I've been organizing my books as I decide my 2022 Reading Challenges. I think I've got them pretty well sorted out, my challenges that is. In this post, I'll look at what used to be called the 12 + 4 Reading Group Challenge. I belong to a new Goodreads Reading group now. They've decided to call the challenge the 1st Annual Reading Challenge (it being the first year of the group).
For my challenge, I'm focusing on new series. I'll read the 1st book in 16 series that I've yet to start (I do have quite a few waiting my attention. The first 8 will be the first book I've had on my shelves the longest. The last 8 will be those I've purchased most recently. This group may change if any newer books arrive prior to year's end. But for now, here is my list.
The Dusty Eight
1.
The Complaints by
Ian Rankin (Malcolm Fox #1 / owned since 25 May 2012). I've enjoyed Rankin's Inspector Rebus series very much. I do have a few left in that series still to enjoy but I do look forward to starting this series as well.
"Nobody likes The
Complaints - they're the cops who investigate other cops. It's where
Malcolm Fox works. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good
about himself. But he's a man with problems of his own. In the midst of
an aggressive Edinburgh winter, the reluctant Fox is given a new task -
investigate Jamie Breck."
2.
The Name of the Wind by
Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller #1 / owned since 07 Jun 2015). I'm sure my daughter bought me this.
"My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned
down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left
with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a
younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight
that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved
women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature--the story of a
hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a
tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that
search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend."
3.
Golden Buddha by
Clive Cussler (Oregon Files #1 / owned since 15 Jul 2015). I've enjoyed others of Cussler's adventure series, the Isaac Bell books, the Dirk Pitt series and NUMA. I presume this will be as entertaining.
"In his first
feature-length adventure, it's up to Cabrillo and his crew of expert
intelligence and Naval men to put Tibet back in the hands of the Dalai
Lama by striking a deal with the Russians and the Chinese. His gambling
chip is a golden Buddha containing records of vast oil reserves in the
disputed land.
But first, he'll have to locate—and steal—the
all-important artifact. And there are certain people who would do
anything in their power to see him fail..."
4.
The Jewel in the Crown by
Paul Scott (Raj Quartet #1 / owned since 22 Aug 2015). I've seen the movie and TV series based on this book. I'm looking forward to finally reading this.
"India 1942: everything
is in flux. World War II has shown that the British are not invincible
and the self-rule lobby is gaining many supporters. Against this
background, Daphne Manners, a young English girl, is brutally raped in
the Bibighat Gardens. The racism, brutality and hatred launched upon the
head of her young Indian lover echo the dreadful violence perpetrated
on Daphne and reveal the desperate state of Anglo-Indian relations."
5.
The Skull Mantra by
Eliot Pattison (Inspector Shan #1 / 23 Jan 2016). I've enjoyed other mysteries I've read that are set in Asia. I hope this one is as good.
"The corpse is missing
its head and is dressed in American clothes. Found by a Tibetan prison
work gang on a windy cliff, the grisly remains clearly belong to someone
too important for Chinese authorities to bury and forget. So the case
is handed to veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun. Methodical, clever
Shan is the best man for the job, but he too is a prisoner, deported to
Tibet for offending someone high up in Beijing's power structure.
Granted a temporary release, Shan is soon pulled into the Tibetan
people's desperate fight for its sacred mountains and the Chinese
regime's blood-soaked policies. Then, a Buddhist priest is arrested, a
man Shan knows is innocent. Now time is running out for Shan to find the
real killer."
6.
Divergent by
Victoria Roth (Divergent #1 / 09 March 2016). I've tried a few YA fantasy series and enjoyed for the most part. For some reason I never managed to get to this one.
"In Beatrice Prior's
dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each
dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest),
Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful),
and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all
sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the
rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with
her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes
a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the
highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself
Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice
they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of
endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating
consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who
her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes
fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen.
But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because
she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and
growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society,
she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . .
. or it might destroy her."
7.
The Mark of the Assassin by
Daniel Silva (Michael Osbourne #1 / 30 Apr 2016). I bought this when I was trying various spy novels. Now it's time to finally try this one.
"Bestselling novelist Daniel Silva (author of The Unlikely Spy) draws upon his experience as a foreign correspondent and a Washington journalist in The Mark of the Assassin.
Set in London, Cairo, Amsterdam, and Washington, the story line follows
CIA case agent Michael Osbourne as he attempts to locate the terrorists
who shot down an airliner off the coast of Long Island. Osbourne has
two main antagonists: Delaroche, a KGB-trained expert assassin ordered
to kill the handful of people who know the truth, including Osbourne,
and the corrupt political culture of Washington, which ominously stymies
him at every turn. There's a love story at the core of this book, as
well as a brave attempt by Osbourne to reconcile a mystery in his past
with a present he has not fully accepted. The prose is slick, and
readers will find themselves racing through these pages as the body
count grows and the conclusion nears. The Mark of the Assassin is a worthy effort from a rising star."
8.
Red Rising by
Pierce Brown (Red Rising #1 / 19 Jul 2016). Nothing really to add to this. It looked interesting.
"The Earth is dying.
Darrow
is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract
enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and
allow humans to live on it.
The Reds are humanity's last hope.
Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie.
That
Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class
of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down
on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to
death without a second thought. Until the day that Darrow, with the
help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and
infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors
from the inside.
But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.
Break the chains.
Live for more."
The Shiny Newby Eight on my Bookshelf
(If I get any new books that start a series between now and midnight 31 Dec, they will be added to the end of the list and #9, #10, etc will be removed. As of today, 28 Dec, these are the 8 Newbys that I will be starting the year with)
9.
Girl Waits with Gun by
Amy Stewart (Kopp Sisters #1 / 19 Oct 2021).
This one looked interesting to me.
"When Constance Kopp and
her sisters suffered a run-in with a ruthless, powerful crook,
Constance leaves her quiet country life to team up with the local
sheriff and exact justice. As a war of bricks, bullets, and threats
ensues, Constance realizes that this racketeer's history may be more
damning than she thought, but now that she's on the case, he won't get
away.
Quick-witted and full of madcap escapades, Girl Waits with
Gun is a story of one woman rallying the courage to stand up for and
grow into herself - with a little help from sisters and sheriffs along
the way."
10.
The Power-House by
John Buchan (Leithen #1 / 30 Oct 2021). I've enjoyed so many of Buchan's books, especially his Richard Hannay series.
"The Power-House is a
novel by John Buchan, a thriller set in London, England. It was written
in 1913, when it was serialized in Blackwood's Magazine, and it was
published in book form in 1916. The narrator is the barrister and Tory
MP Edward Leithen, who features in a number of Buchan's novels. The
urban setting contrasts with that of its sequel, John Macnab, which is
set in the Scottish Highlands. The Power-House of the title is an
international anarchist organization led by a rich Englishman named
Andrew Lumley. Its plan to destroy Western civilisation is thwarted by
Leithen with the assistance of a burly Labour MP."
11.
Dawn by
Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis #1 / 30 Oct 2021). I'd heard Butler's name but didn't realize she wrote SciFi.
"When Lilith lyapo wakes
in a small white room with no doors or windows, she remembers a
devastating war, and a husband and child long lost to her. She finds
herself living among the Oankali, a strange race who intervened in the
fate of humanity hundreds of years before.
They spared those they
could from the ruined Earth, and suspended them in a long, deep sleep.
Over centuries, the Oankali learned from the past, cured disease and
healed the world. Now they want Lilith to lead her people back home.
But salvation comes at a price - to restore humanity, it must be changed forever..."
12.
A Terrible Fall of Angels by
Laurell K. Hamilton (Zaniel Havelock #1 / 03 Nov 2021). I read pretty well every book in Hamilton's Anita Blake series and a few of her Meredith Gentry series. It'll be interesting to see what this series is like.
"Meet Detective Zaniel
Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with
angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving
both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a
terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a
cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are
angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at
work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college
student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another,
or is it something more? When demonic possession is a possibility, even
angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer
before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own
very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind."
13.
The Peripheral by
William Gibson (Jackpot #1 / 11 Nov 2021). I have pretty well enjoyed every book I've ever read by Gibson with the possible exception of The Difference Engine so I'm looking forward to this.
"Flynne Fisher lives down a
country road, in a rural near-future America where jobs are scarce,
unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she’s trying to avoid.
Her brother Burton lives, or tries to, on money from the Veterans
Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite
Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at
the local 3D print shop. She made more as a combat scout in an online
game, playing for a rich man, but she’s had to let the shooter games go.
Wilf
Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of
decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the
haves, and there aren’t many have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered
publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a
society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.
Burton’s
been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game
prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot
weirder. He’s got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game’s not
a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad.
Flynne
and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered
utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will
learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass."
14.
Murther and Walking Spirits by
Robertson Davies (Toronto Trilogy #1 / 17 Nov 2021). I've enjoyed rediscovering Davies' work the past few years. Unfortunately for the Toronto Trilogy, Davies died after completing only two books in this series.
"Anthony Burgess listed
Robertson Davies' The Rebel Angels among the 99 best novels of our time
and declared that Davies himself is "without doubt Nobel Prize
material". With Murther & Walking Spirits Davies reconfirms his
stature as an irresistibly erudite practitioner of the art of fiction. A
man who is killed in the first sentence of the novel leads the reader
on a tour of his afterlife."
15.
The Detective's Daughter by
Lesley Thomson (Detective's Daughter #1 /
18 Nov 2021). I read the synopsis in the back of another book I was reading and it seemed interesting.
"Kate Rokesmith's decision to go to the river changed the lives of many.
Her
murder shocked the nation. Her husband, never charged, moved abroad
under a cloud of suspicion. Her son, just four years old, grew up in a
loveless boarding school. And Detective Inspector Darnell, vowing to
leave no stone unturned in the search for her killer, began to lose his
only daughter. The young Stella Darnell grew to resent the dead Kate
Rokesmith.
Now, thirty years later, Stella is dutifully sorting
through her father's attic after his sudden death. The Rokesmith case
papers are in a corner, gathering dust: DI Darnell must have copied them
when he retired from the force. Stella knows she should destroy them.
Instead, she opens the box, and starts to read..."
16.
Six of Crows by
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows #1 / 15 Dec 2021). I saw this at one of my local book stores and the story seemed very interesting.
"Ketterdam: a bustling
hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right
price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker.
Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich
beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six
dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing
that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill
each other first."
So there you go, my 16 series start-ups. See anything that interests you?
