Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I am posting this not as a brag, but people who write usually read a lot.  I always wanted to write mystery stories, ever since reading the Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes in elementary school.  Add that mystery reading love to my Christian reading and it amounts to a lot of books.  This year has been fairly quick getting to this point.  I have been “home alone” with my wife babysitting in Tennessee and then there was a “stay-at-home” order – so why not read?  And my Bible reading is almost up to the Bible in a year pace, in addition to this reading.

In 2015, I accomplished something that I had tried to do in 1996.  I read 26 books (actually a lot more) with an author whose last name started with each letter of the alphabet.  In 1996, I could not find an “X”.  Thanks to Chamblin’s Book Mine in Jacksonville, FL, I found the “X”, actually two.  Thanks to the Jackson Street Bookstore in Omaha, NE, I have found a few more.

In 2020, I have accomplished the feat for the sixth consecutive year, and I have a few more “X” authors to keep the string going.  I’ll need to purchase another “V” if I want to continue in 2021, then the “O” and “Q” may be needed for the next year.

Regarding the “X” authors, the “X” authors are Chinese writers.  Their last name is their given name and their first name is their family name (Common among most Asian cultures).  But that doesn’t change the feat when considering “last names.”

Here is a list of at least one book for each letter this year, 2020.  Note, for most of the books mentioned, this is the only book from that letter so far this year.  More and better ones may follow.  The table that follows will show books for 2019 – modified a little from last year’s post.

The Alphabet Challenge of 2020

	AUTHOR	BOOK	COMMENTS
A	Atkins, Ace	Wonderland	A Spenser novel.  Atkins does an admirable job of continuing the Robert B. Parker series
B	Box, C. J.	The Disappeared	A Joe Pickett novel
C	Christie, Agatha	The Murder at Hazelmoor	A non-series mystery
D	Dekker, Ted	Water Walker	The middle book of the Outlaw Series – always a good Christian principle taught
E	Ellis, Mary	Magnolia Moonlight	The Prices go on a honeymoon and find adventure while their staff discovers a scam artist targeting churches.
F	Frank, Dorothea Benton	The Christmas Pearl	Having lived in SC, reading a story about a Gullah ghost was delightful, and with recipes!
G	Graham, Billy	The Reason for my Hope: Salvation	Wonderfully written
H	Hoesel, Don	Hunter’s Moon	Family drama with a secret past that may interfere with a political career
I	Iles, Greg	24 Hours	More intrigue from a great author
J	Jance, J. A.	Deadly Stakes	An Ali Reynolds mystery
K	Kierkegaard, Søren	Fear and Trembling, The Sickness unto Death	Two books about faith written years apart by the philosopher
L	Lewis, C. S.	Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce	Fiction, but with great meaning
M	Müller, George	Answers to Prayer	A testimony of faith, as seen from a daily ledger
N	Nesbo, Jo	Police	A Harry Hole mystery, where police are being killed
O	Oliphant, B. J.	Here’s to the Newly Dead	Shirley McClintock is still in New Mexico
P	Patterson, James	Private: Berlin	My first novel to read in his global private eye series
Q	Queen, Ellery	The New Adventures of Ellery Queen	A novella and a few short stories, but the title is misleading as the book was very old.
R	Robb, J. D.	Thankless in Death	Nora Roberts’ futuristic Eve Dallas series
S	Spurgeon, Charles H.	The Power of Prayer, Praying Successfully, Finding Peace in Life’s Storms, The Practice of Praise, Power over Satan	Several short works by Spurgeon
T	Thor, Brad	The Last Patriot	Scot Harvath chases ancient secrets
U	Upfield, Arthur	Sinister Stones	Napoleon Bonaparte, I love Bony.
V	Viets, Elaine	Accessory to Murder	a dead-end job, but with a different protagonist, Josie Marcus, mystery shopper
W	Woods, Stuart	Santa Fe Edge	Ed Eagle’s ex-wife causing more trouble
X	Xianliang, Zhang	Half of Man is Woman	A prisoner in a reeducation camp finds love, loses it, and then reunites.
Y	Yttrup, Ginny L.	Home	An author and her husband find home to be important.
Z	Zezza, Carlo	Paris 2000	Written in the vein of Orwell’s 1984, when the world governments abdicate power to the computer.

Total Books = 45 as of 3/31/2020

Total pages thus far = 12,808

The Alphabet Challenge of 2019

	AUTHOR	BOOK	COMMENTS
A	Abraham, Abie	Oh, God, Where are you?	The Ghost of Bataan gives an account on the Philippines from before the war through the Death March and POW camp to grave registration.
B	Bright, Bill	Witnessing without Fear, Come Help Change our World	Bill Bright’s journey and techniques for Cru
C	Carson, Ben	Think Big	Biographical and Motivational
D	Doss, James D.	The Shaman Sings	Charlie Moon and the very lovable Daisy Perika
E	Evanovich, Janet	Top Secret Twenty-One	I am behind on my Stephanie Plum novels
F	Fenelon, Francois	The Royal Way of the Cross, Talking with God, Meditations on the Heart of God, God of My Heart	Foundational truth, explained
G	Guinness, Os	Fool’s Talk	Interesting Discussion regarding Apologetics
H	Hillerman, Anne	Song of the Lion	Move over Chee and Leaphorn as Bernie takes the lead
I	Iles, Greg	True Evil	More intrigue in Natchez, MS
J	Jeremiah, David	Agents of the Apocalypse	End Days Prophecies
K	Kellerman, Faye	Sacred and Profane	Peter Decker makes some hard decisions in the second book of the long-running series.
L	Lucado, Max	3:16, Grace, The Greatest Moments, Traveling Light	I started the year with The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, but …
M	Marquand, John P.	Thank You, Mr. Moto	Completing the Mr. Moto mysteries
N	Nesbo, Jo	Headhunters	Not a series novel
O	Obreht, Tea	The Tiger’s Wife	Very Interesting
P	Packer, J. I.	Knowing God	Slow at the start, but powerful, in depth Bible study on the attributes of God and our relationship with Him.
Q	Quindlen, Anna	Rise and Shine	A morning news host goes off the rails and her sister is concerned.
R	Robertson, David	A.S.K. and The Dawkins Letters	A book about questions posed by youth and an answer to Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion
S	Simenon, Georges	Maigret in Exile	Maigret travels to the French coast to solve a puzzle
T	Thoene, Bodie	When Jesus Wept	Jesus’ ministry from Lazarus’ point of view – intriguing, but maybe not totally believable
U	Upfield, Arthur	Venom House	Napoleon Bonaparte, I love Bony.
V	Viets, Elaine	Murder with Reservations	Helen Hawthorne works another dead-end job
W	Warren, Kay	Choose Joy	Wife of Rick Warren
X	Xingjian, Gao	One Man’s Bible	Nobel winning Autobiography of a Chinese Dissident
Y	Young, Wm. Paul	The Shack	Interesting
Z	Zeigler, Kenneth	The War in Heaven	Woven into the End Times, a novel with very interesting characters

Total Books = 152

Total pages = 45,916