Over the past few years I abandoned using
notebooks to keep track of the books I read in favor of Goodreads. A practice
that came about out of laziness more than anything else, but this year, I’m
back with pen and paper. Along with the change, I decided to try—at least this
month—sharing my reading list.
I
track the books—fiction and non-fiction—and individual short stories I finish. Those
I don’t finish don’t get recorded. In March there were two novels I chose not
to finish, which is more than normal for a single month. My DNF’s were Free
Fall, by Robert Crais (1993)—I was simply bored with it at the halfway mark—and
Night Detectives, by Jon Talton (2013), because I felt grouchy and it didn’t
catch my interest in the first few dozen pages.
The
books I read—seven in total—were all fiction and six were squarely within the
mystery genre. I read an astonishing three Rushmore McKenzie novels by David
Housewright: Pretty Girl Gone (2006), Madman on a Drum (2008),
and The Taking of Libbie, SD (2010). All three were terrific, my
favorite being Madman on a Drum. You can expect to see reviews of these three
in coming weeks. My favorite book was Rusty Barnes’s Half Crime (2024), which
is an excellent collection of dark tales that I reviewed here, and my
least favorite was The Bastard, by John Jakes (1974). A word about The
Bastard. The first half, or about 300 pages was marvelous, but the narrative
dulled in the second half. It would have been a better book if it had been strategically but aggressively cut.
As
for short stories, I read two—“One Eye Open”, by Jeremiah Healy (EQMM, Jul. 1989), and “I Bring
Fresh Flowers”, by Robert F. Young (Amazing Stories, Feb. 1964)—and enjoyed both; however, I was a tad disappointed
with the Healy story because it didn’t have the grab and thoughtful conclusion
I expected from a John Francis Cuddy tale. Not to mention, I purchased the Ellery
Queen Mystery Magazine, where it appeared, for no other reason than it had
a Healy story inside. Well, that cover image of Lawrence Block didn’t hurt,
either.
So,
without further ado, here is my reading list, from first to last in chronological
order in my own hand, for March 2024:
So, dear reader, what do you think? Is this worth doing each month?
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