CurrerBell tries again for 75

{Sigh} Only hit 52 in 2023, partly due to some serious medical issues throughout the year. I've got some Big Fat Book plans for 2024 that might slow my progress toward 75, but I'm hoping I don't make as many trips to the hospital this year.

Rereads are included and are not specifically noted. (At my age, some number of rereads are to be expected!)



BFB = Big Fat Books 2024
Fant = FantasyFans
GC = The Great Courses video
K = Kindle (not included if used in tandem with a treeware edition)
LoA = Library of America
NCE = Norton Critical Edition
ROOT = Read Our Own Tomes 2024
RTT-M & RTT-Q = Reading Through Time monthly and quarterly reads
SciFi = Science Fiction Fans
VF = Vive la France
VMC = Virago Reading Project 2024 monthly author reads

Jan (8), Feb (4), Mar (8), Apr (8), May (12), Jun (11),
Jul (5), Aug (4), Sep (5), Oct (6), Nov (9), Dec (10) ... Total (90)

Happy reading in 2024, Mike!

52’s a great number! Welcome back!

January:

2 ... K RTT-M SciFi Caitlin Starling, Last to Leave the Room 3***
7 ... ROOT Various, Poems of Hate 1*
13 ... Fant K Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six 1½*
16 ... RTT-M ROOT Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas 4****
22 ... BFB SciFi K Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shards of Earth 2½**

26 ... NCE RTT-M ROOT T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems (NCE 2d ed) 4****
28 ... GC RTT-M Joseph Lam, The Great Courses, Creation Stories of the Ancient World 2**
30 ... RTT-M ROOT Daphne du Maurier, The Scapegoat 3½***

Mike, I'm sorry that you experienced some serious health issues in 2023. I sincerely hope that 2024 is a better year for you.

I send all good wishes.

Vive la France:

(French reading project, primarily in translation and with a focus, but non-exclusive, on the 19th century novel. These titles are included in the monthly listings so that their listings here do not add to total reading but only assemble the VF books into one convenient thread.)

(8/18/2023): Balzac, Wild Ass' Skin; Chouans ... other stories
Mar 21: Balzac, Country Doctor; Quest of the Absolute ... other stories
Apr 14: Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris
May 13: Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea
May 21: Balzac, Eugénie Grandet; Country Parson ... other stories

Jul 5: Corneille, Le Cid and The Liar (trans Richard Wilbur)
Jul 8: John Greene, The Great Tours: France Through the Ages
Aug 8: Hugo, Les Misérables (Modern Library) (trans Julie Rose)
Sep 14: Alan Schom, The Shadow Emperor: A Biography of Napoleon III
Oct 10: Jean-Pierre Isbouts, In the Footsteps of Vincent van Gogh (Great Courses video)

Oct 10: Zola, The Fortune of the Rougons (Oxford World's Classics)
Jan 1, 2025: Zola, Thérèse Raquin (Oxford World's Classics)

February:

8 ... K Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us 3***
10 ... GC RTT-Q Brian Fagan, Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations 3***
20 ... BFB RTT-M ROOT SciFi C.S. Lewis, The Space Trilogy 2½**
20 ... BFB RTT-M ROOT VMC Elizabeth Taylor: Complete Short Stories 4****

March:

6 ... K V.C. Andrews, Flowers in the Attic 1½*
11 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water 5*****
13 ... ROOT VMC Patricia Highsmith, People Who Knock on the Door 2**
15 ... Fant K Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries 3***
16 ... ROOT RTT-M Mikhail Bulgakov, A Country Doctor's Notebook 3½***

21 ... BFB ROOT VF Honoré de Balzac, Country Doctor; Quest of the Absolute ... other stories 4****
26 ... ROOT VMC Patricia Highsmith, Small g: A Summer Idyll 4****
27 ... GC RTT-Q Stuart Sutherland, Introduction to Paleontology 5*****

April:

8 ... GC RTT-Q Jodi Magness, The Holy Land Revealed 5*****
14 ... BFB RTT-M VF Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris (Oxford World's Classics, trans Alban Krailsheimer) 5*****
17 ... K SciFi Philip Jose Farmer, Riverworld: Including To Your Scattered Bodies Go & The Fabulous Riverboat 3½***
23 ... K SciFi Philip Jose Farmer, The Dark Design 3***
24 ... GC RTT-Q Steven Tuck, The Mysterious Etruscans 4****

25 ... Fant ROOT Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle 3***
28 ... ROOT VMC Rumer Godden, Thursday's Children 3½***
30 ... ROOT VMC Rumer Godden, The Dark Horse 3½***

May:

7 ... K SciFi Philip Jose Farmer, The Magic Labyrinth 2**
7 ... GC RTT-Q Bart Ehrman, The Historical Jesus 4****
10 ... K Suzanne Oliver, Ranya Idliby, Priscilla Warner, The Faith Club 3***
13 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M VF Victor Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea 3***
16 ... Fant K Evie Woods, The Lost Bookshop 3½***

17 ,,, ROOT RTT-Q Elaine Pagels and Karen King, Reading Judas 4****
21 ... BFB ROOT VF Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet; Country Parson ... other stories 4****
23 ... K SciFi Philip Jose Farmer, Gods of Riverworld 3½***
23 ... GC RTT-Q Jodi Magness, Jesus and His Jewish Influences 4½****
28 ... NCE ROOT VMC Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (Norton Critical) 4½****

30 ... K SciFi Tim Lebbon, The Last Storm 3½***
31 ... Fant ROOT T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge 4****

Whoo Hoo! As of May 28, halfway to 75 and the year's not yet halfway through.

June:

3 ... Fant ROOT Diana Wynne Jones, Castle in the Air 4****
6 ... Fant ROOT Diana Wynne Jones, House of Many Ways 4½****
7 ... ROOT VF Jean Racine, Phaedra (trans Richard Wilbur) 2½** but see my review, my quarrel being not with Racine but with the Wilbur translation
11 ... GC RTT-Q Kenneth Harl, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire 5*****
13 ... Stuart Reid, The Lumumba Plot 3½***

16 ... ROOT RTT-Q Elaine Pagels, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation 2½**
19 ... ROOT VMC Nina Bawden, Circles of Deceit 3***
23 ... GC RTT-Q Craig Koester, The Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History 4½****
24 ... ROOT RTT-M Abraham Ascher, The Kremlin (Wonders of Man) 3***
25 ... K Paul Doiron, Pitch Dark 3½***

30 ... GC RTT-M Justin M. Jacobs, World Heritage Sites: Exploring the World’s Greatest Places 4****

July:

1 ... ROOT Dick Russell, The Real RFK Jr.: Trials of a Truth Warrior 2½**. I'm a TULSIcrat (as in Tulsi Gabbard), and I very well may vote for Bobby in November. My quarrel with this book isn't with its subject but with its complete absence of footnote/endnote sourcing of content, which makes the author's claims absolutely unverifiable. Good campaign biography, but it should have been a whole lot more.
5 ... RTT-M VF, Pierre Corneille, Le Cid and The Liar (trans Richard Wilbur) 4****
8 ... Fant ROOT SciFi The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Winter 2024 2**
12 ... GC RTT-M VF John Greene, The Great Tours: France Through the Ages 4****
17 ... K Barbara Ross, Clammed Up 4****

August:

9 ... BFB RTT-M (July) ROOT VF Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (Modern Library) (trans Julie Rose) 4½****
19 ... Fant K RTT-M Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop 3½***
21 ... BFB RTT-M ROOT SciFi Iain Pears, Arcadia 4½****
25 ... ROOT SciFi Tom Purdom, Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons 4****

September:

12 ... ROOT Albert Wendt, Black Rainbow 2**
14 ... RTT-M VF Alan Strauss-Schom, The Shadow Emperor 3½***
18 ... GC VF Richard Brettell, From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism 5*****
26 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M Hannah Whitten, For the Throne 3***
29 ... GC RTT-Q Dorsey Armstrong, King Arthur: History and Legend 5*****

October:

10 ... VF Emile Zola, The Fortune of the Rougons 5*****
10 ... GC VF Jean-Pierre Isbouts, In the Footsteps of Vincent van Gogh 3½***
10 ... K Barbara Ross, Boiled Over 4****
24 ,,, K Barbara Ross, Musseled Out 4****
31 ... GC Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God 3½***

31 ... K Barbara Ross, Fogged Inn 4****

November:

5 ... K Barbara Ross, Iced Under 4½****
10 ... K Barbara Ross, Stowed Away 3½***
13 ... K Barbara Rush, Steamed Open 3***
15 ... K Barbara Rush, Sealed Off 4****
17 ... K Barbara Rush, Shucked Apart 4½****

26 ... BFB K SciFi Edgar Rice Burrough, Venus series 3***
27 ... K Barbara Rush, Muddled Through 4½****
29 ... K Barbara Rush, Hidden Beneath 4½****
30 ... K Barbara Rush, Nogged Off 4½****

December:

2 ... GC RTT-Q Dorsey Armstrong. Great Minds of the Medieval World 5*****
6 ... K Barbara Ross, Hallowed Out 4½****
7 ... K Barbara Ross, Logged On 3½***
18 ... BFB ROOT SciFi Samuel Delaney, Dhalgren ½* (One of the positively worst and most disgusting books I've ever read. If I hadn't wanted to finish it for a BFB and for a ROOT, I would have Pearl-ruled it. Not sure that all of Delaney is like this, though, so I will give some of his other sci-fi a try.)
24 ... K Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, Barbara Ross, Irish Coffee Murder (anthology) 3½***

26 ... ROOT Mikhail Bulgakov, A Dead Man's Memoir 3***
26 ... K Barbara Ross, Scared Off 4****
27 ... K Barbara Ross, Torn Asunder 4½****
30 ... K Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, Barbara Ross, Eggnog Murder (anthology) 3½*** (Not counted in the total reads since the "Maine Clambake" story was already counted separately on Nov 30.)
31 ... GC Edward B Burger, Zero to Infinity: A History of Numbers 5***** (This is one that's going to require a rewatch, at least for certain sessions like the p adic numbers and the proof that the set of reals is larger than the set of rationals.)

Jan 1, 2024 ... RTT-M VF Zola, Thérèse Raquin (trans Andrew Rothwell) 5***** (credited to December since most of it was read before the New Year and I wanted it for the December RTT-M)

Mike, I'm finally here to have a quick look through your year's reading. You remind me that I have a copy of Arcadia and should go right ahead and read it. I'll also note that you liked Flowers in the Attic a lot more than I did. *grin* Otherwise, a number of good books that I know nothing about. Thank you!

Hope you're thriving this year!

>19 LizzieD: NOT thriving. Currently in rehab after surgery for a broken hip. Using Kindle and watching Great Courses videos. But I'll be hitting 75 on this group in a day or two.

Not doing much LT posting with just a smart phone, until I get home to a laptop or desktop.

Ouch! I hope your rehab goes well! And that you get some good reading in as you're recovering.

>21 drneutron: Been doing Barbara Rush's "Maine Clambake" cozy mysteries on Kindle. Just finished book 8 out of (currently) 12. Clever and cute, and Pennsylvanian though I am, I have a thing for Maine.

>20 CurrerBell: I'm sorry to hear that, Mike. I watched my mama work her way through recovery and PT from a broken hip about 30 years ago. I'm sure that some treatment has improved. I'm pretty sure that the pain and grit required to come back haven't. Peace, friend. Read on!

Just got my data updated. On Nov15 I hit 75 and I'm now at 78. This has all been Kindle reading since that's what I had on my smart phone while in rehab after my broken-hip surgery. And frankly, it was mainly "cotton candy" reading – Maine-ly(?) Barbara Rush's "Maine Clambake" mystery series, with a "sixty years later" reread of Burrough's "Carson Napier of Venus" series thrown in.

Gonna try to get back to some treeware in December to add a little bit more to my ROOTing, though I'm sure I won't reach my goal of 50 this year.

Congrats on zipping pst the goal!