RJ - Slayer of Trolls’s
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RJ - Slayer of Trolls’s
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from the 2025 Reading Challenge group.
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Please add buddy reads for His Last Bow (January) and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (February) for those of us who are reading the series (carries over from 2018). Thank you and Happy New Year!
I already finished my first book of the year (I tried to finish last night but didn't quite make the cutoff): 
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I started reading:
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle
I finished one more yesterday to finish 2018 with 101 books completed!
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
One of my all-time favorite endings.
Scrooge seemed willfully ignorant that he was the dead person that was being discussed and who had clearly died unloved. He didn't seem to want to acknowledge how he had lived and wanted to get moving forward with the changes he had been thinking about.
The children Ignorance and Want have only been in a few of the film/TV adaptations, per the introduction in my copy of the book. Interestingly, one of the films they appeared in was the recent animated version that had Jim Carrey as the voice of Scrooge. That version actually followed the written story faithfully in many ways, although it got far too carried away by adding "action" scenes that were clearly meant for a 3-D viewing experience.
I finished four more books while visiting my parents for the holidays which brings me to 100 read for the year: 
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Dark World by Henry Kuttner
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And I started reading:
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie Jr.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
I'm starting this Stave today...
Finished it. 
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Only two more books in the Holmes series, both are short story collections. I'll be taking a couple weeks break from Holmes then starting His Last Bow around Jan 10.
I finished #96 for the year:
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And I started reading:
Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich
Almost done! I should finish in the next couple of days...
Kadijah Michelle wrote: "I am truly enjoying how creepy this for a Christmas story. Can we all agree that this is the original, "Nightmare Before Christmas?""It IS creepy, you're right. Dickens even starts the story talking about how dead Marley is. It's so well-written, I'm glad to have the chance to re-read this.
I finished #95 for the year: 
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And I started reading:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
I finished #94: 
The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And I started reading:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Starting part 2 today. This book seems to be set up a lot like A Study in Scarlet with the mystery solved in the first half, then the 2nd half gives a background story.
Ashley wrote: "I started this but am not very far yet. [spoilers removed] I am only on chapter 5 in the first part."I am on the third chapter and we really don't know much yet.
bookescape wrote: "How about Island of the Blue Dolphins. I always wanted to read this and may still have it tucked away in a tote full of my stuff as a kid."I really enjoyed that one in elementary school
I finished two more which brings me to 93 for the year, with three weeks left to go: 
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading:
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Dark World by Henry Kuttner
The 1951 film Scrooge with Alastair Sim in the title role is my all time favorite. Also, "Carol of the Bells" is the song I always think of when I read this story or watch any of its performances.
