Tag: 2020 Retrospectives

21 books, 6643 pages (576 of those belonging to what’s likely going to be my fave of the year), with a 3.7 Star average. Also, I posted probably the largest number of non-review-ish posts that I’ve ever managed. That’s a pretty good month. Obviously, I would’ve liked more of everything, but that’s because I’m greedy.

Here’s what happened here in May.

		(still deciding)

	2		1
	1		0
	7		0
	4		1
	4
		Average =	3.7

“Traditionally” Published: 13
Self-/Independent Published: 8

• The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe: Parodies and Pastiches Featuring the Great Detective of West 35th Street by Josh Pachter, ed.: A Collection of Short Pieces Celebrating Nero Wolfe
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK VI., v.-viii.
• Bethlehem’s Brothers by Ronald Hera: First Century Historical Fiction about a Couple of Others Born in Bethlehem
• Audiobook Catch-Up Quick Takes on Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey, Jefferson Mays (Narrator); Heartless by Gail Carriger, Emily Gray (Narrator); Demon Born Magic by Jayne Faith, Amy Landon (Narrator); Stardust by Neil Gaiman; Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy, Eileen Stevens (Narrator); Funny, You Don’t Look Autistic by Michael McCreary; Paradise Valley by C.J. Box, Christina Delaine (Narrator)
• Auxiliary: London 2039 by Jon Richter: A Gripping Hardboiled Cyberpunk Read
• Apex Predator by M.R. Miller: Nothing goes According to These Plans
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK VI., ix.-xii.
• Every Day Matters: A Biblical Approach to Productivity by Brandon D. Crowe: Biblical Foundation, Sage Advice, and Helpful Examples
• The Sword-Edged Blonde (Audiobook) by Alex Bledsoe, Stefan Rudnicki: This Hard-Boiled Fantasy Mixes the Best of Both Genres
• The King of the Crows by Russell Day: Prescient. Gripping. Haunting. Unpredictable. What stories should be.
• Trophy Hunt by C. J. Box: Pickett takes on an X-Files-y case
• Noam’s Monsters by Shai Levinger, Kaustuv Brahmachari (Illustrator): A Young Boy Battles His Anxieties and Fears
• Breath Like the Wind at Dawn by Devin Jacobsen: Obscure When not Vile. A book that Simply Didn’t Work for Me.
• But For The Grace (Audiobook) by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson: DC Smith Investigates an(other) Unexpected Killing
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK VI., xii.-VII., iv.
• Classic Spenser: Mortal Stakes by Robert B. Parker
• The Tempus Project by Antony Johnston: High-Tech Methods Fuel a Very Old-School Thirst for Revenge
• Bullet Points about Burning Bright by Nick Petrie: There’s No Sophomore Slump in the Second Peter Ash Adventure
• Classic Spenser: Promised Land by Robert B. Parker
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK VII., v.-x.
• Catch-Up Quick Takes None Greater by Matthew Barrett; Alive by Gabriel N.E. Fluhrer; The Song of Songs by G. I. Williamson; The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity by Michael J. Kruger

Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th), I also wrote:

• Down the TBR Hole (5 of 24+)
• Just a Spoonful of Sugar—Non-Fiction to Smile With and Learn From
• Life in Books Tag
• Towel Day ’20: Do You Know Where Your Towel Is?
• Towel Day ’20: Some of my favorite Adams lines . . .
• A Few Quick Questions With…Ronald Hera
• Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 Opening Lines
• Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Opening Lines
• Top 5 Saturday: Retellings That Have Stuck With Me
• The Friday 56 for 5/28/20
• WWW Wednesday for May 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th.

How was your month?

Well, this is more like it: 25 titles, 7290+ pages (there was one e-short story that I didn’t get a page count on)—three thousand more than March. My average rating for the month was 3.56, which isn’t exactly my goal—but it still means I enjoyed just about everything I consumed. I’ve made a more concerted effort to make time to read over the last couple of weeks—and it seems to be paying off.

As with just about every person on the planet, I have no idea what the next month is really going to look like for me day-to-day (and I’m not sure I could tell you what it was like the last month…), so I’m not going to pretend to have an idea what I’ll be reading/writing about. We’ll see, right?

So, here’s what happened here in April.

	1		1
	1		0
	8		0
	6		0
	8
		Average =	3.56

“Traditionally” Published: 14
Self-/Independent Published: 11

• The Immortal Conquistador by Carrie Vaughn: Just who is the Vampire Rick, Anyway?
• Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs: Mercy Deals with Unexpected Threats from Every Direction
• Pub Day Post: A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones: Now that’s a first day on the job
• We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker: Hunting for Hope (and Life?) in a Hopeless Place
• Pub Day Post: Cheater’s Game by Paul Levine: Things Get Personal for this Defense Attorney
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK IV., xiv-BOOK V., viii.
• The Identity Thief by Alex Bryant: A Contemporary Hunt for Centuries-Old Power
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK V., ix.-xii.
• Quick Takes on Some Quick Reads: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Dating; Ice by Neil Lancaster; Shall We Gather by Alex Bledsoe
• The Poop Diaries by Abby Ross: These Plumbers have Seen and Smelled it All.
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK VI., i.-iv.
• Robert B. Parker’s Grudge Match by Mike Lupica: Sunny Randall’s Forced to Work for an Enemy as Lupica Settles into the Series
• The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkamp, Manuel Preitano (Illustrator): A Young Barbara Gordon’s First Case
• Fake Truth by Lee Goldberg: Ian Ludlow, Fake News, and the Return of the Soviet Union?
• Pub Day Post: Of Honey and Wildfires by Sarah Chorn: Love, Family, and Loss in a Western-Flavored Fantasy

Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th)

• • Dryad Teas Inspired by the Dresden Files
  • The Stay at Home Book Tag
  • The Wanderlust Book Tag
  • Down the TBR Hole (4 of 24+)
  • Top 5 Saturday: Sibling Relationships
  • Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 Books That Made Me Laugh
  • A Few Quick Questions With…Like the Wolfe Podcast (2 firsts for me: a podcast not an author, and 2 people responding) and Paul Levine (still don’t believe I got him to particpate)
  • WWW Wednesday for April 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th.

How was your month?

It’s hard with work right now, but given COVID-19, Sheltering at Home—and a (no kidding!) Earthquake in Idaho (of all places)—man, I need books to escape to and lose myself in. So I’m pretty glad that despite everything going on in the world and my life, I somehow managed to finish one more book than last month—18—with 4903+ pages (one was an Audible Original, so I have no idea what the page count would be) with an average rating of 3.94. I’m guessing that’s 500 pages less than Feb, even with the higher book count. Still, not too shabby.

So, anyway, here’s what happened here in March.

	3		0
	2		0
	5		0
	6		0
	2
		Average =	3.94

“Traditionally” Published: 12
Self-/Independent Published: 6

• House on Fire by Joseph Finder: Out for Vengeance, Heller Takes on a Pharmaceutical Giant
• Venators: Magic Unleashed (Audiobook) by Devri Walls, Daniel Thomas May: This Introduction to a Fantasy Series Continues to Entertain on my Third Time Through
• Catch-Up Quick Takes: The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues by Ellen Raskin; Bloody Acquisitions (Audiobook) by Drew Hayes, Kirby Heyborne; Dark Harvest Magic (Audiobook) by Jayne Faith, Amy Landon
• Avenge the Dead by Jackie Baldwin: Past Mistakes and Crimes Come Back to Haunt Dumfries
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK IV., i.-iv.
• Madam Tulip and the Serpent’s Tree by David Ahern: It Made me Happy to See that Derry and her Fortune-Telling Alter-Ego are Back
• The Starr Sting Scale by C.S. O’Cinneide: Gritty, Violent, Full of Heart. You’re gonna dig this one!
• False Value by Ben Aaronovitch: Peter Grant Gets a New Job and a Great Series Gets Better
• Dead Wrong by Noelle Holten: A Detective Struggles to Prove She Made the Right Arrest with Lives on the Line
• The In Between (Audiobook) by Michael Landweber, Brittany Pressley (Narrator), Mark Boyett (Narrator): When the Unthinkable Happens, What’s a Parent to Do?
• The K Team by David Rosenfelt: A New PI Trio Takes a Bite Out of Crime
• Joker by Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo (Illustrator): One night in Gotham and the tough guys tumble
• A Few Quick Thoughts about The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Audiobook) by Stuart Turton, James Cameron Stewart
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK IV., v.-viii.
• The Awful Truth About the Sushing Prize by Marco Ocram: Metaficton, Murders, and Tom Cruise, Oh My!
• Back to Reality: A Novel (Audiobook) by Mark Stay & Mark Oliver, Kim Bretton: A Parallel Universe/Body Swap Story Story Full of Laughs and Heart
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK IV., ix.-xiv.
• Everyday Prayer with John Calvin by Donald K. McKim: A helpful, but not overly-interesting devotional
• Classic Spenser: God Save the Child by Robert B. Parker

Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th ), I also wrote:

• Thoughts at the beginning of March
• Down the TBR Hole (3 of 24+)
• A Few Quick Questions With…Noelle Holten and Michael Landweber (a repeat customer!)
• Top 5 Saturday: Trilogies
• The Inside and Out Book Tag
• WWW Wednesday for March 11, 2020; March 18, 2020; and March 25

How was your month? I hope you are all safe, healthy and finding solace in something right now.

The short version: 17 books, 5715 pages, 3.6 Average. The same number of books as January, a thousand (or so) more pages (not sure how that worked), a decent average rating. Things are ramping up at work for a couple of months, and I’ll be stunned if my numbers don’t slim down a little until June. All in all, a pretty decent month (unless you compare what I did to my February Plans post…but we can ignore that, right?)

So, here’s what happened here in February.

	2l		0
	1		2
	6		0
	2		0
	4
		Average =	3.6

“Traditionally” Published: 10
Self-/Independent Published: 7

• The White Man’s Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon by Dana Schwartz, Jason Adam Katzenstein (Illustrator): A Guide to White Male Writers for White Male Writers (or those who want to be one)
• Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson, Tavia Gilbert (Narrator): An Unusual Mother and Son are at the center of this charming family drama.
• San Diego Dead by Mark Nolan: A Modern-Day Privateer (and his dog) takes on a Powerful Drug Cartel
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK II., iv.-vii.
• A Beginning At The End by Mike Chen: Love, Uh, Finds a Way in this Optimistic Dystopian Novel
• Winterkill (Audiobook) by C. J. Box, David Chandler: Pickett Battles Winter and Paranoia to Find Justice
• Burn the Dark by S. A. Hunt: Like and Subscribe to Watch Her Gank Witches
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK II., viii.-Book III., ii.
• QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling, Jamie Lee Searle (Translator): George Orwell Goes Shopping
• Shadow of the Batgirl by Sarah Kuhn, Nicole Goux: A Fun & Compelling Refreshed Origin Story
• Hidden Steel by Stuart Field: An Ambitious Thriller on Land and Sea
• The Gene Wizards by Clare Blanchard: A brief, humor-filled, Fantasy that’ll make you think.
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK III., ii.-vi.
• Classic Spenser: The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker
• Hi Five by Joe Ide: A Criminal for a Client, an Unreliable Witness, and a Larger Number than Usual that Want Him Dead. IQ has his work cut out for him.
• Highfire by Eoin Colfer: Enter the Dragon (the Drunken, Netflix-binging, Lousiana Swamp-Dwelling, Crotchety one)
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK III., vii.-x.

I had a post that I was very excited about, but everytime I tried to write it, it went off in another direction than I wanted and I couldn’t get it back in line. Maybe next month, maybe it’s (another) one for the Trash Heap. On the successful side, other than the Saturday Miscellanies (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th Sat), I also wrote:

• February Plans
• Top 5 Saturday: Books Inspired by Mythology
• (half-baked) Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Characters I’d Follow On Social
• Down the TBR Hole #1 and #2
• and WWW Wednesday for February 5, 2020, February 12, 2020, and February 19, 2020

How was your month?