Reading in 2015

This year I made a resolution to read a wider range of authors rather than rereading my favourite books. The result so far is quite impressive. There are some rereads on the list like The Mystery of Death Trap Mine and Mansfield Park, and a couple of months ago I went on a nostalgia trip revisiting some Hardy Boys stories. But on the whole, I've been reading a much broader scope of books and articles. This is what I have read so far in 2015. Some of the books were quite disappointing, especially The Burden by Mary Westmacott (a.k.a. Agatha Christie). I also read three of Christie's Tommy and Tuppence books. The first one was really good, the second one was passable and the third one was dreadful. No surprise there as it was written towards the end of her life, around the same time that she wrote Passenger to Frankfurt, which was awful. However, there were also some excellent stories. Two books that I bought in Scotland deserve a special mention. The first was The Island of Lost Horses by Stacy Gregg and The Accidental Time Traveller by Janis MacKay. I read the latter on my way back to Brazil and absolutely loved it. I found out that there was a follow-up, The Reluctant Time Traveller, so I added that to my Kobo collection. At the beginning of the year, I became really interested once again in the Piltdown Man hoax. With e-books easily available, I added several to my collection, including the original Piltdown Forgery by Joseph Weiner and the later Piltdown Man Hoax: Case Closed by Miles Russell. Other books were found simply by browsing on Project Gutenberg. One was The Automobile Girls at Newport by Laura Dent Crane, published in 1910. This is a story about a group of girls who have the freedom to travel around on their own (accompanied by only one chaperone - pretty daring stuff!) because one of them has her own car, a pile of money and a free-thinking father. Anyway, here is a complete list of what I have read so far in 2015.

Missing One’s Coach (Anonymous)

Summa Theologica Part 1 (Saint Thomas Aquinas)
The Mystery of Wreckers Rock (William Arden)
The Mystery of the Smashing Glass (William Arden)
Azazel (Isaac Asimov)
The Alternate Asimovs (Isaac Asimov)
Lady Susan (Jane Austen)
Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)
The Piltdown Inquest (Charles Blinderman)
The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
The Mystery of the Two Toed Pigeon (Marc Brandel)
A Fortunate Term (Angela Brazil)
Monitress Merle (Angela Brazil)
Loyal to the School (Angela Brazil)
For the School Colours (Angela Brazil)
Thorp Green (Branwell Brontë)
The Mystery of Death Trap Mine (M. V. Carey)
Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (Jimmy Carter)
The Girl from the Big Horn Country (Mary Ellen Chase)
The Secret Adversary (Agatha Christie)
N or M (Agatha Christie)
By the Pricking of my Thumbs (Agatha Christie)
The Automobile Girls at Newport (Laura Dent Crane)
The Visitor (Roald Dahl)
Parson’s Pleasure (Roald Dahl)
The Idea of Prehistory (Glyn Daniel)
A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
The Firebird Rocket (Franklin W. Dixon)
The Flickering Torch Mystery (Original) (Franklin W. Dixon)
The Flickering Torch Mystery (Rewritten Version) (Franklin W. Dixon)
The Firebird Rocket (Franklin W. Dixon)
The House on the Cliff (Franklin W. Dixon)
The Tower Treasure (Franklin W. Dixon)
The Secret Agent on Flight 101 (Franklin W. Dixon)
While the Clock Ticked (Franklin W. Dixon)
Man in the Empty Suit (Sean Ferrell)
The Governess (Sarah Fielding)
Jill’s Gymkhana (Ruby Ferguson)
Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties (Richard N. Goodwin)
The Island of Lost Horses (Stacy Gregg)
Timecast (James Hanback Jr.)
Wendy and Jinx and the Missing Scientist (Valerie Hastings)
The Whispering Statue (Carolyn Keene)
Alfred Hitchcock: Quotes and Facts (Blago Kirov)
The Planned Planting of Piltdown (Wilton Marion Krogman)
The Fib and Other Stories (George Layton)
Surprised by Joy (C. S. Lewis)
The Accidental Time Traveller (Janis MacKay)
The Reluctant Time Traveller (Janis MacKay)
Mission to Mars (Patrick Moore)
The Little Frenchman with his Water Lots (George Pope Morris)
Newton’s Gift (Paul Nahin)
Flowering Judas (Katherine Anne Porter)
The Grave (Katherine Anne Porter)
The Piltdown Man Hoax: Case Closed (Miles Russell)
Susan in Trouble (Jane Shaw)
The Wilsons Won’t Mind (Jane Shaw)
House of the Glimmering Light (Jane Shaw)
The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (Donald Spoto)

The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (Guy Standing)
An Australian Lassie (Lilian Turner)
A Traveller in Time (Alison Uttley)
The Piltdown Forgery (Joseph Weiner)
The Burden (Mary Westmacott)
The Earliest Englishman (Sir Arthur Smith Woodward)
Ginnie Joins In (Catherine Woolley)
Ginnie and the New Girl (Catherine Woolley)