higgins Clark
Arthur C. Clarke
Hal Clement
Michael R. Collings
{X} Max Allan Collins -- CSI: Cold Burn
George Harmon Coxe
Robert Crais
John Creasey
{X} Dorothy Salisbury Davis -- Black Sheep, White Lamb
L. Sprague de Camp
Lester del Rey
Samuel R. Delany
Daphne du Maurier
{X} Lois Duncan -- I Know What You Did Last Summer
Mignon C. Eberhart
Stanley Ellin
Harlan Ellison
James Ellroy
Philip José Farmer
{X} Ken Follett -- Hornet Flight
{X} Dick Francis -- Whip Hand (plus about 50% of the rest)
{X} Erle Stanley Gardner -- not sure, but read something
Ray Garton
Michael Gilbert
[X] Dorothy Gilman -- The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (and rest of that series)
{X} Sue Grafton -- A is for Alibi
Charles L. Grant
Graham Greene
{X} Martha Grimes -- The Man with a Load of Mischief (plus 75% of the rest of series)
James Gunn
Joe Haldeman
Harry Harrison
{X} Carolyn Hart -- A Little Class on Murder
Ellen Hart
Robert A. Heinlein
James Herbert
Tony Hillerman -- Listening Woman (plus 5 or 6 others)
Alfred Hitchcock
Edward D. Hoch
Dorothy B. Hughes
{X} P.D. James -- Unnatural Causes (plus 90% or others)
Stuart M. Kaminsky
Brian Keene
Baynard Kendrick
Jack Ketchum
{X} Stephen King -- only the Rita Hayworth short story
T.E.D. Klein
Damon Knight
Dean Koontz
{X} Jane Langton -- The Minute Man Murder
Joe R. Lansdale
John le Carré
{X} Ursula K. Le Guin -- The Left Hand of Darkness
Tanith Lee
Fritz Lieber
Elmore Leonard
Ira Levin
William Link
Peter Lovesey
Brian Lumley
John D. MacDonald
Ross Macdonald
{X} Margaret Maron -- Christmas Morning
{X} Ngaio Marsh -- A Wreath for Rivera (plus 10 others)
{X} Richard Matheson -- Somewhere in Time
Ed McBain
Anne McCaffrey
Robert McCammon
Helen McCloy
{X} Barbara Mertz -- Elizabeth Peters' The Golden One (and many more)
Margaret Millar
Michael Moorcock
Walter Mosley
Marcia Muller
{X} Larry Niven -- The Mote in God's Eye
William F. Nolan
Andre Norton
Sara Paretskey
{X} Robert B. Parker -- God Save the Child
Judson Philips
Frederik Pohl
Bill Pronzini
Ellery Queen -- not sure, but only one
{X} Ruth Rendell -- Means of Evil
Anne Rice
Robert Silverberg
Clifford D. Simak
{X} Georges Simenon -- Maigret and the Wine Merchant
Dan Simmons
{X} Martin Cruz Smith -- Gorky Park
Mickey Spillane
Vincent Starrett
Aaron Marc Stein
{X} Rex Stout -- Fer-de-Lance (and several more)
Peter Straub
Julian Symons
A.E. van Vogt
Jack Vance
Joseph Wambaugh
Hillary Waugh
Donald E. Westlake
Phyllis A. Whitney
Jack Williamson
[X} Connie Willis -- To Say Nothing of the Dog (plus 4 others)
F. Paul Wilson
Gene Wolfe
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Jane Yolen

Bonus! These two authors were named Gandalf Grand Masters but do not appear on the list above:
C.L. Moore
{X} J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Hobbit (and all 3 LOTR)

I just read We All Scream: The Fall of the Gifford's Ice Cream Empire set in Kensington and Silver Spring MD.

I just finished We All Scream: The Fall of the Gifford's Ice Cream Empire which takes place not just in my state but in my city.

A Year by the Sea -- all of it on Cape Cod.

Button-Holed

I'll Be Gone in the Dark was all about a California nightmare

She Got Up Off the Couch: and Other Acts of Heroism from Mooreland, Indiana -- set, of course, in Mooreland, Indiana