Mount TBR 2014 Challenge discussion

I tried for 60 last year but this year I'll set my sights a little lower. Amazingly, out of 114 books read last year, I only got to 20-something for the challenge.

I'll try harder this year.

and we're off. I'm starting this year with Kansas City Lightning by Stanley Crouch, a sort-of biography of Charlie Parker. If you're a jazz fan or a fan of Parker, you don't want to miss this one.

#2. Well, made it to two books so far -- sheesh! 2014's first month was filled with wonderful NEW books. I'm sliding this one in in between -- The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler. If you like hardboiled crime or classic crime fiction, you'll love it.

#3 is Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely. 45 more to go.

Welcome back, Nancy! Three down--great start!

Back with #4, and it's a good one. I just finished The Shock of the Fall, by Nathan Filer. Seriously ... don't miss this one.

44 to go

#5 -- People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo - and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up. It is one of the most intelligent nonfiction books of true crime I've ever read. Ignore the posters who say just watch the story on Dateline.

At number six, I have The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje. This is a book you read for the writing -- it's just amazing.

btw, I happen to have an extra copy if anyone (in the US) wants it. I'll pay postage.

#7 before I go back to contemporary books not on last year's tbr is Madam Crowl's Ghost & Other Stories, by Sheridan Le Fanu. Probably a bit tame for readers of contemporary horror, but for those who enjoy the classics, well, it's pretty darn good.

# 8 is A Season in Carcosa, ed. Joseph Pulver, Sr. No, I didn't read it because of True Detective (it's been on my tbr pile for some time), but because. I love weird/cosmic fiction. Read Chambers' King in Yellow first, or The Hastur Cycle before this one. It will make much more sense. Definitely well above the mainstream.

Nancy wrote: "At number six, I have The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje. This is a book you read for the writing -- it's just amazing.

btw, I happen to have an extra copy if anyone (in the U..."

-- book has been given away.

#9, More King in Yellow Madness with The Hastur Cycle, a collection edited by Robert M. Price. This is also the first entry in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu Fiction series.

Nancy wrote: "#9, More King in Yellow Madness with The Hastur Cycle, a collection edited by Robert M. Price. This is also the first entry in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu Fiction series."

#10 is a standout book --The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown. Do yourself a huge favor and read this one.

11 and 12: (yay, 1/4 of the way through) :
#11 is Mysteries of the Worm, a book of Lovecraftian tales by Robert Bloch (the author of Psycho) edited by Robert Price. This one was fun, especially his Egyptian-themed weird-fiction stories.

#12: A lot more serious in tone, The Night Guest, by Fiona MacFarlane, finished before daylight this morning leaving me unable to sleep.