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Pam B's 2018 TBR Self Challenge
Should have said by way of an introduction that having fallen 35 books short of my 150 book 2017 target, I've decided on a more modest 100 books for this year's challenge.
I've heard good things about that as well. Interesting to read your thoughts. The things you have put as negatives would annoy me as well so I think I'll give that one a miss for now
Finished a mammoth collection, introduced by Montague Summers, The Supernatural Omnibus: Being a Collection of Stories of Apparitions, Witchcraft, Werewolves, Diabolism, Necromancy, Satanism, Divination, Sorcery, Goetry, Voodoo, Possession, Occult, Doom and Destiny and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2241020706.
Finished a science fiction novel yesterday which I'd mean to get round to for years, having read the first chapter as a Nebula award winning novella: Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre. Review follows - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1367354168.
Read the next 2 books in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence - The Dark Is Rising - review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1397626371 and Greenwitch - review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2271955168.
A catchup on three recent reads: book 4 in Susan Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising' series, The Grey King - review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1398214675.
John Gordon's Skinners - reviewed: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2286677865.
Daphne DuMaurier's The King's General - review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2286690965.
And another catchup on 2 crime novels - the first historical, set in Cromwell's Commonwealth by S G MacLean - The Seeker - review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2286720286.
and Val McDermid's - Fever of the Bone - review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2293439001.
Read another Val McDermid but was even less impressed than with the last one - Trick of the Dark - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2299322215.
Read a short story collection by Joan Aiken, A Touch of Chill and posted a review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2286721341.
Also read Val McDermid's The Skeleton Road and posted review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2299321398.
Now read a Richard Bachman aka Stephen King - The Regulators and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2304068044.
Read Tanith Lee's Lycanthia: or The Children of Wolves and posted a review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2312862229.
Read a short work by Stephen Baxter which is a follow up to H G Wells' War of the Worlds and apparently a prequel to Baxter's own novel-length sequel - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2319711846.
Did a catchup of three reviews:The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2318899866.
The Best of C.L. Moore - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2334266276.
The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2334278660.
Read a short story collection Amazons edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2337053129.
Big catchup:A re-read of Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus which I reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1414020222.
Then read a self published book which I really enjoyed but can't add it to GR as it has no ISBN.
Then a "biography" which I wasn't keen on - 1963: A Slice of Bread and Jam: One boy’s year of adventure, crippling poverty, abuse and an encounter with The Moors Murderers by Tommy Rhattigan and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2352912628.
Then read a very enjoyable humour-horror read for Star Trek fans by Kevin Anderson - Night of the Living Trekkies - reviewed here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2338197844.
Then a John Gordon novel, The Ghosts Of Blacklode and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2358173551.
And a Cabbalistic and futuristic fantasy by Liz Williams, The Poison Master, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2358348975.
Just finished a Ramsey Campbell short story collection, Dark Feasts: The World of Ramsey Campbell and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2358402880.
Read The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XIII edited by Karl Edward Wagner and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2358910497.
Read Rider at the Gate by C J Cherryh and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2228498910.
Read the sequel to Rider at the Gate by C J Cherry - Cloud's Rider and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2228499001.Also read: Fox's Earth by Anne Rivers Siddons, and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2370498624.
Read Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2369821906.
Read a couple more:The House on Nazareth Hill by Ramsey Campbell, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2376656367
and
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2376683257
Read Eclipse by Margaret Tabor - nothing about an eclipse, but more an alternative universe tale - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2378838777.
Catching up on some May reads - Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge - reviewed here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2379070372.
Read A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2389312087.
Read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2389312252.
Read Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1389233539.
Read Our Lady of the Snow by Louise Cooper and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2394394064.
Read Waking Nightmares by Ramsey Campbell and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2394463640.
Just read The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2394487674.
Read Andre Norton's Moon of Three Rings and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2397523288.
Read The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2397522524.
Read Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis by Ian Kershaw and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2409078286.
Read Mary, Queen of Scots: A Study in Failure by Jenny Wormald and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2413420051.
Read Grave Concerns, book 2 in the Drew Slocombe cosy crime series by Rebecca Tope, and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2409077080.
Reading a fantasy trilogy by R A MacAvoy. So far read books 1 and 2: Damiano - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1381969927 and Damiano's Lute - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1381970298.
Completed the R A MacAvoy trilogy with Raphael and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1381970361.
Re-read book 1 of Mary Renault's two book series based on the myth of Theseus - The King Must Die: A Novel - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2423816387.
Read book 2 of Mary Renault's Theseus series - The Bull from the Sea - and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2431484129.
Read book 1 of Tanith Lee's Secret Books of Paradys - The Book of the Damned and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2432456016.
Read book 2 of Tanith Lee's 'The Secret Books of Paradys' - The Book of the Beast- and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2432456637.
Read two very different books:Memory by Margaret Mahy, review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2437971448
The Exile Waiting by Vonda McIntyre, review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2437987231.
Read a short story collection - Mango Shake edited by Debjani Chatterjee and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2439123382.Then did a retrospective review of volume 1 of a Louise Cooper YA trilogy, as I've just read volume 2 - Daughter Of Storms and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2441623871.
Read volume 2 of the Louise Cooper YA trilogy - The Dark Caller and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2441623301.
Read volume 3 of the Louise Cooper YA trilogy - Keepers Of Light and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2441657359.
Finished Traveling with the Dead by Barbara Hambly and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1406034683.
Read Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1725519485.
Mod
Good to see you liked this Pam - I bought a copy and hope to read it soon!
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Didn't do so well on 2017 as by end November I was 31 books behind. I don't know why I managed 150 in 2016 when doing the GR challenge to read 100. Thought I would easily do it again but I think having to re-read my own novel several times as part of the editing process impacted my other reading
Here's the first of 2018 - The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. Reading what others have said, I seem to be in a minority in being underwhelmed by this book - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2241030811.