High Summer Read-A-Thon -Starting line

I am signing up for the High Summer Readathon hosted by Michelle at Seasons of Reading blog. I am planning to read the following.

The Saint Zita Society by Ruth Rendell
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke

Finish the following books I have already started
The Marais Assassin by Claude Izner (222/311)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (95/817)
Dracula by Bram Stoker(113/479) ebook

Update on 22 Morning
The Marais Assassin (Finished) 89 pages
The Saint Zita's Society (Finished)(288)
Dracula by Bram Stoker(250/479) 137pages
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht (85/336)
Small Island by Andrea Levy (99/438)
Total pages read 698

I may be able to read some more today and tonight. Let's see!

Paris in July

Karen from BookBath and Tamara from Thyme for Tea are co-hosting the 3rd Paris in July event where the participants celebrate all thing French: Literature, Visual Arts, Cuisine, Movies...or anything French Inspired. I am signing up for it. I am planning to read some books and post some of my pictures from my Paris tour.

Here are my posts

Night in Paris

The Marais Assassin by Claude Izner

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum

I picked this book for the Birth Year Reading Challenge. I decided to look for New York Times Bestsellers for the Year 1978 and Holcroft Covenant was second in the list. I read the three books in the Bourne series namely, Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum almost a decade ago. Ludlum writes great edge of seat thrillers, his books are as usual better than the movies.

Noel Holcroft is the son a Nazi father and an American Mother. Unable to bear the atrocities committed by Nazis, Holcroft's mother leaves his Nazi father and moves back to her home land where she remarries and creates a new life. Thirty years after the war, Noel is forced to think about his roots and do penance for his father's actions. Noel's father repents for Nazi atrocities and during his last days creates a plan to make good for some of his wrongs.

Noel is asked to form the Geneva covenant with hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Nazi funds during the last days of the Third Reich to do good for thousands affected by Holocaust. To do this Noel has to get in touch with the first child of two other Nazis. How to find somebody who does not want to be found? Noel cannot withdraw from this mission, the covenant creators would kill him and his family. Noel gets a mysterious message from British Secret Service. All is not as it appears. Noel is an amateur but he is thrown into the games of professionals. He has to save himself and fulfil the mission. What is the truth behind the covenant? Will Noel find other members of the covenant? Will he form the covenant and do the penance?

The action takes place all over the world from Paris to Buenos Aires to Berlin to Geneva, UK and US. I like the "lessons" Noel learns to investigate and survive. It is an edge of seat action thriller with events following one after another, no time to really pause and think. Half-way through we realise that Geneva Covenant is not what it appears to be, but Noel doesn't know. There is a group trying to stop Noel start the covenant at all costs and another that wouldn't let him think of anything else and there is Tinamou, the assassin and the Sonnerkinder and of course the Fourth Reich. So many conspiracies and twists that after a point I lost track.

At 547 pages, The Holcroft Covenant is an enjoyable read with twists and turns. It count towards various challenges and my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet H.

Orange July 2012

Orange July 2012 is a event that celebrates Orange Prize for Fiction. All one has to do is to read at least one book that has won or nominated for Orange Prize. I saw Neer doing it, so jumped in too.

I read
Small Island by Andrea Levy

Top Ten Crime Reads

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is collecting a list of our ten favorite crime reads so far in 2012. Here is mine


1.Escape the Night by Mignon G. Eberhart (1944)
2. The Retribution by Val McDermid (2011)
3. The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (2011)
4. The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr(1937)
5. U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton(2009)
6. V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton (2011)
7. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain(1943)
8. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo (2011)
9. Journey Into Fear by Eric Ambler(1940)
10. The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell (2009)
11. Zone Defence by Petros Markaris (2006)

Quarterly Update

Books Read

1. Clockwise (Clockwise, #1) by Elle Strauss
2. The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics by Stanislas Dehaene
3. A Question of Belief (Commissario Brunetti #19) by Donna Leon
4. Killing Orders (V.I. Warshawski, #3) by Sara Paretsky
5. Zone Defence by Petros Markaris
6. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
7. The Silent House by Fergus Hume
8. A Case To Answer by Margaret Yorke
9. The Yellow Snake by Edgar Wallace
10. Venetia by Georgette Heyer
11. Journey Into Fear by Eric Ambler
12. An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
13. The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum
14. The Charing Cross Mystery by J.S. Fletcher
15. Shadows Over Paradise by Anne K.Edwards
16. First Love by Ivan Turgenev (novelette)
17. Candide by Voltaire
18. Slaughterhouse Five or the Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut
19. Second Form at St. Clare's (St. Clare's, #4) by Enid Blyton
20. The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen
21. Tom Brown's Body by Gladys Mitchell
22. A Cold Day For Murder by Dana Stabenow
23. I Am the Cat by Rosemary Kutak
24.Escape the Night by Mignon G. Eberhart
25. The Witches by Roald Dahl
26. The Tragedy of Z by Ellery Queen
27. Leave The Grave Green (Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James, #3) by Deborah Crombie

Total Books Read: 26 (I am counting First Love and Candide as one book)
Total Ebooks: 13
Library Books: 11
Books Reviewed: 4
New Authors to me: 24
Mystery/Crime Fiction Read: 18
British Books: 9
Classics: 4
Young Adult/Children: 3
Non-Fiction- 1

Challenges Update

I went crazy and signed up in 36 reading Challenges. It is time to see how I fared in this journey. So here is the list.

Reading Challenges
1.Reading Challenge Addict(15/36)
2.Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge(14/16)
London Theme(6/8)
Cherchez l'Homme(8/8)
3.2012 E-Book Challenge(13/10)- Complete
4. Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 2012(24/12)-Complete
5.A-Z Challenge 2012(24/26) (Titles)
6.2012 Read Your Own Books Reading Challenge(1/5)
7.Back To The Classics Challenge 2012(5/9)
8.Cruisin' thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2012(6/6)-Complete
9.Off The Shelf 2012(1/5)
10.What's in a Name challenge 5(5/6)
11.Death by Gaslight Reading Challenge(5/10)
12.2012 Read 52 books in 52 Weeks(52/52)-Complete
13.Mixing It Up Challenge 2012(8/4)-Complete
14.Merely Mystery Reading Challenge 2012(11/12)
15.British Book Challenge 2012(12/12)-Complete
16.Getting Lost in a Comfortable Book(4/5)
17.2012 Bucket List Book Reading Challenge(4/4)- Complete
18.2012 E-Book Reading Challenge(13/10)-Complete
19. Free Reads 2012(14/15)
20. Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge 2012(12/12)-Complete
21. Antonym Reading Challenge (6/6)-Complete
22. New Authors Reading Challenge (16/15)-Complete
23. 2012 A-Z Mystery Author Challenge(23/26)
24.Classics Challenge(5/7)
25. 2012 Color Coded Challenge(6/9)
26.Chunkster Challenge(3/4)
27.European Reading Challenge(11/5)-Complete
28.A to Z Reading Challenge( Authors)(23/26)
29.Eclectic Reader Challenge(11/12)
30.Criminal Plots II Challenge(6/6)-Complete
31. Birth Year Reading Challenge.(1/4)
32. Books Published in the First Years of My Life.(1/3)
33. Borrowed Book Challenge 2012.(10/10)-Complete
34. Support your Local Library 2012(26/24)-Complete
35. What an Animal (3/6)
36. Victorian Celebration 2012(2/4)


Considering that I have completed 15 challenges (Reviews are due), and many challenges are over-lapping, I suppose I am doing fine and I think I will be able to do it.