Terri (tymfos) tries and tries to read more

I almost didn't make a thread here this year.

I'm Terri, a library director in Pennsylvania. I've been a member of the 75 Books Challenge since the 2009 group. I used to be very active in the group -- not so active in recent years.

But I'm giving it another try.

Currently Reading:

What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton (audio)

Books completed Part I

1. Killer Triggers by Joe Kenda (1-10-2024)
2. All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (1-14-2024)
3. Killer Underwear Invasion!: How to spot fake news, disinformation, & conspiracy theories by Elise Gravel (2-26-2024)
4. How to count to ONE (and don't even think about bigger numbers) by Caspar Salmon
5. Mr. S by Monica Arnaldo
6. Lucky Duck by Greg Pizzoli
7. Where have you been, little cat? by Richard Jones
8. Not Perfect by Maya Myers (3-18-2024)
9. In Time: The Killing of Polly Paul by Paul Petrunak, Jr. (4-28-2024)
10. Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie (4-30-2024)
11. House of Shadows by Darcy Coates (eBook 5-8-2024)
12. Finding Things by Kevin Henkes
13. Lucky Me by Lawrence Schimel
14. Sleepy Sheepy by Lucy Ruth Cummins
15. Sleepy Sheepy and the Sheepover by Lucy Ruth Cummins
16. Dog Vs. Strawberry by Nellie Buchet
17. The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson (audiobook 5-26/2024)
18. The Cat on My Lap edited by Callie Smith Grant (ebook, 5/29/2024)
19. Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry (audio, 6/4/2024)
20. Down the Hill by Susan Hendricks (audio, 6/8/2024)

Books started and suspended/abandoned (I do a lot of that)
They are not necessarily bad books, just not the right book at the right time.

Strange Affair by Peter Robinson
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough (audio)
The Spite House by Johnny Compton (audio)
The Hidden Language of Cats (eBook)
Gallows Hill by Darcy Coates (audio)
Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit by Amy Stewart (eBook)
Murder Road by Simone St. James
The September House by Carissa Orlando

Random place to post stuff I may sometime want near the top of my thread.

Greetings! Welcome to my thread!

Book #1

Killer Triggers by Joe Kenda
I've been on a true-crime kick lately, and I really love Joe Kenda's Homicide Hunter show. So when this book showed up as available in cloudLibrary, I downloaded it. It's short, straightforward, and I could hear Kenda's voice in my mind as I read it.

I think we may have gotten more snow this past week than all of last winter. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.

My car got stuck trying to get out of the garage this morning. So I walked to work, and almost got blown off my feet by a massive wind gust. My husband picked me up after work, and his car got stuck trying to get into the garage this evening.

I am not a fan of winter.

But at least we're not dealing with the kind of dangerous weather I'm seeing reported from other places around the country.

Found ya!! Good luck with the weather -- stay warm and dry and safe! Best wishes for awesome reads this year. : )

Glad to see you continued, Terri, happy reading in 2024!

Well, I, for one, am glad you’re back!

>9 Berly: Hey there, Kim! Thanks for the stars! Happy New Year!

>10 FAMeulstee: Hello, Anita! Happy 2024 Reading to you too!

>11 drneutron: Thanks, Jim! Happy New Year!

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby is my current read. An incredible but very disturbing book.

We're glad you decided to make a thread! Welcome back! Hope you have a great year of reading!

>13 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori!

Well, two weeks into the year, and two books read. This one was a stunner!

Book #2

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

Our local book reviewer recommended this as one of the best books of 2023. It was incredibly intense, and also violent. Titus Crown leaves his work as an FBI agent under some kind of cloud (details to be revealed late in the book) to return to his rural Virginia hometown, where his elderly father is recuperating from a broken hip. He runs for sheriff and becomes the first Black sheriff of the county.

One morning he is called out to the high school to respond to an armed intruder, a shooting. The victim is a white teacher. The shooter is a young black man. There is a confrontation, the shooter is shot and killed. The subsequent investigation uncovers an unspeakable truth.

This is a very well-written book. The plot was riveting, the characters complex, and the dialog sharp.

I will probably finish another one tonight.

Happy new year, Terri. I've seen lots of positive comments about S.A. Cosby. I might have to give one of his a try.

>14 tymfos: Great review and sounds like a great book!! Noted.

Also this has an LT rating of 4.26!! That's really high for this kind of book. : )

Hi Terri, nice to see you back here. I kind of come and go. I always come over to add whatever book I've finished to my 75er thread, and also the Category Challenge thread, and my ROOTS thread. I spend time on the TIOLI thread but, sometimes, I don't visit other threads, or even comment on my own, for weeks at a time. Hoping to change that for 2024 so we'll see.

I see you're reading a Peter Robinson book. I've read two of those and they weren't the first two. That's a series I'd like to start at the beginning (I own a copy of the first one).

Welcome back, Terri! All the Sinners Bleed is on my list - I don't think I've seen any bad reviews.

Hi Terri. It is great to see that you are here at the 75 challenge group. You are such kind, loving soul and I am glad you are back. I'll be sure to follow your thread.

Hi Terry, good to see your thread. I read All the Sinners Bleed this month too. It kept me turning those pages!

Hello, Beth, Kim, Linda, Joanne, Linda, and Meg!

Well I started out 2024 OK with reading, but then fizzled out. I love the Alan Banks series by Peter Robinson, but one of those police procedurals was probably not the best follow-up to try and read just after a book with the intensity of All the Sinners Bleed. And this one really didn't have a very compelling start. I think I may put it aside and see if I can find another page-turner to draw me into reading again.

>22 tymfos: All the Sinners Bleed was pretty intense, Terri. Maybe try a different genre for your next read.

Find another page turner!! : )

I hope you find something that captivates you soon. I have just been too exhausted to read much lately. I try to cut things off early enough that I'll have time to read about an hour before bed. Sometimes I'm so exhausted that I can barely even read a chapter before dropping off. Hoping I'll manage 50 to 100 pages tonight.

>23 Familyhistorian: Meg, I tried the Banks novel, and a horror audiobook. Neither worked. It's Annual Report time at the library and my brain is fried.

>24 Berly: Kim, I like the way you think! :)

>25 thornton37814: Lori, I can totally relate. So much to do, so little time, and not as much energy as I once had.

Anyway, it's Lent, so I decided to go with something suitable for Lent. I pulled Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace off the TBR shelf where it has been patiently waiting for quite a while.

I thought I had left at least one message here already, Terri, but seemingly not and for which an apology is certainly necessary.

Hope all is well with you dear lady.

I understand about not wanting to read dark books. I recently purchased a book containing vivid images of the cruel punishment by the SS Guards to prisoners. I put it down to perhaps read another time. I know I read illustrated books for this reason, not only do I love the artistry, but enjoy the stories as well.

I own a copy of What's So Amazing About Grace, I'm curious to hear what you think about it when you write your review. All good wishes. And, as others have said, it really is good to have you here on the 75 challenge group threads.

>27 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! Hope you are well!

>28 Whisper1: Hi, Linda! I have a few kids' books to post that I've read. I'm having a mental block on most of the titles right now, but the one listed below was totally memorable.

Book #3

Killer Underwear Invasion!: How to spot fake news, disinformation, & conspiracy theories by Elise Gravel

I absolutely loved this fun book designed to teach information literacy skills to kids.

I can see why that's a memorable one!! LOL. : ) Hope your weekend is going well.

>30 Berly: Hi, Kim. I had a pretty good weekend. Our library board meeting was this afternoon, and it went really well. We have several new board members, and they fit right in. I love my board! (So lucky to be able to say that -- I hear of so many library directors whose boards are not loveable.)

I'm going to include picture books again this year. These are some recent ones I enjoyed.

Book #4

How to count to ONE (and don't even think about bigger numbers) by Caspar Salmon
This is really fun, and silly.

Book #5

Mr. S by Monica Arnaldo
On the first day of school, the message on the blackboard identifies the teacher as "Mr. S." There is no one at the desk, just a sandwich. So "S" is for sandwich? This makes for a very unusual school day . . . for everyone.

Book #6

Lucky Duck by Greg Pizzoli
Lucky Duck is not so lucky. Then she has a visit from Wolf, who seems delighted to give her what she needs to make a great soup . . . so is she lucky now? A fun read.

Book #7

Where have you been, little cat? by Richard Jones
A sweet book about a cat's wanderings and return home. (Personally, I think it's better to not let your cat run loose, but . . .)

Book #8

Not Perfect by Maya Myers

This picture book was in our Junior Library Guild shipment this week. I could really relate to the little girl who could do many things well . . . but, no, they were never perfect. It seemed like her family members could do EVERYTHING perfectly. Her brother got blue ribbons, her mother was a black belt, etc. A wonderful book to help overachievers realize that they are perfectly fine just the way they are.

Well, it's been almost a month since I've been on LT. I've dabbled in several books, but not managed to finish anything. Real life is just kicking my butt.

It is good to see another person in our group who reads illustrated picture books.

>32 tymfos: I hope that RL becomes a bit kinder to you in the near future, Terri. Nice to see you posting. xx

>33 Whisper1: It's part of my job, but it's a part that I love!

>34 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul!

Book #9
In Time: The Killing of Polly Paul by Paul Petrunak (no touchstone)

This book is a regional history offering about a double murder in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, in 1865, when two women were murdered on an isolated farm in the New Germany area outside Johnstown.

This was written by a man who became fascinated with the forgotten story when he stumbled upon it while researching the history of a local house. He spent ten years researching the crime, digging into newspapers and court documents. This short book was well-written and interesting.

Book #10

Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie

This one started out like a typical haunted house story, dressed up with a reality TV setting. A ghost hunting TV show, with a husband-and-wife paranormal investigator team -- the "catch" being that the wife is a skeptic.

Not much happened to begin, but when the weirdness started, it was totally weird.

Why did I waste my time listening to this? Well, it started out OK, and when the plot started to go south, I was curious where the heck the author was going to take it. Turns out, not anywhere I particularly wanted to go.

Once again, I seem to be making a start at getting out of my reading funk. I know I should read more of the stuff on my bookshelves. However, I seem to make more progress with audiobooks (which I can listen to while doing something else and eBooks (which are always with me on my phone for odd reading moments). So I'm just going to go with the flow, read the formats that work for me now, and hopefully I can get started reading regularly and then move on to my bulging bookshelves.

Current audiobook is The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson, which features an ex-teacher-ex-cop private detective and some people with secrets.

Current eBook is House of Shadows by Darcy Coates, which so far is about as classic a gothic as a gothic fan could hope for -- almost a stereotype (spooky manor house, mysterious master of the house, female protagonist new to the situation, nasty female antagonist, etc.). I just started it last night around midnight, and I'm already about a quarter of the way through.

Current "dead tree" (paper) book: I'm still nibbling at the Philip Yancey book What's So Amazing about Grace?.

So I’m halfway through my current audiobook and ebook. They’re both holding my interest, though in different ways.

>36 tymfos: I hate reading funks - I just went through one in April. I agree that going with the flow is probably the best way to go to get through one.

I enjoyed What's So Amazing about Grace? when I read it so I hope you do to, Terri.

Have a marvelous Monday!

>38 alcottacre: Hi, Stasia! I decided to use What's So Amazing About Grace as sort of a devotional, reading a short segment first thing every morning. It gives me time to really think about what Yancey is saying.

>39 tymfos: That was one of those books that I took slowly too, Terri, although not quite that slowly. I need to read more of Yancey's stuff - it only took me like 10 years to get to that one! I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Book #11

House of Shadows by Darcy Coates (E-book completed 5-8-2024)

"The story was fantastical to the point of being absurd . . ." a line from page 139 of House of Shadows

That line from the book really is descriptive of the entire book, more or less. There's a classic Gothic setup -- young woman comes to mysterious, creepy, isolated mansion with a rather stereotypical cast. Settings like that take me back to my youth watching Dark Shadows and reading the paperback novels based on the series.

As the book goes along, eventually the horror is not subtle. Annoyingly, the book ends with a teaser for the next book in the series. I really don't think I'll bother. I did sail right through this one, and rather enjoyed it, but I can't take this kind of stuff too seriously. Some of it was just unbelievable even if you took out the supernatural element.

Some picture books read on the job:
12. Finding Things by Kevin Henkes
13. Lucky Me by Lawrence Schimel
14. Sleepy Sheepy by Lucy Ruth Cummins
15. Sleepy Sheepy and the Sheepover by Lucy Ruth Cummins
16. Dog Vs. Strawberry by Nellie Buchet


I love the Sleepy Sheepy books. I'm planning take one with me when I go to read to area preschools next week. And Dog Vs. Strawberry is wicked fun!

Sleepy Sheepy looks cute!

>43 thornton37814: Lori, I absolutely adore Sleepy Sheepy!

>44 tymfos: I checked and my public library has it. If it's on the shelf when I go to stitch on Saturday, I may check it out!

Book #17

The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson (audiobook, completed 5/26/2024)

Henry is an ex-teacher, ex-cop Boston private investigator. He is approached by a woman who was his student the one year that he was a high school teacher. She says she believes that her husband is having an affair, and she wants the detective to find out for sure.

What does a summer Joan spent in Maine many years ago have to do with this? And is there a link between any of it and the school shooting that happened in Henry's classroom so many years ago?

Read this if you like books with a lot of twists and suspense.

Well, I'm trying to read more, even if it's audiobook reading. Saturday, I put on headphones and was listening while I was out pulling weeds in the garden.

I managed to break the cord on my headphones that connects the left ear side. I should have used the Bluetooth ones.

Today, I was listening to my latest audiobook after I came in from gardening.

I fell asleep. I need to find my place where I stopped hearing the story.

I went to a dinner my bank has for folks over 50 last week. I was surrounded by people saying how nice it is to be retired. Sometimes I think it's time I retired, but there are so many things I still want to do at my library. Last week was a real challenge. No one big thing was wrong, mostly little weird situations I didn't expect. The worst was when an elderly patron passed out and we had to call an ambulance. (He was OK.)

This year just seems to be flying by, and I'm having trouble keeping up with it. I turn around and I'm late in planning or promoting something or other that the library is doing. HOW CAN IT ALMOST BE JUNE ALREADY????!!!!

>47 tymfos: I'm screaming that about June, too. O.o

Book #18

The Cat on My Lap: Stories of the cats we love by Callie Smith Grant (ebook completed 5/29/2024)

This was a sweet book of true stories people wrote about cats that were special to them.

The Cat on My Lap: Stories of the Cats We Love by Callie Smith Grant sounds wonderful. I've placed it on the tbr pile.

>49 tymfos: Looks like a great book! Meow!

Hi Lori! Happy June. Hope there are no reading slumps or funks this month. : )

>50 Whisper1: >51 thornton37814: Hi, Linda and Lori! I think it's a book both of you would enjoy.
>52 Berly: Happy June, Kim! I started the month by abandoning an audiobook I thought was awful, and starting one that is terriffic!

Abandoned: The September House by Carissa Orlando. The reviews seemed to promise a horror novel, but with some depth in dealing with important issues. I guess I never got to the deep part, because the shallow part at the beginning was so ridiculous.

Started: Ghosts of the Tsunami: death and life in Japan's Disaster zone by Richard Lloyd Parry. The nonfiction account of the 2011 tsunami, with a focus on a school where almost all the children perished, grabbed my attention from the first paragraph. Simon Vance's narration of the audiobook is excellent!

Book #19

Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry (audio completed 6/4/2024)

Richard Parry, a journalist, lived in Japan at the time of the 2011 major earthquake and tsunami -- the one that caused a nuclear meltdown. But his focus is not on the nuclear disaster, but on the death of 74 children at a small elementary school. The children were evacuated from the building when the earthquake hit, but never moved to higher ground despite the tsunami warnings.

Parry spent a great deal of time with the people of the area. He explores the effect on the families and describes how the educational bureaucracy dealt with what happened. He also looks at the spiritual beliefs of the people of the area, and how they were impacted by the thousands of deaths which happened in Japan as a result of the tsunami. Hence the title, Ghosts of the Tsunami.

It was a very interesting, compelling audiobook, capably narrated by Simon Vance.

Book #20

Down the Hill by Susan Hendricks (audiobook, read by the author)

I'm clawing my way out of a reading slump with audios from a couple of go-to nonfiction subjects: disaster accounts and true crime.

This one is about the double murder of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana -- a case that will be going to trial (maybe, given the delays thus far) this fall. The author is a journalist with CNN and HLN networks. Unlike so many cases she's covered from the studio in Atlanta, she went to the scene of this crime and covered it extensively, getting to know the victims' family members, and she became emotionally involved in the case in a way unlike others she'd covered.

I have mixed feelings about this one. Overall, it was a well-written account of a horrible crime. The details of the case were presented thoroughly, but I struggled with the gnawing feeling it was too much about the author. Hendricks admits she was too emotionally involved in this case. I guess I got a little tired of passages that narrated the content of news conferences, panels, and interviews she participated in. At times, that felt a little tiresome and (in some cases) redundant when the same information was imparted several times. How many times did I need to hear that the police needed to withhold certain details to protect the integrity of the investigation? But then, based on her reports of how social media dealt with the case, apparently a lot of people needed to hear that again and again, as they didn't seem to understand it.

>54 tymfos: Great write-ups of these books and how you felt about them. Thanks! (Glad the newer audio was a good one!)

>56 Berly: Hi, Kim! I'm really trying to at least get back to reading and reviewing books. I'm less successful at staying even marginally current on any of the LT threads!

I just noticed that I received my 15-year member badge from LT. I had totally missed that my Thingaversary was last Monday!

Happy Thingaversary!! : )

>58 Berly: Thanks, Kim!

>57 tymfos: Congratulations, Terri.

I am well into my 14th year so still inexperienced in LT terms :D