VictoriaPL's 2024 tsundoku Challenge

Hello Friends!

I'm starting this thread with the hopes of recapturing my Challenge glory days when I was managing about 100 books a year. In 2023 I did only half of that, but it was an improvement from 2022. So there's that.
There are no categories and no lists. Just a goal to read and review, consistently. A building year, as they say. We were anticipating a move but that doesn't look likely as our builder is kaput. 90% of my collection is in storage, so there won't be many comfort re-reads. Just what TBR I kept out - and thus the title of my challenge. An Off-My-Shelves kind of thing.
I like to say that I read most anything but I do have my darlings: Crime & Thriller, WWII, US Space Program (non-fiction), Historical Fiction (a Byronic hero is a plus), Sci-Fi and my guilty pleasure, Young Adult angsty love triangles.
I haven't written a review in a minute so i might do them for the books i finished in the past seven - ten days just to stretch my chops.
Welcome!

Merry Christmas, Victoria - great to see you back!

Welcome back! I only read 63 books this year because I couldn't do more and was so busy with other things over several months - but one thing I love about this group is that everyone is accepted as they are and there is no pressure apart from that which you put on yourself.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you read and reading your reviews!

It's great to see you here again, Victoria. I always like seeing what you read.

Glad you are back! Happy Holidays and take care of yourself. This is for fun, no pressure!

I think a lot of us are doing a no-category year in 2024. Looking forward to seeing your reads!

Yay welcome back Victoria! Looking forward to seeing what you read this year :) I can always count on you for some good space reads!

Love your "off my shelves kind of thing"! Good luck with your 2024 reading.

1.2.2024 Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
1.5.2024 Hearts of Resistance by Soraya M. Lane
1.10.2024 Tidal Pools by Lawrence Thackston
1.24.2024 The Night Portrait by Laura Morelli
2.5.2024 Crossings by Alex Landragin
2.9.2024 Code Name Sapphire by Pam Jenoff
2.21.2024 Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
3.4.2024 The Fortunate Ones by Catherine Hokin
3.15.2024 Annexed by Sharon Dogar
3.20.2024 Invictus by Ryan Graudin
4.15.2024 The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
4.22.2024 The East Wind by Storm Fredrickson
4.27.2024 Thunderstruck by Eric Larsen
5.2.2024 The Last Ship by William Brinkley

Chronological reading of the Bible, completed books:
1. Job
2. Genesis
3. Exodus
4. Leviticus
5. Numbers
6. Deuteronomy
7. Joshua
8. Judges
9. Ruth
10. 1 Samuel
11. 2 Samuel

So good to see you here again, Victoria. Someday, you'll have to tell me how exactly you rendered your builder kaput.

Here's to 2024 being a great reading year.

Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Clare
sci-fi

Hope City. Antarctica. Once an amusement park to attract passing ocean liners, now just a community at the bottom of the world. Organized crime, politicos, business owners and ordinary families just trying to live their lives. But Hope City has a problem. The dome isn't staying as warm as it usually does. Sometimes the lights flicker and sometimes the power goes out entirely. The Andys don't always follow their programming.
So what's going on in the city? Marianella Amitrano, an aristocrat, is desperately trying to keep a secret. She hires PI Eliana Gomez to retrieve some stolen documents, but Eliana finds much more. With her discoveries a vicious power struggle blazes out in the open and the city begins to unravel.

I so enjoyed the beginning of this novel. What I liked is that there wasn’t much world building. In many ways it's a classic detective story, a PI walks into her office, now she's got a case and she's digging in the underbelly of the city. That was fine. But then it changed. Suddenly the story was about politics and personhood and agency. And that wasn't really the story I signed on for. I know, sci-fi is rife with the exploration of personhood and politics, I get it. But I started the story with a PI and halfway through, she became superfluous. So, a mixed experience.

The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes
WWII

I failed to write you a plot synopsis for this one. It's difficult to do. Indeed, the Amazon summary goes on for six paragraphs, so, I’m certain you'll forgive me.
Like many books of the genre, the setting for this one jumps around to the usual locations - Berlin, Paris and New York. Then come our cast of main characters: Vivian, Althea, Hannah and Dev. In short, I spent the first half of the story just keeping all the women apart, each to her respective geographical location and her circumstance in mind. It was confusing to me and took too much effort to truly be an enjoyable read at first. Towards the end, once I had everyone straight and in context, I did finally feel as though I was engaging with the plot.
Books do play a role here, but not the burned books alluded to in the title. And don't get excited about the library either, it is sadly underutilized as a locale, having been dangled in front of us as it was. Instead, many of the books alluded to in the plot are the books banned from being sent out to American service members and the efforts to have that rectified. Yes, it all seemingly comes together in the whirlwind of war.
So, did I enjoy this one? I felt decidedly apathetic towards Althea and Hannah. Vivian drew me in somewhat, her stubborn American temperment being the draw, and I wanted to see her get her way with Mr Taft. That said, I could have read an entire book solely about Dev, daring and flamboyant as she was, relegated to being the lesser used chess piece on the board. A pity.

>12 VictoriaPL: The title hints at such promise! I'll pass because I hate it when I have to sort characters.

Lists or no lists it's good to see you back, Victoria. Have fun reading in 2024.

Happy reading, Victoria. Glad you're back!

The Taken: Celestial Blues Book One by Vicki Pettersson
Paranormal & Urban Fantasy

Every so often I do enjoy a paranormal tale. I'm kind of burned out on vampires and werewolves though, and that's fine because Griffin Shaw is not either of those. He's an angel. Oh, not a “real” angel but a lower-caste human soul whose job it is to help the recently deceased adjust to their new status. To help them get over the trauma of their death so that they can move on. It's a job that means Griff is there when they die. He experiences their death with them and immediately picks up the pieces. Griff was a PI once, he's used to handholding a client.
But his next assignment, Katherine Craig, a particularly beautiful woman in the prime of her life, turns out to be too much for him. Her affinity for vintage style reminds him of his former life, like his wife used to look, and Griff can't watch her die. So he interferes, and now, like the old “Final Destination” franchise, everything around the corner is poised to kill Katherine and correct the balance of fate. Griff has a lot on his plate, but he's used to several cases at a time, so why not juggle more? Like his own murder. Yeah, now that's a great place to start.
I enjoyed this one better than I thought that I would. I enjoyed the writing. I thought it was very balanced between both perspectives and I could tell the author really dug deep to get into both Griff's and Kit's point of view. That said, it's a series, so you know upfront that we don't get all the answers and everything is not tied up in a bow. And I wasn't really fond of the other angels, the real ones. But maybe there's just room being left for development in other books.

Hi Victoria,
I meant to stop by earlier and say welcome back! Happy New Year and I hope you enjoy your reading.

I hope you are able to carve out more time for reading. I'm hoping I can find some too. I am cutting back on some things, and I know what I'll cut next if I need to do so although I'd like to make it through the year without resigning.

Welcome back and good luck with your reading in 2024.

Happy reading in 2024!

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for visiting my little corner of the challenge. I've finished my first book of the year!

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
sci-fi

Imagine waking up, naked, floating in zero-g with five other people, who are also just coming to. The six of you recently met at a launch party for the generational ship you are crewing together, the Dormire. Oh, also in the room with you are a few of your dead bodies.
None of you remember what happened. And you didn't just meet each other, either, you've been traveling together for twenty-five years. Time enough to learn each other's secrets. Time enough to plot how to kill everyone. If only any of you remembered.
Your mindmaps have all been reset to the initial recordings, they are as blank as your newest cloned bodies. There are no recordings, no logs and the AI is offline. All you have to go on are what little evidence can be gleaned from your former shells. Who can be trusted? Who will figure it all out first?

I was browsing the sci-fi section of our local used shop when I picked this one up to read the blurb. I had listened to Mur's podcast back in 2020, just after lockdown, but I had never looked into her work. When I saw that she had dedicated it to James Patrick Kelly, I bought it instantly. I am, to be brief, a fan. You can see the lineage of Think Like A Dinosaur here in Six Wakes.
I really enjoyed this Locked Room mystery. In Space! With clones and AI! And I'm not the only one who liked it. Six Wakes won the 2018 Hugo award, the 2018 Nebula award and was a finalist for the 2018 Phillip K Dick award.

I'm glad your first book of the year was a hit. You're off to a great start.

Hooray for starting the year off with a good book! Six Wakes has definitely caught my attention.

>21 VictoriaPL: I read Station Eternity last year and liked it. I'll have to try this one too!

>24 antqueen: I was looking at Station Eternity 😊

Happy New Year and the best of luck with your move!

Hearts of Resistance by Soraya M. Lane
WWII

Amazon’s blurb:
“When Hazel is given the chance to parachute into Nazi-occupied France, she seizes the opportunity to do more for the British war effort than file paperwork. Alongside her childhood friend, French-born Rose, she quickly rises up the ranks of the freedom fighters. For Rose, the Resistance is a link to her late husband, and a way to move forward without him. What starts out as helping downed airmen becomes a bigger cause when they meet Sophia, a German escapee and fierce critic of Hitler who is wanted by the Gestapo. Together the three women form a bond that will last a lifetime.”

You know those cozy mystery series with cats or bookstores or knitting? Well WWII is like my cozy mystery genre. It doesn't have to be groundbreaking or novel, it just has to follow the formula and hit all the familiar guidepost and it will do. Hearts of Resistance is a perfect example of that. It did everything it was supposed to and I enjoyed my time with it. Now I will likely forget the details in a bit and will only remember that I read it because I log my reading here on LT. Not to say that it's a bad book, just explaining how I read in this genre.

>27 VictoriaPL: I know exactly what you mean above, I have read another book by Soraya Lane and it wasn't great literature by any means but it certainly gave me my needed WW II fix!

>28 DeltaQueen50: I’m so glad to know that I’m not the only one!

>27 VictoriaPL: WWII can be like that for me, as long as it isn't too grizzly, then it becomes something else!

If it’s a favorite time period and has other elements one likes then it’s usually an enjoyable entertainment.

>27 VictoriaPL: Same here re WWII. And there is SO much of Kindle Unlimited - you could read in this genre for years and not get through them all.
My reads like that are WWII, particularly home front settings, cozy mysteries and Amish novels.

>30 Tess_W: I know what you mean.
>31 hailelib: very true!
>32 JayneCM: I have not yet dipped a toe into Kindle Unlimited. I'm afraid, LOL.

Tidal Pools by Lawrence Thackston
Mystery / Thriller

Flap Blurb:
“In the Galeegi Islands along the coast of South Carolina, the former prime suspect in a 40-year-old, controversial murder case is found dead of a questionable suicide. Tyler Miles, a newly recruited patrolman with the Galeegi Police Department, becomes an unlikely part of the investigation and is immediately swept up in a tidal wave of violence and deceit that threatens to impact the entire Lowcountry. Working side-by-side with Chloe Hart, a research biologist for the EPA, Tyler must find a connection between the suicide and the old murder, all the while facing a new rash of killings and an imminent, destructive threat to the islands and the surrounding marshlands. From behind the screen doors of the island’s most impoverished hovels to the marble floors and crystal chandeliers of its finest plantation homes, Tyler will race to unravel the mystery behind the chilling case. And, in his search for justice, he will come face to face with an evil as old as hatred itself, cryptically finding his answers only in what the tide leaves behind.”

I was excited when I found this novel in my local used bookstore. Thackston set his story in two fictional islands which he has stated are similar to Edisto and Kiowa. While I live in the Upstate of South Carolina, I have visited the Low Country many times. Edisto is one of my favorite getaways, it is so beautiful there. On one trip with @RidgewayGirl in Charleston, we did a slave history walking tour. I've toured a few plantations and natural history museums in the coastal areas, and while I have had a little exposure to the Gullah language, it is all Greek to me.

That said, you don't need any of that to enjoy the story here. Like many thrillers, it is approachable to a broad audience. And, typical of the genre, there are times when you have to use your suspension of disbelief to continue enjoying the story. I figured out one element very early but I felt two particular plot points were so far out in the weeds that no one would have anticipated them. So, not a five-star read for me. Still enjoyable though. Definitely would make a great beach read if you are in the area!

>34 VictoriaPL: Wouldn't it be nice to be back in the low country on a hot, humid day right now?

>35 RidgewayGirl: yes, especially with you!

The Night Portrait by Laura Morelli
WWII

Cecilia - young, pretty, smart and musically gifted, she has captured the heart of the lord of Milan, Ludovico. A powerful man, though not strong enough to walk away from a very beneficial marriage contract. So Cecilia stays in a wing of the castle, visited in secret and occasionally brought out to sing for guests - that is, until her beautiful gowns can no longer hide her delicate condition.

Leonardo - he dreams of how to please his patron. Strengthen the castle, build a better bridge, make a man fly? He could work on all of that if he just had the time! And now the patron wants a portrait of some girl? Well, he's going to make this portrait different than expected.

Edith - she followed her father into art conservation but all the Nazis want day after day is her ranking on the art they bring her. Truckload after truckload of stolen art. Unfortunately her boss has taken a shine to both Edith and the da Vinci and he's hell bent on keeping them both for himself.

Dominic - he used to spend his downtime making charcoal drawings of his wife, trying to remember her features. Imagining what their newest child looks like. He used to love art, but the brutal death of his fellow soldiers has beaten all the passion out of him. Until one day his commander introduces him to a detail called the Monuments Men - can he find any purpose again?

I enjoyed this book so much! It took me forever to read it. It was engaging and enjoyable, I just couldn’t seem to make good ground while reading it… and then it was over. I loved the imagined life of this real painting and I enjoyed the trials that Edith and Dominic endured and overcame.

to learn more and to see a photo of the Monuments Men with the painting visit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_with_an_Ermine

>37 VictoriaPL: Love novels based on paintings! Off to find this one!

>38 Tess_W: have you read Strapless? I loved that one!

>37 VictoriaPL: This sounds really interesting! I'll look for a copy.

>39 VictoriaPL: Not yet, but just put it on my WL!

Crossings by Alex Landragin
Literary Fiction

Amazon blurb:
On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. 

The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations. 

With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate people grow clearer and more extraordinary. Crossings is an unforgettable adventure full of love, longing and empathy.

I found this book on a “Staff picks” shelf in my local used bookstore. It is very highly rated on Amazon. I was intrigued that the book can be read two different ways and it sounded right up my alley. But, to be blunt, I didn't like it. There, I said it. I've been putting off updating my thread because I just dreaded posting my recap. I’m such a people-pleaser, it hurts to be negative. I thought that I would put off my review until I had read the book the second way, but no. I'm done. I loved the first fourth of the book and then it just lost something. It was a trudge (for me).

Code Name Sapphire by Pam Jenoff
WWII

Amazon blurb: 1942. Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind.
Seeking help, Hannah joins the Sapphire Line, a secret resistance network led by a mysterious woman named Micheline and her enigmatic brother Matteo. But when a grave mistake causes Lily’s family to be arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz, Hannah finds herself torn between her loyalties. How much is Hannah willing to sacrifice to save the people she loves?

Pam Jenoff has turned into a reliable source of comfort reads (WWII) for me. By now she knows how to put you in that time and place succinctly, almost like your favorite airport shoes. You put them on and you know where you are going for the journey.
I did spot the villain of the story (besides the Nazis) pretty much straight away, so there is that.
I liked the underground line as a venue, the downed airmen, the safe houses, false papers, train rides, walks on foot, etc.
And if love triangles put you off, it's a big plot point, just be warned

If you'd like to read another WWII fiction that deals with a refugee ship turned away from American shores, I recommend Munich Signature by Bodie Thoene

>37 VictoriaPL: >38 Tess_W: I also love books based on paintings. I enjoyed various of Susan Vreeland's books in this vein.

>37 VictoriaPL: I liked this one too. This month I'm reading another of hers and plan to read them all. One of the things I appreciate about her is that she has the knowledge to write historical fiction (PhD Harvard in Art History and also taught there 10 years) but makes it clear she sometimes has to "fill in the blank" to tell the story. That of course, is why it's historical fiction.

Thanks for the reminder about Pam Jenoff. I have only read one of her books but I have about 6 on my shelves. Don't feel bad about not liking a popular book, we can't all like the same things.

>46 DeltaQueen50: that's a great reminder, thanks Judy 😊

>42 VictoriaPL: I have this book on my tbr and I'm pretty sure to love it now, aren't I?

>48 RidgewayGirl: it will be your best book of 2024.

>42 VictoriaPL: >48 RidgewayGirl: >49 VictoriaPL: You all made me laugh! I think my opinion would be more in line with Victoria's.

>50 thornton37814: 😂

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Gothic Fiction

Amazon blurb: After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

I did not know anything about this book when I began to read it. I did not even bother with browsing the flap because a dear friend gifted it to me and I trust her, always. (Hi Kay!)
I do love gothic fiction. A frantic missive, a gloomy manse where a loved one languishes in bed… bring it on. I remember texting my friend “I'm ready for the mad fire-starting wife to come down from the attic!” The book certainly delivered on the classic atmospheric dread, half-waking nightmare of a plot, leaving you questioning what was happening here?? I love that. I was not expecting what came next but I was good with it. What a satisfyingly creepy tale that I still drift back to from time to time.
If I had one complaint, and it's very small, is that I spent the whole time thinking this isn't very Mexican. Sure, we mentioned a Mexican city, a Mexican family name, but really it could have taken place in any of the English highlands, like it's Gothic sisters.

The Fortunate Ones by Catherine Hokin
WWII

Amazon blurb: Germany, 1941. When Inge—all blonde curls and good manners—first locks eyes with Felix, she knows instinctively that he's off limits. Her staunchly proper parents will never approve of a working-class Jewish boy for their precious only daughter. But that doesn't make their first, shy kiss less significant, or the moment they're torn apart less shocking.
The next time they see each other, it will be across the packed courtyard of a Nazi concentration camp—Felix in the prisoners' ranks and Inge on the arm of her new, Nazi husband.
Inge never knew that her father's 'party loyalty' would extend to marrying her off to a cruel Nazi officer twice her age, who sees his new wife as just another thing to control. She has always been a good girl—a silent wife—but when Inge sees Felix that day—beaten, bloody and brave—she knows she can't stay silent any longer.

I dislike it when authors resort to making the husband's behavior overly brutish so that the reader doesn’t mind so much when the wife steps out or leaves the marriage. It borders on over-use in the WWII genre, in my opinion. Not that I doubt such men in the Nazi Party could be abusive, not to down play spousal abuse, just saying that it irks me when I feel the plot strings being pulled in such a manner. This story being more of the same in that way.
What I did like about this book was the writing. The conversations between men and women, the way the relationships were explored, was enjoyable. Felix was more interesting to me as a character than Inge.

“His mother's tale about meeting his father, trotted out at birthdays and anniversaries. “And there he was and there was I: right where I was meant to be.” The story made him blush when he was little and made him sad now, but Kerstin still smiled when she told it. “Me for him and him for me and no one else ever needed.” Which nothing changed and never could. There was beauty in its certainty. There he was and there was I. There was magic in that.”

>52 VictoriaPL: Adding this one to my TBR! I've enjoyed Moreno-Garcia's Velvet Was the Night and The Beautiful Ones.

>52 VictoriaPL: Oh, hey, another book we both liked! We must be up to a solid half dozen by now.

>54 christina_reads: I think you will like it Christina.
>55 RidgewayGirl: that many? 😊

>56 VictoriaPL: The next test is the new book by Thomas Mullen. It's a noir-ish crime novel set during WWII, so I know you'll eventually have to read it.

You got me with The Night Portrait .

>52 VictoriaPL: I loved that one, and I agree, the British family is a bigger part of the story than expected.

>57 RidgewayGirl: The Rumor Game?
>58 hailelib: oh yay, a BB!
>59 mstrust: oh good, it's not just me, LOL.

>60 VictoriaPL: Yes. I'm not going to tell you what I thought about it until you've read it.

>61 RidgewayGirl: I’ll try to resist reading the review you posted. 😊

>52 VictoriaPL: We had mixed reviews on it when we had it at Carson-Newman. I never got around to reading it. I might give it a try sometime if it catches my eye at the library when I'm in a Gothic mood.

Happy Easter!!
It's been awhile since I’ve caught up here. During the Lenten season, I’ve really been leaning in to my chronological Bible reading and I’m currently in Joshua. I've never been confident on how to notate that here, so I haven't said anything about it. I have been pleasantly surprised and I'm farther in with my reading than I ever have been before. I have always found the oldest Old Testament a challenge and I think the app I’m using is actually what is working for me. It's called the Bible Recap if anyone is interested.

Annexed by Sharon Dogar
WWII, Young Adult

Amazon:” In this powerful and gripping novel, Sharon Dogar explores what this might have been like from Peter’s point of view. What was it like to be forced into hiding with Anne Frank, first to hate her and then to find yourself falling in love with her? Especially with your parents and her parents all watching almost everything you do together. To know you’re being written about in Anne’s diary, day after day? What’s it like to start questioning your religion, wondering why simply being Jewish inspires such hatred and persecution? Or to just sit and wait and watch while others die, and wish you were fighting.”

As a girl who read Anne Frank's Diary, of course I wanted more of Peter. i always want more young, angsty love stories! And this isn't the first fictionalization I’ve read from Peter's POV, there was also The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank. Honestly, I don't remember that one enough to compare the two. But I did really enjoy this one. It kind of snuck up on me, one of those quiet, unassuming books that you blink and they are over with. I liked not only having his perspective but also the inclusion of his parents too.

Invictus by Ryan Graudin
Sci-Fi, Young Adult

“A boy without a birthday?” The sparkler was nearing the end of its run, but the newcomer's expression lit and fizzled, “What a strange wonder.”
It was a testament to how much Eliot disgruntled Farway that these words didn't serve as instant ego fuel: Why, yes, I am a strange wonder. The most special of snowflakes! Born out of time, forever running to catch up to it! He resorted to mumbling instead “All it's ever done is fritz out the med-droids. The bragging rights wear off real quick.”

I met Ryan Graudin when she came to Greenville, SC, on her tour for Blood for Blood (an alt-history YA WWII novel I enjoyed) and I am reading her back catalog slowly but surely.
This is a time-travel tale that gave me a Jumper mixed with The Never-Ending Story kind of vibe. It also is one of those hip YA tales that succeed in making me feel old. But I did manage to enjoy the world building and the creativity of it.

>64 VictoriaPL: I use one of the year-long Bible plans from the Bible app most of the time. I really don't like the plan I'm using this year, but I think that is because the plan I used last year is one of my favorites I've ever encountered. I usually switch Bible versions each year, but since I couldn't think of another version I wanted to try, I stuck with NASB (my favorite) this year.

>67 thornton37814: I’ve been enjoying the NLT this year. Something about it.

>68 VictoriaPL: I know a lot of people like it, but I think its history bothers me. It was intended to be a revision of the Living Bible paraphrase, but they ended up producing a translation instead of a paraphrase. That is a good thing. I just can't get past its name and the implications of the old paraphrase. I love the way I can tell the actual tense of a Greek verb by reading the NASB.

>69 thornton37814: I can appreciate that. 😊

Thunderstruck by Eric Larson
non-fiction, true crime

I have reached such a level of trust with Eric Larson that when I see one of his books at a sale, it goes in the cart. I don't read the flap, I don't consult reviews, just take my money. I consume a paltry number of non-fiction titles a year but Larson is always a good bet. He gives so much. I learn innumerable things from him and yet it's immensely entertaining. I'm stuck on the edge of my seat, knowing his magician's stagecraft is second to none.
So, I started reading and realized this selection was about Marconi. Ah, yes, telegraphs and ocean liner radio rooms and all that, right? Well, yes. This book is allllll that. It's a lot. And it makes you appreciate what it took to make wireless work. And I couldn't help but correlate that to cellular and wi-fi and all the magical technology we enjoy in our modern lives.
But wait! There's more. Then we are treated to a sordid tale of a missing wife, a mistress and parts of a body found in a London cellar. You see, wireless gave us the first real-time fugitive hunt and it captivated the entire world all at once. One could say after watching CourtTV and Law & Crime that the world has never gotten over the experience. How it forever changed our world, in so many ways. A fascinating tale.

To readers around the world, this report was magic. They knew what books the fugitives were reading. They knew about their contemplative moments, and how much they enjoyed the ship's concert. They saw Crippen laughing at the captain's jokes and Le Neve deploying her feminine manners to pluck fruit from a tray. The London Times said “There was something intensely thrilling , almost wierd, in the thought of these two passengers traveling across the Atlantic in the belief that their identity and their whereabouts were unknown while both were being flashed with certainty to all quarters of the civilized world.” From the moment of their departure, the paper said, the two “have been encased in waves of wireless telegraphy as securely as if they had been within the four walls of a prison.”
One newspaper invited W.W. Bradfield, one of Marconi's principal engineers, to write about the unfolding saga. Bradfield described the ship's Marconi room as resembling a “magician's cave” and said wireless had forever altered the prospects of criminals. “The suspect fugitive flying to another continent no longer finds immunity in mid-ocean. The very air around him may be quivering with accusatory messages which have apparently come up out of the void. The mystery of ‘wireless’, the impossibility of escaping it, the certainty that it will come out to meet a fugitive as well as follow him in his pursuit, will from henceforth weigh heavily on the person trying to escape from justice.”

The East Wind by Storm Fredrickson
WWII LTER program

I read a lot of WWII. If my shelves were a plate, you would notice WWII is the entree. I just cannot consume enough of it. Admittedly it was the blurb that got me to request this from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program.

“The year is 1942. Robert Mann, a brilliant young American physicist of German birth, joins Allied Intelligence. When the assassination of a top Nazi official presents OSS and MI6 with a rare chance to penetrate the Third Reich, Robert volunteers.
His cover survives one nerve-racking encounter after another as he infiltrates Hitler's atom bomb program. Then comes the ultimate test: entry into the home of Effi Zell - wife of Christoph Zell - the man Robert is impersonating.”

Sounds like a banger. But it wasn't, for me. I realized at the end of it that I had not connected with these characters at all. Not with Effi, I could not even form a picture in my head of what she looked like. And definitely not with Robert. His dialog was just irritating to me, constantly mansplaining and chauvinistic. If he was modeled on 007, then that certainly came through. The writing is old school spy genre and somewhat spartan, compared to the more modern style of fiction.

The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
sci-fi

Upon spying this one on the shelf, my reaction was “David Wellington and Space? Yes, please!” I had read his Vampire series and his Zombie series, well, gobbled them down, like a box of theatre candy that doesn’t even make it to opening titles. Very enjoyable and way too short.
This one is a bit longer and it feels it. Not that it's boring. But the Vampires and Zombies were on Earth, a known setting, while this one has world building to do. And what a journey it is. Interesting exploration, like Fantastic Voyage and terrifying mortality, like Aliens.
If you enjoy Sci-fi and horror, highly recommended.

The Last Ship by William Brinkley
fiction, dystopia

You know those books you read but years later you're not certain if you actually finished it off? I have watched a few episodes of the TV show made from it and that didn't help my memory. But now I know, for sure, that I finished it off. 616 pages, thank you. A good, classic 80s military dystopia. Like what Red October would have been had Sean Connery not wanted to defect to the USA.

>73 VictoriaPL: “Like a box of theatre candy that doesn’t even make it to the opening titles”—what a great simile! And I’ve read series like that!

I'm struggling with time management (a work in progress) and I'm languishing under a huge pile of books I have not logged and have not reviewed. Sigh. Anyway, just to take a step forward into progress, here is a catch-up on my recent reads:

WWII:
The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel
Decent, enjoyed it.

Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black
Decent, enjoyed it.

White Rose Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey
Decent, enjoyed it.

Churchill's Secret Messenger by Alan Hlad
Really enjoyed this one, more than I thought that I would.

Fiction:
The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
Loved this alternate history. Very fun.

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas
The blurb sounds like Relic but completely not. An enjoyable fiction with an interesting villain.

Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
More Witcher. Yes, please.

The River Runs South by Audrey Ingram
A nice Southern chick flick.

Strongheart by Jim Fergus
White women fully assimilated into Native American tribes, fighting and defending their new family against the Calvary. Don't feel the need to read the others in series.

Non-Fiction:
Countdown to a Moon Launch by Jonathan Ward
Very detailed, nice anecdotes. Read it because it's a companion to Rocket Ranch.

Swamp Kings by Jason Ryan
I watched the Murdaugh trial and wanted more background on Alex's forefathers. Meh.

Good to see you drop by your own thread!

>76 VictoriaPL: - I hadn't realized there was a third book in the Jim Fergus series. I've read the other two and found the first one was the better of the two, so I'll probably skip this one.

>77 RidgewayGirl: it's a start.
>78 dudes22: yeah, I don't think you would miss much, LOL

Yay, I'm glad you liked The Apollo Murders!

>80 rabbitprincess: I very much did! Now I want to read The Defector

Hi Victoria, like Betty, I thought the first book in Jim Fergus' series was excellent but I wasn't as taken by the 2nd. I do have the third book on my Kindle and will get to it eventually, but I definitely have lowered my expectations.

>82 DeltaQueen50: I bet you have quite a full Kindle as varied as your reading habit is! Thanks for stopping by!

>83 VictoriaPL: I store my Kindle books on the "cloud" but yes, I have more books than I will ever get to and I greedily continue to add to my collection!