Friday, December 27, 2013

Challenge Complete: Monthly Mix-Up Mania

I was beginning to worry that I wasn't going to finish the Monthly Mix-up Mania Challenge this year as planned.  Not that I had to, mind you.  I mean it was set up to run from 2013-15.  But the last time I participated I managed to finish it off in a year and I was determined to do it again.  Just barely...four days to spare.

Here's a brief run-down of the basic rules I had to follow.

What: To read a book for each letter in the year. That's right, a title for the J in January and the A in January, etc.... 74 books total!

Official Start date: April 1, 2013, because we're fools to try this but any book read since 1-1-11 that you didn't already use for the 2011-2013 edition counts ;)

End date: March 31, 2015, yes, two years, because well, we have other challenges to do ;)

And here's a list of the books read:


J: Jack on the Gallows Tree by Leo Bruce (6/26/13)
A: Aaron's Serpent by Emily Thorn (2/22/13)
N: A Dark & Stormy Night by Jeanne M. Dams (1/4/13)
U: Unhappy Hooligan by Stuart Palmer (3/24/13)
A: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (8/6/13)
R: The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers (6/12/13)
Y: TheYellow Violet by Frances Crane (9/30/13)

F: The Monster of Florence by Magdalen Nabb (8/17/13)
E: The Evil That Men Do by Jeanne M. Dams (1/11/13)
B: Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2/25/13)
R: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2/24/13)
U: Hammett Unwritten by Owen Fitzstephen (Gordon McAlpine) [3/30/13]
A: Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (8/20/13)
R: A Perfect Red by Amy Greenfield Butler (3/22/13)
Y: If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) by Betty White (7/19/13)

M: The Mummy Case Mystery by Dermot Morrah (7/3/12)
A: Death in the Air  (aka Death in the Clouds) by Agatha Christie (8/5/13)
R: The Quiet Road to Death by Sheila Radley (12/8/13)
C: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (3/20/13)
H: Holiday Homicide by Rufus King (4/23/13)

A: A Private History of Awe by Scott Sanders (4/27/13)
P: The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers (6/18/13)
R: The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon G. Eberhart (11/20/13)
I: Inland Passage by George Harmon Coxe (5/2/13)
L: Four Lost Ladies by Stuart Palmer (1/23/13)

M: The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon Eberhart (3/29/13)
A: Age of Desire by Jennie Fields (8/14/13)
Y: Murder Your Darlings by J.J. Murphy (12/4/13)

J: The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson
U: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1/8/13)
N: The Case of the Negligent Nymph by Erle Stanley Gardner (1/24/13)
E: Choice of Evils by E. X. Ferrars (5/4/13)

J: The Corpse of St. James's by Jeanne M. Dams (1/13/12)
U: Unthinkable by Richard Cibrano (10/12/13)
L: The Long Farewell by Michael Innes (8/4/13)
Y: Thank You, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

A: Sally's in the Alley by Norbert Davis (3/25/13)
U: Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood (2/11/13)
G: Death Has Green Fingers by Lionel Black (4/30/13)
U: Once Upon a Crime by M. D. Lake (10/28/13)
S: The Silence of Herondale by Joan Aiken (4/21/13)
T: Mystery Train by David Wojahn (6/28/13)

S: Slippage by Harlan Ellison (1/19/13)
E: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (6/7/13)
P: London Particular by Christianna Brand (7/22/13)
T: Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare (6/21/13)
E: Evidence of Things Seen by Elizabeth Daly (11/12/13)
M: Murder on Safari by Elspeth Huxley (6/8/13)
B: Break Any Woman Down by Dana Johnson (6/17/13)
E: Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell (2/15/13)
R:  Rules of Murder by Julianna Deering (8/31/13)

O: Dead Old by Maureen Carter (7/22/13)
C: The Cavalier's Cup by Carter Dickson (Carr) [2/5/13]
T: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey N. Niffenger (7/10/13)
O: The World's Best One Hundred (100) Short Stories III: Mystery by Grant Overton (ed) [2/24/13]
B: A Bullet at the Ballet by Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon (8/28/13)
E: Wycliffe & the Guilt Edged Alibi by W. J. Burley (12/21/13)
R: The Water Room by Christopher Fowler (10/25/13)

N: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (7/16/13)
O: Zuma Blue & Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds (2/3/13)
V: The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (3/6/13)
E: Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: The First Encounter by James L. Christian (12/26/13)
M: Malcolm Sage: Detective by Herbert Jenkins (9/8/13)
B: Death & the Gentle Bull by Frances & Richard Lockridge (6/29/13)
E: The End of the Alphabet by C. S. Richardson (9/10/13)
R: Ransom Game by John Buxton Hilton (12/23/13)

D: The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey (1/13/12)
E: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (11/27/13)
C: The Curse of the Bronze Lamp by Carter Dickson (Carr) [5/27/13]
E: Cold Earth by Sarah Moss (10/18/13)
M: The Lady in the Morgue by Jonathan Latimer (3/10/13)
B: Murder & Blueberry Pie by Frances & Richard Lockridge (9/3/13)
E: The Big Eye by Max Ehrlich (12/27/13)
R: Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (9/6/13)

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