Sunday, December 22, 2024

The TBR 24 in '24 & Mt. TBR Challenges -- MY WRAP UP POST

 

THE TBR 24 IN '24 CHALLENGE

My Wrap Up Post


I have completed the TBR 24 in '24 Challenge! I read the 24 books off my TBR shelves that I picked for the challenge.

MY TBR 24 IN '24 BOOKS

I like to pick my books ahead of time for this annual challenge. I keep them stacked by my bedside to motivate me through the year. This year, I picked 12 fiction and 12 nonfiction. 

Here's a list of what is in the picture. Do any look good to you?

FICTION

Quentins by Maeve Binchy. I went on a Binchy jag years ago and read most of her books, including several that involve the fictional Dublin restaurant Quentins. But this one slipped past me.  

Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury. I loved Eating People is Wrong and The History Man and this one made me a confirmed Bradbury fan. 

The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. This one is on Anthony Burgess's list of his 99 favorite novels, one of my favorite lists, but it fell flat for me.  

The King of the Rainy Country by Nicolas Freeling, an Edgar Award winner. This was a terrific vintage mystery with a lot of action and plenty of dry humor. 
 
A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable was as fun as it looked to be.

J by Howard Jacobson. I like his books but this one is speculative, dystopian fiction, so I did not enjoy it as much as other things by him. 

Out of the Shelter by David Lodge. He is one of my favorite authors. This is his autobiographical first novel. It was very good, but not as rich as his later novels. 

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch. So is she! This one was excellent, and a good example of Murdoch's fiction. 

The New Men by C. P. Snow. I've been plodding my way through his Strangers and Brothers series and am determine to get through the whole thing. This one was particularly dry.

A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler. As with Binchy, I went on an Anne Tyler tear several years ago. Then I just stopped. I'm trying to read the ones I missed. This one was charming. 

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware. I bought this for the cool vintage cover and did not expect such a clever and exciting gangster story with a hard boiled newspaper journalist as the protagonist.

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, which also counts as my Austria book for the 2024 European Reading Challenge 

NONFICTION

My Almost Cashmere Life by Margy Adams. I ripped through this memoir. 

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review by William F. Buckley, Jr. This is one of my favorite titles ever. I grew up reading his Notes & Asides column and loved revisiting the columns in this collection.  

Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick by Peter Collier. My husband gave this to me several years ago and I'm glad I finally read it. What a fascinating woman! 

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David. I love food writing and David is new to me. I will read more by her.  

Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell. I've read Lawrence Durrell books but never Gerald's. I love the TV show, The Durrells of Corfu, so was happy to finally read one of his books. I'll read more.

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz. I bought this on a whim when it came out and am so glad I did. It was excellent.  

Songbook by Nick Hornby. Another favorite author, but I missed this one. 

The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis. I'm chipping away at reading all his books. 

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo. I found this at a library book sale and it was terrific!  

The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas by Paul Theroux. I expected to like this classic book of travel writing more than I did. There are a lot of descriptions of train rides on awful trains. It wasn't bad, just not as interesting as I anticipated.

Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull. I missed this when it came out and love ex-pat memoirs. This one was very good. 

I'll Take the Back Road by Marguerite Hurrey Wolf, a 1975 memoir about living on a farm in Vermont. Fantastic!  



THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE

This TBR 24 in '24 Challenge dovetails nicely with the Mt TBR Challenge that Bev at My Reader's Block hosts every year. Like I've done for the past couple of years, I signed up for the "Mt. Kilimanjaro" Level in 2024 to read a total of 60 books off my TBR shelves. 

I climbed much higher this year! In addition to the 24 book I read for the TBR 24 in '24 Challenge, I read 68 books off my TBR shelves, for a total of 92 TBR books. That's a record for me. 

MY MT. TBR BOOKS

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Myers 

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier

The Year I Stopped to Notice by Miranda Keeling

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere by Susan Orlean

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope

The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life by Charles Murray

The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne

Habits of the House by Fay Weldon

Long Live the King by Fay Weldon

The New Countess by Fay Weldon

His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle

Silverview by John le Carre

The Reivers by William Faulkner

Dead Lions by Mick Herron

Pocket Full of Poseys by Thomas Reed

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer

After All These Years by Susan Isaacs

Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh

The Light of Day by Eric Ambler

With No One as Witness by Elizabeth George

Loser Takes All by Graham Greene

The Third Man by Graham Greene

The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene

The Messenger by Megan Davis

The Stranger House by Reginald Hill

Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah

The Vacationers by Emma Stroud

Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny

Castle Dor by Daphne du Maurier

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis

Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh

Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope

The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thakeray

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh

The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope

Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived by Anton Scalia

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier

Living Color A Designer Works Magic with Traditional Interiors by Gary McBournie

The Girl on the Boat by P G. Wodehouse

The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong

A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong

Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison

The Turret Room by Charlotte Armstrong

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope

Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

Leaves of Grass, Vol. 1, and Democratic Vistas by Walt Whitman

Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler

Joe Country by Mick Herron

Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham
















NOTE: Updated September 21, 2024. 






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