Julia’s Comments (group member since Jun 17, 2012)

Julia’s comments from the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2012 group.

Ah excellent, good to know. I do have a copy. It just wouldn't count for this challenge alas.

Just to clarify, is this Mira Grant's Feed or other book?

14. L.A. Noire: Completed Stories: I've had this on my Kindle since it was released but couldn't quite finish it off. This collection of crime stories was published to coincide with the LA Noire videogame set in late 1940s Los Angeles. I loved Megan Abbott and Francine Prose's stories, but was horribly muddled by Joyce Carol Oates' one. If you get her latest collection Black Dahlia and White Rose, that's the lead story. Maybe I'm not big on literary stream of consciousness type of writing?

I scaled to the top of Pike's Peak last month, so I decided to keep going. After all there are still books to be read.

13. Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire. The fourth in the Toby Daye urban fantasy/fae series. I only have one more I can count for this challenge alas. This is what I'd call the "game-changer" of the series, where past headaches come to bear and things McGuire set up earlier in the series are revealed. Lots of conspiracies and machinations. I surprised myself with how much I liked this one a lot more than the previous one.

So if I decide to keep going for Mt Vancouver, I should just start a new thread over in that section?

As one of the previous winners, congrats to Esther. Enjoy your bounty!

Book 12: Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire. Third book in urban fantasy/mystery/faerie series that almost makes me want to read about Tam Lin. Creepy entry though. McGuire is not squeamish about blood and injuring her characters -- you get a very good sense of how broken the victims/survivors are in this.

And I've reached the top of Pike's Peak! *stares up the mountaintop* Three months left in the year and 13 more books til Vancouver... how many miles to Babylon?

Books in this quarter:
1. Crewel World
2. Framed in Lace
3. Sorcery & Cecilia
4. Black Widow: Name of the Rose

1. It is September and I can almost see the the top of Pike's Peak from the trail. I am one book away from my goal and I have a TBR book within shooting distance of finishing this week, if I push myself. That has been the hardest part of this challenge has been that last distance. It's three months before the end and I feel like I'm stuck in between camps.

2b. I would definitely sign up for next year, although I'm not sure whether I'd be up to tackling Mt Vancouver or not. I surprised myself by going past my Goodreads reading challenge goal of 30 books (I'm at 36 now!), so it's possible? It's so hard to stay away from the new shiny.

2c. The surprising book would be Sorcery & Cecilia. I've never been a big fan of the Regency period, but I could not put that down. The characters' voices were so witty I could hear them very clearly when I was reading it. (I now have some Heyer on my new TBR shelves so I imagine that'll be part of next year's climb.)

Book 11: Black Widow: Name of the Rose by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuna. I hadn't planned to use my GN/manga reading for this challenge, but I did get it last year, so it counts. Surprised I actually liked this run. The artist is known for overendowing his female characters, shall we say, so it was fun to see to such a stylish spy thriller, even with a superhero twist.

I read Gatsby early this year for a read-a-long and I had a hard time with it. I love Fitzgerald's descriptions of the outlandish parties, but I couldn't sympathize with any of characters, aside from maybe Nick and Jordan for different reason. Hated Tom & Daisy about equally. I'm glad I read it in a way, but I'm not sure I would have tried it without the read-a-long.

Book #10: Sorcery and Cecilia: Or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, an epistolary novel written by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. If you like Georgette Heyer's Regency books with manners and Society and the Ton and don't mind magic mixed in, it's quite a lot of fun. I'm glad I finally read it. (Unfortunate side effect may be adding the other two books in the series to the TBR shelf. At least it's a short series?)

So just double checking -- I have a paper copy of Sorcery & Cecilia I bought a few years ago and now I bought a newer Kindle edition when it was on sale... so even if I'm reading the post-2012 Kindle, it still counts? Or am I wrong?

I know what you mean about library/new books distracting you. I'll add in read-a-longs tempting me away as well this month, although one is pretty short.

I read Double Indemnity last year. I was surprised how much was packed into so short a novel.

(And oh how I know the "I have enough for Everest but not nearly enough time" woe.)

Book #9: Framed in Lace by Monica Ferris, book two of her needlework series.

There is a volume called "Key to the Name of the Rose" that includes all the Latin/etc translations. For some reason I thought they'd released a paperback edition with that included in the back, but I can't find it. I have the hardcover, but it's one that I've never gotten around to.

Book #8 is done: Crewel World by Monica Ferris, the first in her needlework series. I've actually done the pattern shown in the book, but hadn't ever gotten around to finishing the book. Strange, isn't it?

So the climb continues...

Chris, oh yes! My history shelves are filled with Tudor/Elizabethan and/or Wars of the Roses/100 Years War books -- most of which I sadly haven't had a chance to add to Goodreads yet -- or read in a number of cases!

Btw I posted challenge recap over at my blog. This week unfortunately has been a "Oh, no, the library books are due back soon" type reading.

Margaret, I loved your stories about those antique books. Being silly and curious, I tried their names in the census records. I think I found the Campbell family in Duck Hill in the 1920 census. Elsie & Clayton were sister and brother with her the elder by a few years. C.C. may be the father Chancy (Charles). I'm left wondering if some of those books were from an earlier generation of Campbells, since the oldest child was 13 or 14.

Wow, I hadn't been including my graphic novels/manga into my reading equations, since I go through those so fast. I could easily jump up to Mt Vancouver with that logic.