Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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 2022, I have accomplished the feat for the eighth consecutive year.  I held out hope of continuing, but I decided this would be the last year.  I want to radically slow down my reading. 2021 became a year of trying to complete goals instead of enjoyment.  As a result, 204 books were completed, but many were rather short books (average of 302.5 pages per book).  The books so far in 2022 are even shorter, an average of 284.12 pages per book.

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, 2022.  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 2021 – modified very little from last year’s post.

The Alphabet Challenge of 2022

	AUTHOR	BOOK	COMMENTS
A	Austin, Lynn	Chasing Shadows	A farmer and his family in Holland join the resistance in World War II – fantastic
B	Bonhoeffer, Dietrich	Letters and Papers from Prison	As the title says, with a pastor who continued spreading the Gospel
C	Cussler, Clive	Corsair	An Oregon Files adventure
D	Dixon, Franklin W.	The Clue of the Broken Blade	Frank and Joe Hardy must go to California to a movie set for this one.
E	Evanovich, Janet	The Chase	Can the FBI and a con man out con the cons?
F	Flynn, Vince	The Last Man	A Mitch Rapp adventure
G	Grisham, John	Camino Winds	You decide to ride out the hurricane, and then a dead body is found as the hurricane approaches.
H	Hanegraaff, Hank	The Bible Answer Book	81 questions answered
I	Izzi, Eugene	Bad Guys	An undercover cop is about to crack the mob wide open, until…
J	Johnson, Craig	Death without Company	Second novel in the Longmire series
K	King, D. Charles	I Am Malchus	An historical fiction about Malchus – book given to me by an old Sunday school member, and now a neighbor of the author.  Excellent
L	LaHaye, Tim	Matthew’s Story, Mark’s Story, Luke’s Story	Fictional stories about the authors of the Gospels.
M	McBain, Ed	Hail, Hail, the Gang’s all Here	A 87th Precinct Novel, with all the gang
N	Nevala-Lee, Alec	Eternal Empire	The conclusion of the Maddy Blume trilogy
O	O’Connell, Carol	Winter House	A Kathleen Mallory mystery
P	Parker, Samuel	Purgatory Road	What happens when you get rescued by someone who does not let you leave?
Q	Queen, Ellery	A Fine and Private Place	Another Ellery Queen mystery
R	Riggs, Ransom	Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children	Have you ever opened a box of bizarre photographs and developed a story to explain them?
S	Silva, Daniel	The Other Woman	Another Gabriel Allon mystery
T	Thoene, Brock and Bodie	Warsaw Requiem	Intended as the last of the Zion Covenant series, but there are three more.
U	Upfield, Arthur	The Mountains Have a Secret	Another Napoleon Bonaparte mystery in Australia
V	Van Wormer, Laura	Mr. Murder	A Sally Harrington mystery
W	Woods, Stuart	Below the Belt	Stone Barrington novel
X	Xue, Can	Old Floating Cloud	Two novellas about life in China
Y	Yaffe, James	Mon Meets Her Maker	When the pastor dies right before Christmas, who is on the case? Mom
Z	Zerries, A. J.	Stealing from the Dead	A plot to steal from Holocaust survivors and spawn terrorist conspiracies

Total Books = 45 as of 3/23/2022

Total pages thus far = 13,024

The Alphabet Challenge of 2021

	AUTHOR	BOOK	COMMENTS
A	Atkinson, Sam	The Philosophy Book	A small tidbit of many, many philosophers’ ideas
B	Blackstock, Terri	If I Live	The conclusion of the trilogy
C	Christie, Agatha	The Mousetrap and other plays	A collection of plays including some turned into novels
D	Dekker, Ted	Hacker	The concluding book of the Outlaw Series – excellent
E	Evanovich, Janet	The Scam	Can the FBI and a con man out con the cons?
F	Frank, Dorothea Benton	Bull Island	A story of never being able to go back home
G	Gibbins, David	Pyramid	Underwater adventure with Jack Howard
H	Heller, Joseph	Catch-22	Often misquoted black humor, misquoted in that most modern Catch-22s are not Catch-22s.
I	Idleman, Kyle	Don’t Give Up	Biblical stories weaved with modern stories of perseverance
J	Jance, J. A.	Man Overboard	An Ali Reynolds mystery
K	Kolenda, Daniel	Live before you die	Service to God
L	Lucado, Max	anxious for nothing, More to Your Story, In the Eye of the Storm, He Still Moves Stones, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, The Great House of God, In the Grip of Grace	Interesting stories illustrating Biblical truth
M	Manning, Brendon	The Ragamuffin Gospel	We are all ragamuffins
N	Nesbo, Jo	The Thirst	A Harry Hole mystery
O	O’Connell, Carol	Mallory’s Oracle	First of the Kathleen Mallory mysteries
P	Peever, J. David	Blueprint	The different parts of building a “church” for the “church” or for each individual
Q	Queen, Ellery	The Murderer is a Fox	A World War II fighting ace comes home
R	Rosenberg, Joel	The Last Jihad	A Jon Bennett thriller
S	Strobel, Lee	The Case for the Real Jesus	More excellent apologetics
T	Ten Boom, Corrie	The Hiding Place	True story of doing the right thing and then paying dearly but surviving by God’s Grace
U	Upton, Robert	The Big Tour	A golfer tries to get an edge and it backfires.
V	van der Wetering, Janwillem	The Japanese Corpse	Another Grijpstra and de Gier novel
W	Woods, Stuart	Severe Clear	Stone Barrington novel
X	Xiaolong, Qiu	Years of Red Dust	Anecdotes, short stories, and poetry from an award winning Chinese author
Y	Yttrup, Ginny L.	Lost and Found	A woman of faith nearly loses her reptation due to false allegations.
Z	Zagel, James	Money to Burn	What if you could rob money marked for burning before it was destroyed?

Total Books = 204

Total pages = 61,800