2011 Challenge: Vintage Mystery Challenge, Wrap Up

The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge is hosted by My Reader's Block. The goal is to read mysteries written before 1960. I signed up at the "In a Murderous Mood" level with the goal of reading four to six books, by at least two different authors, by the end of the year.

I finished the challenge, but I only reviewed one, for some reason.

It was one of my very favorite challenges and I signed up for the 2012 version, with the goal of reading at least eight books by woman authors. I also plan on reviewing more of them!

BOOKS READ

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout

The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (reviewed here)

Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Alyce at At Home With Books is hosting in January.  Please stop by her wonderful blog!

Here is a short list of books I got last week:

Glow by Jessica Maria Tuccelli. This looks like it is going to be really good. Amazon describes it as "A breathtaking Georgia-mountain epic about the complex bond of mothers and daughters across a century." Wow.



This could be a pick for the Southern Literature Reading Challenge, once I finally get my sign up post up.

Thanks go to intrepid book publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek, for getting me an early copy of Glow.

Mary also got me a copy of Midnight Sun, Arctic Moon: Exploring the Wild Heart of Alaska by Mary Albanes (see trailer here).



This one has huge appeal for me right now because I am in Anchorage this week, where it is 0 degrees, snowing, and there is no "midnight sun" because there is really no sun at all -- 3 hours in midday, but with the snow, it's hard to see.

The Devil's Elixir by Raymond Khoury. This looks like a real rip-roarer. Pure fun.

Books Read in 2011

This is the list of the 116 books I read in 2011, in the order that I read them.

Looking back, I am pleased to see that I read a mix I am happy with -- I read some of my favorite authors, some books I've been meaning to get to for a long time, a couple of big classics, some vintage mysteries, plenty of prize winners, and some that were just pure fun. 

There is not much rhyme or reason to whether I review a book or not.  Some of my favorite books go without a review. For an explanation of my rating system, see here.

If you have reviewed any of the book I reviewed, and you would like your review listed on mine, please leave a comment on my review post for that book with a link to your review and I will add it.

2011 BOOKS

The Human Stain by Philip Roth (4.5/5; reviewed here)

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (3/5)

A Study in Scarlet by (Sherlock Holmes, No. 1) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5)

When Will There Be Good News? (Jackson Brodie, No. 3) by Kate Atkinson (4/5)

A Mind to Murder (Adam Dagliesh, No. 2) by P. D. James (3.5/5)

Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (4/5; reviewed here)

Strangers and Brothers (aka George Passant) (Strangers and Brothers, No. 1) by C. P. Snow (3.5/5; reviewed here)

By the Rivers of Babylon by Nelson DeMille (3.5/5)

365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life  by John Kralik (3.5/5; reviewed here)

10 Lb. Penalty by Dick Francis (3/5)

Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell (3/5)

G by John Berger (2/5; reviewed here)

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (3/5)

Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes by Ed Butts (3.5/5; reviewed here)

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (3/5; reviewed here)

Death in a Strange Country (Commissario Guido Brunetti, No. 2) by Donna Leon

99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess (4.5/5; reviewed here)

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (4/5; reviewed here)

Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow (3/5)

Bech: A Book by John Updike (4/5; reviewed here)

Bolt by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Bad Things Happen (David Loogan, No. 1) by Harry Dolan (4/5; reviewed here))

Maps and Shadows by Krysia Jopek (3/5; reviewed here)

The Food of France by Waverley Root (4/5; reviewed here)

The League of Frightened Men (Nero Wolf, No. 2) by Rex Stout (3/5)

Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium Trilogy, No. 3) by Stieg Larsson (3.5/5)

Honolulu by Alan Brennert (3/5)

Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (4/5)

Strip Jack (John Rebus, No. 4) by Ian Rankin (3.5/5)

The Sign of the Four (Sherlock Holmes, No. 2) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3.5/5)

The Warden (Chronicles of Barsetshire, No. 1) by Anthony Trollope (4/5)

The Marvelous Album of Madame B: Being the Handiwork of a Victorian Lady of Considerable Talent by Elizabeth Siegel (4/5; reviewed here)

Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie, No. 4) by Kate Atkinson (4/5; reviewed here)

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer (3.5/5)

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (3.5/5)

Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman (3/5)

Because You Might Not Remember by Don Colburn (4/5)

The Losing Role by Steve Anderson (3.5/5; reviewed here)

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (3/5; reviewed here)

Knots and Crosses (John Rebus, No. 1) by Ian Rankin (3.5/5)

Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding (3.5/5)

Banker by Dick Francis (4/5; reviewed here)

Clouds of Witness (Lord Peter Wimsey, No. 2) by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/5; reviewed here)

A Plague of Secrets (Dismas Hardy, No. 13, or San Francisco, No. 17) by John Lescroart (3.5/5; reviewed here))

The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich (3.5/5)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (4/5; reviewed here)

The Crime of the Century by Kinglsey Amis (3/5)

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (2.5/5)

Meet Me in Venice by Elizabeth Adler (3/5)

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (4/5; reviewed here)

The James Joyce Murder (Kate Fansler, No. 2) by Amanda Cross (3/5; reviewed here)

Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope (3.5/5)

The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook (3/5; reviewed here)

The Bookman's Promise by John Dunning (3/5)

Knockdown by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (4/5)


The Hidden Target by Helen McInnes (3/5)

Break In by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley (3.5/5)

Evening Class by Maeve Binchy (3.5/5)

Spinning the Law: Trying Cases in the Court of Public Opinion by Kendall Coffey (2.5/5)

Locations by Jan Morris (4/5; reviewed here)

The Rebel Angels (Cornish Trilogy, No. 1) by Robertson Davies (4/5; reviewed here)

Treasure Hunt (Wyatt Hun, No. 2, or San Francisco, No. 18) by John Lescroart (3/5)

American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen (4/5; reviewed here)

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (3/5)

A Friend From England by Anita Brookner (3.5/5)

Decider by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

42 States of Grace: A Woman's Journey by Maureen Hovenkotter (3.5/5; reviewed here)

Very Bad Men (David Loogan, No. 2) by Harry Dolan (4/5; reviewed here)

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (4/5; reviewed here)

Hide and Seek (John Rebus, No. 2) by Ian Rankin (3.5/5)

One Was a Soldier (Clare Fergusin, No. 7) by Julia Spencer-Fleming (3.5/5; reviewed here)

Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin (3.5/5; reviewed here)

On Beauty by Zadie Smith (3/5; reviewed here)

Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey, No. 3) by Dorothy L. Sayers (3.5/5)

Don't Vote It Just Encourages the Bastards by P. J. O’Rourke (3.5/5)

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie (4/5)

Unnatural Causes (Adam Dagliesh, No. 3) by P. D. James (3.5/5)

The Reluctant Detective (Faith Morgan, No. 1) by Martha Oakley (3/5; reviewed here)

Nat Tate: An American Artist, 1928 – 1960 by William Boyd (3.5/5; reviewed here)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2.5/5; reviewed here)


The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (4.5/5)

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope (4/5)

Past Perfect by Susan Isaacs (3/5)

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov (3.5/5)

Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women by Mary Rechner (3.5/5; reviewed here)

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (2/5)

Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed (4/5; reviewed here)

Girl from the South by Joanna Trollope (3/5)

Real Women, Real Wisdom: A Journey into the Feminine Soul, edited by Maureen Hovenkotter (4/5; reviewed here)

The Anti-Death League by Kingsley Amis (2.5/5; reviewed here)

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby (3.5/5)

Drood by Dan Simmons (3/5; reviewed here)

4 Blondes by Candace Bushnell (3/5)

The Finishing School by Muriel Spark (3.5/5)

Solar by Ian McEwan (3.5/5)

The Girl on the Boat by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5)

Cathedral by Nelson DeMille (4.5/5; reviewed here)

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (4.5/5; reviewed here)

French Spirits: A House, a Village, and a Love Affair in Burgundy by Jeffrey Greene (3/5)

With a Jug of Wine by Morrison Wood (3.5/5)

61 Hours (Jack Reacher, No. 14) by Lee Child (3.5/5)

Odds Against by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Crooked House by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

Therapy by David Lodge (3.5/5; reviewed here)

The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (4/5; reviewed here)

Tooth and Nail (John Rebus, No. 3) by Ian Rankin (2.5/5)

Bleak House by Charles Dickens (4/5)

Delights and Prejudices: A Memoir with Recipes by James Beard (5/5; reviewed here)

The Man Who Knew Too Much by G. K. Chesterton (3/5)

Dear Money by Martha McPhee (3.5/5)

Worth Dying For (Jack Reacher, No. 15) by Lee Child (3.5/5; reviewed here)

Tinkers by Paul Harding (2.5/5)

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Cordelia Gray, No. 1) by P. D. James (3.5/5)

2012 Challenge: Memorable Memoirs

FINISHED

Melissa at The Betty and Boo Chronicles is hosting the 2012 Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge. I am signing up at the Autobiographer level to read five to nine memoirs in 2012, although I think I will be closer to five than nine. [UPDATE: It looks like I will get to nine!]

One of my general reading goals for this new year is to read more of the non-fiction books on my TBR shelves. This challenge dovetails with the Non-Fiction, Non-Memoir Challenge I am also doing.

Click the button or the link above to go to the challenge post for details and to sign up.

BOOKS, POSSIBILITIES, REVIEWS

Those I have read are in red, with links to reviews, if applicable.

Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard (reviewed here)

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (reviewed here)

Vie de France: Sharing Food, Friendship, and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley by James Haller (reviewed here)

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

Witness by Whittaker Chambers (reviewed here)

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Books by Larry McMurtry

The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer

Shaken and Stirred: Through the Martini Glass and Other Drinking Adventures by William L. Hamilton

My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

Writing Places: The Life Journey of a Writer and Teacher by Howard Zinsser (not reviewed)

A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell (not reviewed)

Lift by Kelly Corrigan (not reviewed)

There is a lot of crossover possibility with this list. All will crossover with the TBR challenges I joined, and others will count for the Foodie's Challenge, the Chunkster Challenge, or the European Reading Challenge.

NOTES

Last updated on December 28, 2012. I've now read eight, which means I've finished the challenge, but I hope to finish Personal History by Katharine graham before the end of the year.

Opening Sentence of the New Year: Soldiers in Hiding

It gives me pleasure to hinder American tourists occasionally.

-- Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley.

A Bambara proverb goes thus: "go to the village where you don't have a house, but take your roof with you." 

-- from the new Introduction by Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Soldiers in Hiding won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award.  This edition is published by  Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, with a new preface by the author.




A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.