Challenge: 50 Books discussion

Happy New Year fellow challengers!

No one fall over. Book #1 is NON-FICTION!!!
1. Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science, Ronald L. Numbers & Kostas Kampourakis. I like a little wit with my science, & this was a little on the dry side. Still learned quite a bit - or had my own reasoning confirmed.

hello piece-of-cake Donna. NON-FICTION!! look at you setting up 2016 to be your best challenge ever!

Thanks Sooz. Don't be too disappointed when book # 2 turns out to be paranormal romance. I'm under the tyranny of a library due date.

Donna wrote: "Thanks Sooz. Don't be too disappointed when book # 2 turns out to be paranormal romance. I'm under the tyranny of a library due date."

damn tyranny!! rise up and defeat the overlords!!

As expected.
2. Sweet Ruin, Kresley Cole. Decidedly not one of my favorites in the series, but still a pretty good read which introduced a whole new branch of immortals.

3. Mockingbird, Walter Tevis. So I had a woo-woo moment when I read the notes at the end of the book and realized I had started a book by the author of The Man Who Fell to Earth on the same day that David Bowie passed away. Felt this one was more than a little prescient.

Donna wrote: "As expected.
2. Sweet Ruin, Kresley Cole. Decidedly not one of my favorites in the series, but still a pretty good read which introduced a whole new branch of immort..."

I really liked Mockingbird a lot and wonder why it is not better known ... to me it belongs right up there with Orwell's 1984

I can't recall how it ended up on my reserve list at the GBPL, and unusual that I've never read, or knew he wrote, his better known works like TMWFTE or The Hustler. At some point I'll back track to the others because this was some really innovative writing.

4. Good Eats The Early Years, Alton Brown. I just finished the best steak I have EVER cooked. Thank you Mr. Brown.

Donna wrote: "4. Good Eats: The Early Years Good Eats The Early Years, Alton Brown. I just finished the best steak I have EVER cooked. Thank you Mr. Brown."

I liked Good Eats (the show). I'm not a cook by any stretch of the imagination (if I put peas or celery in my Top Ramen, I feel like I've really achieved something fancy), but I always like listening to Alton talk about the science behind food, which he even does during little side comments on Cutthroat Kitchen.

It's one of the things I love about his books. It's not just a compilation of recipes. It's all that science (with diagrams & charts) plus a recap of the episodes and little asides of behind the scenes trivia. So there's a lot going to make them a Good Read as well as a source of Good Eats. Honestly, though, BEST STEAK EVER and so freakin easy I could kick myself for not trying his method sooner.

5. Trailer Park Fae, Lilith Saintcrow. Urban fantasy full of tricksy sidhe.

6. Dragon Storm, Katie MacAlister. Huge improvement over the last series installment.

7. Secret Sisters, Jayne Ann Krentz. Another romantic suspense outing from an old favorite.

8. Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante, Susan Elia MacNeal. Another exquisitely researched outing for Maggie Hope. And I'd vote for the Roosevelt martini, if I drank martinis....

9. Raziel, Kristina Douglas. Meh. Started before #8 and easily set aside for it.

10. The Bookseller, Cynthia Swanson. A debut novel that puts her on the writer to watch list.

11. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Katarina Bivald. Apparently February is debut novel month. Just when you think it's a just slightly above average read there's this:

"Amy might not have had the most exciting life over the last few years, up here in her room, but she must have been fighting death to the very end. Sara could understand why she had been in denial for so long. It must have been a frightening realization: so many books she would never get to pick up, so many stories that would happen without her, so many authors she would never get to discover."

And this:

"Though I don't think that justice is the main argument against classics lists. Or rather, in a way it's clearly a question of justice, but not against those that don't make it. No, the books I feel sorry for are the ones they add to these lists. Take Mark Twain again. Once, when Tom was young, he came to me complaining that he had to read Huckleberry Finn for junior high. Huckleberry Finn! Our critics and educators have got a lot to answer for when they manage to make young boys see stories about rebellion and adventure as a chore."

12. Wicked Sexy Liar, Christina Lauren. One of the few writers of YA/NA that keep me from totally writing off this genre. Gotta question the title though, because it seemed to me that Luke was a pretty honest person. And if I don't get a Not Joe story, I'm going to be damned disappointed.

13. Rubbernecker, Belinda Bauer. Really good fast paced mystery. Lots of layers, lots of twists and really great pacing.

14. The Opposite of Everyone, Joshlyn Jackson. Finally, a five star read! An amazing feat of characterizations.

15. Blackbirds, Chuck Wendig. Meh.

16. Shadow's End, Thea Harrison. A series that never fails.

17. My American Duchess, Eloisa James.

18. Stripped. Lauren Dane.
19. Coming Back, Lauren Dane. Mini binge accomplished.
20. An Absent Mind, Eric Hill. Short book=short review: Shallow.

Without any planning on my part, last week turned into a Molly O'Keefe binge read. It started when I happened on the second Cross Creek book at HPB.
21. Can't Hurry Love, Molly O'Keefe.
And since I'd been sitting on book 3:
22. Crazy Thing Called Love, Molly O'Keefe
Then, coincidentally, the GBPL coughed up her new non-non de plume book
23. The Truth About Him, M. O'Keefe.
And since I was on a roll, my lunch time Kindle read became one of her early Harlequins
24. Dishing It Out, Molly O'Keefe.
The amount of good book noise I made this week probably disturbed the neighbors.

And that leads to the first quarter round up:

Total books: 24
Non-fiction: 2 of which there were
Science: 2 (really, there's as much science in an Alton Brown cookbook as there are recipes)
Cookbook: 1
Fiction: 22 of which there were
Romance: 13
Mystery: 2
Urban Fantasy: 3
Science Fiction: 1
New to me authors: 8
New to me authors I won't be following: 3
Series/trilogy installments: 11
Series I won't be reading more of: 1
Novellas: 2

Half way there with plenty of year left! Woot, woot!
25. Silver on the Road, Laura Anne Gilman.

"I have been lacking a left hand for too long now. Are you strong enough for that, Isobel nee Lacoyo Tavora? Is the iron in your spine, the fire in your blood, proof against my forging?"

Really good fantasy with a re-imagined North America of the late 18th century.
26. Peanut Goes To School and
27. Devil's Gate, Thea Harrison. Two novellas from the Elder Races series. Really wished tthe second one had been a lot longer.
28. The Obsession, Nora Roberts. No point in reviewing. It's Nora Roberts. That should say it all.

Donna wrote: "Half way there with plenty of year left! Woot, woot!"

Wow! Congratulations! Keep it up :)

29. The Summer Before The War, Helen Simonson. Highly anticipated. Entirely satisfying. A magnificent read.

30. The Undoing, Call of Crows #2, Shelly Laurentston. Another magnificent read for entirely different reasons. Brodie Hawaii rules!

31. One With You, Sylvia Day. The series finally ends with some out of left field twists, but a HEA, none-the-less.

32. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, Jonas Jonasson. Epic satirical farce. Clever and well executed.

33. The Beast, J.R. Ward. Fhool me once, shame on you. Fhool me twice... thrice, shame on me. This time I swhear, ahbsolutely, that I will not do this to myself again. Nhever ever.

34. How To Tell A Lie, Delphine Dryden. Smexy times among academics. Great fun.

35. Bride In The Bargain, Deanne Gist. Based on the true story of the Mercer Girls, my inner 10 year old Here Come The Brides fangirl did a happy dance the entire time I was reading this.

36. Lick, Kylie Scott. Rock Star/NA romance. Nuff said.

I've been traveling, so this will be a long post:
37. A Dance In The Moonlight, Sherry Thomas. Excellent stuck in a TSA line for 40 minutes read.

38. Trade Me, Courtney Milan. Every time a think a genre isn't for me, one of my favorite authors will take it on and show just how good it can be. Best New Adult book EVER.

39. Delicate Ink, Carrie Ann Ryan. Meh.

40. The Game Plan, Kristen Callihan. See the above comment about Trade Me. I guess New Adult can be catnip. Especially with an offensive lineman sized beta hero who's not afraid to strap on a Gerry Carry and diaper bag to help out a bud.

41. A Study in Silks, Emma Jane Holloway. Steampunk and Sherlock Holmes niece. 'Nuff said.

42. Wolf At the Door, MaryJanice Davidson. Bwahahahahahaha. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed her snarky snappy voice.

43. 'til Death Do Us Part, Amanda Quick. Perfect sunny afternoon on the patio read.

Wow, traveling sure pumps up the read list.

And now a word from our sponsors: This book brought to me by the GoodReads FirstReads program for which I am deeply grateful and recommend everyone check out because you get awesome books like this dropped on your doorstep.
44. A League of Dragons, Naomi Novik. The final book in a uniformly entertaining series. Temeraire and Lawrence how I shall miss you.

45. Carter Bravo's Christmas Bride, Christine Rimmer. Not my usual cuppa, but I signed up to review it for the Smart Bitches Trashy Books annual RITA review challenge. I seem to recall category romances being better than this.

46. The Assistants, Camille Perri. Underpaid executive assistants hatch a plot to pay off their school loans. Which would have been instantly caught by any halfway decent accountant. Still, pretty entertaining in that we've all had this fantasy.

47. Noble Masquerade, Kristi Ann Hunter.

48. A Duchess in Name, Amanda Weaver.

Coincidentally books 47 & 48 both involved relationships that build around letters. 48 did a much better job.

49. Act Like It, Lucy Parker. An excellent little novella full of sass and snap and a snarly, surly hero. My favorite.

50. Of Noble Family, Mary Robinette Kowal. Jane and Vincent travel to the West Indies where they find an estate in disarray and slaves on the edge of revolt. Neither of which is the worst thing they confront. Sigh, another fine series comes to an end.

Happily book 50 was a really enjoyable one.

Congratulations! With 30 books to go and six months to read them you are well on your way to your goal for the year.

Thanks EX.

Time for the second quarter round up!
Total books: 26, all fiction, of which there were:

Romance: 17
Contemporary fiction: 3
Mystery: 1
Urban Fantasy: 2
Fantasy: 3
Steampunk: 1
New to me authors: 11
New to me authors I won't be following: 3
Series/trilogy installments: 13
Series I won't be reading more of: 2, really nhever
Series enders: 4
Novellas: 3
Total waste of my time: 2

Wow! I haven't posted since the day before I left on my Outlander vacation!! So, fast and dirty and not necessarily in order.
51. The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, Mariana Zapata. Mostly read on the porch of my cabin in the North Carolina hills. Liked it, but not as much as others.
52. Bay of Sighs, Nora Roberts.
Perfect post vacation decompression read.
53. The Rogue Not Taken, Sarah MacLean.
54. Tremaine's True Love, Grace Burrowes.
55. Saga, Volume 6, Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples. Always a spectacular read.
56. Target Engaged, M.L. Buchman.
57. Allegiance of Honor, Nalini Singh. A nice little round up for the fist part of the Psy/Changling series with hints and threads for the next series of books. Great White Shark Changling please, please, please!!!
58. How Not To Fall, Emily Foster. Science + Smexy romance = catnip. Big thumbs up!
59. I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid. Thanks Sooz! A creepy, twisted little read.
60. Troublemaker, Linda Howard. After so many disappointing (The Bear honestly, worst book) outings lately, you'd think I'd give up, but sometimes loyalty is rewarded. More in the vein of her older books and almost as enjoyable.
61. Burn Down The Night, M. O'Keefe. Despite many reasons this is categorically NOT my catnip, totally gobbled it down.
62. The Do It List, Jillian Stone. Really hating that my favorite historical romance writers keep writing YA books and writing them so well.
63. Diablo Lake: Moonstruck, Lauren Dane.
64. The Heart of It, M. O'Keefe Amazing how some authors can do so much with so few pages.
65. Thomas, the Jaded Gentlemen book 1, Grace Burrowes.

Yes, I disappeared. What can I say? Life. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year with lots of books you love.

That's impressive you read 65 books through August! All of us have times when reading has to move down the priority list for awhile. Happy New Year!