Sunday Summary: 21 December 2014

This week began with a business trip to the NYC area. Unfortunately, I had very little time to read and therefore only finished one book during the week. I've met my basic reading challenge goal for 2014 and have only one more book to read to complete the other. From now until the end of the year, I'll be on vacation from work, so I expect to find lots of time to read.

Where I've been reading

Last business trip for the year. I traveled to the NYC area on Monday and worked there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I was really glad to get back home on Thursday evening. It was a fairly typical trip—crowded airplanes, and average hotel room. I did, however get a bit of a shock when I realized that I have 5 days until Christmas. Somehow I was convinced that there was a full week plus some before Christmas Day. I'm not ready!

What I've been reading

Format: eGalley
Source: review book from NetGalley
Completed: 15 December

★★★☆☆

When browsing the available books on NetGalley, I saw a book that looked familiar—The Root of All Evil. It was described as the fourth book in the Hope Street Church series. But the author's name didn't ring a bell. I found a note from the author mentioning that she had edited and re-written the first three books of the series, released them with new titles and under her own name instead of the alias, Jennifer Stanley. Looking through my reading logs, I saw that in a period of 10 days in November 2010, I read all three books in Jennifer Stanley's Hope Street Church mysteries. I even posted to an online forum that I was enjoying the books. And now, here was another volume in the series.

The Root of All Evil is a cozy mystery with a small Bible study group providing the cast of characters. Things seem to be going well for Cooper Lee: she's received a promotion at work, she has a boyfriend that she loves, her sister is expecting a baby. When the art teacher from Hope Street Christian Academy is found murdered in the pastor's office, Cooper and the members of her Bible study group plunge into investigation.

I still haven't finished reading Kris. While it is a lovely story about a young orphaned boy who grows up to be Santa Claus, I felt that I needed to spend more time on other books. In addition to finishing The Root of All Evil and getting a review posted, I needed to read Retribution Falls which I checked out of the library. This fantasy novel has been compared to the TV series Firefly, and I can see the resemblance. I'm nearing the end of the book, and it's a good thing too, since the library loan is about to expire.

This Week on the Blog

This week I spent a lot of time thinking about reading challenges for 2015. In 2014, I decided to avoid committing to too many challenges and that worked well for me. But it's so tempting to sign up for challenges because they look like so much fun. This week's posts are all about challenges—past and future.

1. Top Ten Tuesday: 16 December 2014
2. Review: The Root of All Evil
3. Book Blogger Hop: 19-25 December 2014
4. Stacking the Shelves (15)

And, as usual, I'm linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on the blog, showcase books and things received. Share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead.