Pam's 2021 Reading Challenge

[Pam]

I am going to try for 100 books this year - I know I had to scale back to 90 in 2020, but I think that was because my reading mojo disappeared for a few weeks at the start of Lockdown 1.0 and I could only concentrate on magazine articles. Hopefully, I will be able to manage 100 this time.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Good luck!

[Pam]

Jacquelynn wrote: "Best of luck, Pam. I can't even imagine being able to do that.
Jackie"

Thanks Jackie!

[Pam]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Good luck!"

Thanks Desley!

[Pam]

First two reads of 2021:

The prequel in Lian Hearn's fantasy inspired by medieval Japan Heaven's Net Is Wide - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2747905534"
and
a non fiction study by Norman Cohn, Warrant For Genocide: The Myth Of The Jewish World Conspiracy And The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3746444460

[Pam]

Catchup on latest 2 reads:

C J Sansom, 4th Shardlake novel Revelation - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2981055801
and
A Merritt's Dwellers In The Mirage - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954250587

[Pam]

Just finished Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3791026882.

[Pam]

Reading through quite a hefty non fiction history book at the mo, and finding it rather bizarre that GR already has me as 4 books behind on my challenge!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Oh no! I'm behind too, maybe a 995page book wasn't the best choice

[Pam]

Yes and now I'm 5 behind!!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

5??

[Pam]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "5??"

When I logged in just now to write a review of the latest I finished it was actually 7. Bit disheartening when we're only in February!

[Pam]

Finished Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3811235215

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Yes, that is a bit disheartening

[Pam]

Read two rather different books and reviewed them:

Carmen Varricchio's Doll Junk: Collectible and Crazy Fashions from the '70s and '80s - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3842073524

Lucy Worsley's A Very British Murder - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3764508621

[Pam]

Catching up on some reviews of books finished lately:

Tanith Lee Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer - reviewed at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3396613902

Tanith Lee Companions on the Road (edition also includes The Winter Players) - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3396615203

and Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3860718703.

[Pam]

Read The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House and reviewed it
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3868978643

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I remember watching that on TV

[Pam]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "I remember watching that on TV"
Yes I enjoyed it so picked this up in a charity shop a few years back - only just got round to reading it but it is one of my rare 5 star reads!

[Pam]

Read A Delusion Of Satan: The Full Story Of The Salem Witch Trials and reviewed it https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3888209426

[Pam]

Read Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3889276000
and
first in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, Dead Until Dark - review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3896946433

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Seems a bit of a theme there Pam! Hope you are on track

[Pam]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Seems a bit of a theme there Pam! Hope you are on track"

Thanks Desley, just read one more of the Sookie series, so one book behind now!

[Pam]

Read number 2 in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, Living Dead in Dallas - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3896989526.

[Pam]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Seems a bit of a theme there Pam! Hope you are on track"

Nope, 2 behind still - how did that happen? Good job what I'm reading at the moment is a series of light reads which are quick to get through.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

2 behind isn't too bad - I'm 1 behind, but 87% through one.

[Pam]

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "2 behind isn't too bad - I'm 1 behind, but 87% through one."

Just caught up with my latest two reviews!

[Pam]

Read books 3 and 4 of the Sookie Stackhouse series:

Club Dead - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3896990140

Dead to the World - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3896990001

[Pam]

Read book 5 of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, Dead as a Doornail - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3898375024.

Still on target.....

[Pam]

Read volume 8 in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, From Dead to Worse - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3906575880

and then from the ridiculous to the sublime, Jane Austen's Emma - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3919311557
That cleansed my reading palate nicely!

[Pam]

Catch up on last three books read:

Dee Morrison Meaney's An Unkindness of Ravens - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3927652545

and two of Tove Jansson's Moomin series:

Comet in Moominland - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1361361900

Finn Family Moomintroll - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3927708035

[Pam]

Read Joyce Carol Oates' The Accursed and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954230485

[Pam]

Catching up on reviews:

Tove Jansson's The Summer Book - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3935040618

Joyce Carol Oates' Mysteries of Winterthurn - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954230884

Tove Jansson's The True Deceiver - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3950746114

Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3950766424

[Pam]

That brings me up to 33 and 3 ahead. I also have another review to do of a short book I have just read - and am currently reading two others so managing now to keep up with the challenge I'm glad to say.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Yay, glad to hear you are ahead

[Pam]

Thanks Desley. Just added a couple more reviews of fairly short books. And almost finished quite a historical tome so despite struggling earlier, seem to be keeping up now.

[Pam]

Read a couple more:

Norman Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1367359114

Tove Jansson's first Moomin story, The Moomins and the Great Flood - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3960455989

[Pam]

Read two books, and enjoyed the fictional treatment of the subject much more:

Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft by Robin Briggs, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3960522591
and
Andre Norton's Spell of the Witch World - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3960514268

[Pam]

The mission to read books that have been on the shelves for many years with the object of getting rid when that is possible continues:

Montague Summers' Witchcraft And Black Magic - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3983499642
and Witchcraft in Britain by Christina Hole, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3984787199

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I discovered one of my colleagues likes thrillers, so I need to do a list of the books ready to go to the charity shop in the hope I can just take them in the office instead!

[Pam]

Good idea. Not easy to get the charity shops to take them even when open, given that they are swamped and have to put things aside for 72 hours before sorting.

[Pam]

Catchup on posting a couple of reviews -

The Crow Road by Iain Banks, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2078259951
and
Fagin's Children: Criminal Children in Victorian England by Jeannie Duckworth, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4005114090

[Pam]

Just finished a cosy crime - Strictly Murder by Lynda Wilcox - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4008400262

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

No, that's why I'm not in a rush to get them anywhere, although if nothing else planned, I might take some to the animal charity at bank holiday weekend, hope the booking system doesn't apply to dropping books off!

[Pam]

Bit behind with posting links to the reviews, though I did write these a few days ago:

Read three linked books on my Kindle recently, written by Becca Andre. The middle one is a novella that happens between the last chapter and the epilogue of the first book:

The Final Formula - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4012543566

The Element of Death - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4012574480

The Blood Alchemist - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4012596259

[Pam]

Back to paperbacks for a re-read of Diana Wynne Jones' volume 3 of the Dalemark quartet:

The Spellcoats - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1759727451

[Pam]

Well I hope this lasts, because after struggling with my challenge earlier in the year I am now 7 books ahead!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Wow, 7 ahead!!

[Pam]

Read Witches And Their Craft by Ronald Seth - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4027431758
and
The Book Of English Magic by Philip Carr-Gomm and Richard Heygate - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4044298561

[Pam]

49 books completed and still 7 ahead, so nearly half way through my challenge am pleased to say :-)