Leslie's 2015 ROOTs

This year, I would like to read at least 24 paperback (or hardcover) books from my shelves and 15+ Kindle books already owned. Below will be my summary.

Print Books:
1. The Weight of the Evidence (done 1/2)
2. Rain and Other South Sea Stories (done 1/8)
3. Robots and Empire (done 1/18)
4. Borders of Infinity (first book in omnibus Miles Errant, done 2/13)
5. Nightmare in Pink (done 2/15)
6. Brothers in Arms (second book in omnibus Miles Errant, done 2/17)
7. Appleby's End (contained in the omnibus The Michael Innes Treasury, done 2/24)
8. Mirror Dance (final book in omnibus Miles Errant, done 3/29)
9. The Quick Red Fox (done 4/1)
10. A Night of Errors (done 4/19)
11. *The Three Coffins (done 4/26)
12. A Deadly Shade of Gold (done 5/31)
13. Memory (done 6/8)
14. Komarr (first book in omnibus Miles in Love, done 6/21)
15. A Civil Campaign (second book in omnibus Miles in Love, done 7/4)
16. The Paper Thunderbolt (done 7/9)
17. Winterfair Gifts (last part of omnibus Miles in Love, done 7/11)
18. Bright Orange for the Shroud (done 7/24)
19. Falling Free (first book in the omnibus Miles, Mutants and Microbes, done 8/17)
20. Silence Observed (done 8/29)
21. Diplomatic Immunity (last book in the omnibus Miles, Mutants and Microbes, done 9/2)
22. Darker Than Amber (done 9/2)
23. Collected Short Stories (done 9/25)
24. *Journey Into Fear (read in omnibus "Intrigue", done 9/25)
25. Cryoburn (done 10/5)
26. One Fearful Yellow Eye (done 11/30)
27. Death by Water (done 12/22)

Kindle Books:
1.  January Exposure (done 1/9)
2. *The Vicar of Wakefield (done 1/9)
3.  A Bobwhite Killing (done 1/24)
4.  Life on the Mississippi (done 1/25)
5.  Indiscretions of Archie (done 1/28)
6. *Bel-Ami (done 2/5)
7.  Deadly Valentine (done 2/7)
8.  Yellow Crocus (done 2/12)
9.  In a German Pension (done 2/13, also finishes the omnibus "Selected Stories" by Mansfield)
10. Antony and Cleopatra (contained in Shakespeare's "The Complete Works")
11. Much Ado About Nothing (contained in Shakespeare's "The Complete Works")
12. Indian Summer of a Forsyte and In Chancery (contained in the omnibus "The Forsyte Saga - Complete") (done 2/21)
13. Caesar's Wife (done 2/24)
14. Dutch Me Deadly (done 2/27)
15. Twenty Years After (done 3/11)
16. The Duchess of Malfi (done 3/16)
17. Awakening and To Let (Vol. 3 of the omnibus "The Forsyte Saga - Complete") (done 3/18)
18. Room With a Clue (done 3/22)
19. Uncle Vanya (done 4/3)
20. Open Season (done 4/6)
21. *Ruth (done 4/14)
22. Out on a Limb: A Smoky Mountain Mystery (done 4/15)
23. Wine of Violence (done 4/27)
24. Right You Are! (If You Think So) (part of omnibus "Three Plays") (done 5/27)
25. The Vicomte de Bragelonne (done 5/28)
26. Yesterday's Body (done 6/11)
27. Two Gentlemen of Verona (contained in Shakespeare's "The Complete Works") (done 6/22)
28. *The Riddle of the Sands (done 6/28)
29. Our Mutual Friend (done 7/16)
30. *Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (done 7/19)
31. King John (contained in Shakespeare's "The Complete Works") (done 7/11)
32. Louise de la Valliere (done 8/9)
33. *The Awakening and Selected Short Stories (done 8/18)
34. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories (done 10/25)
35. Klondike House Memories of an Irish Country Childhood (done 11/2)
36. Artemis Fowl (done 11/3)
37. Molloy (contained in omnibus "Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable") (done 11/4)
38. *Crome Yellow (done 11/16)
39. Dramatic Short Stories: Fiction That's Real (done 12/8)
40. Orestes (contained in omnibus "The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume 1") (done 12/8)
41. Death of a Couch Potato's Wife (done 12/11)
42. The Amersham Rubies (done 12/28)

Audiobooks:
1. Life on the Mississippi (done 1/25)
2. Cruel Beauty (done 3/31)
3. *Love in the Time of Cholera (done 4/17)
4. Our Mutual Friend (done 7/16)
5. Paper Towns (done 7/21)
6. The Gray Man (done 11/6)

*=book from the Guardian's list of 1000 Novels Everyone Should Read

Good luck with your rooting!

Welcome back and good luck!

Thanks Tess and Rabbitprincess!

Happy ROOTing, Leslie!

Best of luck to you.

ROOT #1
The Weight Of The Evidence,   (done 1/2)

Owned since 2006 when I acquired it from my parents (who owned it since the 60s!).
3½ ★ Decent police procedural. Innes has some sly wit in his writing in this one somewhat similar to that of Edmund Crispin. I am not sure that this mystery "played fair" in the sense of the reader being able to solve the case but I did enjoy trying.

A truly ancient ROOT! Good luck and happy reading!

I too have ROOTs in various forms - good luck working on your goal!

>8 MissWatson: I got several boxes of books from my folks when they moved & many are of this vintage. My only regret is that some of these are losing their glue which holds the binding together.

>9 cyderry: It is nice to switch gears occasionally :) I probably have more unread Kindle books but as they don't take up any space, I tend to focus on the print ones.

I have finished book #2, Rain and Other South Sea Stories by W. Somerset Maugham. I've owned this for about a year and am glad I finally made time to read it -- the stories were lovely! 4½*

ROOT #3, January Exposure by Sunny Benson, has been on my Kindle since Feb. 2013. This is the first book in a cozy mystery series set in North Dakota. 3*

ROOT #4, The Vicar of Wakefield, has been on my Kindle since Aug. 2012. While I enjoyed it quite a lot, it wasn't as funny as Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. 4*

Wow, you are doing very well, Leslie. Congrats on 4 ROOT's in 12 days!

:-) Thanks for the gif >14 connie53:!

Off to a great start!

>16 Tess_W: Thanks -- I need to start strong to help overcome the siren song of the library!

ROOT #5, Robots and Empire, is a paperback I got from my mother 6 or 7 years ago. This is the last book in Asimov's Robot series and I felt it didn't quite measure up to the previous books in the series. However it did pick up as it went along & provided a bridge to the Foundation series. 3*

Congrats on your success so far! You're already quite ahead of the game!

>19 avanders: Winter is a good time to "bank" progress against the slower reading of the summer. Or at least it works that way for me!

I completely agree! :)

In my case it's the opposite thing. When it's winter I tend to do a lot of things on the laptop or tablet: gaming, Lt-ing and stuff like that. In the summer I'm outside reading!

>22 connie53:, Same here, Connie!

>22 connie53: & >23 Tess_W: I guess all readers have their own preferred seasons and places. I find the birds and flowers a distraction outside - in a good way but still hard to get much reading done.

ROOT #6 (Kindle book #3) was A Bobwhite Killing by Jan Dunlap, owned since July 2013. A fun cozy mystery centering around a group of bird watchers. I'll be reading more of this series, so it's a bit too bad I started with #3. 4*

ROOT #7 (first audiobook & Kindle book #4) was Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. This quasi-nonfiction book is a relative newcomer to my library, having been acquired last July. 3½* for the book and 4* for Grover Gardner's narration.

ROOT #8 (Kindle book #5) was P.G. Wodehouse's Indiscretions of Archie. This Kindle book has been waiting since 2012 to be read. A fun, quick read but not as good as Wodehouse's Jeeves or Blandings books. 3½*

>27 leslie.98: Good to know!
And congrats on 8 pulled ROOTs already!!

Thanks! I am surprised myself to have gotten through so many.

Wow, that's a job very well done!

Thanks, >30 connie53:

Great progress!

>32 Tess_W: Now to see if I can keep it up! Thanks for the encouragement :)

Everyone needs some encouragement sometime.

You're right >34 connie53:. I guess that is the appeal of these groups!

Book #9 (Kindle book #6) was Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant. I have had the iBook since 2012 and the public domain Kindle edition since 2013. While beautifully written, the story itself was ultimately depressing. I guess the nineteenth French school of realism isn't to my taste... 3½*

Book #10 (Kindle book #7) Deadly Valentine, owned since 2012. While some of the plot was predictable, even obvious in places, the ending did manage to surprise me. There was also more details about the sex between Tess and Jack than I wanted to read (in fact, I didn't read it - just skimmed through 'til it was over). However, I can't really complain about that as it was clear in the blurb that this would be the case... 2½*

Book #11 (Kindle book #8), owned since 2012, was the historical fiction Yellow Crocus, set in pre-Civil War Virginia and Ohio. I liked the beginning and ending more than the middle. Lisbeth as a teenager seemed unbelievably naive. This level of blindness is like the Germans during WW2 saying they didn't know what was happening to the Jews. I guess it stems from a similar psychological need to not see the cruelty that you feel you have little ability to ameliorate. 3*

In a German Pension is book #12 (Kindle book #9) and is the third and last part of the omnibus "Selected Stories" (the first 2 parts, "The Garden Party and Other Stories" & "Bliss and Other Stories", I read in 2013). I found this collection distinct from the other 2 in that the stories are almost chapters in a "slice of life" novel, describing the various characters & events that occur while the main character, an Englishwoman, is staying at this pension (sort of like a boarding house). 4*

After some internal debate & reading the discussion on another thread about omnibus editions, I am going to count each novel, novella, or play separately this year. It will certainly help my numbers!

Therefore, ROOT #13 is the novella Borders of Infinity which is contained in the omnibus Miles Errant. This omnibus (and several others from the Vorkosigan series) has been on my shelves since 2010. I found this entry in the series a bit gritty, perhaps because I found the idea of how easily humans discard their civilities disturbing. 3*

My decision to count the parts of omnibuses separately means I have 2 more entries from January, 2 plays I read in my Kindle edition of Shakespeare's The Complete Works (owned since 2012):

Antony and Cleopatra and Much Ado About Nothing

So my total is now 15 (Kindle books 11)!

Yeah!!! Good job.

Wow, amazing progress!

>43 MissWatson: Including Kindle books has really helped!

ROOT #16 is the second Travis McGee mystery, Nightmare in Pink. I got about 15 or 20 of these books from my parents when they moved to a smaller home about 9 years ago but haven't read them until now. I am unsure how much I like the series so far -- a bit more hard-boiled in tone than I generally like but McGee is an interesting character. 3*

Wow congrats on your great progress!

>46 avanders: Thanks! I'm doing a little better restricting my library addiction with all the snow that has been falling here :/

Book #17 is Brothers in Arms (contained in the omnibus Miles Errant). I was glad to see Bujold return to the previous style of space opera adventure in this novel in the Vorkosigan series. 4*

>47 leslie.98: oh yes, that can definitely help keep your roving book-eyes at home ;) Hope you're able to enjoy the snow... I know it can be very painful to live w/ it at times! (though I live in the American SW now, I used to live in the Midwest, and we got plenty...)

As long as I don't have to go out, I can admire how pretty the snow makes the landscape. Luckily, I don't need to go out for much!

>50 leslie.98: hee hee, that's fair ;)

ROOT #18 (Kindle book #12) is Vol. 2 of The Forsyte Saga, Indian Summer of a Forsyte and In Chancery. I have had this omnibus of the complete Forsyte Saga on my Kindle since 2012. I really enjoyed the first book (The Man of Property) when I read it in 2013 so I don't know why it has taken me so long to continue on!

I give the novella Indian Summer of a Forsyte 4½* and the novel In Chancery 4*.

>52 leslie.98:, I have The Forsyte Saga on my Kindle, also, but haven't started them. I will bump them up (in my mind!) now that you have reminded me!

>53 Tess_W: The books have a lot more texture to them compared to the film & TV adaptations, but I did love the 2002 BBC mini-series! Have you seen that?

ROOT #19 (print #7) is the third book in my The Michael Innes Treasury - Appleby's End. This is the tenth entry of the Inspector Appleby series, and has been on my shelf since 2006. While I don't think it would be to everyone's taste, I enjoyed this peculiar yet witty mystery once I adjusted to the somewhat pendantic vocabulary used. 4*

19 ROOTs done! Congrats!

>19 avanders: I guess I might have set a higher goal! I can't believe myself how many ROOTs I have completed :)

ROOT #20 (Kindle #13) is a play by W. Somerset Maugham which I downloaded from Project Gutenberg several years ago (2012? 2013?), called Caesar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts. Well-written as is all of Maugham's work, this play is amusing on the surface but is actually sad underneath. 4*

>57 leslie.98: Well, this way, you'll just help the group when you far surpass your goal! :)

ROOT #21 (Kindle #14) is a cozy mystery I picked up almost exactly 2 years ago (March 1, 2013). Dutch Me Deadly is the 7th book in the Passports in Peril series but it is the first one I have read. While I thought the murder plot was good, with plenty of clues without being obvious, I found the supporting characters to be weak. These traveling seniors were all too similar to each other and not very believable. 3*

ROOT #22 (Kindle book #15) is Twenty Years After, the sequel to The Three Musketeers. I have owned the Kindle edition since 2013.

As the title states, it is 20 years since the events of The Three Musketeers and when the book opens, we find that the 4 friends have gone their separate ways. I found this one a bit slower starting but it became as interesting and exciting as the original. The book is long (880 pages) so be prepared for it to occupy your reading for a while! 4*

ROOT #23 (Kindle book #16) is the play The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. I have had this on my Kindle since March 25, 2013, almost exactly two years!

This play is classic tragedy in the Shakespearean style (not surprising since Webster and Shakespeare were contemporaries) -- as in Hamlet or Macbeth, almost everyone dies by the end. I found the language easy enough to read but the free public domain edition from Amazon had formatting issues which were annoying and knocked a ½ star off the rating yielding 3*.

ROOT #24 (Kindle book #17) was the third and final part of my omnibus "The Forsyte Saga - Complete", which was made up of the interlude Awakening and the novel To Let. I have have this omnibus on my Kindle since 2012.

Rather sad but extremely fitting end to the saga. I really liked it but the novel, at least, wouldn't stand up well on its own -- you really have to have read the previous books in the series to appreciate (or even fully understand) it. 4½*

You are doing fine Leslie! Only 16 books to go!

Counting my Kindle books has made a huge difference. I really need to concentrate on my paperbacks and hardcovers though, as they are the ones which take up space!!

>65 leslie.98: and those are the real Tombs to get rid of.

ROOT #25 (Kindle #18) was the first book in the cozy mystery series Pennyfoot Hotel, Room With a Clue. I picked this up when it was a freebie from Amazon in Nov. 2012. Fun cozy set in Edwardian England. 3½*

Mirror Dance is ROOT #26 (paperback #8) and finished the omnibus of Miles Errant which I started in February. The Vorkosigan series is such fun reading! I found the 3 stories in this omnibus were bound together by a shared theme of identity -- what makes us who we are? How much of ourselves comes from outside versus innate traits? I love the fact that after I surface from the adventure of these books, there is more to mull over. 4*

Wow 26/40!! Congrats!

>69 avanders: Thanks! It is nice to have a cushion against library books and reading slumps.

#27 is the audiobook of young adult novel, Cruel Beauty, which I acquired from SYNC last summer. Unfortunately, the author put my back up at the start by having ancient Greeks drinking coffee. There were a few other anachronisms but the main flaw was that the relationship between the two central characters didn't ring true to me. 2*

ROOT #28 (paperback #9) is the 4th Travis McGee mystery, The Quick Red Fox. It took me a short time to warm up to this atypical mystery plot but once I did, I found it interesting and a bit sad. The early 1960s flavor is pretty strong so some might find this a bit too dated but that didn't bother me. 4*

ROOT #29 (Kindle #19) is the Russian play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. I have had this play on my Kindle since early last year. I listened to the full-cast Librivox recording while I read this, which wasn't as good as watching the play but better than just reading it.

I liked this play much better than Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard which I read last year. 4*

ROOT #30 (Kindle #20) is the first book in the Joe Gunther series, Open Season by Archer Mayor. I have had this Kindle book since Sept. 2012. Mayor is coming to my town's Book Festival this upcoming weekend so I pushed this to the top of my pile by buying the Whispersync audiobook. I am glad I did as this police procedural set in Vermont was very enjoyable -- I guess I am adding another mystery series to my plate! 4*

ROOT #31 (Kindle #21) is the classic Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell. This novel has been on my Kindle since 2012. Sadly, this is the worst book by Gaskell I have read. The main character is unrealistic (and to me annoying) and the overall tone is too moralistic for my tastes. 2½*

#32 is my 22nd Kindle ROOT for this challenge. Out on a Limb: A Smoky Mountain Mystery is a mystery I picked up as a Kindle freebie from Amazon in Feb. 2013. An OK mystery set in Tennessee. 3*

Audiobook ROOT #3, Love in the Time of Cholera, makes my 33rd ROOT overall. I picked up this audiobook in November of 2014. Armando Duran was the perfect choice of narrator for this novel. 4*

That book is in my TBR pile. Glad you like it!

>78 Tess_W: So much more enjoyable than One Hundred Years of Solitude!!

A Night of Errors, the 11th Inspector Appleby mystery, is paperback ROOT #10, which brings my total to 34 overall. A relatively straight forward police procedural (straight forward for Innes, that is!) despite the fact that Appleby is actually no longer in the police in this one. He resigned after he got married to Judith (whom he met for the first time in the previous book, Appleby's End) -- but based on this book, he will be back at Scotland Yard soon. I liked this one a lot -- 4*.

So many ROOTs!! Congrats!

>81 avanders: Thanks! Trying hard.

Paperback ROOT #11 (total #35) is another mystery, The Three Coffins (also known as "The Hollow Man"). While Carr's writing style isn't as good as his contemporaries Crispin or Innes in my opinion, this was an extremely clever mystery! Carr is a master of the "locked room" mystery and I can understand why this book was on the Guardian's list. 4*

Good job Leslie!

>84 connie53: :) Feels good to be making progress!

#36 is Kindle book #23, a historical fiction mystery set in the late 1200s England called Wine of Violence. I only skimmed the foreword but the author has clearly taken the time to research the Fontevraud order and the time period. But some parts of it still struck me as a bit off (Eleanor, the daughter of a Norman noble, being taught to read and write in English for example).

I also found the plot, while probable, slightly distasteful. I will try another from the series before coming to a final judgement. 3*

My first (and possibly only) ROOT for May is Right You Are! (If You Think So) by Nobel Laureate Luigi Pirandello. This Italian play is the last in the Kindle omnibus Three Plays which I have had since 2013 and brings my total to 37.

I really liked the theme of this play -- the impossibility of ever knowing the "real" truth, that reality is true yet different for different people. 4*

#38 is Kindle book #25, the next installment of Alexandre Dumas d'Artagnan series called The Vicomte de Bragelonne. There are various books of different lengths with this name -- I read the one from the 4 volume split available from Project Gutenberg (about 580 pages long). I didn't realize when I started that there was this confusion --- the audiobook edition I was listening to is from the 3 volume split (about 790 pages) which I discovered when the Kindle book ended with several CDs still left unheard!

I found this entry in the series a bit slow at the beginning but the action once it got going was good. I was a little disappointed that Porthos and Aramis didn't make an appearance until the book was almost over (around Chapter 70) but look forward to seeing more of them in the next book. 3½*

>88 leslie.98:

That's strange, in the original French version, The Vicomte de Bragelonne is the LAST installment and is 2700 pages long. How confusing! Glad I didn't have to deal with the English editions.

>89 lilisin: It is all very confusing. Dumas wrote the final book of the d'Artagnan trilogy as one mammoth book called (I believe) "The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later". Because it was so long, it has been often split up into smaller volumes. The problem is different publishers split it differently so there are 3 volume sets, 4 and even 5 volume sets. To add to the confusion, the various volumes have the same names (e.g. "The Vicomte de Bragelonne" without the 'Ten Years After' part is generally the first volume of all the various sets and "Louise de la Valliere" is the name of a middle volume but which middle volume varies).

>90 leslie.98:

Goodness, that seems unnecessarily complicated. In the French it's:
a) Les Trois mousquetaires
b) Vingt ans après
c) Le Vicomte de Bragelonne

And these titles don't change (and there is no mention of the 10 years later part). Simply, they are split down into volumes according to the publisher. For example, I read Le Vicomte de Bragelonne in paperback so that was separated into three separate volumes.

Funny enough, I've read a) and c) but have yet to read the middle installment of the series. But it makes me happy to know that I get to go back into the d'Artagnan world.

ROOT #39 is paperback #12, A Deadly Shade of Gold. This is the 5th entry in the Travis McGee series. I am still not sure about how much I like the style of these nontraditional mysteries but this one had some very enjoyable snide social commentary. A surprising amount of it was still relevant 50 years later! 4★

Paperback #13 makes 40 ROOTs total! Memory was a pivotal book in the Vorkosigan series, which has been on my shelf for 4-5 years now. I found this one to be more of a straightforward space opera than typical of Bujold's books. 4*

You're almost there! Great progress!

Thanks >94 MissWatson:! I am finding have this challenge a real help to push me to read books I own, although I still am checking out a lot from the library too.

ROOT #41 (Kindle #26) is a mystery that I am apparently the first person on LT to have read, Yesterday's Body by Norma Huss. I picked up a free Kindle edition from Smashwords in March 2014. I found this to be pretty good although I did figure out whodunit about halfway through. 3*

ROOT #42 (paperback #14) was the first novel in the omnibus Miles in Love (owned in paperback since 2010, in Kindle form since 2014): Komarr An excellent entry in the Vorkosigan series! While it is probably good as a stand-alone novel, it is much better appreciated if read as part of the series (especially after the omnibus Young Miles and the novel Memory). 4½*

ALmost at your goal, Leslie!

Yup! And it is all gravy after that :)

Kindle book #27 (#43 overall) is Two Gentlemen of Verona, which I read as part of my Project Gutenberg's Kindle edition of Shakespeare's "Complete Works" (owned since 2012). Some interesting themes in this comedy but I felt that the end was rushed. 3½*

Only 5 more books to go! Yeah. Get on with the gravy and enjoy!

>101 connie53: :-) Love me some gravy!

#44 (Kindle #28) is the classic espionage thriller The Riddle of the Sands, which has been on my Kindle since 2012. However, I recently acquired a paperback copy from my parents so that is what I actually read! I was disappointed by this which I didn't find very thrilling -- lots of technical details about tides, currents and navigation so someone interested in sailing (or familiar with the Friesland Islands) would probably enjoy it more. The realistic style of the espionage was ground-breaking when it was first published in 1903 & inspired writers such as John Buchan and Eric Ambler but I found it to be a bit dated. 3*

ROOT #45 (paperback #15) was the second novel in the omnibus Miles in Love, A Civil Campaign. A wonderfully satisfying read, with more romance and a bit less adventure. Proverbially, the path of true love doesn't run smooth and certainly Miles, his clone brother Mark, and his cousin Ivan all show the truth of that! 5*

The 16th paperback (#46 overall) was #12 in the Inspector Appleby series. Very good once I got interested in the story (it was a bit of a slow start) -- this one involved Appleby's youngest sister Jane who was a great protagonist. 4*

ROOT 47 is the last part of the omnibus Miles in Love, Winterfair Gifts. I am counting this under paperback as I have owned that the longest (since 2009) but I also have the Kindle edition (owned since last year). So this one is really a double whammy :)

The novella Winterfair Gifts made a good conclusion for the omnibus. This story wasn't as good as the two full novels that preceded it but it was still a fun read and brought us Miles' wedding!… 3½*

Our Mutual Friend is both audiobook #4 and Kindle #29; together they are my ROOT #48. I have owned the Kindle edition since Nov. 2012 and had the audiobook on my iPod since July 2014. I don't know what took me so long to get to this book as I am a big Dickens fan. While I don't think that Our Mutual Friend was as good as his very best, it was very close. There were just a few too many discursive passages that were slightly dull, especially in the beginning. But plot (with all the attendant subplots) was wonderful & I absolutely loved the ending. Mil Nicholson surpassed herself in the narration (Librivox recording, version 3) -- I have admired her work for several years now but I think this one was truly amazing in the range of accents, personalities and emotions conveyed. 4½* for the book and 5* for the audiobook edition.

What a marvelous book to reach my goal with! :-)

Congrats!

Congrats on reaching your goal! And thanks for the reminder that Our Mutual Friend is on my to-read list too :)

Well done on reaching your goal! Unfortunately the only goal I have reached (and exceeded) is the books acquired one - whoops! :)

Congratulations on reaching your goal. And such a nice book, too! It's my favourite Dickens novel.

Thanks all!

>109 rabbitprincess: I would highly recommend that Librivox recording if you listen to audiobooks at all.

And >111 MissWatson:, I can understand this being a favorite. It went immediately to my to-reread pile and I could see it growing on me. But David Copperfield will probably always be my favorite Dickens because of all the wonderful secondary characters.

I have yet to read Our Mutual Friend, but it is in my TBR pile. I think my favorite Dickens is a tie between Great Expectations and Bleak House.

>112 leslie.98: I absolutely agree with you about David Copperfield! I must give it a reread some time, it's been far too long to spend time away from all those wonderful characters.

Yeah Congratulations on meeting your goal!!!

Now onto the extras :)

#49 was Kindle book #30, Three Men in a Boat, which has been on my Kindle since 2012. Why oh why did I not learn of this book decades ago? I found it hilarious!! Very similar in style to my beloved Wodehouse -- if Wodehouse doesn't amuse you, this book probably won't either. On the other hand, if you like that sort of silliness, go right out and get a copy of Jerome's classic (preferably with illustrations)! 5*

Hahaha! Looking at my notebook, I notice that I forgot to put in a ROOT from about a week ago: King John by William Shakespeare. Must have been a subliminal message as I didn't much like this play, contained in my Kindle edition of Shakespeare's "Complete Works" (owned since 2012) so it would have been a less enjoyable book to reach my goal with... 2* but it might be higher if I could see a performance.

>117 leslie.98:, I've not yet read King John yet, either. However, I did read that it was the one history that Shakespeare thought he had done his best on.

Interesting >118 Tess_W:. In general I am not a big fan of his historical plays, although I did like Henry V very much.

>119 leslie.98: I've only read Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra as far his historical plays go, and I loved Julius Caesar, of course, I'm a historian! But I also liked MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet; not so much Hamlet. I have Henry V on my TBR pile, it's one in modern English.

Oh, I liked Julius Caesar -- I hadn't considered that or Antony and Cleopatra as historical plays (although they obviously are!). In my mind, the histories were all those "King ___" plays.

>116 leslie.98: sounds fun! :) And it's nice to be "onto the extras" isn't it! ;)

ROOT #51 is audiobook #5 -- Paper Towns by John Green, narrated by Dan John Miller. I picked this up last November when I had a coupon for Audible. Probably this YA novel will appeal more to its target audience. I guess I am too old & fuddy-duddy because I can't help wondering if a story in which a 18-year-old girl who goes missing (not for the first time) is portrayed as the cool kid is really the kind of role model teens should be reading about. However, Q's musings about life and how well we ever know another person were interesting and I enjoyed the interactions between him and his two best friends. 3*

ROOT #52 is paperback #18, Bright Orange for the Shroud. I found this entry in the Travis McGee series less dated than many of the previous ones but lacking some of the snide humor. 3½*

Congrats on reaching your goal, Leslie!

Thanks >125 connie53:! Now I just need to make sure my new books don't overwhelm my achievement :P

>126 leslie.98: I know exactly what you mean! So far so good as far as I'm concerned. Bought 38 books and read 51!

#53 is Kindle #32, Louise de La Vallière, which has been on my Kindle only a relatively short time since November 2014. This penultimate book in the d'Artagnan series was okay but lacked the action and adventure that I love so much in The Three Musketeers. Plus I didn't much care for Louise who struck me as a somewhat hypocritically prudish miss. 3*

I am not including the last book in the series here, as it is a reread for me. I will just say that The Man in the Iron Mask was even better now that I have read the whole series leading up to it! I upgraded my rating from 4 to 4½ stars.

>128 leslie.98: that is something I just didn't realize. I thought all those books were standalones! So... now I will have to research the order & get on that! I've read (and loved) the Count of Monte Cristo only, but Man in the Iron Mask is on the shelves (and was my dad's favorite book as a kid :))

>129 avanders: I think that when I first read The Man in the Iron Mask (many years ago now) I was surprised to find the characters from The Three Musketeers in the book, so you are not alone in thinking they were stand alone novels. I think it is a common misconception...

Paperback #19 takes me to #54 total: Falling Free is the first novel in the omnibus Miles, Mutants and Microbes, which has been languishing on my shelves since 2009. This entry in the Vorkosigan series is more of a prequel or even a stand-alone novel set in the same universe, as not only is it set ~200 years before Miles' birth but there are only a few references to Beta & none to Barrayar. I think I will need to revisit this one -- it has plenty of features that I like but I missed Miles. 3½*

#55 is Kindle book #33 -- The Awakening and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin which has been on my Kindle since 2012. Wonderful prose & I loved the late-1800s Louisiana setting. I liked the short stories even better than the novella & will have to look for more of them! 4½*

Paperback #20 brings my total to 56 -- the 19th Inspector Appleby mystery, Silence Observed. As I have mentioned before, I acquired these Michael Innes mysteries in 2006 when my parents decided to reduce their library. This one is a more traditional mystery than many of the previous books in the series and a little predictable in spots but still a good fun read. 3½*

ROOT #57 was the final book of the omnibus Miles, Mutants and Microbes, Diplomatic Immunity. While enjoyable, I found this entry in the Vorkosigan series a bit slow to get going and lacking the social commentary or philosophical ideas that many of the earlier books had. 3½*

#58 was paperback #22, Darker Than Amber -- the seventh Travis McGee mystery. I am a bit disappointed in this series, finding it more dated than most of the older paperback mysteries on my shelves. 3*

#59 is the paperback Collected Short Stories by Aldous Huxley. I have no idea when I acquired this book but several years ago at least! These stories were good but not as compelling as his full length novels. A couple of them had some curious people or plots which I may revisit. 3*

#60 is the classic spy thriller Journey Into Fear, read in the hardcover omnibus "Intrigue: Journey Into Fear, A Coffin For Dimitrios, Cause For Alarm and Background to Danger" which I have had for several years. Not as good as A Coffin for Dimitrious imo but still a good example of the "innocent person caught up in intrigue" type espionage thriller. 3½*

The 25th print ROOT of 2015 was the penultimate Vorkosigan book, Cryoburn. I have had the hardcover book on my shelf for years (although I actually listened to the Grover Gardner audiobook from the library). 4*

#34 Kindle ROOT (62 overall) was a set of short stories by Oscar Wilde called Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories which has been on my Kindle since 2012. The best story in the collection was the only one I had read before, The Canterville Ghost but late October was the perfect time to revisit it! I liked most of the other stories but not the last one, The Portrait of Mr. W. H. which I found both dull and long. Overall I give the collection 3½*.

ROOT #63 (Kindle #35) is a Kindle book I picked up when it was offered for free back in 2012 -- Klondike House Memories of an Irish Country Childhood. A slight but enjoyable memoir. I liked the photographs included (which I could see fine in black & white on my old Kindle keyboard but were even better in color on my Kindle Fire) and the selection of Irish poems related well to the contents of the various chapters. However, I never felt that I got to know the narrator/writer as a person - it was more a collection of anecdotes than a memoir. 2½*

ROOT #64 was another Kindle book from 2012, Artemis Fowl. I liked the fairy world aspects more than the 12-year-old villain... 3½*

ROOT #65, Molloy, was a bit of a cheat, as I listened to a library audiobook edition while I read my Kindle omnibus of Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (acquired in 2013). Brilliant narration (with such lovely Irish accents) for a demanding book. I give the audio 5*, the book itself 4.5*

>140 leslie.98: ... if that's a cheat, then I also sometimes cheat. ;)

>140 leslie.98: >141 avanders: me too!

>141 avanders:, >142 connie53: Glad to know I am in good company!

Audiobook ROOT #6 was a freebie from Audible I picked up in 2013, The Gray Man. Despite an improbable plot and some poor writing, I enjoyed this thriller. The narration by Jay Snyder helped! 2½*

#67 is Kindle #38, Crome Yellow which has been languishing on my Kindle since August 2012. This is a satire or comedy of manners so there is not much action. Various people are gathered at a country house for a visit which gives Huxley a chance to show us different types of 'bright young things' (this was published in the early 1920s). I found much to amuse me but it rarely made me laugh out loud. 3.5*

#68 is the 26th paperback of the year, #8 in the Travis McGee series One Fearful Yellow Eye. While I haven't disliked these, I think it is time to put this series aside for a while... 3.5*

>146 leslie.98: You've certainly managed to get through a lot of the series this year!

>147 rabbitprincess: Thanks -- it doesn't feel like it to me though. I used to only read one book at a time & would go straight through a series back to back -- now that I am reading more widely, my progress through the series seems glacially slow! But I like the bigger variety I consume now, so it is a price I am willing to pay :D

Kindle ROOT #39 was a dreadful set of short stories, Dramatic Short Stories: Fiction That's Real. I picked this up as a freebie from Amazon in 2012 and the best thing I can say is that it was free. The book needed a good proofreader and editor (to correct minor formatting problems and various misspellings such as "sole" meaning "soul"). However, the main problem was that the stories were too focussed on tragedy in a somewhat superficial manner. The main theme seemed to be that no matter how terrible things are (child sexual abuse, rape, emotional & physical abuse, loss of parents, etc.), religious faith will save you and make things better. 1*

#70 is Kindle ROOT #40 - the play Orestes by Euripides, contained in the Kindle omnibus "The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume 1" which I acquired in January 2014. While I thought the content of the play was very interesting, I didn't much care for the translation by Theodore Buckley. 3*

It's about time you read a book you like, Leslie. The last two of three seem to be mediocre. Good luck with the next one!

>151 connie53: Yeah, I have hit a bit of a bad patch. But I am loving my current books so it's all good...

>152 leslie.98: Good to hear! You are going to end the year on a high!

#71 is a Kindle mystery I picked up as a freebie back in 2012, Death of a Couch Potato's Wife. While the writing was decent & the mystery kept me guessing, there were some flaws in this first book. I gave it 2½★ but would be willing to read another by this author.

My 27th print ROOT was Death by Water, #22 in the Inspector Appleby series. This was fun but not one of the best entries in the series. 3½*

#73 is a short story I picked up for my Kindle in 2013, The Amersham Rubies, a prequel to the Molly Murphy mysteries. Good but left me wanting more... 3*