RJ Reads 60 in 2024

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#39 in 2024:

I finished the overrated thriller (now a streaming series!)


Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading a near-forgotten gem of a horror story written by a former actor


The Other by Thomas Tryon

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#40 in 2024:

I finished the disappointing third installment in the Mick Axebrewder and Ginny Fistoulari hard-boiled Private Eye series


The Man Who Tried to Get Away by Stephen R. Donaldson
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the first book in the Marseilles Trilogy


Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#41 in 2024

I finished Stephen King's first short-story collection


Night Shift by Stephen King
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started another short story collection, this one with a book cover that looks like it was assembled by a three year-old with blunt-nosed scissors and a crusty bottle of Elmer's Glue


The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#42 in 2024:

I finished the first volume in the Book of the New Sun series


The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started something completely different


The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#43 in 2024:

I finished the first in the "Mediterranean Noir" Marseilles Trilogy


Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the Cold War classic


The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#44 in 2024:

I finished the disappointing sequel to Ready Player One


Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading this 1000-page doorstep


Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#45, 46, and 47 in 2024:

I finished the Horror classic


The Other by Thomas Tryon
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I finished the Children's classic


The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I finished this short collection of non-fiction articles and stories written by Steinbeck about Depression-era migrant labor


Their Blood is Strong by John Steinbeck
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading a Science-Fiction novel that I understand was adapted as a film


Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#48 in 2024:

I finished the Cold War espionage classic


The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading Dan Brown's second novel


Deception Point by Dan Brown

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#49 in 2024

I finished the amusing memoir-ish


My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading another book about Coach John Wooden


Coach Wooden One-on-One by John Wooden; Jay Carty

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#50 in 2024:

I finished the classic Science-Fiction social satire


Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the whimsical fantasy novel


Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#51 in 2024:

I finished the whimsical fantasy novel


Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the dark suspense novel


A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#52 in 2024:

I finished Mark Twain's account of his various adventures in the American Wild West


Roughing It by Mark Twain
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the fourth Kingbridge novel (a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth)


The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#53 in 2024:

I finished the fourth installment in the Tales from the Flat Earth fantasy series


Delirium's Mistress by Tanith Lee
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the fourth installment in the Earthsea fantasy series


Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#54 in 2024:

I finished a non-Robert Langdon Dan Brown thriller


Deception Point by Dan Brown
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started re-reading


Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#55 and #56 in 2024:

And finally, to cap off my backlog of unwritten reviews, I finished two short story collections, both of which contain (but are not fully devoted to) stories which could be classified as classics of the Weird and/or Horror genres:


The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
Rating: 3 stars (that is: 4 stars for the King in Yellow stories, and 2-3 stars for the rest)
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading Clive Barker's second full-length novel


Weaveworld by Clive Barker

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#57 in 2024

I finished my re-read of a classic anti-war novel


Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading


Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

(which I have actually already finished reading but I haven't yet posted a review)