Category: Challenge Wrap-Up

Well what a fun challenge! Of course it really wasn’t much of a challenge for a person who eats, lives and breathes mysteries and thrillers 🙂

I did finish the challenge, reading 6 books in total. When I first signed up, I had set aside a stack of 8 books that I really wanted to read from. Of that list, I only finished 1 and had to DNF 2 others. The other books that I fulfilled for this challenge were chosen as I went along.

Here’s what I read:

1. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
2. Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen
3. Darkness First by James Hayman
4. The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton
5. Shadow Prey by John Sandford
6. 11th Hour by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

I’m not really sure which one would be my favorite book out of this list, I enjoyed them all quite a bit. Two were by new-to-me authors and I finally started the Sookie Stackhouse series!!

Overall I had a really fun time with this challenge.

If you participated, how did you do?

Um, yeah, so as I was shutting down my computer last night due to the wicked storm that came through my area last night, I realized that this challenge actually ended April 1st! Yeah, I guess I totally missed that! I’m not sure what I was thinking. Haha! Oh well, it did me good to continue working on it. Not included in this list are the 3 review books that I picked up this year. Although I didn’t make my original goal of 20 books, I’m really pleased with how much I did get read. I have so many books on my shelves here at the house it’s not even funny. I’m going to restrain myself and continue reading my books for as long as I can. Last year I read 45 of my own books and only 11 library books (and 11 review books) – I liked that breakdown, and I’m wanting to continue that trend. So without further ado, here’s what I read for this challenge:

1. Double Cross by James Patterson
2. Judas Kiss by J.T. Ellison
3. Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark
4. Cross Country by James Patterson
5. Alex Cross’s Trial by James Patterson
6. Divine Justice by David Baldacci
7. Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson
8. Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson
9. The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson
10. The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer
11. The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
12. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
13. Supreme Justice by Phillip Margolin
14. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
15. The Vig by John Lescroart
16. The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry
17. Killing Her Softly by Beverly Barton

Well, here it is only March and I have finished my first reading challenge. Of course this is the easiest challenge I have signed up for, seeing how it is that I primarily read mystery/thrillers/suspense books. Overall, I’m really pleased with what I read for this challenge. I might have stretched one of the books, classifying it as a mystery/thriller book, when it might not have been. But I considered it to fit that category, so it works 🙂 Here’s what I read:

1. Double Cross by James Patterson
2. Judas Kiss by J.T. Ellison
3. Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark
4. Cross Country by James Patterson
5. Divine Justice by David Baldacci
6. Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson
7. Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson
8. The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson
9. The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer
10. Blood of My Brother by James LePore
11. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
12. Supreme Justice by Phillip Margolin

In years past with this challenge I have tried to read books that are from different sub-genres within the mystery/thriller genre. This year I elected not to do that, hence the reason I was able to complete the challenge so quickly. I always like to pick a favorite and least favorite book from the challenges that I finish, so my FAVORITE would have to be: Supreme Justice by Phillip Margolin and my LEAST FAVORITE would probably be: Cross Country by James Patterson. I’m definitely glad that I participated in this challenge, and it really helps me to know that I’m 1/6th of the way finished with the challenges that I signed up for this year!! I would like to say a BIG THANKS to Book Chick City for hosting this great challenge again!

Well, I finally finished this challenge. It was a much needed challenge for me. And although I read quite a few books that are part of a series this year, I was only able to get caught up on 3 challenges (which was my original goal). Here’s what I finished:

• Alex Kava’s Maggie O’Dell series – CAUGHT UP WITH
  • Exposed
  • Black Friday
  • Damaged
• Tess Gerritsen’s Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles series – CAUGHT UP WITH
  • The Apprentice
  • The Sinner
  • Body Double
  • The Mephisto Club
  • The Keepsake
  • Ice Cold
• James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge’s Michael Bennett series — CAUGHT UP WITH
  • Step on a Crack
  • Run for Your Life
  • Worst Case

 So overall, I’m very pleased with where I’m at. Because in addition to these series that I was able to catch up with, I was able to read 12 books in the Kay Scarpetta series and 4 in the Alex Cross series.

So, I didn’t finish this challenge. I had really hoped that I would be able to get this one done, but I just couldn’t. And I’m not sure why I didn’t finish it, it’s not like I didn’t have enough books to read that would fulfill this challenge. Oh well, here’s what I did read for this challenge:

2010 (complete)

1. The Clouds Roll Away by Sibella Giorello
2. Burn by Ted Dekker & Erin Healy
3. Victim Six by Gregg Olsen
4. The 9th Judgment by James Patterson
5. Never Let You Go by Erin Healy
6. The Alexandria Letter by George R. Honig
7. Damaged by Alex Kava
8. Death on the D-List by Nancy Grace
9. 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan
10. The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund

2009 (completed)

1. Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
2. Wait Until Twilight by Sang Pak
3. The Eleventh Victim by Nancy Grace
4. The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson & Martin Dugard
5. Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris
6. Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz
7. Decoding the Lost Symbol by Simon Cox
8. Conflicts with Interest by Michael Ruddy
9. 18 Billion by Jack Gresham

2008

1. The Aztec Heresy by Paul Christopher
2. Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
3. Exposed by Alex Kava
4. Final Breath by Kevin O’Brien
5. The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

2007

1. The Book of Names by Jill Gregory & Karen Tintori
2. The Dying Game by Beverly Barton
3. The Next Killing by Rebecca Drake
4. Step on a Crack by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
5. 
   

2006

2005 (completed)

1. Michelangelo’s Notebook by Paul Christopher
2. The Double Eagle by James Twining
3. No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark
4. The Camel Club by David Baldacci
5. The President’s Assassin by Brian Haig

2004

1. London Bridges by James Patterson
2. Body Double by Tess Gerritsen

2003 (completed)

1. The Murder of Laci Peterson by Cliff Linedecker
2. The Sorority: Eve by Tamara Thorne
3. The Sorority: Merilynn by Tamara Thorne

2002 (completed)

1. Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
2. The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

2001 (completed)

1. The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

Book Chick City hosted this challenge – and I sure am a sucker for thriller/suspense books considering it’s my favorite genre 🙂 I had a lot of fun reading the books for this challenge, and it surprised me how easily I was able to fit the books that I already had on my shelves to the list of sub-genres provided. Here is what I read for this challenge:

1. Exposed by Alex Kava (Eco-Thriller)
2. Four Blind Mice by James Patterson (Police Procedural)
3. Shall We Tell the President? by Jeffrey Archer (Conspiracy Thriller)
4. Final Breath by Kevin O’Brien (Stalker Thriller)
5. 18 Billion by Jack Gresham (Terrorist Thriller)
6. Hotshot by Catherine Mann (Romantic Thriller)
7. All That Remains by Patricia Cornwell (Serial Killer Thriller)
8. The Dying Game by Beverly Barton (Private Detective Mystery)
9. The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen (Medical Thriller)
10. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
11. The Alexandria Letter by George R. Honig (Religious Thriller)
12. The Spire by Richard North Patterson (Psychological Thriller)

For the most part, I enjoyed all of the books that I read for this challenge, but my personal favorite is the book that I just finished, The Spire. (I just can’t stop raving about that book!! It was great!) I’m relieved that I was able to finish a challenge this year, since I have been in somewhat of a slump – I’ve been reading, but most of the books that I’ve been reading have not been all that great to me. But I enjoyed this challenge and if it is hosted again, I will definitely sign up again!!

MizB hosted Read Your Own Books in 2009. She’s also hosting again in 2010 and I’m signed up again. Now, the idea of this one was to set a number of books that you wanted to read … but they had to be your OWN books. Needless to say, this was not a problem with my huge TBR mountain. However, I still fell short! I was a little disappointed that I didn’t read more of my own books than I did. I was actually quite surprised to realize how many library books I did read this year. But there were more than a few new releases that I wanted to read immediately and I absolutely refuse to buy a hardcover book (for a person who can fly through a book in 2-3 days, nearly $30 is insane to spend on a book). My goal was 50 books, 25 of which needed to be on my shelf prior to 2009. I did pretty good only falling short by 4 books. So I’m actually quite proud of my final results of this challenge. And I’m definitely looking forward to doing this challenge again in 2010 because I just keep adding books to my shelves!! Here is what I read:

1. Final Jeopardy by Linda Fairstein (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
2. Jack & Jill by James Patterson (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
3. Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
4. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
5. Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
6. To the Power of Three by Laura Lippman (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
7. Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
8. The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinksy (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
9. The 6th Target by James Patterson (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
10. Hearstopper by Joy Fielding (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
11. The Broken Parachute Man by Robert B. Bolin (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
12. Heart of Ice by Gregg Olsen (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
13. Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
14. Capital Offense by Kathleen Antrim (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
15. 7th Heaven by James Patterson (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
16. Whispers by Lisa Jackson (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
17. The 8th Confession by James Patterson (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
18. A Tisket, a Tasket, a Fancy Stolen Casket by Fran Rizer (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
19. Snagged by Carol Higgins Clark (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
20. In a Dark Time by Larry Watson (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
21. Sail by James Patterson (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
22. Cat & Mouse by James Patterson (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
23. The Piper’s Sons by Bruce Chandler Fergusson (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
24. Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
25. An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
26. She Loves Me Not by Wendy Corsi Staub (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
27. When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
28. Michelangelo’s Notebook by Paul Christopher (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
29. The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
30. The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
31. ‘D’ is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
32. A Bone to Pick by Charlaine Harris (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
33. Pop Goes the Weasel by James Patterson (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
34. The Murder of Laci Peterson by Cliff Linedecker (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
35. The Double Eagle by James Twining (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
36. Silent Witness by Richard North Patterson (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
37. Denial by Keith Ablow (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
38. The Aztec Heresy by Paul Christopher (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
39. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
40. No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
41. Roses are Red by James Patterson (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW
42. The Sorority: Eve by Tamara Thorne (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
43. The Sorority: Merilynn by Tamara Thorne (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
44. The Sorority: Samantha by Tamara Thorne (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
45. Violets are Blue by James Patterson (Acquired in 2009) REVIEW
46. The Book of Names by Jill Gregory & Karen Tintori (On shelf before 2009) REVIEW