Recapping My January to Early February 2026 Reads

Back in January I laid out my 2026 Reading Challenge in a post. The Challenge was broken into two challenges. The first was to read 66 books. While the second categorized the proposed reads by both source and type of book.

Proposed February–March 2026 Reads

Here are my proposed February–March 2026 reads. Both the Reed Farrel Coleman and William Kent Kreuger books are carry-overs from last month. Mainly because I read Departure 37 and Nemesis instead. Both of those books had been sitting on my Library TBR shelf for a few months! The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer – Ragnar Jonasson has a;so been on my shelves for a while – it’s time to read it!

Here’s how these proposed reads break down by category:

From the Library Book Category

New Mystery Thriller Series – Library

Blind to Midnight (Nick Ryan #2)- Reed Farrel Coleman

While Reed Farrel Coleman is not a new author to me I read Redemption Street the second book in his Moe Prager series back in 2010. I haven’t read a Moe Prager since then, although I wish I had. Hopefully I won’t make the same mistake with this series!

Favorite Mystery Series – Library

Apostle’s Cove (Cork O’Connor #20)- William Kent Krueger

Since all of the Cork O’Connor books from William Kent Krueger are great. I’m sure this one will be great as well!

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer – Ragnar Jonasson

Ragnar Jonasson is one of my favorite author’s. The book is an Icelandic tribute to Agatha Christie

From the TBR Shelves Category

Favorite Mystery/ Thriller Series

Winter House – Carol O’Connell

Winter House marks a return to Carol O’Connell’s Mallory series. It’s one of only two books in the series I never got around to reading, so this feels less like a reread and more like filling in a long-standing gap.

E-Book

The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes – David Handler

I haven’t read David Handler since the 1990s, when I read one earlier book in the series (book two). With nearly a twenty-year gap between book eight and this one, it’s no wonder he slipped off my radar. This feels like a genuine rediscovery.

Wish Me Luck and Check Back to see How I’m Doing! You can Check My Overall Progress Here

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UPDATE:December has come and gone and I read only two and a half books of the ones pictured above. The two I finished were Tides of Fire by James Rollins and Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. The half was Starter Villain by John Scalzi!

So yesterday I wrote that I would like to read four to five more books before the end of 2023. The above picture shows the five books I currently have check out of the library. These are my proposed reads for December. The order in which I am going to read them is bottom to top. I have read books written by all of the authors. So let’s take and look at the books and authors for these Dcember Reads!

Tides of Fire – James Rollins

Tides of Fire is the 17th book in the Sigma Force series from James Rollins. In total I have read 21 books by Rollins and I am ashamed to say the only Sigma Force book from Rollins I haven’t read is the first book in the series Sandstorm. Oh, and I haven’t read the two short stories he’s written.

If you like action adventure novels with science truth blended with science fiction from Rollins you’ll love his books!

From Goodreads about Tides of Fire

In the latest riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, an international research station in the Coral Sea comes under siege during a geological disaster that triggers massive quakes, deadly tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. To stop the world from burning, it’s up to Sigma Force to uncover a secret buried at the heart of our planet. et. More at Goodreads

Small Mercies – Dennis Lehane

I have only read eight books from Lehane. Six of them are from his Kenzie & Gennaro series which is one of my favorite series. I’ve also read Shutter Island and Mystic River

If Small Mercies is as good as Mystic River it will become a favorite of mine!

From Goodreads…..

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River —an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.  More at Goodreads

Distant Sons – Tim Johnston

I’ve only read one book from Tim Johnston Descent  and it was great, so I’m looking forward to this one!

From Goodreads…..

By the New York Times bestselling author of Descent and The Current, an absorbing new work of literary suspense about two young working men who forge a friendship despite secrets in their past, and whose actions ignite the passions and violence of a small Wisconsin town still haunted by the unsolved disappearance of three boys in the 1970s. For readers of Peter Heller, Liz Moore, and Cormac McCarthy. (More at Goodreads

The Only One Left – Riley Sager.

I discovered Riley Sager’s books a few years ago. So far I have read four of the seven books he’s  written. I’ve missed a couple of the more recent books. Can you say too many books, too little time! Anyway this one sounds really good!

From Goodreads….

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred…. More at Goodreads

Starter Villain – John Scalzi

I have read eight books by John Scalzi and four of  them are from his Old Man’s War series! hmm? Anyway he is one of my favorite Sci-Fi writers and this one sounds very interesting.  I’m sure that Scalzi’s wicked sense of humor is omnipresent in this one!

From Goodreads….

Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. More at Goodreads

There is my December Reads challenge…..Anyone read any of these??

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The EK’s Life Safari’s 2019 Reading Challenge

So since we are now into month two of 2019, I think it is time to final commit to my 2019 Reading Challenge. I have written earlier that my overall goal is to read 72 books in 2019. That’s seven books over my 2018 Challenge Goal. And  while I thought that goal of 65 books was unreachable I made it.So this ea I thought I’d  added some more!

Though the years I have read mostly mysteries and thrillers. Occasionally I read history and political books. and maybe even a few self-help books. A four years ago when I started creating my Reading Challenges my goal was to expand the genres of the books I read. I created challenges to read more science fiction, more general fiction  as well as a variety of non-fiction books.

Thoughts About Last  Year’s Challenge

Last year I added the challenge of reading more books that line my various bookshelves and are parked on my Kindle. That resulted in me reading books by some of my favorite authors like Bill Pronzini, William G Tapply, and Tony Hillerman.. whose books I haven’t read for years.

Ultimately though last year’s reads were primarily mysteries or thrillers. A total of thirty-eight (38) of the books I read were Mysteries or Thrillers. Of those thirty-eight (38)books , twenty-two (22) were written by mystery authors whose books I currently read. Sixteen (16) books are part of a series I am current on.  Sixteen (16) of the books read were “ new to me” mystery authors.Of those books eight (8) of them are part of a series. Several of those were the first book in a new series!

Within the next few days, I will create a page with  a list of the books I read in 2019.

The 2019 Reading Challenge

Now to construct the 2019 Challenge. Let’s begin b assuming that I probably will read one new book from each of the series mentioned above in 2019. That’s  twenty-four (24) books out of my 72!

That leaves forty-eight (48) books to be divide among the other genres. First, I want to read one science fiction book per month, as well as  one general fiction (no serial killers or plots to blow up the world).

That leaves twenty-four books. I’ll make those nonfiction and divide the nonfiction  books between: history or politics, biographies, science and self-help. Dividing twenty-four by four results six books for each category.

Ok so all of the above sounds pretty good for a start. However, each year I set out to read general literature and/or current fiction and each year I never reach my goal. So this year I’m lowering the goal to 6. And I’ll add the other six book to mystery and thrillers With that change made My 2019 Reading Challenge looks like this…….

Maybe Some Mini-Challenges to Change Things Up??

Sometimes in a reading challenge you do things like read a book with blue on the cover. Or read a book whose author’s name starts with A. Maybe what I’ll do mini-challenges some months concerning the six books I will be reading. Maybe, but probably not. Anyway, there you have it my 2019 Reading Challenge. So wish me luck!

In the next post I’ll write about the books I’ve already read in 2019. So far I’m on track. I’ve read six books! Oh, and we’ll see where they fit among my challenges!

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So my last post was written and posted on May 26th. Since then I have started to write several posts. Then I get distracted, do something else and they never get posted! Maybe I can catch up by writing two posts. The first will be about the books I read in May and the second about my May runs.

I read five book in May. That brought the total number of books that I have read in 2018 to 26. My 2018 Reading Challenge goal is 65 books so I’m on pace to reach my goal.

The Disappeared – C.J. Box

Hellbent – Gregg Hurwitz

The Ninth Grave – Stefan Ahnhem

The Hush – John Hart

Overall the book is a little different from Hart’s previous books. Hush Arbor is a mysterious place and strange things happen to those who venture into this swampy area. So to get the full impact of the book the reader may need to be one who believes in the supernatural!

However, the end result is that The Hush is another terrific book by an ultra-talented new writer! One of my favorites.

Future Home of the Living God – Louise Erdrich

The final book I read in May was Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God. This book is not a book I would typically read., but I have read goods things about Erdman’s writing, so I thought I would give it a shot. What I didn’t know was the book was not a typical Erdrich book. None the less, Future Home of the Living God was fun to read.

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant. Read More

So while I am now caught up on the books that I read in May, I am still behind on all of the books I have read. That’s because I finished book number 27 yesterday. Michael Koryta’s latest How It Happened was that book and it was good!

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So far this month, I have finished two books. The first one was Dark Sky the second book in the Keiko series from Mike Brooks. The second was I’ll Keep You Safe from one of my favorite authors Peter May. By finishing those two books I have upped my total books read to 19 books. I am also slightly over halfway through Building the Great Society:Inside Lyndon Johnson’s White House by Joshua Zeitz.

18. Dark Sky – Mike Brooks ( Keiko #2)  

This is the second book in the series featuring Captain Ichabod Drift and the crew of the Keiko And after reading the first Keiko book I knew that the easy data extraction from the mining planet of Unagan would not be easy.So I was not surprised when the Captain and crew ended up in the middle of a revolution on the planet. Now the fact that they ended of on opposite sides was surprising!!

I don’t know if I liked the story as much as the plot of the first book Dark Run but I did like the development of the characters including both Captain Drift and his crew. In addition, Brooks introduced a rival captain and crew, which Drift and Company may encountered again in the future!

Bottom line is that I am looking forward to another adventure from these guys. Hopefully in Dark Deeds I will find a great story and more character development of characters, who are starting to grow on me!!

19. I’ll Keep You Safe – Peter May

Over the last several years, the books of Peter May have been some of my favorite books. Particularly the one’s set in the Outer Hebrides i.e. the Lewis trilogy. May’s descriptions both the tough land and its people are amazing.

About I’ll Keep You Safe

My Thoughts

2018 Reading Challenges

Final Thoughts

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Mid-May Reading Challenge Update…

Ok so I really must apologize for not posting here for a fairly long time. But just because I haven’t posted doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading or listening. So in the next few posts I will try to catch up and then maybe get back on a more regular schedule for posting.

My April – May Reads

in my last post about reading I presented the four books that I planned to read in the remaining days of April and on into May. The four books were: Exit West by Moshin Hamid, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, The Nowhere Man from Gregg Hurwitz and The Fifth Element by Jorgon Brekke

I read three out of the four planned reads. The only book that I didn’t read among those books was The Fifth Element.which will go on my list of books that I want to read.

So here are the books I read in April…..

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The books shown above are books number 18 through 21, on my list of books read in 2017.

Early May Reads

In May so far I have read two more books.The first one was Ast Rope’s End by Edward Kay, which is a murder mystery. It is the first books in a series that features forensic psychologist James Verraday. The second one was The Collapsing Empire by one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors John Scalzi. It is also the first book in a series title The Interdependency.

My 2017 Reading Challenges Totals to Date….

The total number of books I have read in 2017 now stands at 23. The following table breaks down the books according to my various 2017 Reading Challenges.

Proposed Reads for the Remainder of May

Here are four of the books that I have out of the library. They are my proposed reads for the rest of the month.

Fiction Reads

Marked for Life – Emelie Schepp – I currently have Emelie Schepp’s Marked for Revenge checked out of the library. I checked it out mainly because on the cover it says that she is the 2016 Swedish Crime Novelist of the Year. That is good enough for me! Anyway when I picked it up today while writing this post I discovered that it is the second book in a trilogy. As a result I went to my library’s card catalog found Marked for Life and it will soon be winging its way to me!

Vicious Circle – C.J. Box – Vicious Circle is book 17 in the Joe Pickett series from C.J.Box. This is one of my favorite series going today. On its cover Lee Child writes “One of today’s solid-gold, A-list, must-read writers“. And I certainly agree with that statement. I love each story but most of all I love the characters. Joe and his family along with Nate Romanowski make for a good time!

The other two books are both non- fiction. I am way behind in my non-fiction reading. So I hope that I can at least finish one or both of them this month.

Non-Fiction Reads

The first is The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Long by Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD and Elissa Epel, PhD  Dr. Blackwell discovered telomerase and telomere’s role in the aging process. Dr Epel is a health psychologist. She has done original research into how specific lifestyle and psychological habits can protect telomeres. This in turn slows disease and improves life! I started this book a while back and it is very interesting. Maybe it will help me in my quest to slow down my biologic clock!

The second book is Aging Backwards: Reverse the Aging Process and Look 10 Years Younger in 30 minutes a day! It looks like this book will be a pretty quick read. Mainly, because a lot of the book is composed of photos illustrating the exercises that make up the eight Age-Reversing Workouts presented in the book. The author of the book is Miranda Esmonde-White. Esmonde-White is best known for her PBS fitness show Classic Stretch which has been on the air since 1999.Ms. Esmonde-White created the Essentrics technique. Essentrics uses low-intensity strength and stretch exercises to relieve pain, prevent pain and slenderize the body. Sound like a winning combination to me. I can’t wait to get started!!

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Four Reads for the Remainder of April……

In my post for The Blood Strand, I indicated that I have currently read 18 books on a goal of 60 books. So to stay on pace I only need to read two more books before the end of the month. That should be doable! Here are four books that I am currently reading or plan to read over the next few weeks

Exit West – Mohsin Hamid

One of my individual Reading Challenges is to read the Literature Reading Challenge. This challenge is to move me a little out of my comfort zone and challenges me to read books that I just don’t read. Knowing that I am not going to read a lot of general fiction the goal is to only read six books of this type. I have already read one All That Man Is by David Szalay.

One of the things that I always do when I do read literature is that I go and look at the Book Club questions regarding the book. I find that I seldom think about the book enough to answer the questions. I tend to read for the story itself and not the meaning behind the words. Maybe this time I will look at the book club questions before and while I am reading. Maybe that will work out a little better. Ya think!

Anyway, here is some info about the book, even though I believe it needs no introduction to most readers….

In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. Read More

The Lives of Tao – Wesley Chu

Another of my Reading Challenges  is my Science Fiction Challenge. The goal of that challenge is also six books. I created this challenge a few years ago because I enjoy SciFi and often don’t read books from that genre.So the challenge is a way to encourage me to read more of science fiction books…

I have looked at this series for a while now and never started it. But I used some Christmas money to buy the Kindle version and have been enjoying it!

From Goodreads….

When out-of-shape IT technician Roen woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it. He wasn’t. He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans. Now split into two opposing factions – the peace-loving, but under-represented Prophus, and the savage, powerful Genjix – the aliens have been in a state of civil war for centuries. Both sides are searching for a way off-planet, and the Genjix will sacrifice the entire human race, if that’s what it takes. Meanwhile, Roen is having to train to be the ultimate secret agent. Like that’s going to end up well…More 

The Nowhere Man – Gregg Hurwitz

This is book two in the Orphan X series from Gregg Hurwitz. In Orphan X Hurwitz introduced Evan Smoak aka Orphan X. Taken from a group home at twelve Evan was trained to be a highly skilled off the books operative i.e. and assassin. But he left the program, disappeared and reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man. As the Nowhere Man he helps save the truly desperate. His only charge is that they pass his name onto someone who is also truly desperate!

In Orphan X Evan is marked for elimination hunted by a  follow Orphan. In this installment Evan is captured drugged and held captive in a remote location in Switzerland. Can Evan escape from his virtual cage? or are the opposing numbers and resources too much even for Evan! I’ll put my money on Evan! But maybe he’ll need some help??? I don’t know!

The Fifth Element (Odd Singsaker #3) – Jorgen Brekke

The Fifth Element is the third book in the Odd Singsker series from Jorgen Brekke. It was not on my pile of books to be read this month until I saw it at the library last week! Brekke;’s first two books Where Monsters Dwell and Dreamless were both terrific and I couldn’t pass up this latest when I saw it!

From Goodreads:

Police Inspector Odd Singsaker has been captured, imprisoned on an island off the Northern coast of Norway. He wakes to find himself holding a shotgun. Next to him is a corpse. But what events led him to this point? And how did he get here?

A few weeks earlier, Felicia, his wife, disappeared. Though he didn’t know it, she was trying to find her way back to Odd to reconcile, but then she vanished into a snowstorm. Possibly involved is a corrupt, coldblooded cop from Oslo, a devious college student who’s stolen a great deal of cocaine from drug dealers, and a hit man hired by the drug dealers who have been robbed. All of these lives intersect with Odd’s as he searches for Felicia. More

It’s been almost two years since I read Dreamless book two in this series. I had forgotten that Dreamless left meI wanting to know what was going to happen between Odd and Felicia! Looks like a book or two is going to take a back seat to this one!!

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And the Beginning of March..….

Since there are only six days left in February, I will probably not finish any more books. That means I will end the month having read five books.And I will have read thirteen books in 2017. But maybe just maybe one I will be able to finish one of the following five books. Even if I don’t finish any of the books I will a good start on March;s reads!

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Five Proposed Reads for the End of February and March

Books I am Currently Reading….

I have already started two of the five books I currently have checked out from the library. Here are the two that I have started

Long Days of Night – Graham Moore

From Goodreads….

A thrilling novel based on actual events, about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America—from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian

New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history—and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? Read More

I am about 80 pages into this book and have found it really interesting.I must confess I didn’t know a lot about the competition between Edison and Westinghouse, so hopefully I’ll learn a little from this read. It also may encourage me to read The Age of Edison:Invention of Modern America that has been sitting on my TBR shelves for a while now!

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution – Nathaniel Philbrick

This is the first book that I have read from the popular author Nathaniel Philbrick. I love those shady characters from those early days of our nation, i.e Aaron Burr, James Wilkinson and of course Benedict Arnold.  Like The Last Days of Night I have already started this book and I’ve already learned a lot about the American Revolution! From Goodreads:

From the New York Times bestselling author of In The Heart of the Sea, comes a surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution, and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold.

In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under an unsure George Washington (who had never commanded a large force in battle) evacuates New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. Three weeks later, near the Canadian border, one of his favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeds in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Four years later, as the book ends, Washington has vanquished his demons and Arnold has fled to the enemy after a foiled attempt to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British. After four years of war, America is forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties might not come from without but from within. Read more

So maybe next up is Philbrick’s The Last Stand: Custer,Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn another book on my To Be Read shelves! And another book about an intriguing and infamous American!

The other three books…

….that I have checked out from the library are all from authors that are relatively new to me. They are:

The Crucifix Killer (Robert Hunter #1) – Chris Carter

Carter’s An Evil Mind – Robert Hunter #6 was one of the best books that I read in 2016. So I am really looking forward to starting at the beginning of this series!

When the body of a young woman is discovered in a derelict cottage in the middle of Los Angeles National Forest, Homicide Detective Robert Hunter finds himself entering a horrific and recurring nightmare. Naked, strung from two parallel wooden posts, the victim was sadistically tortured before meeting an excruciatingly painful death.

All the skin has been ripped from her face – while she was still alive. On the nape of her neck has been carved a strange double-cross: the signature of a psychopath known as the Crucifix Killer. But that’s impossible. Because two years ago, the Crucifix Killer was caught and executed. Could this therefore be a copycat killer? Or could the unthinkable be true? Read More

Red Right Hand (Michael Hendricks #2) – Chris Holm

I read the first Michael Kendricks novel The Killing Kind in January of 2017. I discovered the book and Chris Holm via the Mystery Scene magazine that my son Andrew and his wife Meaghan gave to me for Christmas. It included in an article about award-winning books. It won an Anthony Award for Best Novel. From Goodreads….

If the good guys can’t save you, call a bad guy.
When viral video of an explosive terrorist attack on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge reveals that a Federal witness long thought dead is still alive, the organization he’d agreed to testify against will stop at nothing to put him in the ground.
FBI Special Agent Charlie Thompson is determined to protect him, but her hands are tied; the FBI’s sole priority is catching the terrorists before they strike again. So Charlie calls the only person on the planet who can keep her witness safe: Michael Hendricks. Read More

Assassin’s Silence – Ward Larsen  (David Slaton #3)

Hot on the heels Assassin’s Game by Ward Larsen comes Assassin’s Silence and it may be hard for me not to start this book right away!! Hmm, I actually am on page 60! That’s where I stopped when I decided that I should read Assassin’s Game first!! So I guess this book actually belongs with the first set of books!! Oh, well!!

From Goodreads:

When it comes to disappearing, David Slaton has few equals. Police in three countries have written off trying to find him. His old employer, Mossad, keeps no forwarding address. Even his wife and son are convinced he is dead. So when an assault team strikes, Slaton is taken by surprise. He kills one man and manages to escape.

Half a world away, in the baleful heat of the Amazon, an obscure air cargo company purchases a derelict airliner. Teams of mechanics work feverishly to make the craft airworthy. On the first flight, the jet plunges toward the ocean. Read More

Ok so now it’s time to turn on some Jazz and do a little reading!

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 February Reads – Books 12 to 9…..

So far this month I have finished four books. Those books have taken me to a variety of counties where I met a lot of interesting characters. I am writing about the books in the reverse order of when I read them…

Book Number 12 The Hermit by Thomas Rydahl took me to the Canary Islands.There I met a 65-year-old taxi driver from Denmark, Erhard Jorgenson. Erhard lives alone in a shack near the resort of Fuerteventura. Erhard’s life is changed forever,after a car is found washed up on the beach. A dead 3 month old baby is found in a cardboard box on the back seat. The police try to quickly and quietly close the case by having a prostitute  claim she was the mother. Erhard knows that is wrong and for the sake of the baby he wants to prove what really happened!

During the course of his investigation Erhard makes some questionable decisions are in the name of advancing his investigation. At times I thought the story dragged a little and some of  Erhard’s actions bothered me. But In the end I The Hermit was a great read. Others thought so too. As The Hermit won the 2015 Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel! Rating: 4 stars

Book Number 11 – Black Widow  -Christopher Brookmyre.

Black Widow is set in Scotland, Over the last several years, I have visited Scotland many times, via the books of Peter May and others. Black Widow is book 7 in Brookmyre’s Jack Parlabane series. In this book Lucy Elphinstone hires Jack to look into the disappearance of her brother Peter. Peter went missing after his car slid off of a snow-covered road and ended up in the river. Lucy and two police detectives feel that Peter may have met with foul play. And the likely suspect is his wife of six months,successful surgeon Diana Jager aka bitchblade!

It seemed to me that the story took a long tine to develop. I had a little trouble with Brookmyre switching back and forth from the first to the third person in the narrative. I thought it was a little strange that Jack Parlabane didn’t become an important part of the story until the second half of the book! The last half of the book certainly made up for any of the shortcomings of the book in its first half! And the ending was great!

Black Widow won the 2016 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year an honor it rightly deserved. Rating- 4.5 stars

Book 10 All That Man Is by David Szalay

All That Man Is took me to many places across the European continent. It is a collect of short vignettes of nine different men all at different stages of their lives. With each vignette the man in the story is a little older than the previous one. Typically I don’t read books  like All That Man Is,  And for that reason, I’ll let Goodreads tell you about it……

A magnificent and ambitiously conceived portrait of contemporary life, by a genius of realism.

Nine men. Each of them at a different stage in life, each of them away from home, and each of them striving–in the suburbs of Prague, in an overdeveloped Alpine village, beside a Belgian motorway, in a dingy Cyprus hotel–to understand what it means to be alive, here and now. Tracing a dramatic arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, the ostensibly separate narratives of All That Man Is aggregate into a picture of a single shared existence, a picture that interrogates the state of modern manhood while bringing to life, unforgettably, the physical and emotional terrain of an increasingly globalized Europe. And so these nine lives form an ingenious and new kind of novel, in which David Szalay expertly plots a dark predicament for the twenty-first-century man. Read More

All That Man is was a Man Booker Prize Nominee (2016), and a Gordon Burn Prize (2016 )winner and once again deservedly so! Rating: 4 stars.

Book 9  A Foreign Country  – Charles Cumming.

A Foreign Country is book one of Cumming’s Thomas Kell series. The settings for A Foreign Country include France, Tunisia and England. Thirty years ago a young au pair walked away from the family she was working for. She left without a word of good-bye. Now the reason that young girl left could rock the world of the first woman director of Britain’s MI6. From  Goodreads..

On the vacation of a lifetime in Egypt, an elderly French couple are brutally murdered. Days later, a meticulously-planned kidnapping takes place on the streets of Paris. Amelia Levene, the first female Chief of MI6, has disappeared without a trace, six weeks before she is due to take over as the most influential spy in Europe. It is the gravest crisis MI6 has faced in more than a decade. Desperate not only to find her, but to keep her disappearance a secret, Britain’s top intelligence agents turn to one of their own: disgraced MI6 officer Thomas Kell. Tossed out of the Service only months before, Kell is given one final chance to redeem himself – find Amelia Levene at any cost. Read More

I really enjoyed this book. The book moved at a brisk pace and I like the character of Thomas Kell and others around him.There was a fair amount of suspense particularly at the end. I believe I will be visiting with Thomas Kell again and again. I already have  checked out from my library the Kindle edition of A Colder War (Thomas Kell # 2). While  A Divided Spy (Thomas Kell #3), was just released on Valentine’s Day! So maybe when I finish A Colder War,  A Divided Spy will be available at the library,

Final Thoughts

Summarizing I have read twelve books so far in 2017. That puts me ahead of  schedule to reach my goal of 60 books for the year. I had never read any books written by any of the authors I have read  so far in February. Additionally, Black Widow and A Foreign Country are both part of a series, that I will definitely be reading more of!

I noticed after writing this post that none of the books I read this month are set in the USA. I guess I needed a vacation from all he turbulence in our country since January 20th……..

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An Amazing Start on My 2017 Reading Challenges

Ok so I do believe that I would be hard pressed to find two months in the last 15 years where I have read more books than January and February of 2017. In January I read  books and so far in February I have read three more! Bringing 2017’s total of books read to 11! In order to achieve my 2017 Reading Challenge goal of 60 books, I need to average 5 books per month.  I am already above that average in the first week of February!! Goodreads says that right now I am 5 books ahead of schedule! Woo Hoo!

Now the one bad thing about this is that I have been reading more than writing. Consequently, I am  seven books behind in writing reviews. The table below lists that books that I have read so far this year. (The links are to my review of the book)

I am going to group the books according to the Reading Challenge that they fit into. So the future posts will look like this:

2017 Mystery/Thriller Reading Challenge

 Series that are new to me

Jack Parlabane – Chris Brookmyre – Black Widow
Thomas Kell – Charles Cumming – A Foreign Country
Livia Lone – Barry Eisler – Livia Lone

Series that I am Behind on/ Series that I am Current with

Puzzle Lady – Parnell Hall  – A Puzzle in a Pear Tree – 
Thomas De Quncey -David Morrell –  Ruler of the Night –

2017 Literature Reading Challenge/ Nonfiction Reading Challenge

General Fiction

All that Man is – David Szalay

Nonfiction

How to Run the World – Parag Khanna

So now I’m off to pick out my next few books and start to read!!! Be back later with the first of the above posts!!

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