Mount TBR Challenge 2024 discussion

Wow! I am really surprised as well as delighted that I am climbing my owned TBR so well. This is exciting. Another 12 books to go.

This challenge has not only gotten me to choose an owned book more frequently than I used to do, but it has gotten me working on that long list of downloaded Kindle books! Very grateful.

Books on tap for this climb:

The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin - Kindle. Started on my Scotland trip.

A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence - Kindle

Black Hills

Good Poems

Lovesong: Becoming a Jew

Kate : the Journal of a Confederate Nurse

1. Suspect by Robert Crais

I read this book for a challenge with an animal POV. The animal in this case is a service dog who was retired and ended up with an ex-military man with PTSD. Very good...and especially liked the dog's POV as things advanced. 4*

Got a notice that I had not indicated a finish date for The Frank Bennett Adirondack Mountain Mystery Series #1-3 by S. W. Hubbard, which I had one book left to read as I read #2 on 3/24. I did finish reading this bundled book packet while traveling in Scotland, but I had to estimate the date of the last book. I chose my final travel day as it was a long day.

So...I am now adding to this climb, the two books finished this year in this bundled group.

2. Blood Knot of The Frank Bennett Adirondack Mountain Mystery Series #1-3

3. Dead Drift of The Frank Bennett Adirondack Mountain Mystery Series #1-3

Both were good mysteries and overall rated 4*. Kindle books added to TBR 8/14/22.

4. The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin - Kindle. Started on my Scotland trip. Added to TBR 8/20/2020

I finally finished this book. 3*. Nonfiction. Not my cup of tea as it was about the Prime Minister of Sweden's assassination. The first half of the book was a recap of Steig Larrson's investigation as a journalist. Most of it had to do with right wing extremist groups in South Africa, Sweden and Russia. Dull....and then the second half was by the author and was his investigation using Steig's notes and trying to solve the unsolved case.

5. Good Poems by Garrison Keillor

I am not one who reads much poetry and so a book of 476p is a bit daunting! Still I gave it 3* and did enjoy much of it.

6. Black Hills by Nora Roberts

This is a stand-alone book set in the Black Hills, South Dakota. I enjoyed the push-pull of the relationship between Cooper and Lil and how their childhood infatuation found its footing in their adult lives. Since there is a killer in the story who targets Lil, the writer skirts with the thriller genre without going all in. This suited me just fine. 4*

7. Touching the Fire: Buffalo Dancers, the Sky Bundle, and Other Tales by Roger Welsch

This is a set of short stories about the Nehawka people and their sacred items. I found it enlightening, instructive, and delightful. 3*

8. A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

This book has been on my TBR since 2014 and a planned read for challenges since winter 2017. In fact, it is the only book still left on that old challenge.

Imagine my delight to find it a wonderful story...and my dismay at having waited so long to read it. 4*

9. Lovesong: Becoming a Jew by Julius Lester

This is a memoir of Julius Lester's journey back to Judaism. He had an ancestor who was a rabbi. He grew up in the segregated South as a black man. Most of the book is about the struggle he felt as he grew with finding his own place in life. That place eventually was found in Judaism. 3.5*

10. James Earl Jones, Voices and Silences by James Earl Jones

I learned a lot about a man I knew little about. I loved his voice, but I realized as I read this book that I had seen little of his work. Still admire him, but more so now for how he lived. 3*

11. A Walk on the Beach: Tales of Wisdom from an Unconventional Woman by Joan Anderson

4*. A delightful story of a friendship, a finding of personal growth, and two amazing women.

12. The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, and The Accident by Elie Wiesel

This is a set of 3 stories with a continued primary protagonist. I expected it to be dark and troubling, but it didn't have that feel. It was more of a story of how the past determines the future. 4*

Finished this climb!