January list of books read - might even be complete!!!

My other half has been having some medical issues so I've been spending lots and lots of time in waiting rooms. These are in no particular order, just as I remember them:
Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelley - nice fun cat mystery.
The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton - mystery was pretty easy to figure out, but the book was quite interesting aside from that.
Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival. What an amazing book. Don't want to read anything that intense again for awhile!
Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton
Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton
I also re-read The Ruins of Isis by Marion Zimmer Bradley (not sure if that counts or not!) which I once again found both entertaining and intriguing. It's a bit more harsh world for the average male than The Gate To Women's Country, that's for sure!
I'm also planning to re-read some Those Who Hunt the Night and Traveling With the Dead so I can get into Blood Maidens. Barbara Hambly's books always thrill me, and her writing style is to my brain what fine music is to the ears. Tremendous gift for language there. I love her, I worship her, I feel unworthy to touch .... well, let's not get carried away. And I had not planned to re-read Dragonsbane just yet (read it in December) but apparently that's what triggers the link for B. Hambly.
I may have read A Bleeding of Innocents in January but it may have been in December. Hard to keep track when you're not focused on that at the time of reading. Nice, tight mystery, interesting characters, but she's no Elizabeth George. I think I also read The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey. It was good but I was a bit disappointed. I'll try another one of hers based on her reputation but then I'll be done with her. Any suggestions?

Welcome! Sorry your other half is having problems, but I'm glad you're able to use that to get some good reading done.

Just finished Codgerspace by Alan Dean Foster. Light-hearted sci-fi, very enjoyable indeed. Filled with interesting ideas, humor and excellent takes on human nature. Once you get away from the movie novelizations he's done, his work is fresh and creative.

Thanks for your message, Drneutron. We've got four more weeks to go on this treatment. Any good thoughts wandering loose out there are welcome to drop by.

Hi, Ms. Cat - I assume it's Ms.
We seem to have some reading interests in common, and I surely intend to get to Unbroken, for example. (My father flew a B-24 in the Pacific Theater.) I'm not trying to teach anybody to suck eggs, but have you read Deborah Crombie? I have grown to like her at least as well as I like E. George, maybe more since What Came Before He Shot Her. How about Margaret Maron?
You make me think that I should look at Barbara Hambly, which I have never done. Meanwhile, I'm making up time with C.J. Cherryh, whom I had never read before I came to LT.

Yes, I'm a Ms. :)
I love Deborah Crombie. I hadn't read her for awhile and decided to start over again from the first one (which I've also done for E George). I try not to leave myself only one book in a series to read... Still haven't read the last Inspector Morse; I about crapped myself when I tore open the shipping box and was confronted by "Morse's Last Mystery." One of these days I will gird my loins and read it. I haven't read "What came before" (or the last several before it) so please don't spoil it for me. I've read Margaret Maron but not for a really long time; may pick her back up again. So many books, so little time...

Crombie is one of my favorite authors too!

Just read Divergent in like a day; have to read Insurgent for a book club I belong to so I figured it was best to read the first book in the trilogy. I'm not ashamed to say I really enjoyed it, heck of a ride!!! I bet it makes a great movie. Really interesting premise, well thought out, a strong offering in the SF/distopian field.

I finished reading The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse by Leann Sweeney. Good mystery, strong characters though I felt she stretched credibility a bit at the end.
I have no idea what my count is so far. One of these days I'll take the time to go back and do that. But in the meantime... there are more books to be read!

Insurgent is a worthy sequel to Divergent. I enjoyed both books far more than I expected.
I am almost finished reading Jo Bannister's Charisma. I hope I didn't figure it out as early as I think I did, but I've still got sixty pages or so to be proven wrong in.

Jo Bannister's Charisma was quite good - one of the reviewers rightly praised the characterizations - but regrettably I guessed the who and the why about halfway through. Maybe I've read too many murder mysteries. Maybe I'm too much of a cynic. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Murder at the Galactic Writers' Society by Janet Asimov. Some other readers rated it quite poorly; perhaps they were more into SF than mysteries. I enjoy both equally. The mystery was really well done, excellently plotted. I enjoyed the process of the 'new' android learning about herself and her world and her emotive circuits while trying to figure out the mystery. I thought Janet Asimov did a good job of growing this character.

Well, I count 14 books so far; guess I'd better get a little more serious if I want to make the 75 mark!

Read Beauty by Tepper. Took me longer than I expected. I enjoyed it, may read it again in the future to be sure I've absorbed everything.

Also started leap of faith by Queen Moor. Pretty interesting so far. That will make 16.

Finished Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor. Very interesting reading. I learned a great deal from this book that I'd had no idea of before.
Also read Gabriella Herkert Catnapped. The plot was iffy in spots but I really enjoyed the characters. This bring my total to 18.

Almost done with A Spell for Chameleon - what a hoot!!! I'm sorry I didn't discover this series sooner. I was actually turned on to it by finding a battered edition of Crewel Lye - A Caustic Yarn, I was just so tickled by the title I had to grab it. And so, no doubt, anothter Xanth addict is born.

Spell for a Chameleon gets me to 19; I followed that up with The Cat, the Professor and the Poison by Leann Sweeney. That was pretty fun and a better effort than her debut of the serious. Next I re-read city by Clifford D. Simak, bringing me up to 21 so far. What a wonderful book. :)

Drat, I left out Family Honor by Robert B. Parker. This is the introduction to the Sunny Randall series. I'd kind of left Robert B Parker to the side in the last ten years or so - Spenser had palled on me a bit, and after Robert Urich died I just couldn't bring myself back to those books. I read the introductory Jesse Stone Night Passage and was quite impressed - though deeply appalled at what network television had done to it in making a TV movie out of it. I might have enjoyed the movie if I hadn't read the book (Tom Selleck is, after all, quite drool-worthy!) but they just cut the guts out of that book when they adapted it for television. Blech. That aside, I love Sunny Randall !!! I wouldn't have thought a hard-boiled writer could capture a feminine character, but kudos to Mr. Parker for a masterful characterization and a great mystery. That delightful book brings my total so far to 22. I'm very sorry we lost Mr. Parker; he still had it even in his 'declining' years.

Let's see... 23 - A Wicked Way to Burn by Margaret Miles and 24 - Too Soon For Flowers by the same author. Enjoyed these greatly. Does anyone know if the Longfellow character is based on the actual historical Longfellow?
Also read 25 - Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson. That book really packs a punch. Very impressive lady.
I've been working on family history a lot lately so I've been reading scraps of old histories of various areas, which do not of course count... :)

I missed putting in 26 - March by Geraldine Brooks. This work neatly catered to my twin obsessions of 19th century American literature and 19th century American History. Brooks did an excellent job of creating a history for the absent father who left his nearly destitute family to go be a chaplain in the Civil War. I can't count how many times I've read Little Women over the years, and one is left wondering what happened to Father in the war. Well, Father had a pretty rough time of it. Parts of this book were deeply disturbing, but very believable in the context of war. I enjoyed this work very much despite the sometimes horrific details.

27- A Rant of Ravens by Christine Goff. Decent.
28- I wallowed in Northanger Abbey again and immensely enjoyed it, again. That woman was a genius. How I wish she were still writing!!!! Well, maybe she is, but not so we can read it...
29- inhaled, in less than one day, Poison Pen by Sheila Lowe. Delightful mystery, great characters, excellently plotted and carried out.
Too many more of these days at the VA hospital and I may run out of books.... NOT.

30 - Aunt Dimity's Good Deed -- :) Aunt Dimity is always a pleasant read.

Let's see, I've slacked off a bit on my recordkeeping.
I read Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen, which was a riot. That makes 31. Also read Them Bones by Carolyn Haines. Not bad for a debut mystery. That makes 32. I feel like I'm missing a couple so I'll probably be adding more later as my brain kicks in.

Aha!!! Number 33 is A Nose for Justice by Rita Mae Brown. She got a bit preachy in parts but overall it was an enjoyable book. I'd give it a 3.5-4. Love little Baxter.

Irregardless of Murder is number 34. Kind of a ho-hum mystery but the characters were enjoyable. I really loved Miss Prentice's pet peeves of English. Unfortunately, the English-teacher-sleuth has been done nearly to death. I give it 3.5.

It took me a couple of weeks to read Grunts! by Mary Gentle. This was an incredibly creative piece of work, really amazed me in a variety of ways. At first I was pretty put off by some of the graphic violence, but once I changed stride and took it in the spirit it was intended it didn't bother me so much. I give it a solid 4. And what a hoot for an ending!!! That is Number 35.
Number 36, Heroes Proved by Oliver North. I did NOT purchase it but borrowed it from another book club member. He is not MY hero. And I have to say it takes a special kind of chutzpah to refer to yourself as a hero in your own futuristic novel (set in 2032, if I recall... Maybe 2042?) At any rate, it was a passable thriller with some interesting features and not bad to read if you could swallow the All-American Lesson being put forth. He gets pretty heavy-handed with his sermonizing no matter how you look at it. Overall, not a bad effort even to my non-Ollie-North-loving self. I give it a 3.
Number 37, Putting on the Dog by Cynthia Baxter. Very fun, fast-moving mystery that was actually a challenge to figure out right up to the end (though it didn't hurt that the victim was a dirtbag that a number of people were only too happy to see meet his demise). I bestow upon thee a rating of 4.

Number 38: Lead a Horse to Murder, number 3 in the Reigning Cats and Dogs series. This was also a well-done mystery, left me guessing to the end.
Number 39: Dr. Nightingale Comes Home by Lydia Adamson. Very light mystery, protagonist seemed a bit immature to me. There was no way to figure out the whodunit part since vital information was not given to the reader. Hopefully in the next installment, Dr. Nightingale will grow up.

Number 40: Woman at Point Zero by Nawal el Saadawi. Reread for a book club. Still a searing condemnation of Islamic cultures' degradation of women. Awesome book.

Number 41: Chindi by Jack McDevitt.
I thought I was getting the first in the series, but this one is third... wonderful book, tremendous vision... what a writer!

#42: The Winds and the Waves by Dean Hughes, read for book club.
Sigh. Clearly not going to make the 75 books... and it seemed so easy. Maybe next year.

#43: The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt. Awesome!!

#44: Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter. I really enjoyed his take on the history of English and I thought he made some excellent points. It was a very learned book that was at the same time quite readable. There was only one point where I thought he got quite pontificatory. Yep, just made that word up. This was more than balanced out with his sharp wit and clever turns of phrase.
#45: Deepsix by Jack McDevitt. What a writer! What an imagination! I think I'm in love.

#46 - Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks. I have tremendous admiration for Ms. Brooks' daring in being a Middle East correspondent while also being a Jew. She went into the homes of women at all levels of society and studied the Koran meticulously, as well as the Hadith. What she has produced is a wonderfully informative book. I already realized the horrific situation of many Islamic women, but many of the details were lost on me.
#47 - After the somewhat grim narrative on the plight of many Islamic women, I felt the need for some nice light-hearted brain candy. Cat Trick by Sofie Kelly really did the trick for me. Very enjoyable series. I love the cats Hercules and Owen. Some cats make you wonder if they have special powers! Alan Dean Foster had addressed cats' apparently magical abilities in one of his books, Cat-a-lyst. You think you've shut them up in a room, then Doh! here they come, looking like they've just swallowed a small finch.
#48 - Her Royal Spyness was another light-hearted (except for the murders) read to cheer me up through a three-day migraine and a severely swollen knee. I really enjoy the character of Georgie, 34th-in-line to the Throne in 1930. Those penniless royal connections did have a difficult time with the social constraints on what they were allowed to do for a living. I can't think what HRH will say when she finds out that Georgie's been cleaning houses to get by while trying to keep up appearances as a member of the royal family. The mystery itself was excellent, well-plotted with just enough to let you figure it out if you were sharp but not so much as to give it away prematurely. Well done!
#49 - A Royal Pain, the next book in the series by Rhys Bowen. A worthy follow-up to the first in the series. Georgie continues to grow as a character, stepping out of her sheltered upbringing (figuratively, since the old manse Castle Rannoch left all the windows open all year round so it was only marginally sheltering its inhabitants).
It's been a pretty grim week for me but I got a lot of good reading done. I'm feeling slightly guilty about all the brain candy, but what the heck - better to read pleasant enjoyable books when one is feeling poorly than to slog through descriptions of the horrific things various cultures do to their unfortunate women. Personally I feel that any woman from one of these intensely Islamic countries ought to be allowed asylum and free transport out of these cesspools if she wishes it. Of course it's against the law for her to travel without the written consent of her master (father, husband, son, nephew, whoever) so the number of women who would be able to take advantage of it would probably be abysmally small, and probably from a decent family who treated their women fairly well.
I'm pretty much banned from gardening by physical constraints (doctor statement in front of husband who will vigorously remind me of it whenever I set foot out the door) so I may well make the mark of 75 by the end of the year. I've read four books in five days here.

Just realized I skipped over Copycat Killing -rats! I like to read these things in order. That's two in a couple of months I've inadvertently read out of order. Oh well. Will read it immediately! I must suffer through another delightful Magical Cats mystery, drat!

50- Copycat Killing by Sofie Kelly. Excellent job!!!

51 - Through Cloud and Sunshine by Dean Hughes. Excellent story, teeny bit preachy in parts but still a well-done novel. I have enjoyed this series so far.

52 - Slightly Chipped by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. Very enjoyable book about... collecting books. :)

53 - Buried Bones by Carolyn Haines. Excellently plotted mystery, a stronger effort that the first (this is the second in the Mississippi Delta mystery series). Lines worth noting: "I doubt if even his mother grieved his death... He was a misanthropic little sadist. It's a blessing he wasn't allowed to reproduce." Love it!

Let's see...
54 - Newton's Cannon by J. Gregory Keyes. Five stars!
55 - Mew is for Murderand
56 - Cattery Row by Clea Simon. I warmed up to the protagonist more in the second book, though she does seem a teeny bit whiny.
Final tally for the year: 56 books read.
Goal - NOT ATTAINED. :(

Meh, 75's over-rated. 56 is just fine. The main question - did you read good books? :)

I read excellent books!!! I discovered some new writers and enjoyed every book I read. Well, maybe not so much the ones about Muslim women, but they were still worthwhile reads. Kind of like Saving Private Ryan is an excellent movie... and I would never, ever watch it again.