Sunday 29 April 2018

MARCH 2018 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

Ten books enjoyed in the month - two stand out reads and one my top pick of the month, which was a bit of a surprise as I'm not usually a massive fan of supernatural or paranormal events, but Down to No Good by Earl Javorsky ticked every box for me.





The other book which was pretty damn good - Midday by David B. Lyons!





The other eight reads weren't too shoddy either. The full list was....

Sam Wiebe - Invisible Dead (2016) (4.5)

Max Everhart - All the Different Ways Love Can Feel (2017) (4)

Sam Wiebe  - Cut You Down (2018) (4.5)

Keith Nixon - Dig Two Graves (2017) (4)

Jack Strange - Manchester Vice (2017) (4.5)

Keith Nixon - Burn the Evidence (2017) (4.5)

David B. Lyons - Midday (2018) (5)

Robert Parker - A Wanted Man (2017) (3.5)

Earl Javorsky - Down to No Good (2017) (5)

Steve Liszka - Dead Watch (2018) (4)

Dissecting the month to the nth degree.....

4 x 4.5 STAR READS...... Sam Wiebe twice, Jack Strange and Keith Nixon - all authors who have been enjoyed before and all authors with more from them on the TBR pile.

3 x 4 STAR READS..... Steve Liszka, Keith Nixon (again) and a collection of short stories by Max Everhart. Liszka was a new to me author, Everhart had been read before.

1 x 3.5 STAR READ ..... enjoyable, but a few niggles regarding the plot and motivation - Robert Parker's debut A Wanted Man

10 reads from 8 different authors, 2 from Sam Wiebe, 2 from Keith Nixon

3 of the 8 were new-to-me authors....... Steve Liszka, David B. Lyons and Robert Parker

There is more on the pile from Keith Nixon, Sam Wiebe, Earl Javorsky and Jack Strange. There was another one from Robert Parker, Crook's Hollow which has now been read in April.



Gender analysis -  8 male authors, 0 females - despite assertions that I'm going to correct the imbalance in my reading, I never do.
(An all female reading month is coming soon! Yada yada yada - seeing is believing)

I believe of the 8 authors I read, 4 are English, 2 hail from the US, 1 is Canadian and 1 is Irish



All 10 of the reads were fiction - 9 novels and a collection of short stories.

All of the books were published in the last three years....3 from 2018, 6 from 2017, 1 from 2016 - whatever happened to me reading older books?


1 of the books was pre-owned. 2 came from Net Galley, 1 from Edelweiss, 2 from a publishers, 1 from a publicist and 3 from the authors

Favourite cover? Sam Wiebe's Cut You Down





Second favourite – Robert Parker's A Wanted Man


My reads were this long 321 - 240 - 356 - 226 - 325 - 229 - 291 - 320 - 220 - 381

Total page count = 2909 (4170 in February)....... a near 1300 page decrease

8 Kindle reads, 1 x ePub  on the laptop and 1 paperback.

0 < 50,
0 between 51 < 100,
0 between 101 < 200,
5 between 201 < 300,
5 between 301 < 400,
0  > 400 pages

Steve Liszka's Dead Watch was the longest read at 381 pages.

Robert Parker with Crook's Hollow was the shortest at 220 pages long

8 comments:

  1. Very glad you had a good reading month, Col. Like you, I'm not one for the paranormal in my reading. But every once in a while, it's done very, very well, and then it can work. And it sounds as though Down to No Good did it for you.

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    1. Thanks Margot. I won't be changing my reading preferences on the back of Down to No Good, but I may be more willing to try something similar in future.

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  2. Hmm, my latest Mac McClellan Mystery, Deadly Spirits, has a "touch" of paranormal in it. But Mac--ever the skeptic--doesn't buy-into that a ghost or spirit is responsible for a couple of deaths. Is that why you never got around to it, Col? :-)

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    1. Apologies Michael - I'll get to it one day!

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  3. Two reads from Sam Wiebe! I really do hope to get to his first book this year. I am surprised you went with a book with supernatural elements as your top read, but I agree it sounds good.

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    1. I hope you like whichever of Wiebe's you try Tracy. Ahead of the game, I wouldn't have imagined that the Javorsky book would be my favourite read of the month. I think I surprised myself.

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  4. Well you have 'made' me buy a Sam Wiebe book and an Earl Javorsky this month - you are such an influential blogger!

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    1. I'll be interested to see what you think of them both.

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