Tag: Free Library of Philadelphia

My Library Checkout for May 2018

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Have you been using your library over the past month? What did you read? What didn’t you read? What are you waiting on? These are the questions of a meme called Library Checkout, led by Rebecca Foster of the blog Bookish Beck. I’m joining in for this past month of May.

Read

  1. Pago Pago Tango by John Enright
  2. Pines, the first in the Wayward Pines series, by Blake Crouch
  3. Still Life, the first Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, by Louise Penny.

The first two were from Amazon: Pago Pago Tango, a Prime read, and Pines, a Kindle Daily Deal.

Returned Unread

  1. The Sinner by Petra Hammesfehr
  2. Inspector Maigret Omnibus, Volume 1: Pietr the Latvian; The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien; The Carter of ‘La Providence’; The Grand Banks Cafe by Georges Simenon
  3. The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman

DNF

  1. Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
  2. Dove Season by Johnny Shaw
  3. The Echo Killing by Christi Daugherty
  4. A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

With Six Four, I got bogged down with Yokoyama’s focus on the bureaucracy within Japanese police departments. With Dove Season, the story didn’t develop quick enough for my tastes, and with The Echo Killing, I couldn’t get past the premise of a small-town newspaper having extra staff to assign to one story. I worked for weekly newspapers for more than 15 years and I know that staffing is always being cut, even at larger dailies, with usually one person ending up doing several jobs so I just didn’t find that aspect of the story believable.

Currently Out

  1. Death at La Fenice, the first Commissario Brunetti mystery, by Donna Leon

On Hold

  1. Inspector Maigret Omnibus, Volume 1: Pietr the Latvian; The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien; The Carter of ‘La Providence’; The Grand Banks Cafe by Georges Simenon
  2. The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
  3. Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers: A retirement and aging roadmap for single adults and childless adults by Sarah Geber
  4. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
  5. Wonder Valley by Ivy Pochoda

Many of these haven’t changed from last month, but I hope by next month to say that I have gotten a few of them.

What did you check out from the library this past month, put on hold, return unread, did not finish? Or if you don’t use the library, what was the best book you read from this past month? Share in the comments.

To see what I have been up to this weekend, check out The Four-Day Memorial Day Weekend Post 2.

#AMonthofFaves: This is How I Read…

I’ve decided to join hosts Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge for their 4th annual #AMonthofFaves blog event – “a fun way to recap the year that was” – during the month of December. Today’s topic is “This is How We Read”.

How I Read

One word: Slowly.

So far, this year I have read 41 books and will be lucky if I make 42. The good news is that 42 is the answer to the universe.

In reverse order, here is what I read:

  1. Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly
  2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  3. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
  4. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
  5. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
  6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  7. Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout
  8. Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout
  9. The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett
  10. The Western Star by Craig Johnson
  11. Gallows View by Peter Robinson
  12. The Red Box by Rex Stout
  13. The Rubber Band by Rex Stout
  14. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama XIV
  15. Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick
  16. Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett
  17. Dark Water by Parker Bilal
  18. Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
  19. Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbø
  20. Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbø
  21. Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen
  22. Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction by Eric Foner
  23. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
  24. Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout
  25. Leaves of Grass: The Deathbed Edition by Walt Whitman
  26. The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett
  27. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
  28. Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane
  29. Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
  30. Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans
  31. Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins
  32. The Rain in Portugal: New Poems by Billy Collins
  33. Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
  34. Sacred by Dennis Lehane
  35. Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
  36. Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania, edited by Marjorie Maddox
  37. The Widow by Fiona Barton
  38. Dearest Creature by Amy Gerstler
  39. The Dry by Jane Harper
  40. Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay
  41. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown

As I start the month of December, I’m at the beginning of a reread of The Lord of the Rings.

I mostly read fiction, crime fiction, with my most read author this year being Dennis Lehane, mostly because I read through his Kenzie and Gennaro series.

I get most of my books via Overdrive from the Free Library of Philadelphia, which I read on an older Kindle. I read seven books in both January and September and only one in November, but it was a good one, the latest Bosch novel, Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly.

So how was your year in reading? How many books have you read so far? Favorite genre? Favorite authors?