Boxing Day smorgasbord

Good evening my Gentle Readers. Here I sit, full of turkey and peace.  I had a lovely quiet Christmas, and hope you did too. I will be posting about the books I picked out received in the mystery box of books I filled all fall, tomorrow, when the pictures are loaded from the camera onto the computer.  At the moment there are several little films of Holly-Anne performing in her school play on the camera also, and it takes quite a while to download onto the computer.  It's late here, so for now, I am eating chocolate and just about to start one of the books in that box: The Secrets of Pain, by Phil Rickman.  It's a hardcover, so I can't carry it with me, and just the thing to take me through more snow falling tomorrow night. Ghosts and snow, chocolate and on holiday, what could be more perfect?

I came across this lovely interview with Elly Griffiths, author of the Dr Ruth Galloway mysteries, here on Kittling Books. It's just the interview to get me ready for ordering her House at Sea End, which is out in softcover next week.  Yaaay!

Mystery Challenge or, how to make your mouth water over mysteries.

Wendy over at Musings of a Bookish Kitty is hosting a challenge.  And not just any challenge:  a mystery challenge.  Irresistible!  It's called Merely Mystery Reading Challenge 2012. The sign-up Link is here.  I have been thinking and thinking about what challenges to join, and here is one that I'm leaping at.  I can read in 12 categories of mysteries to choose from!  This is like a cornucopia of mystery books for me.  Any kind of mystery I want, as much as I want.  A smorgasbord of mystery reading. Since this is what I read most of, this is like a tiny piece of heaven for 2012. Of course I'm going to overdo it - who doesn't at a feast??? even diabetic me has been eating too many chocolate biscuits the past two days, - so I'm going for Shamus who Has Seen It All.

This means reading at least twelve books, one from each category.  The hard part isn't finding the mystery books - 9 of the books I put in my mystery box, are mysteries!!- it's putting them into their categories.  So I will do a longer post with the books I am thinking of, though here is a rough initial list:

Shamus Who Has Seen It All
Cozy:      Bury Your Dead -  Louise Penny
               Death of a Celebrity - MC Beaton
               Death of a Perfect Wife -  "    "
Historical WhoDunnit -   any of:   - Sovereign by CJ Sansom
                                                    -   The Face of a Stranger - Anne Perry
                                                   - The Janissary Tree - Jason Goodwin
Police Procedural - any of:  Deadlight - Graham Hurley
                                        -   Roseanna - Maj Sowall and Per Wahloo
                                        -   Looking Good Dead - Peter James
Whodunnit:                 -   The Hanging Wood - Martin Edwards
Locked Room Mystery:       Bloodhounds -  Peter Lovesey
Caper Stories:   any of:        Dancing Aztecs - Donald Westlake
                                              Doors Open - Ian Rankin
The Spy Novel:                     Our Kind of Traitor -  John Le Carre
The Professional Thriller:  any of:      Winter Study - Nevada Barr (Anna Pigeon is a Park Ranger)
                                                     -       Ashes to Dust - Yrsa Sigurdardottir (lawyer)
                                                   - House at Sea End - Elly Griffiths (archaeologist)
Hardboiled/Noir:  any of:          -   The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin
                                                -     The Snow Leopard - Jo Nesbo
                                                 -  Devil's Peak - Deon Meyer
Inverted Detective Story - can't think of any at the moment, need to look through my shelves when I can get off the chair. 
Psychological Suspense:  any of:  - The Private Patient - PD James
                                                     -  Nightlife - Thomas Perry
                                                    -  Truth - Peter Temple
Spoofs and Parodies:      another hard category for me.  Something by Jasper Fforde, most likely.  I think I have the last one in the Thursday Next series to read.

Isn't that a list to make your mouth water???  I'm so excited!  some titles may change, this is from a quick survey of my book shelves and books I had previously lined up to read.

The sign-up is open all year, so if you aren't decided on joining this, there is lots of time. There is also a category for reading at least two books only, from any sub-genre.  So if you wanted to try a mystery, here is a challenge to get you to try it. 

Well, this was unexpected, like unwrapping a late gift!! 

Now I'm off to see if I can finish another book tonight and creep ever closer to my goal of 100 books this year.  92 books read, 8 left to read, and 5 days.  Nothing like a challenge, right??