For the last few years I have been doing a reading challenge following the PopSugar List.  Last year I was able to read more than what I had set for my goal of 25 books.  In fact, I read a whopping 38!  I think that’s pretty good considering I usually only read at night before bed.  This year I have set 40 books as my goal.  I am on Goodreads which helps me keep track of what I’ve read and what I want to read.  You can find me there as Janet Miles if you want to be my friend 🙂

One of the last books I read in 2018 was the second in the Braxton Campus Mysteries by my blogging buddy, James J. Cudney, called “Broken Heart Attack.”  When we left our sleuth, Kellan, at the end of “Academic Curveball” he had just been offered a new job at the Braxton College and was secretly informed that his deceased wife, Francesca, was not in fact really dead.  Since Kellan had started to rekindle a friendship with a girl he knew in college, things could get a little sticky.  He also had to decide whether or not to tell their six-year-old daughter that her mother was still alive. 

That is just the beginning of Kellan’s busy life when one of his grandmother’s friends dies while watching a play put on by the college and “Nana D” asks him to find out what happened.  More missing relatives, cocaine-laced medications, secrets and lies abound and Kellan does his best to make sense of it all.  He figures out who the guilty party was of course but will Kellan be able to figure out his own life?  Not until at least Book 3 in the series.  Nice going with the surprise endings, Mr. Cudney.  Way to make us want to continue reading!  “Broken Heart Attack” and the other books by Jay can be found on Amazon.  I have to say that it is because of these books that I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited and read them on my iPad, which is something I had never done before.  I like to hold the actual book in my hand generally, but if James keeps churning out these great stories I’ll go broke if I buy hard copies of them all, not to mention my husband will kill me as the books overtake our house! 

I think one of the reasons I was able to read so many books last year is because I went through the challenge and tried to fill the categories with books I already owned or could get easily from the library.  I’m doing that again this year and some of the books I’m listing are:

Phil Collins, “Not Dead Yet.”  This was on my list for last year but I ended up choosing a different book.  This should fill “Book written by a musician” don’t you think? 
     

“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” by Ann Brashares as “A book with an item of clothing on the cover.”  I have the second book but never read the first and I don’t want to read the second until I do.  I didn’t see the movie either for some reason.  Maybe I’ll have to find that too.

“The Nutcracker” by Alexandre Dumas is the book I am starting the year with.  I know about nutcrackers but have never read the book or seen any of the performances.  Shocking, right?  It was on sale at Barnes and Noble for $4 so I picked up a copy.  Cute little thing with the pages edged in gold.  Fills “A book inspired by mythology, legend or folklore.”

“Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt as “A book about a family.”  I got this from the library book sale recently.  For $7 you can fill a grocery bag with books.  I got quite a few. 

I was excited to see the category “A book about a hobby” because I got this book, “Make, Take, Murder” by Joanna Campbell Slan at a scrapbooking event I went to last year.  Of course I love to read about scrapbooking!  I was even more excited when I opened it and found that it had been autographed by the author!

I can’t remember reading or seeing the whole movie of “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee either so I’m using that one to fill “A book with at least 1 million ratings on Goodread.  Apparently I’ll be one in a million! 

So there are six of the books to get me started.  Are you a PopSugar Challenge follower?  On Goodreads?  Have any suggestions for the other categories?  By the way, message to James Cudney, one of the categories in the challenge is “a book that is published in 2019” and another one is “a book set on a college or university campus!”  You can help me with my challenge reading if you write another Braxton Campus Mystery! 

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