Robertgreaves is ROOTING along in 2024

2023 was here

My target for 2024 is 72 ROOTs to allow more chunksters and series to be read. All books acquired up until 15 January 2024 will count as ROOTs during 2024.

My ROOTs as of today (06 January 2024) consist of 29 treebooks and 63 ebooks, making a total of 93 ROOTs, down from 106 ROOTs this time last year.

Since ebooks are always available and always tempting I am as usual going to limit myself:

1. 2 books as a reward for each kg I lose;
2. next in a series (if I am up to date on the 6 ROOTs per month needed to reach my goal);
3. bookclub/reading group books.

My 2024 ticker:

My book count No. 1 and my first ROOT for 2024 is The Falcon: A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner by John Tanner. It fits the RandomCAT, the AlphaKIT, and the HistoryCAT.

Welcome back, Robert. Great to see you here again.

Welcome back Robert. I always end up with BBs from reading your thread.

Welcome back!

Great to see you're back!

Thank you for dropping by, Connie, Jackie, RP and Birgit.

Also reading my No. 2, Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. This book is not a ROOT.

Welcome back!

The limits you set are probably ones I should have too, but I know I would never be able to keep within those limits.

1. 2 books as a reward for each kg I lose; I just have to try not to gain!
2. next in a series (if I am up to date on the 6 ROOTs per month needed to reach my goal); fortunately for me, many of my ROOTS are the next in the series!
3. bookclub/reading group books. I only read the books for Book Club if it is something that appeals to me.

Good luck!

Thanks for dropping by, Chèli.

My reading year has not got off to an auspicious start with The Falcon being a DNF. I got halfway through but then gave up as it was just too repetitive with variations on I went hunting and killed this many animals.

Starting my No. 3, Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths. This ebook is my second ROOT of 2024.

My review of Norse Mythology:

A re-telling of some Norse myths. At times I wondered who the target audience was because the language seemed overly simplified so maybe tweens or teens? Ultimately I didn't really care. I still enjoyed it.

Good to see you here again. Happy reading in 2024.

Thanks for dropping by, Jerry

My No. 4 is The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the CalendarCAT as a series new to me.

My review of Bleeding Heart Yard:

An MP is found dead at a school reunion. A few days later another MP who was also at the party is found dead. Are the deaths related to the death of a classmate 21 years before?

At first I found it difficult to keep track of who was who among the suspects attending the party. It's not just me, my niece who has also read the book said the same. Once I got over that hurdle, I found it an engaging read though not a fantastic one.

Also reading my No. 5, Roy: The Most Chaotic Midlife Crisis in Cosmic History by Zachry Wheeler

>13 Robertgreaves: That could easily fit in my Ridiculous titles category for my RL-bookclub.

My review of Roy: The Most Chaotic Midlife Crisis in Cosmic History:

Puki Horpocket investigates the story of Roy, a qualified engineer working as a plumber on a space station, most of whose salary goes back as alimony to his wife on his home planet. Wanting to expand his horizons he starts taking on odd jobs for a crime boss.

Obviously from the title, it's a comedy. It had its moments, but I mainly thought it was trying too hard.

Starting my No. 6, If Not, Winter by Sappho. This book is not a ROOT.

Starting my No. 7, Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. This ebook is my fourth ROOT for 2023. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Hangman's Daughter:

In 1659 Bavaria children are being killed, found with a mysterious sign on their bodies. Could the local midwife also be a witch?

It took me a long time to get through this as I found myself unable to concentrate on it for more than few pages at time. I will probably continue with the series but not for now.

>17 Robertgreaves: ROOT for 2023? LOL.

>18 connie53: Whoops. It's generally the end of January when I start getting the year wrong because that's when I stop paying particular attention.

You're probably not the first one to make that mistake, Robert.

Starting the next in the series, Husband Material, as my No. 8. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Boyfriend Material

After celeb-adjacent Luc O'Donnell appears in the tabloids once too often, he finds his job as fundraiser for an obscure charity devoted to the dung beetle in jeopardy unless he can find a presentable boyfriend. A friend of a friend agrees to be his fake boyfriend if Luc returns the favour at a family gathering.

This romcom was great at the com - it had me howling with laughter at times - but the rom part was more of a meh - I just didn't care about Luc and Oliver as a couple.

Starting my No. 9, Mountains More Ancient by Isna Marifa. This is my fifth ROOT for 2024. I am reading it now for my book club.

My review of Mountains More Ancient:

When her father is sold into slavery to pay his debts in 1751, 9 year old Wulan follows with him from their home in Java to a farm in South Africa.

Richly told in a mixture of poetry and prose, this was a fascinating look at a time and place I hadn't heard about before.

My reviews of Husband Material:

Now that they've been dating for two years what is the next step for Luc and Oliver?

Again, very funny and I would love to read more about their lives although I'm not particularly invested in them as a couple.

Starting my No. 10, Shot Through the Heart by Matt Cain. It is not a ROOT but it does fit the CalendarCAT.

My review of If Not, Winter by Sappho

A bilingual edition (Greek on the left-hand page, English on the right) of the complete surviving poetry of Sappho, some from papyri and some from quotations by other authors of a line or even just a word. TBH, I didn't find any of it particularly memorable but it was interesting to see just how fragmentary fragments are.

Currently reading my No. 11, Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Shot Through the Heart:

Hollywood A-lister falls in love with a paparazzo but is publicly dating her closeted leading man.

Cute and engaging, but does everybody have to have had a difficult childhood?

Starting my No. 13 Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto. This ebook is my seventh ROOT for 2024 and fits the CalendarCAT.

My review of Bored Gay Werewolf:

Brian works as a waiter and roams a local park one night a month as a werewolf. Then he meets another werewolf with a disturbing vision of what being a werewolf means.

It was light on the gore and had some amusing moments. If I came across a freebie by the author or it was included in one of my subscriptions, I'd read it but I wouldn't actively search for more books by him or pay out good money for it.

While I was away I also read A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright as my No. 14 and my sixth ROOT for 2024.

My review:

Rafe is accepted as an elite webber (a navigator) on a starship but there is a mystery about his past.

The slices of life aboard the starship were well done, but the wider world-building wasn't quite as well illuminated, which meant the background mystery and politicking wasn't as enthralling as it had the potential to be.

Also reading my No. 14, The Burial Circle by Kate Ellis. This ebook is my eighth ROOT for 2024 and fits the AlphaKIT.

Starting the next in the series, The Stone Chamber, as my No. 15. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of The Burial Circle:

When a tree is blown down in a storm a skeleton and a backpack are found buried underneath it. Could it be the body of a hitch-hiker who disappeared 11 years ago?

Enjoyable mystery with some atmospheric spooky goings-on near the beginning. I had worked out the mechanism that was revealed near the end quite early on even if I didn't know who exactly was involved.

Currently reading my No. 16, I Am Not Raymond Wallace by Sam Kenyon. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of The Stone Chamber:

Wesley Peterson is investigating a series of shootings but cannot see any link between the victims. Is another death previously dismissed as an accident related? Meanwhile Neil Watson is excavating what may be an anchoress's cell in an abandoned village.

Slight variation on the usual format with lots of twists at the end. Great fun.

My review of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers:

Vera Wong finds a dead body in her tea shop. Since the police don't seem to be taking it seriously, she decides to investigate, starting with some unexpected visitors to the tea shop as her suspects.

It was funny, but mostly variations on a single joke - Vera's ability to cow or coax people round her into doing what she wanted. Not as good as the Aunties books

My review of I am not Raymond Wallace:

Raymond Wallace has a brief affair while working as an intern in New York in 1963. For the rest of his life he regrets returning home to the UK rather than staying with his lover. His son has the opportunity to bring closure.

Melancholy, not to say plangent – a favourite word of the author’s – in tone but hardly devastating as it is described in the acknowledgements.

My No. 17 was The Asylum by Nathan Dylan Goodwin, which was not a ROOT. My review:

A genealogist uncovers the secret of his client's father's first marriage and a possible reason for the first wife's death.

Interesting novella to start a series. I will keep my eye out for further installments.

My No. 18 was A Cryptic Clue by Victoria Gilbert. This was my ninth ROOT for 2024. My review:

On her first day working for a semi-reclusive multi-millionaire, Jane Hunter stumbles across the body of his ex-girlfriend in the library she is meant to be cataloguing.

Jane Hunter has an intriguing backstory and I like Cam Clewe, so I will probably continue with this series despite my disappointment that my vague idea going in that the mystery involved cryptic crosswords turned out to be false.

My No. 19 was Compulsory by Martha Wells. This was my tenth ROOT for 2024. My review:

Murderbot prequel novella.

Currently reading my No. 20 Cat Me If You Can by Miranda James. This ebook is my eleventh ROOT for 2024.

Starting my No. 21, The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth. This is my twelfth ROOT for 2024. I now have 38 treebooks on the TBR shelf.

My review of Cat Me If You Can:

Charlie and friends are having a week away with their book club to discuss gplden age murder mysteries. Naturally, people in the hoteI start turning up dead.

Always pleased to visit Charlie Harris and Diesel again.

>2 Robertgreaves: what are randomCAT, alphaKIT, etc, please? It sounds like more challenges I don't need to hear about! I don't know how to search for topics on Library thing, only the main search bar which only brings up books for me.

>32 ritacate: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/24125/2024-Category-Challenge

>31 Robertgreaves: I'll be interested to read your review of The Golden Gate, which I've owned for a number of years but always felt too daunted to start!

>33 Robertgreaves: thank you, think I'll add the bingo to my year of reading

>35 ritacate: Good luck!

Starting my No. 22, Why Is Sex Fun?:The Evolution of Human Sexuality by Jared Diamond. This ebook is my thirteenth ROOT for 2024. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Golden Gate:

A group of friends look for love in San Francisco around 1980.

I can look on this verse novel as something of a tour de force and it is fun watching the author's verbal dexterity in keeping to the meter, but the actual story is really rather slight.

Starting my No. 23, The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. This ebook is my fourteenth ROOT.

My review of Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality:

Much of what we take for granted about human sexuality - sort of monogamous, co-parenting, menopause, non-procreative sex - is downright weird by the standards of the rest of the animal kingdom. This book tries to look at why and how these practices evolved.

It's an interesting how others might see us account. The book dates from 1997 and it particularly shows when talking about sex that cannot result in procreation such as during pregnancy etc., without any mention of homosexuality in our and other species.

Possible reading for March:

Starting my No. 25, An Immense World by Ed Yong. This ebook is my fifteenth ROOT for 2024. It fits the RandomKIT and the PrizeCAT.

My review of The Galaxy and the Ground Within:

Various interstellar travellers of different species are stranded in a hotel together for a few days when the satellites they depend on to continue their journeys are destroyed in an accident.

It took me a while at first trying to remember who was what species and hence their characteristics but once I got that sorted out, it was an enjoyable ride, if a little didactic in an "AUTHOR'S MESSAGE" way at times. But I found myself on the edge of my seat during the medical emergency towards the end.

>38 Robertgreaves: I remember enjoying Headlong. It has a fast pace and I finished it in a few days (I'm a slow reader!)

>38 Robertgreaves: I hope you get to The Lincoln Highway soon. I loved it a lot!

Also reading my No. 26, On A Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard. This ebook is not a ROOT.

Starting my No. 27, The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, a novella from the same series.

My review of On A Red Station, Drifting:

After her planet is over-run by rebels against the Da Viet Empire ,Magistrate Linh arrives on Prosper space station which is run by her family. Can she adjust to her change in status in the face of hostility from Quyen, the insecure acting Administrator of Prosper, as the Honoured Ancestress, the station's AI, starts to fail?

One of the best from an author who always intrigues me even when I'm not sure I've really understood her.

My review of The Citadel of Weeping Pearls:

30 years ago the Citadel of Weeping Pearls vanished, taking with it one of the Empress's daughters. Now the Empress needs her daughter's special abilities to help her fend off a threatened invasion, but the only scientist to ever find traces of the Citadel has also vanished.

Reading the preview, I thought this was going to be a mystery, with the Empress's former lover investigating the disappearances, but as the POV rotated through different characters it became clear that the story didn't really fit any subgenre. I still enjoyed it though.

Starting my No. 28, Guardians by T. J. Baer. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the SFFKIT.

My review of An Immense World:

Different animals perceive and experience the world differently due to their different senses. It is difficult and necessary to overcome the biases from how WE perceive the world if we want to really understand other animals. For example, a zebra's stripes are not camouflage because from a distance all a lion can see is a zebra-shaped object and the stripes have no effect on that.

Fascinating.

>45 Robertgreaves: I found it a fascinating book too - every time I opened it I had my mind blown.

Starting my No. 29, Vincent by Jonathan G. Meyer. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Guardians:

Adventures of a teen whose family is part of a network of guardians protecting Earth from interdimensional threats.

It was OK, not good, not bad. The author has a very noticeable fondness for the expressions "tight nod" and "tight smile".

>47 Robertgreaves: That reminds me of binge watching "Murder She Wrote" and realizing how many times characters say 'dead bang.'

Starting my No. 30, The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. This is my sixteenth ROOT for 2024. I'm reading it now for my book club and it fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Vincent:

Jim Thompson is recruited by an AI starship to help retrieve some alien tech left on Earth.

The plot was OK, if somewhat predictable in places, but the prose was very flat and monotonous.

>49 Robertgreaves: I'm curious about your thoughts (No. 30) on that one, Robert. It was a five star book for me.

>50 connie53: Left to myself I probably wouldn't be reading it. I loved A Gentleman in Moscow but found Rules of Civility tedious enough that I wasn't going to read any more of his books.

Starting my No. 31, Act of Mercy by Peter Tremayne. I am counting this ebook as my sixteenth ROOT for 2024 as I will be counting The Lincoln Highway for rosalita.

My review of The Lincoln Highway:

On his release from a reform school after the death of his father Emmett decides to leave Nebraska for California with his little brother Billy to find their mother. First, however, they have to help two absconders from the reform school, Duchess and Woolly, get to New York, where they are hoping to claim and divide Woolly's inheritance.

Great fun, with engaging characters I kept reading to learn more about. Ultimately, the book left me wanting to know what happened next, whether Emmett and Billy made it to California and whether they found their mother.

>52 Robertgreaves: Glad you liked it, Robert.

Starting the next novel in the series, Our Lady of Darkness as my No. 32. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Act of Mercy:

Sister Fidelma is on a pilgrimage to Spain by sea. Another pilgrim, Sister Muirgel, vanishes during a storm and it is assumed that she was swept overboard. However, Fidelma finds a torn and bloodied robe in Muirgel's cabin. Was she murdered and her body thrown overboard?

Lots of interesting information about 7th century travel. I am slightly sceptical about the "Roman church bad Celtic church good" stance in some of the interactions between the passengers but it wasn't enough to spoil an enjoyable story.

Starting a collection of short stories from the same series, Hemlock at Vespers, as my No. 33. I think I have read at least some of it before but am re-reading it as my seventeenth ROOT for 2024.

My review of Our Lady of Darkness:

Fidelma is called back from Spain by her brother to help her friend Eadulf, accused of raping and strangling a young novice.

Although I was reading it out of order due to the cliffhanger at the end of the previous novel, it was a while before I really got into this book but once I did I found the mystery intriguing and the events exciting. BUT HOW ARE TWO 7TH CENTURY CHARACTERS ABLE TO QUOTE PETRARCH BY NAME? That totally threw me out of the story and was very disappointing.

"BUT HOW ARE TWO 7TH CENTURY CHARACTERS ABLE TO QUOTE PETRARCH BY NAME? That totally threw me out of the story and was very disappointing."

>55 Robertgreaves: I can see how that threw you off, Robert. Very sloppy

Starting my No. 34, The Case of the Undiscovered Corpse by Charlie Cochrane. This ebook is my eighteenth ROOT for 2024.

My review of Hemlock at Vespers:

A collection of stories about Sister Fidelma. Inevitably there is a fair amount of repetition when introducing the character in different stories, but I still enjoyed them, especially the last one, "Our Lady of Death", which was actually quite atmospheric and creepy as a possible ghost story.

Starting The Ring That Caesar Wore by Ashley Gardner. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the AlphaKIT and the MysteryKIT.

MY review of The Case of the Undiscovered Corpse:

A crossover of the author's two detective series, one set before and after WW1 and one set in the 1950s, as the two detective duos join forces to discuss the mystery of a corpse found in 1914 in a packing case last opened 60 years before.

I found the investigation hard to follow - too many people with similar names who may or may not be the same person - but I like the 'tecs enough to give the series a second chance at some point.

Starting my No. 36, Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles. This is my nineteenth ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook TBR shelf to 36. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Ring that Caesar Wore:

On a building site, Leonidas finds a half-buried ring with an inscription which feeds Nero's paranoia about plots against him. The emperor gives Leonidas and Cassia 8 days to uncover the conspiracy - but what if it doesn't exist?

I find the author's books very readable with engaging characters and intriguing plots but her failure to do her homework, occasionally apparent in her Regency and Victorian books, becomes impossible to ignore here. At the very least she needs to understand what "patrician", "plebeian", and "equestrian" actually meant in Rome.

Starting the next in the series, A Death in the Parish, as my No. 37. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Murder Before Evensong:

Canon Daniel Clement finds a body in the church as he reads the evening prayers. But why would anyone want to kill a harmless soul like Baron De Floures's estate archivist?

Apart from a vague feeling that Daniel's age didn't really match up with what we were told about his childhood, I didn't really catch on till quite far into the book that it was actually set in the late 1980s. I liked the setting, the characters, and the humour but didn't really think the solution was very satisfactory. I'll read the next one but I'm not sure if I'll continue after that.

Starting my No. 38, First Ladies of Rome by Annelise Freisenbruch. This ebook is my twentieth ROOT for 2024 and fits the AlphaKIT. I am reading it now for my online reading group.

My review of A Death in the Parish:

The son of Daniel's assistant minister in the neighbouring parish is killed in the chapel of a disused WWII airbase in what looks like a ritual murder.

As with the first book, I enjoyed the slice of life scenes before and after the murder far more than the mystery itself because again the solution seemed to come out of nowhere. I will wishlist the next one because it's not out yet, but I'm in no hurry.

Possible reading for April:

Currently reading my No. 39, Darius The Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. As a re-read, this is my twenty-first ROOT for 2024. It fits the AlphaKIT and I am reading it now because the other day I came across my stash of genmaicha, Darius's favourite tea.

My review of The First Ladies of Rome:

Roman history told through a focus on the wives of the emperors from Livia to Gallia Placida (and I will never tire of saying somebody needs to make a biopic or series about Gallia Placida). Interesting and enjoyable, but it's 14 years old and already some of the "contemporary" resonances and parallels are starting to age and I have to think for a bit to remember what they are about.

Also reading my No. 40, A Leg To Stand On by Oliver Sacks. This ebook is my twenty-second ROOT for 2024. It fits the AlphaKIT.

Starting my No. 41, Darius The Great Deserves Better. This ebook is my twenty-third ROOT for 2024.

My review of Darius The Great Is Not Okay (unchanged from when I previously read it five years ago):

Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore (which makes him what, 15 or 16?) and his family go on a trip to Yazd in Iran where he meets his mother's family for the first time.

I enjoyed this story of a teenage boy trying to navigate a culture unfamiliar to him when he doesn't really fit in at home either. However, the author says in an afterword that he 'wanted to show how depression can affect a life without ruling it'. I don't really think he managed that. Darius seemed a normal enough rather self-absorbed teenager coping with a bully at school and a hypercritical father. If it weren't for the references to him and his father taking their medication I wouldn't have known depression was an issue until a conversation about 30 pages before the end explaining events seven years before.

My review of Darius The Great Deserves Better:

After the family's return home from Iran, Darius gets a boyfriend, his dream job as an intern in a tea shop, and a spot on the school's soccer team. But that doesn't mean his problems are over.

There were times I felt the intricacies of tea connoisseurship and sports were taking over the story, but I still want to know how various relationships were going to develop further at the end. There wasn't really a cliffhanger, it just left me wanting the story to continue.

Starting my No. 42, Language Unlimited by David Adger. This ebook is my twenty-fourth ROOT for 2024. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of A Leg To Stand On:

Oliver Sacks's memoir of how he broke his leg in the Norwegian mountains and his recovery and convalescence. Because of neurological damage he couldn't recognise the leg as part of his own body and had to re-integrate it into his mental body image. He was able to use that experience to help him in his treatment of patients with neuropsychological problems by emphasising the need to listen to patients' accounts of their experiences rather than simply fixing the physical problem. The first edition used Kantian metaphysics as an explanatory tool (and I admit I struggled to understand this section) but he backtracked on this rather in later editions as scientific knowledge has progressed thanks to the availability of more modern equipment.

Starting my No. 43, A Cold Wind by Neil Plakcy. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the MysteryKIT.

My review of Language Unlimited:

Interesting book about why some linguists think all languages have an underlying universal grammar. The title seems a bit ironic since most of the book is about the restrictions and constraints on what languages can do.

Starting my No. 44, The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the MysteryKIT. I am reading it now because the third book in the series is my book club's choice for April, and I can't possibly read it till I've read the first two.

My review of A Cold Wind:

Aidan and Liam are asked to guard an unwillingly-retired minor Russian oligarch in self-imposed exile in Monaco, who has had attempts made on his life, but by whom?

As they approach the big 40 the boys are wondering if they are aging out of the personal protection business and TBH I'm wondering the same about this series. This entry felt kind of meh. I also read the first chapter of the next one and am not feeling any urge to continue. Maybe another time.

Hi Robert, some interesting books there.

>70 connie53: Thanks for dropping by, Connie.

Starting the next in the series, The Art of Dying, as my No. 44. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the MysteryKIT.

My review of The Way of All Flesh:

In 1847 Edinburgh, Will Raven, apprentice to Professor of Midwifery James Young Simpson, and housemaid Sarah Fisher look into the death of a friend of Will's and a friend of Sarah's both written off as suicide.

The mystery was a bit predictable at times but the historical background was very well done. The professor was a real person, and his discovery of chloroform as an anaesthetic is one of the events in the book. The descriptions of surgery and obstetric problems without the benefit of anaesthesia, although less graphic than they could be, should convince anyone that the past was not a desirable place to live.

>71 Robertgreaves: I've seen those books at my bookstore and wondered...your review tells me they're worth taking a closer look.

Starting the next in the series, A Corruption of Blood. This is my No. 45 and is my twenty-fifth ROOT for 2024. It brings the treebook TBR shelf down to 35.

My review of The Art of Dying:

A nurse's patients are dying - but is she unwittingly spreading disease or is she a serial killer?

A good mystery set in a time when medical practitioners had noticed a better survival rate if they washed their hands between patients but didn't know why.

Starting my No. 46, Just By Looking At Him by Ryan O'Connell. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the AlphaKIT.

My review of A Corruption of Blood:

One of the richest men in Edinburgh is found dead in bed with traces of arsenic in his stomach. His son is accused of the murder but Raven's new fiancée believes him to be innocent and asks him to investigate.

Despite some well-worn tropes, the mystery all came together nicely enough but the social and medical background are still what attracts me to this series.

Hi Robert, I finally got around to your thread!

The Raven, Fisher & Simpson series sounds interesting with its time, setting and topic.

Thanks for dropping by, MissBrangwen.

Also reading my No. 47, Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, by Edward Craig. This book is my twenty-sixth ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook TBR shelf to 34.

My review of Just By Looking At Him:

TV-writer Elliott's 6-year relationship with Gus implodes after he books a session with a sex worker but he learns to be more comfortable with himself and starts to overcome his addictions.

One of those books that is probably funnier if you are part of the milieu depicted but there were too many references to TV shows I don't watch or singers I'm only marginally aware of, if that, not to mention places and brands I don't recognise for me to really enjoy it.

Starting my No. 48, Way Station by Clifford D. Simak. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the CalendarCAT.

My review of Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction:

Alternates sections on the author's list of favourite philosophers and on themes and questions. Mostly concerned with the European tradition with occasional glances at India. Does what it says on the tin, serves as an introduction.

Starting my No. 49, Pretty Boy Dead by Joseph Hansen. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of Way Station:

Unknown to the rest of Earth's inhabitants, Enoch Wallace is looking after a station in a inter-stellar transportation network but affairs on Earth and in the Galactic Council are coming to a crisis.

This was a pioneering work of pastoral science fiction which still exerts its quiet attraction with on one level weird and wonderful goings-on but on another an uneventful slice of life until the last 1/3 of the book.

Starting my No. 50, Life Beyond Us, a collection of stories and essays edited by Mary Robinette Kowal. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Pretty Boy Dead:

The book opens with Steve Archer returning home in the morning having woken up in a strange bed, only to find the police at his apartment ready to arrest him for the murder of his boyfriend, Coy. The bulk of the book is a flashback telling how this all came about (which I did not realise for quite a while and was thus terribly confused), and the final 20-30 pages (out of 200) shows Steve looking for the real murderer to exonerate himself.

It's a 1960s attempt at gay noir but, quite apart from language and attitudes which would not pass muster nowadays, I found some characters so forgettable that I had no idea who they were when they re-appeared. I have good, albeit vague, memories from the early 1980s of the author's Dave Brandstetter series, which I might revisit some day but this stand-alone deserves its fate of languishing in obscurity despite several re-issues over the years.

Also reading my No. 51, A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft. This ebook is not a ROOT

In honour of World Book Day, and the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death, I am reading my No. 52, William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction by Stanley Wells. This is my twenty-seventh ROOT for 2024 and leaves 33 on the treebook TBR shelf.

My review of William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction:

After a quick run down through the life (which we don't know much about (but more than I thought)), the author looks at Elizabethan theatre and the poems, then takes us through Shakespeare's output, play by play. A short final chapter looks at Shakespeare's influence and reputation. The descriptions of the plays were too short to be useful except where you already knew the play. I think this could have been shortened and more time spent on the final chapter.

Starting my No. 53, Buried Deep by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the MysteryKIT.

Starting the next in the series, Paloma, as my No. 54. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of Buried Deep:

When a body is uncovered during construction work in Sahara Dome on Mars, it provokes a crisis in Human-Disty relations which can only be solved by finding out who died and why, a crisis which is only made worse by subsequent discoveries at the site.

I like the fact that the author's aliens really are aliens, part of cultures which are perhaps logical on their own terms but which we can't really understand. However, there were lots of references to earlier events in Flint's and DeRicci's careers only some of which I recognised.

Starting the next in the series, Recovery Man, as my No. 55 (correction: No. 56). This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the MysteryKIT.

My LT persona can now vote and drink - I joined 18 years ago on 30 April 2006. To celebrate I bought 3 books:

Lucy Worsley's biography of Agatha Christie
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
In the Company of Others by Julie Czerneda

My review of Paloma:

On his return to the Moon after a vacation, Miles Flint receives a message from his mentor begging for his help. When he arrives at her apartment he finds she has been murdered and he is one of the main suspects. His investigation uncovers some disillusioning aspects of Paloma's past.

Whenever I put this down I felt no strong urge to pick it up again. The Bixians were not present enough to be interesting aliens and without them it was a fairly run-of-the-mill mystery.

Happy Thingaversary, Robert! Enjoy the drinks!

Happy Thingaversary! Does this mean you have to be sensible now? ;)

Thanks for dropping by Birgit and Jackie.

Possible reading for May:

>86 Robertgreaves: Ha! I'll lift one in your honor Robert.

Thanks for dropping by, Luanne.

Starting my No. 56, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This is my twenty-eighth ROOT for 2024. I am reading it now for my online book group and it fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Recovery Man:

Going through Paloma's old case files, Miles finds a reference to his deceased daughter and Callisto, somewhere she'd never been. What had Paloma known?

An intriguing mystery with some side characters I'd like to see more of.

Also reading my No. 57, The Recovery Man's Bargain by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This ebook is not a ROOT.

I'll look out for your review of Wide Sargasso Sea. I thought it was an amazing book, albeit very oppressive and claustrophobic. Her evocation of place is extraordinary.

My review of The Recovery Man's Bargain:

Novella giving the Recovery Man's back story and telling part of the story from "The Recovery Man" from his point of view.

I enjoyed it, but not much point if you haven't read the main story.

Starting my No. 58, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. This is my twenty-ninth ROOT for 2024 and it brings the TBR shelf to 35.

My review of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief:

Odd things keep on happening to Percy Jackson, and at last he finds out why. He's a son of Poseidon. And now he has to go on a quest to the Underworld and challenge Hades.

Fun book setting themes from Greek myth in modern day America.

Also reading my No. 59, Mann Hunt by Peter E. Fenton. This ebook is not a ROOT.

Hi Robert. You do read so much books. I love to see that. Keep it up.

Currently reading my No. 60, The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Mann Hunt:

Just as P.I. Declan Hunt's assistant goes on holiday for 3 weeks, he gets a new case, the disappearance of a local businessman. Can the temp help with more than just the office admin work?

An entertaining piece of fluff for when the brain needs a rest. Looking forward to the next one.

Starting my No. 61, The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers by Adam Sass. This is my thirtieth ROOT for 2024 but the treebook TBR shelf remains at 35 because a friend who's trying to downsize gave me a book (actually he gave me more than one but the others were all duplicates).

My review of The Man in the Queue:

Inspector Grant must find out who the victim of a stabbing in a theatre queue was to have any hope of finding the murderer.

I didn't really get engrossed in this early example of a police procedural but I would be interested to read more from the author.

Starting my No. 62, Murder at Cambridge by Q. Patrick. This ebook is my thirty-first ROOT for 2024. It fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers:

Micah Summers sketches boys he meets as fairy-tale characters and posts romantic fantasies about them on IG. Will the fantasy become a reality with boy No. 100?

The first half was quite fun as we follow Micah and friends in their quest to track down boy No. 100 after an encounter on a train, but when Micah tried to create a similar fairy-tale for his new best friend, Elliot, he started to get on my nerves. Would it have made any difference to the story if Micah had been a girl? Probably not.

Starting my No. 63, The People on Platform 5 by Claire Pooley. This is my thirty-second ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook shelf to 36. I'm reading it now for my book club and it also fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Murder at Cambridge:

Hilary Fenton finds the student in the rooms next door dead, apparently from an accident while cleaning his gun.

The first chapter was funny but the condescending eye-dialect for Mrs Bigger and the author showing off his familiarity with university slang rapidly got tiresome - one more "sported oak" and I would have screamed. The actual mystery was good but the romance with the Profile was very unconvincing.

>101 Robertgreaves: I quite liked The People on Platform 5 - looking forward to your thoughts on it.

Thanks for dropping by Ann and Caramel.

Starting my No. 64, The Portrait by Iain Pears. This is my thirty-third ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook shelf to 35. It fits the RandomKIT and the AlphaKIT.

My review of The People on Platform 5:

When one of them gets a grape stuck in his throat and nearly dies till a nurse comes to his aid, a group of commuters actually start talking to each other, which has a ripple effect across their lives.

Pleasant fun while it lasted but it's not going to stick in my memory.

Starting my No. 65, The Lions of the North by Edward Marston. This ebook is not a ROOT but it does fit the HistoryCAT and the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Portrait:

An artist living on an isolated island off the coast of Brittany just before WWI is visited by an eminent art critic, who used to be his mentor and now wants his portrait painted.

The whole book consists of a series of monologues from the artist to the sitter while he's painting, exploring what has brought them that point. Although the ending is fairly predictable early on it is only in the last 30 pages or so (out of 210) that we learn the motivation behind it. Something of a tour de force.

Starting my No. 66, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings by Nellie Bly. This ebook is my thirty-fourth ROOT for 2024. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Lions of the North:

Our intrepid commissioners reviewing the entries for the Domesday Book are joined by an extra commissioner as they head for York, still suffering the aftereffects of the Harrying of the North. Their new colleague is murdered in York but how and why?

Given the information presented about the general situation in York, it was fairly obvious what was going to happen, but it was more difficult to work out who was on what side and who was just out for themselves.

My review of Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings:

I could have done with more information about how the extracts were chosen. Some of them were quite depressing when one thinks about how little has changed from when Bly was writing. But perhaps the extracts were chosen specifically because the issues are still relevant today without necessarily reflecting the variety of Bly's output.

It also wasn't clear whether the two longer pieces I was particularly interested in - Bly's account of her time undercover in a mental hospital and her account of her race round the world to beat Phileas Fogg - were complete or only lengthy extracts. Did the ellipses represent cuts by the editor or did they represent bly's own cuts?

While I was away I also read my No. 67, Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie. This was my thirty-fifth ROOT for 2024 and fitted the MysteryKIT.

My review:

Spymasters are concerned when the wife of a vanished scientist decides to travel to Morocco to get away from the incessant publicity. Does she have an ulterior motive?

I'm not usually a fan of Christie's spy stories, preferring her more traditional mysteries, but this Cold War thriller was better than most. I did have feelings of deja vu for some of it, especially the trip to the secret base with lots of changes of transport and costume to fool any pursuers, but I don't remember having read this book before.

Currently reading my No. 68, Why Is This A Question? by Paul Anthony Jones. This ebook is my thirty-sixth ROOT for 2024 and fits the AlphaKIT.

>107 Robertgreaves: I rather enjoyed Destination Unknown, too, although I didn't think I would.

Starting my No. 69, Deepsix by Jack McDevitt. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the SFFKIT.

My review of Why Is This A Question?:

Series of pop linguistics essays in the form of answers to questions. A good introductory overview of the subject. It did leave me with questions, though. I did start wondering in some of the later parts about pragmatics whether it applied to everyone or just English speakers. And the section on gesturing while speaking, how does that apply to people speaking sign languages?

Starting my No. 71, Kierkegaard: A Very Short Introduction by Patrick Gardner. This is my thirty-seventh ROOT for 2024. It brings the TBR shelf to 35 and fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Deepsix:

20 years after an initial disastrous expedition to Maleiva III, another expedition is sent to observe the destruction of the planet in a collision with a gas giant. Although there was not supposed to be intelligent life on the planet, scans reveal the remains of cities.

The archaeology in space was well done and left me wanting to know more, but I found the race against time to rescue the stranded explorers dragged a bit, with me just wishing they'd get on with it. The climax of the actual rescue in the last 15% or so was exciting, though. The biggest drawback was the character of Gregory MacAllister, a conservative populist "common sense" journalist who seemed to be fighting exactly the same enemies in 2220 as his predecessors in 1990s/early 2000s America (women, academics, the poor - undeserving almost by definition). As the epigraph for each chapter was taken from his writings, this grew tiresome very quickly.

Possible June reading:

Starting my No. 72, The Day Commodus Killed A Rhino by Jerry Toner. This ebook is my thirty-eighth ROOT for 2024. I am reading it for my online reading group. It also fits the AlphaKIT and the RandomCAT.

My review of Kierkegaard: A Very Short Introduction:

Not quite what it says on the tin as it is very focussed on how Kierkegaard disagreed with Hegel. I found it very heavy going till I read the relevant chapter of Sophie's World to orientate me.

>112 Robertgreaves: Haha, Sophie's World is great for that!

Starting my No. 73, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne translated by William Butcher. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Day Commodus Killed A Rhino:

Fascinating look at the Roman gladiatorial games with side glances at chariot racing and theatre. The author notices recent attempts at rehabilitating Commodus, but the core of the book is a look at the functions of the games in Roman society and a discussion of what they meant to the Romans themselves, rather than the shock, horror present-day view.

Also reading my No. 74, Errant Justice by R. H. Bishop. This ebook is my thirty-ninth ROOT for 2024. It also fits the AlphaKIT, RandomKIT, and MysteryKIT.

My review of Errant Justice:

Did Patty Taylor commit suicide or did her boyfriend, Domingo Torres, kill her?Armando Felan and his boss, Attorney Lucy Sanders, investigate.

A quick and easy read that kept me turning the pages. I'm pleased to say that I fingered the murderer fairly early on even if I didn't know how or why.

Starting my No. 75, The Nancys by R. W. R. McDonald. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the RandomKIT and MysteryKIT.

My review of Around the World in Eighty Days:

A translation of the classic novel. I read it as a child but cannot remember now whether it was the original or a version adapted for children. I've seen the 1960s film version, a cartoon version, and bits of the TV version but I still saw David Niven as Phileas Fogg in my mind's eye while reading.

Starting my No. 76, Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This is my fortieth ROOT for 2024 and it fits the AlphaKIT. I am reading it now for my book club.

My review of The Nancys:

11 year-old Tippy Chan's Uncle Pike and his boyfriend Devon come to look after her while her mother is away. Tippy and her uncle are both fans of Nancy Drew so when a murder happens in their small town, how can they not investigate?

When will I learn? I do not like kid detectives. The clichéd gay couple did nothing to save this disaster, if anything they sank it even further.

The next in the series, Tales From the Cafe is my No. 77. It is my forty-first ROOT for 2024.

My review from last time I read it, which I see no reason to change:

Four charming interlinked short stories set in a cafe in Tokyo where you can go back in time. There are certain constraints, however:

1.Nothing you do will change events between then and now. Whatever has happened, will happen.

2. You cannot leave your seat in the cafe, so you can only meet people who have already been to the cafe.

3. You will return to the present when you have finished your coffee - and you MUST finish it before it gets cold.

However the author doesn't apply them consistently. Fusagi wants to give his wife a letter in the present so how can he have given it to her on her trip into the past? On her last visit to the cafe Kumi writes a letter to Hirai, but then Hirai goes back in time to meet her and they spend time talking until Kumi goes to the toilet and then leaves the cafe, so when did Kumi write the letter? Having said that, they are charming, sweet stories, so I will read the second volume, especially as I bought them as a pair.

The next in the series, Before Your Memory Fades, is my No. 78. It is my forty-second ROOT for 2024. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Tales From the Cafe:

Another four charming, sweet, interlinked stories from the cafe where you can travel backwards or forwards in time.

The last (so far) in the series is Before We Say Goodbye. It is my No. 79, and my forty-third ROOT for 2024. Again it fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Before Your Memory Fades:

There is another coffee shop for aspiring time travellers, this one in Hakodate rather than Tokyo, but the rules are the same. The book follows the same format of four interlinked stories. The first time I read it, following a gap after the first two, I found the repetition of the format rather forced, but this time reading the books together it felt effortless and charming.

Starting my No. 80, Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn, A King's Obsession by Alison Weir. This is my forty-fourth ROOT for 2024 and brings my treebook TBR shelf to 33. It fits the AlphaKIT and the HistoryCAT.

My review of Before We Say Goodbye:

We're back in Tokyo for more tales from Funiculi Funicula, though I think they are out of sequence and come somewhere between books 1 and 2. The stories here are more stand alone, unlike the interconnected ones in earlier volumes, but it's basically the familiar comforting formula.

Starting my No. 81, Last Winter's Snow by Hans M. Hirschi. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the RandomKIT and the CalendarCAT.

My review of Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn, A King's Obsession:

Fictional life of Anne Boleyn from the age of 11 to her death.

Interesting about her early life in the courts of Burgundy and France, a more difficult read once she arrives at Henry VIII's court, simply because the story is so well known and it wasn't enough to overcome the bias in Katherine of Aragon's favour from having read The True Queen earlier.

>123 Robertgreaves: Oh, I have that series on my kindle! I am looking forward to diving into it one day. It is hard not to be biased but I will try to keep an open mind.

>124 MissBrangwen: I didn't really have much bias either way before, but Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen was so good, it was difficult to come out of it with any sympathy for Ann Boleyn at all.

Starting my No. 82, Coraline by Neil Gaiman. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the RandomCAT and PrizeCAT.

My review of Last Winter's Snow:

On the death of his Swedish husband, Casper, in 2015 Nilas, a Sami, remembers their 33 year relationship navigating homophobia, queer bashing, and AIDS in Sweden till they reach the more accepting 21st century.

Despite the rather flat, pedestrian prose, this book works its magic, keeping my interest in what would happen next to Nilas and Casper and left me tearful at the end, but in a good way. It's certainly not a depressing book despite the at times very heavy and hard-hitting subject matter.

Starting my No. 83, The Mummy! by Jane Webb Loudon. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the SFFKIT.

My review of Coraline:

Bored one day, Coraline opens a door the other side of which is normally blocked off only to find it leads to a replica of her home under the sway of the Other Mother. Can she find her way back to this world or is she trapped in the Other Mother's world?

A talking cat but no Cat King :-( . Otherwise a creepy fun read, though I'm not sure how I would have reacted if it had been available while I was in the target age group.

Starting my No. 84, Belladonna at Belstone by Michael Jecks. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Mummy!:

In 2126 Edric Montague takes his tutor Dr Entwerfen to Egypt to test his galvanic battery by attempting to resuscitate the mummy of Cheops. Back in England, the country is gearing up to elect a new Queen, and elsewhere in Europe the new King of Ireland is invading Spain to restore the monarchy there.

I found it rather heavy going and overlong. The speculations from 1826 about life in 2126 (balloon as the main means of transport, automaton lawyers and doctors, cannonball mail, etc) were much more fun than the romantic melodramas.

Starting the next in the series, The Traitor of St. Giles as my No. 85. The ebook fits the AlphaKIT but is not a ROOT.

My review of Belladonna at Belstone:

When a novice nun dies and the prioress is accused of her murder by the nunnery's treasurer in a letter to the suffragan bishop, he asks Keeper of the Peace Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Warden Simon Puttock to investigate discreetly. But why, when the nunnery does not fall in either of them's jurisdiction?

A good fun easy read. So glad I live in an age of anaesthetics and antibiotics.

Possible reading for July:

Starting my No. 86, Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn. This ebook is my forty-fifth ROOT for 2024. I am reading it for my online reading group.

My review of The Traitor of St. Giles:

A knight on a secret mission, his dog, and a convicted felon all lie dead in the woods. But a lot of people seem to have been passing through the woods that night. So who killed whom?

Even with the list of dramatis personae at the front, it took me a while to get straight in my mind who all the minor characters were but it was an enjoyable read.

My No. 87 was three short stories, prequels in Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood series, which I read on her website before starting as my No. 88 the first novel in the series, Servant of the Underworld. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the AlphaKIT and the MysteryKIT.

My review of Mistress of Rome, unchanged since I read it in 2017:

Thea, a Jewish slave, falls in love with a gladiator, Arius, but is then sold. She later catches the eye of the emperor Domitian.

The author appreciates the complexities of Domitian's character so he is not just a cardboard villain. The central romance between Arius and Thea was fun, watching to see how they would get re-united. The only thing that I wondered about was whether Christianity was quite so developed as is made out.

My No. 89 is the next in the series, Harbinger of the Storm. Again it is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT and the MysteryKIT.

My review of Servant of the Underworld:

The priestess Huei has gone missing and Acatl's brother Nuetomoc is found in her room covered in her blood, so as high priest of Mictlantecuhli, the god of the Underworld, Acatl must investigate. But is it a sordid tale of lust and murder, or part of the machinations of court politics as the Emperor is dying, or something more cosmic as deities vie for supremacy?

The author mixes mystery, fantasy, and history well in this story with good world building so that the reader can follow the investigation with some sort of sense of what is and is not possible in its supernatural system.

Also reading my No. 90, The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov, or at least those stories previously collected in I, Robot. This is my forty-sixth ROOT and fits the AlphaKIT.

My No. 91 is Master of the House of Darts, the last in the Obsidian and Blood trilogy. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Harbinger of the Storm:

The Emperor/Revered Speaker Axayacatl has died. A member of the council to appoint his successor has been found ripped apart by a star-demon, but who summoned it and why?

I had problems following this one, trying to keep track of the different factions and what plots the main players were trying to forward. All very confusing, but I will persevere with the final episode.

My No. 92 is Small Town Sonata by Jamie Fessenden. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the AlphaKIT and I am reading it in memoriam as the author died last week.

My review of Master of the House of Darts:

At the ritual to welcome the troops back from Tizoc's coronation war a warrior collapses and dies. More and more people start dying, but is it a natural epidemic sent by Tlaloc, the Storm Lord, or the result of magic and a curse? Acatl must investigate and try to maintain the boundaries between the Fifth World and the supernatural realms.

The best of the trilogy, partly because I felt I had a much better grasp of what was going on.

Starting my No. 93, The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of Small Town Sonata:

After an accident reduces his ability to play, world-class pianist Aiden returns to the small town where he grew up and rekindles his high school romance with Dean, now the local handyman.

Quick, easy read, though I thought it ended a bit abruptly. The two main characters agonised over the big decision for so long, yet we didn't really see how it was resolved, it just suddenly was and the book was over.

Also reading my No. 94, The Possession of Paavo Deshin by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of The Possession of Paavo Deshin:

After an attempt to kidnap a student at Miles Flint's daughter's school, the principal asks him to find out who the would-be kidnappers were and to beef up the security system at the school.

For a novella, this story keeps the reader on their toes with shifting sympathies all the way through.

Starting my No. 95, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. This is my forty-seventh ROOT for 2024. There are now 34 treebooks in the TBR pile. I am reading this now for my bookclub.

My review of The Falcon At The Portal:

An antiquities dealer visits Emerson requesting compensation for a forged scarab allegedly sold by David from his grandfather's collection, which never existed. Discreet enquiries reveal that the impersonator has sold fake antiquities to other dealers. Who is trying to vilify David and why?

I haven't read any of the Amelia Peabody books for a couple of years and I'd forgotten how funny Amelia's narrative "voice" is.

Starting my No. 96. Russell: A Very Short Introduction by A. C. Grayling. This my forty-eighth ROOT for 2024 and it brings the treebook TBR pile to 33. I am reading it now for the AlphaKIT.

My review of Case Histories:

PI Jackson Brodie is looking into 3 cold cases: an 8 year-old abducted while sleeping in a tent in the family garden, the unsolved murder of teenager working as an intern in her father's law firm, a girl who was adopted as a baby after her mother murdered her father and whose aunt now wants to trace her.

Enjoyable mystery though the author's habit of building up to a revelation which is then delayed by a 20-page switch as we follow another character got annoying. There were some very funny scenes but some of the humour was rather cruel. I will carry on with the series but not just yet.

Starting my No. 97, Dead Water by Ann Cleeves. This is my forty-ninth ROOT for 2024 and it brings the TBR pile to 32.

My review of Russell: A Very Short Introduction:

Difficult to follow in places as the author assumes more background knowledge than I have, but basically what it says on the tin.

My No. 98 is the next in the series Thin Air. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Dead Water:

A Shetland journalist who has been working in London returns to the islands only to turn up dead in the Fiscal's yoal. Jimmy Perez, still traumatised by the events of the last book, reluctantly helps with the investigation.

An absorbing read that left me disorientated whenever I had to resurface to deal with real life.

>142 Robertgreaves: Have The Jimmy Perez books been good? Are they, possibly, too intense for me at this point? I avoid anything too graphically descriptive about violence against women.

>143 EGBERTINA: I've enjoyed them. I don't remember any of them being too graphically violent, though as murder mysteries they are going to involve some violence. The ending of Blue Lightning is particularly emotional.

>144 Robertgreaves: Thank u

>139 Robertgreaves: The Falcon at the Portal was my first Amelia Peabody, and I fell in love with the voice and format. These are all some of my comfort re-reads!

Starting my No. 99, Offshore, a collection of short stories set in the world of Ann Cleeves's Shetland series. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Thin Air:

An English TV producer in Unst to celebrate a friend's marriage and scout out the possibilities of making a documentary about a local ghost is found dead in marshy ground the morning after a party. Willow Reeves and Jimmy Perez investigate.

Jimmy seems to be back on form but is Willow getting smitten?

Starting the next in the series as my No. 101, Cold Earth. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Offshore, a collection of short stories, and my No. 100, Too Good To be True, a singleton novella.

Offshore was a collection of short stories mainly but not all from the Shetland series.

Too Good To Be True was a single novella in which Jimmy Perez's ex-wife asks him for help when after a teacher's death was ruled to be suicide she and her husband become the target for gossip alleging she murdered the deceased because her husband had been having an affair with her.

All enjoyable. Some of them needed to be expanded because the mystery was solved but I was left wondering what the consequences were going to be. Also some were nice creepy atmospheric pieces rather than mysteries.

Starting the next and final in the series as my No. 102, Wild Fire. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Cold Earth:

The body of a woman is found in the aftermath of a landslide but nobody seems to know who she is.

I know the possible romance between Jimmy and Willow is the main event but having read so many of these books together the character I want to see more of is Sandy Wilson. Leaving that aside I found the solution to the murder mystery unsatisfying.

Starting my No. 103, Code Blue - Emergency by James White. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the SFFKIT.

My review of Wild Fire:

Helena and Daniel Fleming's 10 year-old autistic son Christopher finds their neighbour's nanny hanging in the barn and it obviously wasn't suicide. Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves investigate.

Lots of ongoing story lines wrapped up in this, the last in the series, some of them in a rather perfunctory way in the last few pages. I will miss Jimmy, Willow, and Sandy but I appreciate the author's point that she couldn't have kept going for much longer without Shetland having a ridiculously high murder rate.

>150 Robertgreaves: Ha, I guess she didn't want Shetland to be the next Cabot Cove! The TV adaptation is still going strong, though, I think.

>151 rabbitprincess: I wonder which is more dangerous, Cabot Cove or Midsummer

>152 Robertgreaves: I'd say Midsomer, because Jessica Fletcher does leave Cabot Cove on occasion and presumably spares the town from further carnage while she's gone.

Starting the next in the series, The Genocidal Healer, by James White. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the SFFKIT.

My review of Code Blue - Emergency:

After successfully treating an alien whose aircraft had crashed on her planet, warrior surgeon Cha Thrat is invited to join Sector General - a space hospital treating scores of intelligent species with wildly differing physiologies and environmental requirements.

I always enjoy these novels, though I still think they read more like linked short stories rather than novels, and this one is interesting having an alien as the POV character.

Starting my No. 105, Memorial by Bryan Washington. This is my fiftieth ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook TBR pile to 32. It fits the PrizeCAT.

My review of The Genocidal Healer:

Lioren prematurely deploys a cure for a pandemic which is slowly depleting the numbers of intelligent life on the planet Cromsag to the point where they face extinction, only to find that the cure allows the side effects of the disease to flourish to the point where they wipe out the Cromsaggars remaining on the planet. Denied the death penalty for the crime of genocide, how can he learn to live with himself?

Not as episodic as earlier entries in the series and stronger for it.

Also reading my No. 106, An Awkward Lie by Michael Innes. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the AlphaKIT and the RandomCAT.

My review of Memorial:

Just as Mike's mother is about to arrive in Houston for a long visit with him and his boyfriend Ben, Mike hears that his father is dying and flies off to Osaka to spend his last few weeks with him, leaving Ben and Michiko to negotiate living together in a tiny apartment.

The book is divided into sections: Ben and Michiko in Houston, with flashbacks/Mike in Osaka, with flashbacks/Ben, Mike, and Michiko in Houston. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the timelines to match up in my head using the texts between Ben and Mike as reference points. More importantly, there were too many conversations where there was obviously a lot of subtext going on but I wasn't picking up what the subtext was actually saying so was just baffled.

Starting my No. 107, A Point of Law by John Maddox Roberts. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the MysteryCAT. I am reading it in memoriam as the author died recently.

My review of An Awkward Lie:

Bobby Appleby finds a body in the first bunker on the local golf course. He asks a girl to watch over it while he goes to phone the police. When he returns with the police the body and the girl have both vanished.

Not one of Innes's best. I much prefer Sir John to his son.

Possible reading for August:

Also reading my No. 108, Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell. This ebook is not a ROOT but counts for the AlphaKIT.

Starting my No. 109, Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs. This is my fifty-first ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook TBR shelf to 32. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of A Point of Law:

Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is campaigning for an election he is almost certainly expected to win when he is accused of corruption and extortion during his time on Cyprus. The next day his accuser is found murdered and since Metellus is the obvious suspect he needs to clear his name before the election.

An interesting if rather complex plot line but Metellus's narrative voice is not as humorous as in the earlier volumes.

Starting my No. 110, The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker by Michael Jecks. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the AlphaKIT.

My review of Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain:

Medieval legends of the history of Britain re-told and in some cases re-created from allusions elsewhere by Amy Jeffs, who after each story explains sources and connections with other tales and also her experience of some of the places the stories happened.

Some of the stories were completely new to me, some were vaguely familiar, and some were immediately recognisable. Sure to be enjoyed by anyone interested in folklore, myth, and legend.

Currently reading my No. 111, Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. This is my fifty-second ROOT and brings the treebook shelf to 31. It fits the AlphaKIT and the PrizeCAT.

My review of The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker:

When a glovemaker is found murdered, everybody assumes his apprentice was the culprit, especially as some jewellery and cash has also gone missing. But then the bodies start piling up. The dean of Exeter cathedral asks Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Simon Puttock to investigate, but why isn't he relying on local law enforcement?

The first couple of chapters were quite overwhelming - there were just so many characters being introduced before we met the ones we knew. I did manage to work out the culprit just before the reveal scene and it was a fun mystery but Simon didn't really have much to do in this one. They used to have a more equal partnership, while now Simon seems to have been demoted to sidekick.

Starting my No. 113, Ten For Dying by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer. This is my fifty-third ROOT. It fits the AlphaKIT and the HistoryCAT.

My review of My No. 112, Duplicate Effort by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:

A woman and her bodyguard are found dead in the grounds of an exclusive clubhouse in the Moon's Armstrong Dome. Retrieval Artist Miles Flint gets involved in the investigation because he has reason to fear that he or his daughter may be the next target.

Fun ride with an ending that is satisfactory in an untidy, not everything is resolved sort of way.

I've posted my updated review of Earth Abides twice now, but neither seems to have taken. Here's hoping third time is the charm:

Isherwood Campbell is bitten by a rattlesnake on a hiking trip in the Sierras. When he recovers enough to return to the city he finds humanity has succumbed to a new virus and he is one of the few left alive.

A very powerfully told post-apocalyptic novel with a focus on Ish's activities as he drives from San Francisco to New York and back and eventually becomes the centre of a community of survivors and on Ish's anthropologically and historically informed thoughts about people's reactions to the disaster and how the community should best face the future.

Although it's not an emotional book, I did get a bit weepy in the last 30 pages or so.

Added on a 2nd reading:
I first read this in February 2020 when Covid was starting to arrive in Indonesia and have now re-read it post-pandemic (August 2024). Then, it was possible to imagine that this was the future we were facing, although we now know that Covid wasn't as fast or as deadly as Stewart's pandemic. Since the bulk of the book was the post-apocalyptic situation and the fictional pandemic is only sketched in as Ish reconstructs what was happening after his hiking holiday (presumably informed by the author having lived through the Spanish Flu and his historical awareness of the Black Death and its after-effects), the book has not lost much if any of its power.

Hi Robert, finally visiting your thread. The reading is doing great, I see. I hope you are doing fine!

>165 connie53: Thanks for dropping by, Connie.

Starting the next in the series, Murder in Megara, as my No. 114. This ebook is not a ROOT. Again, it fits the AlphaKIT and HistoryCAT.

My review of Ten For Dying:

Having lost his post as Lord Chamberlain, John the Eunuch goes into exile aboard a slow ship. Is a mysterious passenger on the ship an assassin or spy sent by the Emperor? Meanwhile, back in Constantinople, Felix, Captain of the Guard, has been tasked with recovering a stolen holy relic, the shroud of the Virgin Mary.

It's been long enough since I read the previous installments in this series that I had forgotten who a lot of the characters were. It was a fun ride, even if Felix's flailing about did get tiring at times.

Starting what is probably the last in the series, An Empire for Ravens, since it was published in 2018, as my No. 115. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Murder in Megara:

John and his household arrive at John's estate in Megara, his place of exile, only to find hostility from the locals and later, when John's estranged stepfather is found dead on the estate, John is accused of his murder. Can he solve the murder without the resources he used to be able to call on as Lord Chancellor?

Very enjoyable with a big twist I certainly didn't see coming and even then I really couldn't guess who the culprit was.

Starting my No. 116, Dog's Honest Truth by Neil Plakcy. This ebook is my fifty-fourth ROOT for 2024. It's part of an ebook box set, each volume in which will count separately. It fits the MysteryKIT and the CalendarCAT.

My review of An Empire for Ravens:

John travels to Rome, currently under siege from the Huns, in answer to a call for help from Felix, who Justinian had sent to try and broker a peace, only to find that Felix has disappeared.

A great finale for the series, but it does leave the door open for further installments. I must admit, though, if I had been Cornelia in the epilogue I would probably have bopped John with the nearest piece of cooking equipment.

Starting the next in the series, All Dog's Children as my No.117. This is my fifty-fifth ROOT for 2024 and also fits the MysteryKIT and the CalendarCAT.

My review of Dog's Honest Truth:

Steve Levitan gets a new neighbour, Ben Ji, who is training a puppy, Luke, to become a guide dog. Steve thinks Ben could be a good friend and Rochester and Luke get on well together. But then Ben is shot at a community bring-and-buy sale. Steve's computing background and Rochester's nose for clues could help really help Steve's policeman friend Rick investigate.

A quick and easy read.

Starting my No. 119, World Music: A Very Short Introduction by Philip V. Bohlman. This is my fifty-seventh ROOT for 2024. The treebook TBR shelf now stands at 30 books. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of All Dog's Children:

Returning from a visit to Lili's family in Florida, Steve hears on TV at the airport that a wealthy married couple living near Lili's brother have been found murdered in their bed. On his return to Stewart's Crossing he finds Rick's latest case is another wealthy couple who have been murdered in a similar way.

The characters' lives move on a bit, but the mystery was ridiculously easy to work out. I'd pretty much solved it less than a 1/4 of the way in.

My No. 118 was A Is For Bee by Ellen Heck. It was my fifty-sixth ROOT for 2024 and fitted the RandomCAT. My review:

Fun alphabet book attractively illustrated with animals who appear in a different place in a foreign language alphabet book than they would in an English book.

>170 Robertgreaves: A is for Bee sounds fun - Abeille, Abeja, Ape? As a translator, I can get behind it :)

>171 Cecilturtle: A is for Ari, Aamoo, Abelha, Anu (I don't know how to do the diacritics, sorry)

Starting my No. 120, The Ocean At The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the AlphaKIT and the PrizeCAT.

My review of World Music: A Very Short Introduction:

DNF I read the introduction and the first chapter and realised I had not understood a word of it despite no technical musical terms having been used at all.

Starting my No. 121, The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. This is my fifty-eighth ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook TBR shelf to 29 books. I read this in my pre-LT days but am re-reading it for my book club. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane:

An unnamed narrator attends a funeral in the area where he grew up and returns to his childhood home. There he remembers the strange events involving the women who lived on a neighbouring farm.

Menacingly creepy in places to the point where I wasn't sure whether I really wanted to go on and didn't know whether knowing or not knowing was worse.

Starting my No. 122, The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore. This is my fifty-ninth ROOT for 2024 and brings the TBR shelf to 28.

My review of The Bridges of Madison County:

A photographer shooting covered bridges in Iowa meets a farmer's wife whose family is away for a week and they fall for each other.

I read this just after the film came out in the mid 1990s but have no memory of it. It did not strike any emotional chords and in fact I found myself wondering at times what some of the purpler passages actually meant. It's obviously a favourite of the woman who chose it for our book club and uniting truth and tact is going to be difficult.

Starting my No. 123, What Belongs To You by Garth Greenwell. This ebook is my sixtieth ROOT for 2024.

My review of The Home and the World:

When Bimila is encouraged by her husband Nikhil to exercise more freedom than is usual for a woman of her status in Bengal in the first decade of the 20th century, she comes under the influence of Nikhil's friend Sandip, a charismatic radical nationalist.

Although I found it a bit heavy-going at times, especially in the more rhetorical passages, I kept reading, fascinated to see how events would play out.

Starting The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann as my No. 124. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of What Belongs To You:

An unnamed American teaching English in Sofia, Bulgaria, has an on-again off-again affair with a local rentboy, Mitko.

It's a not completely successful expansion from a novella. The novella itself was good but the rest of it was not well-integrated, which left me, at least, uncertain about what was going on for swathes of it.

Possible September reading:

Starting my No. 125, The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean by Raoul McLaughlin. This ebook is not a ROOT. (ETA Actually, I've had this book for longer than I thought so it is my sixty-first ROOT for 2024 and I'm reading it for my online reading group).

My review of The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp:

DNF. It was very funny but I got increasingly uncomfortable as the humour seemed to be more and more blatantly mocking the characters' physical and mental infirmities.

Starting my No. 126, A Psalm for The Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT and possibly the SFFKIT.

My number 127 is the second in the series (there are rumours of a third in the offing), A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT and the PrizeCAT.

My review of A Psalm for the Wild-Built:

A tea monk (a sort of itinerant counsellor/therapist) meets a robot in the wilderness - the first meeting between a human and a robot since robots gained self awareness many centuries ago.

I found the initial worldbuilding a bit clunky but the book was very enjoyable once the actual story got underway with lots of interesting exploration of ideas.

Starting my No. 128, Maui Strong by Neil S. Plakcy. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of A Prayer for the Crown-Shy:

Sibling Dex guides Mosscap in his attempts to understand humanity,

A quick, easy, gentle read, which served as a nice sequel.

Starting the next novel in the series as my No. 129, Deadly Labors. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Maui Strong:

Short story from the author's Hawaii-based series written to raise funds for the victims of the Maui wildfires.

Starting no. 12 in the series, Unruly Son as my No. 131.

My review of Deadly Labors:

Kimo's mother asks him to look into the case of a son of a friend of hers who has been charged with killing a cop while trying to break up a bar-room brawl

A bit predictable in places, but still a good, quick, easy read.

My review of my No. 130, Soldier Down:

A Washington politician asks Kimo to look into the cold case of the 1960s death of her father, who was on leave from Vietnam in Hawaii. Despite otherwise meticulous record-keeping by the Army, details of this case seem to have been lost.

Despite all the cautions in the book about leaping to the obvious conclusion rather than considering other possibilities, the obvious conclusion was pretty much correct even if the who remained elusive till the end.

Starting my No 132, the last so far in the series, The Virgin Homicides. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Unruly Son:

A mother goes hiking with her 14 y.o. neurodivergent son. Two days later her body is found in a canyon, but did she fall or was she pushed and where is the boy?

Nice and twisty. Although it was obvious who the murderer wasn't going to be, it was fun finding out who it actually was.

Starting my No. 133, Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction by Fred Piper and Sean Murphy. This is my sixty-second ROOT for 2024 and brings the treebook TBR shelf to 28. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Virgin Homicides:

A fellow-student of Kimo's niece is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. Although she had a reputation as a mean girl, she hadn't been at the college long enough for anybody to have had a strong enough motive to kill her and yet somebody knocked her out and pushed her over the cliff.

Although it's supposed to be the latest book in the series rather than the last one, the epilogue does feel like a farewell round-up.

Also reading my No. 134, Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall. As I bought a book yesterday, the treebook TBR shelf stays at 28. This book is for my book club.

Starting my No. 135, City of Vengeance by D. V. Bishop. This is my sixty-third ROOT for 2024 but the treebook TBR shelf stays at 28 as a friend gave me a book.

My review of Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction:

The historical parts were interesting and fun to try out (despite some typos) but the more modern (though since the book came out in 2002, not that modern) sections were more difficult to follow and could have done with more examples taken from real life to demonstrate how the theory is used.

My review of The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean:

A fascinating look at trading voyages via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and how the Roman Empire was financed by the import duty on goods (mainly spices, incense, and silks) imported from Arabia, East Africa, and India via Egypt. It's amazing just how much we know.

Starting the next in the Cesare Aldo series, The Darkest Sin, as my No. 136. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of City of Vengeance:

In Florence in the year 1536, a Jewish moneylender is found dead, stabbed in his own house, and a rentboy who was keeping a very indiscreet diary is beaten to death outside a church. Two cases for Cesare Aldo, an officer of the Otto di Guardia e Balia court, and constable Carlo Strocchi.

A procedural which leans more to the action and adventure side rather than the little grey cells, but very intriguing nonetheless. It had an interesting historical background and I gave into temptation and looked up one of the real characters, which provided some spoilers. A little bit of a cliffhanger at the end in that I'm not sure whether a threat has been neutralised, so straight on to the next in the series.

>189 Robertgreaves: Oh, this looks very interesting! Taking a note...

Starting the next in the series Ritual of Fire as my No. 137. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of The Darkest Sin:

The dead body of a naked man has been found in a convent. Aldo has to find a way to investigate because his niece is a student at the convent. Meanwhile Strocchi finds evidence in his home village which may threaten his mentee-mentor relationship with Aldo.

Another twisty, suspenseful installment. I hope we see more of Isabella and maybe a bit fewer unnecessary Italian words. Does it really add anything, for example, to say officio rather than office?

Hi Robert, Back again to visit your thread, but I skipped a few posts, if you don't mind. I want to get up to date with all threads so i can keep up to date in the future. I hope you are doing fine.

>193 connie53: Hello Connie. Thanks for dropping by. I hope life is treating you well.

A book I forgot to review was Prisoners of Geography:

The author looks at various countries around the world and shows how their geography helps or hinders them in their attempts to expand, develop, or defend themselves. Fascinating and a welcome aid to understanding the stories behind the news.

Starting my No. 138, the latest in the Cesare Aldo series (though I gather another one is due out next year), A Divine Fury. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Ritual of Fire:

On the 40th anniversary of Savonarola being burned at the stake, a grisly reenactment occurs at dawn in Florence. More rich merchants suffer death by fire as Aldo and Strocchi try to find the links between the victims and prevent further deaths. In the meantime crowds gather in the belief that Savonarola is still alive and will return.

I worked out (alright, guessed) who one of the culprits was - a pity because they could have been an interesting recurring character. Sad to see a fun antagonist has been written out.

Starting my No. 139, The Clockmaker's Secret by Jack Benton. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the AlphaKIT.

My review of A Divine Fury:

While chasing down a curfew breaker, Aldo stumbles across a body posed to resemble Jesus on the cross and with its tongue cut in half.

Trying to solve the murders Strocchi and Aldo encounter exorcists and spymasters while Aldo deals with the disquieting possibility that the victims were chosen because they were gay. Another thrilling read. I'm not sure whether people in those days understood being gay as something they were rather than something they did but that is a minor quibble. Can't wait for the next one to be published.

Starting my No. 140, Murderous Requiem by Jamie Fessenden. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of The Clockmaker's Secret:

Walking on Bodmin Moor, Slim Hardy stumbles over a half-buried handmade clock. He discovers it was made by a local clockmaker who mysteriously disappeared twenty years ago. But what happened to him?

I didn't find the first two-thirds very engaging and came close in DNF-ing several times but the last third made up for it with some intriguing and exciting reveals and even some rather sad moments.

That one sounds intriguing, Robert.

Part 2 for this year is here