Books

Read TWELVE (12) mystery & suspense novels in 2012

This was the challenge I signed up for in late December and I’m here to report that I finished it in April and just kept going in case I did the second level which was to read 24.  I have now done that so this challenge is OVER!  In the process I finished all the Navajo Mysteries by Hillerman and started on series by Perry and Childs for future reading.

1-12
A Red Herring without Mustard, Alan Bradley
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Alan Bradley
The Fallen Man, Tony Hillerman
Listening Woman, Tony Hillerman
The Cater Street Hangman, Anne Perry
Callendar Square, Anne Perry
People of Darkness, Tony Hillerman
The Dark Wind, Tony Hillerman
The Ghostway, Tony Hillerman
Paragon Walk, Anne Perry
Skinwalkers, Tony Hillerman
A Thief of Time, Tony Hillerman

13-24
Talking God, Tony Hillerman
Coyote Waits, Tony Hillerman
Sacred Clowns, Tony Hillerman
Midnight in Austenland, Shannon Hale
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, Alexander McCall Smith
Hunting Badger, Tony Hillerman
The Wailing Wind, Tony Hillerman
The Sinister Pig, Tony Hillerman
Skeleton Man, Tony Hillerman
The Shape Shifter, Tony Hillerman
Death by Darjeeling, Laura Childs
Gunpowder Green, Laura Childs

Well, I hit a milestone yesterday.  The year is only half over and I’ve read 100 books.  Never done that before.  Granted, many were juvenile and young adult as I tried to empty my shelves to donate to daltongirl’s classroom library, but still.  That’s a lot of books.  I don’t think I’m going to stay on this track for the rest of the year because I have some adult books I want to get through.  But here’s to reading…excessively!  Squeee!

I have a long-standing goal of reading all the Newbery award winners.  This began when I was young and was renewed when Brian was in elementary school and decided to take up the challenge.  I read along with him then, but as he grew older and moved on to other reading material, I also moved on.  Again.  A few years ago, I decided that I would focus again on this perpetual challenge and try to knock out a few more each year.  To date I’ve read 64 of the 91 books so honored.  So I’m making progress.  Early in 2011 I realized that since my favorite genre (by far) is historical fiction, I should be reading the books given the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.  (Because who doesn’t need more reading challenges in their life?)  To be eligible for the award, a book must have been published as a book intended for children or young people, it must be set in the New World (Canada, Central or South America, or the United States), it must be published by a publisher in the United States, and it must be written in English by a citizen of the United States.

Before I decided to read them all, I had only read 5 of the 29, so the rest have been read during 2011-2012.  Herein is the list with my star rating from my goodreads.com reviews.  I read some really excellent books and a couple of duds, but for the most part, the books that have received this award have all been worthy.  I enjoyed stretching myself and getting them all read.  Someday I’ll finish all the Newberys.

2012, Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt, 2 stars
2011, Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer, 4 stars
2010, Matt Phelan, The Storm in the Barn, 3 stars
2009, Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains, 5 stars
2008, Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton, 3 stars
2007, Ellen Klages, The Green Glass Sea, 3 stars
2006, Louise Erdrich, The Game of Silence, 4 stars
2005, A LaFaye, Worth, 5 stars
2004, Richard Peck, The River Between Us, 4 stars
2003, Shelley Pearsall, Trouble Don’t Last, 3 stars
2002, Mildred D. Taylor, The Land, 4 stars
2001, Janet Taylor Lisle, The Art of Keeping Cool, 4 stars
2000, Miriam Bat-Ami, Two Suns in the Sky, 2 stars
1999, Harriette Robinet, Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule, 4 stars
1998, Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust, 4 stars
1997, Katherine Paterson, Jip, His Story, 4 stars
1996, Theodore Taylor, The Bomb, 4 stars
1995, Graham Salisbury, Under the Blood Red Sun, 3 stars
1994, Paul Fleischman, Bull Run, 4 stars
1993, Michael Dorris, Morning Girl, 3 stars
1992, Mary Downing Hahn, Stepping on the Cracks, 4 stars
1991, Pieter Van Raven, A Time of Troubles, 4 stars
1990, Carolyn Reeder, Shades of Grey, 4 stars
1989, Lyll Becerra de Jenkins, The Honorable Prison, 5 stars
1988, Patricia Beatty, Charley Skedaddle, 3 stars
1987, Scott O’Dell, Streams to the River, River to the Sea, 3 stars
1986, Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall, 4 stars
1985, Avi, The Fighting Ground, 4 stars
1984, Elizabeth George Speare, The Sign of the Beaver, 3 stars

Read TWELVE (12) mystery & suspense novels in 2012

I had fun with this one because I had some mysteries on my shelves that I wanted to read this year.  Even though I’m done with the challenge, I want to keep reading the Navajo Mysteries and Charlotte & Thomas Pitt novels because they’re just so fun.  And I’m a series reader.  Can you tell?  So without further ado, here’s what I read for this challenge and links to my reviews can be found at Book Chick City’s challenge page.

A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce #3), by Alan Bradley
I Am Half Sick Of Shadows (Flavia de Luce #4), by Alan Bradley
The Fallen Man (Navajo Mysteries, #12), by Tony Hillerman
Listening Woman (Navajo Mysteries, #3), by Tony Hillerman
The Cater Street Hangman (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #1), by Anne Perry
Callander Square (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #2), by Anne Perry
People of Darkness (Navajo Mysteries, #4), by Tony Hillerman
The Dark Wind (Navajo Mysteries, #5), by Tony Hillerman
The Ghostway (Navajo Mysteries, #6), by Tony Hillerman
Paragon Walk (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #3), by Anne Perry
Skinwalkers (Navajo Mysteries, #7), by Tony Hillerman
A Thief of Time (Navajo Mysteries, #8), by Tony Hillerman

I am doing awesome with reading challenges this year.  I have completely finished three, done the first two levels of the Mount TBR challenge and am just planning to keep going until the end of year and see how high I climb, and I’m about halfway through the 50 States Challenge.  So far with that I’ve just been marking the states I’ve happened to read, but to finish it this year I’m going to have to do some more targeted reading.