@SnowAngel, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the short stories! Whose Body? is coming to mind as my favourite besides the complete short stories; the latter got me into the series and the former gave me a better appreciation for Peter himself.
I assume audiobooks themselves would be discussed in this thread, but audio dramas have a thread!

Gotcha, @Silverlily - hope 2024 brings you some good standout reads!

Jo has already mentioned a 2024 to-read stack, but does anyone else have any reading goals or lists for the new year?

Posted by: @valiantarcher

@SnowAngel, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the short stories! Whose Body? is coming to mind as my favourite besides the complete short stories; the latter got me into the series and the former gave me a better appreciation for Peter himself.
I assume audiobooks themselves would be discussed in this thread, but audio dramas have a thread!

Oh, neat. I'm trying to get Scarlet to read the rest of series because I really curious to see how she ranks them. I think the first book in the series she read was Strong Poison.

I'll pop over to the audiobook thread shortly. Thanks!

My 2023 reading in review:

Goals:

• read in 110 books - completed includes kids books
• 12 nonfiction - completed with 13
• 12 audiobooks - completed with 22
• read a George MacDonald book - The Laird's Inheritance
• read a biography - A Confederate Trilogy for Young Readers by Mary L. Williamson
• read a Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery - read 10 of 11 in series plus the short stories
• read a Bible commentary - 1-2 Peter by R.C. Sproul
• read a favorite Christmas book - One Shenandoah Winter and Pony Express Christmas
• read a Zane Grey novel - Forlorn River and Nevada
• read a Max Brand novel - read 7
• read a Alastair MacLean novel - Seawitch
• read a Perry Mason Mystery - read 2
• read a Dickens novel - didn't complete 
• read Stuart Brannon by Stephen Bly - didn't complete

• newest book read in 2023: The Boniface Option by Andrew Isker (August 2023)
• oldest book read in 2023: The Laird's Inheritance by George MacDonald (1881)
• favorite audiobook nonfiction: The Nazarene written and read by Michael Card
• favorite audiobook fiction: Ride The Man Down by Luke Short
• favorite fiction: Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
• favorite narrative nonfiction: Trigger Marshal by Homer Croy
• favorite theology book: Whatever Happened To Worship? by A.W. Tozer

Overall I'm pleased with my 2023 reading. I would like to have finished a couple more books, but given everything that went on last year I think I did well.  

2024 goals

• read 110 books
• 12 nonfiction
• 12 audiobooks
• read a Bible commentary by Michael Card
• read The Case For Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe
• read a biography about Stonewall Jackson
• read multiple Georgette Heyer novels
• read a Janette Oke novel
• read a Will James western
• finish Nicholas Nickleby
• finish Wimpy Weak and Woke by John L. Cooper
• finally read the Stuart Brannon series again
• and lastly read books bought over the last couple of years

There are a few other books I would like to put on the 2024 list because I need to decide if I still like them enough to keep them or if it's time to part with them, but I don't want to overload my list to start the year.  

SnowAngel

I am now reading Constellations: Celebrating 40 Years of Star Trek. It is a very nice collection of stories by different authors based on the original series of Star Trek.  The stories are quite good and probably could have made some fine television episodes. In the decades following the original series many excellent novels and stories were written although I think most of the best ones were based on the original Star Trek. Fiction is often better when it is based on an original idea.

A quick rundown some of what I have read/am reading/reading soon:

Just finished:

*a re-read of the very interesting and informative C.S. Lewis & Mere Christianity: the crisis that created a classic by Paul McCusker (of Focus on the Family renown) 

*Heroes: five leaders from whose lives we can learn (John Newton, William Wilberforce, C.S. Lewis, Lesslie Newbigin, Tim Keller) by Dr. Andy Bannister (Solas, UK). Fascinating! Now I want to learn more about Lesslie Newbigin, in particular, the only person about whom I did not know anything.

*At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald - what a very unique, intriguing, and puzzling story (in some parts); I have also listened to FotF's radio theatre's adaptation.

In the middle of:

*Tactics: a game plan for discussing your Christian convictions by Gregory Koukl, MA in philosophy and Christian apologetics; founder of 'Stand to Reason'. Loads of practical stuff to think on here.

*When God's Children Suffer by Horatius Bonar (original copyright, 1847). Joni Eareckson-Tada has spoken how much this book has meant to her over the decades of being a quadriplegic. 

Starting:

*C.S. Lewis at the BBC: messages of hope in the darkness of war by Justin Phillips, a BBC broadcaster and radio journalist

*Charles Dickens: his life and work by none other than Stephen Leacock

Sometime this year I want to get through another re-read of the large tome by Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: pastor, martyr, prophet, spy: a righteous gentile vs the Third Reich

Also this year is by biennial The Lord of the Rings read, which I shall begin sometime in the summer.

More books have been read and thoroughly appreciated, but this list suffices for now. A few of these are extremely thought-provoking: Another Gospel and Live Your Truth and Other Lies, both by Alisa Childers; Faithfully Different by Natasha Crain. Plus, Alisa and Tim Barnett are releasing a new book the end of this month, The Deconstruction of Christianity: what it is, why it's destructive, and how to respond, with a forward by the wonderfully engaging and prolific Dr. Carl Trueman.

Oh, as well, I had my annual read of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, leading up to Christmas. ♥ I have also been going through Dickens audio dramas by the BBC: Our Mutual Friend, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Great Expectations, and, my personal favourite, A Tale of Two Cities, at times when I am working in the kitchen.

First three books of 2024 were The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer, The Case of Lucky Loser (Perry Mason #53) by Erle Stanley Gardner, and The Clue in the Old Mill (Hardy Boys #3) by Franklin W. Dixon.

I'm more than halfway through Made For His Pleasure by Alistair Begg, decided it was best to pause on Wimpy Weak and Woke to finished this one. It's pretty good.

And I started rereading The Winter King by Christine Cohen, so far I'm enjoying it. I previously read it in February 2020 and since the siblings have been begging to borrow my copy but I said I was going to read it again before they could read it, I figured it was time for me to finally read it.  

SnowAngel

I am reading and enjoying the Star Trek novels Yesterday’s Son and Time for Yesterday by A. C. Crispin.  The books are very good novels which are sequels to the original series episode “All Our Yesterdays”.  I am not sure how many people here remember that episode of the original series. It has much to do with libraries and time travel.  It has such an interesting story and I remember how good Mariette Hartley was as Zarabeth. Since the ending was somewhat inconclusive it needed some  additional stories for which the novels serve the purpose very well. I recommend both of the books very highly. 🙂

I'm down to the final chapter of Made For His Pleasure, I liked the first part of the book, but it's kinda gone downhill from there.

I'm rereading The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, the local library has the first two in the series, so I got them both the last time I was at the library. I read through both in the less than a week, and now I either have to order the rest of the series or go back to the library and try to get them via interlibrary loan. This is a hard decision.  

In the meantime I'm reading Smugglers' Trail by Max Brand, it's off to a slow start. However I'm always up for a western and this fits the bill.  

SnowAngel

@SnowAngel, have you made any progress on getting Scarlet to read more Sayers? You did a nice job making it through most of your 2023 list! You've got a lot of good categories on your 2024 list - how's it going so far? And how was Nonesuch?
Sorry to hear Made for His Pleasure was disappointing; did it get boring or too repetitive or something else? Hope you've at least got it off your plate now. Did you make a decision on the Queen's Thief series reread?

@Jo, sounds like you've got a lot of good reads up coming! How is your reading going currently?

@Narnian78, are you still working through some Star Trek novels?

I think I've finally kicked my reading slump, at least for now. I just finished a reread of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins and am slowly working through The Book of Lost Tales, Part II by J.R.R. Tolkien. I should try to get through some of the books I own and haven't yet read before booksales start this year, but not sure how distracted I will get in the mean time.

@valiantarcher 

I am in the middle of The Fate of the Phoenix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath.  It is quite a good Star Trek novel which is the sequel to The Price of the Phoenix.  I’m not sure if many of today’s people will still read Star Trek novels about the original series that were written in the 1980’s.  They would appeal to fans of the original series, who are mostly people who grew up in the 1960’s. 🙂

Posted by: @valiantarcher

I just finished a reread of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins and am slowly working through The Book of Lost Tales, Part II by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I haven't read The Hunger Games in so long. A re-read might be coming sometime in the next few years.    And I have not read The Book of Lost Tales (either part) in many years! There is so much in those tales; they can take awhile to get through, but talk about fascinating!

I finished C.S. Lewis at the BBC (always really interesting), as well as Charles Dickens: his life and work (Stephen Leacock). While I have read lots by Dickens, I had not read much about him. Well, this book sure enlightened me. A few areas brought joy; other parts of his life quite disturbed me.

A book arrived recently that I have been wanting to read for years now, but it was always so pricey. I finally found a copy second-hand, and started diving into it last night. It is hard to put down! To the Golden Shore: the life of Adoniram Judson. This tome is 500 pages, so no pithy biography. The author is a man, Courtney Anderson, who obviously researched extensively, as the bio is quite detailed. The book was first published in 1956. The edition I have is from 1987, which was released to mark the 175th anniversary of the Judsons sailing to India, then Burma (Myanmar today). I am only on page 26, but the writing and life story are very engaging thus far. And I am sure looking forward to the next 475 pages.  

Posted by: @valiantarcher

@SnowAngel, have you made any progress on getting Scarlet to read more Sayers? You did a nice job making it through most of your 2023 list! You've got a lot of good categories on your 2024 list - how's it going so far? And how was Nonesuch?
Sorry to hear Made for His Pleasure was disappointing; did it get boring or too repetitive or something else? Hope you've at least got it off your plate now. Did you make a decision on the Queen's Thief series reread?

The Nonesuch was pretty good, I enjoyed reading a romance for a change of pace and the characters were interesting. I did find the ending rather abrupt, but satisfactory. I was going to loan it to one of the sisters, but she's busy reading The Thief.  

Scarlet has been reading Perry Mason novels and The Patrick Bower series by Steven James. I'm still working on her.  

I was expecting Made For His Pleasure to build up from the first couple chapters, and it didn't. It seemed a bit too rambling at times, I was expecting the shortish chapters to be more pithy. I also didn't like that the chapter labeled 'Relationships' had only one brief half paragraph about relationships in general and the rest of the chapter was solely focused on marriage, had it been a chapter about marriage I would have been fine with it. I enjoyed Pray Big and Brave By Faith, but this one was just so-so.

I'm waffling between ordering books 3 and 4 and trying to get them via library. We've already got some requests we are waiting for, and then they have to be returned before I can get more.  

In the meantime I've started rereading through the Drew Farthering Mysteries by Julianna Deering, I read the first three books in the series in 2015 and the last three books I read as they were released. This is the first time I have reread the series. I'm currently on Death By The Book, and I am enjoying rediscovering Drew, Madeline, and Nick. The mysteries aren't as clever as Sayers or Christie and the dialog sometimes leaves something to be desired, but overall it's a pleasurable series to read.

SnowAngel

@Narnian78, good to hear you're enjoying the current Star Trek novel.

@Jo, I hope you get a chance to reread The Hunger Games sometime soon! I'm overdue for a Gregor the Overlander reread too; I liked it when I read it, but not as much as The Hunger Games (or at least I haven't returned to it multiple times as I did with THG) - I'm wondering what my thoughts would be now that I know better what to expect.
I hope you continue to enjoy the Adoniram Judson biography.

Good to hear you enjoyed The Nonesuch overall, @SnowAngel! Ahh, that makes sense about Made for His Pleasure and that is frustrating about the Relationships chapter. Sounds like Scarlet is busy with her reading! It's always fun when mysteries hold up to rereading!

Well, my read of The Book of Lost Tales, Part II came to a screeching halt once I realised the second tale was 'The Children of Hurin'. I didn't like it the first time I read it and have been more and more frustrated with it each time I've run across it, so I'm still deciding whether it's worth it to force myself to read through that chapter to finish the book or not. In the meantime, I've run through a couple other books and am currently indulging myself in a light mystery/thriller by Patricia Wentworth.

Posted by: @valiantarcher

Well, my read of The Book of Lost Tales, Part II came to a screeching halt once I realised the second tale was 'The Children of Hurin'. I didn't like it the first time I read it and have been more and more frustrated with it each time I've run across it, so I'm still deciding whether it's worth it to force myself to read through that chapter to finish the book or not. 

It is a rather depressing tale. I liked the 2007 version of it a bit better - the one that Christopher Tolkien edited as a more complete version. He "edited the manuscripts to form a consistent narrative, and published it in 2007 as an independent work" (qoute from Wikipedia), which is not as cut up in pieces (with page-long footnotes) as the versions included in The History of Middle Earth.

The story "is mainly based on the legend of Kullervo, a character from the compilation of Finnish folklore poems called Kalevala." Kullervo is a tragical character as well, with an unhappy family history. And towards the end of his life, Turin has "an exchange of words with his sword [which] is lifted essentially unchanged from Kullervo's tale in Kalevala".

The 2007 book is a more readable version, but is still such a very sad tale, with all the family tragedy. I bought the book (posssibly the Norwegian translation) and read it, but I don't know whether I'll ever get around to reading it a second time. I don't know if you read the 2007 version, it might be less frustrating than the other versions (it was to me), but I can see why you would want to skip that chapter of BoLT Part 2.

Posted by: @valiantarcher

@Jo, I hope you get a chance to reread The Hunger Games sometime soon! I'm overdue for a Gregor the Overlander reread too; I liked it when I read it, but not as much as The Hunger Games (or at least I haven't returned to it multiple times as I did with THG) - I'm wondering what my thoughts would be now that I know better what to expect.
I hope you continue to enjoy the Adoniram Judson biography.

Oooh, I really, really like Gregor the Overlander. If I had to choose, it would be my favourite of these two series by Collins. I keep on wishing someone would have made at least the first Gregor book into a great film adaptation. The unique, intriguing, intense, emotional storyline has very much stuck with me all these years.

I am enjoying the Judson biography, thoroughly! Anderson (a PhD in history) is meticulously detailed, it's quite amazing. I am thinking now, at 150 pages in, To the Golden Shore will be in my top ten list of well-loved biographies. But I have so many that I love, it's a bit tricky to say. Dr. Anderson does not shy away from presenting these heroes of the faith in their very human ways, which I appreciate. While we greatly admire their faith in the Lord, and commitment to Him, there is no glossing over their faults or sins, or putting them on pedestals.

Posted by: @valiantarcher

Well, my read of The Book of Lost Tales, Part II came to a screeching halt once I realised the second tale was 'The Children of Hurin'. I didn't like it the first time I read it and have been more and more frustrated with it each time I've run across it,

What was it, specifically, that you didn't care for in The Children of Húrin, Valia? 

Thanks for your input on this tale, @Varna!

Oh, dear...I made the mistake of listening to a podcast episode with book recommendations. And not just any books, but nonfiction on topics I am highly interested in and the library doesn't have a single one of them. Oh, well, I hope the librarians are ready for what's coming.  

I'm now reading Murder At The Mikado, the third Drew Farthering Mystery. The first two books took four days each to read, I don't think I'm going finish this one in the same about of time. I didn't read enough yesterday.

I'm about halfway through Wimpy Weak and Woke by John L. Cooper, chapters 3-5 took a while to read, but I'm starting to pick up speed with chapter 6. He goes over a lot of current issues, so it's not a fun or pleasant read in that regard, but so far it's well written.

SnowAngel