Julia returns to take on Mount Blanc

[Julia]

So after a year off the Mt TBR (and my best year in the Goodreads reading challenge), I am back to give Mount Blanc a chance. I certainly have enough piles to make it. It's just whether I can be content with last year's books.

1. Courtney Milan - A Kiss for Midwinter
2. Theresa Romain - Sport of Baronets
3. James Goldman - Lion in Winter
4. Lazarus vol 2: Lift
5. Lazarus vol 3: Conclave
6. Kristine Smith - Rules of Conflict
7. Carola Dunn - Requiem for a Mezzo
8. Emma Barry & Genevieve Turner - A Midnight Clear
9. Jasper Fforde - Lost in a Good Book

[Diane]

Have fun...see you at the top.

[Bev]

Welcome back! Good luck with Mount Blanc.

[Julia]

Book 1: Courtney Milan's A Kiss for Midwinter

First book is out of the way, a short historical Christmas novella I had left over from the holidays. The setting is early Victorian. The characters had a lot of flaws and wrong headed perceptions to work through. I liked the old and new Christmas traditions and decorations shown through the story.

[Julia]

Book 2. Theresa Romain's Sport of Baronets

Another novella I needed to read for another challenge. The world of horse racing fuels this story of feuding families as Hannah and Bart decide whether they want to keep the feud going... or turn it into something better.

[Julia]

Book 3. James Goldman - The Lion in Winter

I listened to BBC4's In Our Time podcast on Eleanor of Aquitaine and decided I wanted to read the original play version of "Lion of Winter". I watched the movie ages ago and it's fascinating how I can hear bits of Hepburn and O'Toole still, even though they didn't originate the roles. It's a very bitter tale of families and how they tear each other apart, intentionally and otherwise.

[Bev]

Doing great!

[Julia]

Book 3 & 4: Lazarus vol 2: Lift & Lazarus vol 3: Conclave

I hadn't intended to include graphic novels in this TBR challenge but these fit the rules and it felt good to catch up with some of the backlog. Lazarus is written by Greg Rucka and the art by Michael Lark. It's a dystopian future where a group of families control the world. Each Family has a specialty -- genetics, etc. The Family provides for everything for its citizens or not depending. Parts of the second volume show a family trying to find a chance to "lift" themselves into a better situation. It's not a pretty existence. Lazarus refers to the Family bred assassins that have bioengineered bodies and can come back from nearly any trauma. Forever Carlyle is the one featured in this series and her conflict over her place drives the first four volumes or so. Lark's artwork is solid and realistic -- I feel like I'm looking at people not Barbie dolls. And nice variety even in secondary characters as well.

[Julia]

6. Kristine Smith - Rules of Conflict
Book two of the Jani Killian military sf series. I have had them on my shelves for ages but only recently started reading them. Interesting worldbuilding and the complications of interactions with alien worlds.

7. Carola Dunn - Requiem for a Mezzo.
Third book in the Daisy Dalrymple 1920s cozy mysteries. Daisy and her police beau are at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall when the mezzo dies in the middle of Verdi's Requiem. Also shows of the painful prejudices of that postwar era.

[Julia]

8. A Midnight Clear - Emma Barry & Genevieve Turner: A holiday romance set in 1948 Annapolis between an admiral's daughter determined not to become a navy wife and the midshipman determined to change her mind.

[Julia]

9. Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde: 2nd in the Thursday Next series. Hard to explain -- whacky alt-history fantasy detective series where Thursday Next investigates literary crimes, in and out of books. Amazing what trying again on a different format does. I struggled with this book the first time through, but bulldozed in ebook format. Or maybe I just needed to be in the mindset.