Reading Goals Past and Future

I've got a bit of time this evening, so I'm ready at last to look over my reading goals from 2024, and set some for 2025.

I set myself the goal of reading 55 books in 2024, and I read 68, so hooray!  I didn't just meet, I exceeded that goal!

I wanted to read 48 books off my shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Challenge.  I failed.  I did read 41 books that I owned this year, but only 28 of them counted for that challenge because their rules insist they have to be books you owned before the beginning of the year.  Oh well.

I joined the #DisneyOriginsBookClub2024 on Instagram again this year, but I quit after the first couple of months because I simply had less reading time this year!  A lot of that is due to my younger daughter's ballet lessons now overlapping with my older daughter's gymnastics lessons, so I spend a lot of time driving between those instead of sitting and reading while I wait/watch.

Also, I don't have a photo here to illustrate this, but I participated in the #JaneAustenDeepDive2024 reading group on Instagram this year.  I read all six of the annotated editions of Jane Austen's major works (edited by David M. Shapard -- one review still to come) and had a wonderful time learning about Austen's works and world.  But those annotated editions are not light reading!!!  They soaked up a lot of my reading time.

I wanted to read twelve books for my fourth Classics Club list.  I read ten, so didn't really hit that goal.

I wanted to read twelve books about people substantially different for myself.  The image here only shows eleven, but I realized after I took these photos that I left two books off, so I actually read thirteen for that list! 

Back in 2023, I decided to read all of the Sackett books by Louis L'Amour over the course of 2023 and 2024.  I read the Sackett short stories included in War Party and End of the Drive at the very end of December, thereby completing that goal!  You can read my reviews of all the full Sackett novels under the label My Years with the Sacketts.

I absolutely loved the Sackett books.  I've become a firm L'Amour fan over the past two years, and I am particularly fond of Tell Sackett, though I very much like quite a few of the other Sacketts too.

Now for my 2025 goals!

Once again, I want to read at least 55 books.  That's slightly more than one a week, and even when I have "low" reading years, I can still manage that, so I like that goal.  Achievable, but not inconsiderable.

I am NOT setting myself a goal of numbers of books to read from my TBR shelves for the first time in years.  I will read what I read.  My house will be full of books.  I like that life.  Time to stop obsessing over how many books I own and haven't read yet -- I think keeping a careful count of them for the past few years has actually made me buy MORE books, oddly enough.

Once again, I want to read twelve books for my fourth Classics Club list, and I aim to read twelve books about people who are substantially different from myself in some way.

And I have a new challenge for myself this year!  I'm joining Andy at @places_and_books in picking #25for25 -- 25 specific books I want to read this year.  From my list above, 8 are rereads and 17 are books I haven't read before.  I like that mix.  

How about you?  Have you set yourself some bookish or reading goals for this year?  Share a link if you've blogged about them!

"Lonely on the Mountain" by Louis L'Amour

Well.  Hmm.  What in the world is up with the ending of this book?  It's a cracking good Sackett adventure for 23 chapters, and then it's like someone else finished it off from Louis L'Amour's notes.  Everything gets wound up ridiculously quickly, and the writing gets patchy.  As in, it jumps from first to third person within paragraphs or scenes, with zero reason.  There were other Sackett books published several years after this one that weren't that way at all, so it's not like this was L'Amour's last book and he just didn't get it edited properly or something.  Maybe the editors were on strike?  I don't get it.

Aside from the vexing last two chapters, I liked Lonely on the Mountain a LOT because it has Tell, Orrin, and Tyrel all working together to help their cousin Logan, and Cap Rountree is there too, and yeah... I love it when the Sacketts assemble to help one of their own.  In a lot of the books where that happens, we focus on the guy in trouble and the assembling Sacketts just show up to help, but this is like the reverse, where we get to see the helpers heading out to rescue the one in trouble.  That was nifty.

But, man, those last two chapters.  They feel like first drafts that never got revised. What in the world.

Particularly Good Bits:

"There's two kinds of people in the world, son, those who wish and those who will.  The wishers wish to be rich, they wish to be famous, they wish to own a farm or a fine house or whatever.  The ones who will, they don't wish, they start out and do it.  They become what they want to or get what they want.  They will it" (p. 95).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for lots of western-style violence, as well as danger from nature and animals, and a smidgeon of cussing.

This is my 27th book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Reading Challenge.  AND I have finished my own personal challenge to read all of the Sackett novels in two years!!!

"Ride the Dark Trail" by Louis L'Amour

I'm coming close to the end of my personal "My Years with the Sacketts" challenge.  Only one true Sackett novel left, and one that's tangentially related (or so they tell me).  

Ride the Dark Trail is a galloping good time.  You've got Em Talon, a fiery old woman holding off a host of greedy landgrabbers.  You've got Logan Sackett, a somewhat shiftless gunfighter discovering he's related to the old woman and coming to her aid.  You've got the Sackett version of the Bat Signal going up, and the Sackett version of "Avengers, Assemble!" happening, which is never anything less than delightful.  Smart and savvy folks on both sides, pert young woman to keep everyone on their toes, and a batch of rousing fights and brawls -- good stuff, friends.

Particularly Good Bits:

Now we Clinch Mountain Sacketts ain't noted for gentle ways.  The way I figure it is if a man is big enough to open his mouth he's big enough to take the consequences, and I was getting tired of talk (p. 11).

If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for mild cussing, lots of violence with guns and fists, and very mild innuendo about a young woman leaving an employer because he made improper advances.

This is my 24th book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Challenge.

"Treasure Mountain" by Louis L'Amour

It's so convenient that Tell Sackett is my favorite Sackett, because L'Amour uses Tell as his narrator for a LOT of the Sackett books.  And Tell never fails to delight me, with his keen observational skills and dry humor.  Treasure Mountain is no exception!  Also, I love the books where multiple Sacketts and their friends pop up, and this has Tell, Orrin, Tyrel, and random friends bopping in and out as well.  Very good fun!

In Treasure Mountain, Orrin Sackett goes to New Orleans looking for any possible clues as to where his dad went twenty years earlier when he left New Orleans and was never seen again.  It's a very cold trail to follow, but these are Sacketts, people.  They're part bloodhound.  And they're all smart and savvy and wise to the ways of the wicked.  

Except Orrin is always falling afoul of witches women.  And he goes missing.  So then Tell shows up in New Orleans looking for Orrin.  And, because Tell really just never fails to find what he's seeking, he and Orrin then head off on the cold trail of their dad, who, it turns out, left N.O. looking for a million dollars in gold someone had buried in the Southwest.  But there are bad guys, and bad women, and dubious food, and extreme landscapes, all standing in the way of the Sacketts and their quest to find any remains of their dad, who was on a quest to find gold.  Which, of course, makes for a great yarn.  I enjoyed it.

Today just happens to be actor Sam Elliott's 80th birthday.  Sam Elliott played Tell Sackett in the 1979 TV miniseries The Sacketts, which my husband and I happen to be planning to finish watching this weekend.  So this seemed like the perfect time to finally post this review.  Happy birthday, Sam Elliott!!!

Particularly Good Bits: 

"Once a man has lived with mountains you can't offer him a home with a prairie dog" (p. 34).

"Mountains are hard upon evil," I said.  "They don't hold with it" (p. 175).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a smattering of cuss words and some violence.

This has been my 18th book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

"Galloway" by Louis L'Amour

Why is this one called Galloway when it's mostly about Galloway Sackett's brother Flagan?  I mean, Galloway is in it, lots -- but it starts out from Flagan's point of view, and he gets to narrate it in first person here and there, whereas Galloway's chapters get told in third person.  I'm not saying the title makes no sense, because Galloway does play a key role here -- but it's really Flagan's story.  That's Flagan on the cover, even.  Huh.  I wonder if the publisher titled this one, or L'Amour himself.

Anyway, I liked this book a LOT.  Flagan Sackett escapes from some angry Apaches, stark naked and on foot, and manages to not only evade them, but survive in the mountains alone, and eventually find other people... and more trouble, which is where the actual plot takes place -- there's a mean guy and his mean followers who want to take over and control a whole section of the country, and Flagan and Galloway Sackett like the looks of that area and want to ranch there too, and so other people take sides, and more Sacketts get involved, and there's not quite a range war, but it gets close to one.  Since one Sackett is a whole lot of Sacketts, and there are four involved here, it's pretty clear who will win in the end.  The fun is in seeing how they do it.

Particularly Good Bits:

Back up at the forks of the creek in Tennessee they don't raise many foolish children, and the foolish men don't live long enough to get knee-high to a short sheep (p. 26).

There's a saying in the mountains that if you harm a cricket his friends will come and eat your socks (p. 28) (This made me laugh so much!)

I had lived long enough to know that nothing lasts forever, and men torture themselves who believe that it will.  The one law that does not change is that everything changes (p. 46).

There's a saying that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns (p. 52).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some brief discussions of torture, scenes of survival in harsh conditions, a little mild cussing, and western violence.

This is my 14th book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Challenge.

"Mustang Man" by Louis L'Amour

I liked this one all right.  It was an enjoyable and fast-paced read, but I didn't love it.  I'm not sure why, either, as the story was solid, and Nolan Sackett was an interesting character.  But he felt a little detached, as a narrator, or maybe like he was trying to distance himself and the readers from the story in a way?

The storyline is good stuff -- Nolan Sackett, who could be a hero but is often labeled an outlaw, falls afoul of a witch.  Well, not a witch, really, but a sociopathic woman who likes to poison people and torture people and kill people.  Anyway, he escapes her clutches and then encounters a Wise Old Mentor who gives him tools and advice.  Then he finds a Woman in Distress and helps her seek out a treasure.  It's very myth-based storytelling, if you can't tell, and I usually really like that! 

You know, now that I've been mulling over it a bit, I think I know what the problem is.  I didn't really like the main female character, Penelope.  She didn't get as well-fleshed-out as most of L'Amour's heroines, and so I never got a chance to know her, and that means I didn't get invested in Nolan's desire to help her and his secret hope that she might see him as more than a crooked-nosed outlaw.

Oh well -- not every Sackett book needs to be my favorite!

Particularly Good Bits:

I knew I wouldn't get anywhere now trying to run; and when it comes to that, I am not a man who cares to run, unless it's toward something (p. 37).

It was always as Ivanhoe that I saw myself, and always as the Norman knight that I was being seen by others (p. 73).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for violence, non-detailed descriptions of someone who has been tortured, and a brief mention of prostitution.  Also some mild cussing.

This has been my 13th book read off my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

"The Lonely Men" by Louis L'Amour

Not my favorite Sackett book, I'm afraid.  Even though it stars Tell Sackett, who IS my favorite Sackett!  Mostly, I think I disliked it because it had Laura Sackett for a villain, Orrin's ex-wife, and she is poisonous and spiteful and horrid.  I just wanted to get myself (and Tell) as far away from her as possible.  She's really just in bits here and there, but ugh, I hated having to deal with her whenever she cropped up.

I did love how Tell and three friends risked everything to rescue some children.  I love protective characters, and that is no doubt why I love Tell Sackett.  Also, Dorset was another of L'Amour's wonderful female characters filled with grit and grace.  She was the direct opposite of Laura, which was refreshing.

Particularly Good Bits: 

With none to share our sorrows or regrets, we kept them to ourselves, and our faces were impassive.  Men with no one to share their feelings learn to conceal those feelings.  We often spoke lightly of things which we took very seriously indeed (p. 17).

I figure I was shaped to be a wallflower, but I don't mind.  I sort of like to set back and listen to folks, to drink coffee, and contemplate (p. 20).  (ME TOO, Tell!)

The desert is the enemy of the careless (p. 40).

"It is easy to destroy a book, but an idea once implanted has roots no man can utterly destroy" (p. 94).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for a lot of violence, including torture, and kids in peril.  The violence is not gory, but it isn't too glossed-over, either.  There is a smattering of bad language.

This is my 10th book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

"The Sky-Liners" by Louis L'Amour

Two Sackett boys that I first met in The Sackett Brand are the heroes for The Sky-Liners.  Flagan and Galloway Sackett are about to head west to make new lives for themselves when they take a disliking to the rowdy way a bunch of riders arrive in a small Tennessee town.  They decide the rowdy bunch needs some settling down, and they make good on their decision, but doing so embarrasses the leader of the riders, Black Fetchen.  

Worse yet, Flagan and Galloway then promise an elderly gent to escort his feisty granddaughter Judith to her father's home in Colorado.  Guess who Judith is set on marrying if she can just manage to get away from her grandfather?  Black Fetchen, of course.

By the time the Sacketts reach Colorado, they've had multiple run-ins with Fetchen and his gang, and they end up in a regular feud with his bunch before the book is over.  Of course, the Sackett boys come out on top in the long run... and one of them even falls in love with Judith.

This was not my favorite Sackett book, but it was a lot of fun anyway.

Particularly Good Bits: 

I went for coffee.  It was hot, blacker than sin, and strong enough to float a horseshoe.  It was cowboy's coffee (p. 80).

A man with nobody to care for is as lonesome as a lost hound dog, and as useless.  If he's to feel of any purpose to himself, he's got to feel he's needed, feel he stands between somebody and any trouble (p. 83).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It PG-10 for violence and a few old-fashioned cuss words.

This has been my 8th book read off my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Challenge.

"The Sackett Brand" by Louis L'Amour

Ladies and gentlemen, I now have a favorite Sackett, and his name is Tell.

I am probably going to have to go back and reread Sackett and Mojave Crossing now because they also star Tell Sackett, and since I now love him, I must go back and appreciate him in those.  Though, truth be told, I will probably wait to do that until I have finished reading all the Sackett books.  Then I will go back and read all of Tell's books again.  Because I have 9 books left to read yet -- he may very well be in more of them!  (Please, if you know he's in more of them, don't list them all off to me.  I want to discover who each book is about on my own.)

Anyway.  Poor Tell Sackett.  Poor, dear Tell Sackett.  He finally marries Ange, the girl he met back during Sackett and fell in love with.  And then someone kills her.  And tries to kill him.  And nearly gets away with both.  So the whole book here is Tell recovering from almost dying and then figuring out who murdered his wife and why.  And getting himself repeatedly almost-killed in the process, until he's pretty well cornered by his wife's murderer's henchmen and going to die any minute...

...and then the cavalry arrives.  Only they aren't the U. S. Cavalry, they're a whole heap of Sacketts from all across the western half of the country.  (This is not really a spoiler, because they start to congregate about halfway through the book.)  Tell's brothers Orrin and Tyrel, their cousin Lando, and some spiffy new Sacketts I hadn't met yet but look forward to meeting -- they find out there's a Sackett in trouble, and they hustle over to help as fast as they can hustle.

This book, y'all.  It hit SO many big sweet spots for me!  Cavalry arrives to save the day?  Check.  Assemble a team of heroes?  Check.  Vow to avenge someone by bringing their killer to justice?  Check.  One dude taking on a huge force and slowly whittling down their numbers through superior skills and intelligence?  Check.  Bad guys turning on each other?  Check.  Surviving by making do with what you can find in the environment around you?  Check.  I mean, it's like this book was written for me.  Wow.

So, yeah.  I loved it.  A lot.  I'm already looking forward to re-reading it.

Particularly Good Bits:

One thing I've learned over the years: never to waste time moaning about what couldn't be helped.  If a body can do something, fine -- he should do it.  If he can't, then there's no use fussing about it until he can do something (p. 23).  (This is basically my entire attitude toward worry.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-16 for quite a bit of violence and deadly peril, plus an off-page assault of a woman that, if it wasn't rape, was going to be except she died first.  The word 'rape' is never used, but intent is there in the subtext.

This is my third book read off my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Reading Challenge. 

Reading Goals Behind and Ahead

I had a few goals for my reading life in 2023.  The same sort I usually have, like clear off my TBR shelves some more, read some classics, read diversely, and so on.  Here's how I did with my 2023 reading goals:

Overall Goal

I aimed to read 55 books in 2023.  I read 96.  Yay!

Classics Club

I wanted to read at least twelve books from my fourth Classics Club list.  I read fourteen!  You'll find all their reviews on that page or right here.

Diverse Reading

I wanted to read at least twelve books by or about people who are different from me in some significant way.  I read fifteen!  You can find reviews for most of them right here.

#TheUnreadShelfProject2023

I had twin goals of reading at least 50 books from my TBR shelves AND whittling down the number of unread books on my shelves to 450.  I read 61 books from the to-be-read books I own, but I only got the number of unread books on my shelves down to 491.  Well, that's still better, anyway.

My Years with the Sacketts

I set myself the goal of reading all nineteen Sackett books by Louis L'Amour over the course of 2023 and 2024.  I have read the first nine, so I am confident I can finish them all by the end of 2024.

Now for my 2024 reading goals!

Overall Goal

I like the number 55.  I'm keeping that for my goal.

Classics Club

Twelve seems like a good number here.  But I'll give myself some wiggle room in my bullet journal, just in case.

Diverse Reading

I also like aiming for twelve for this goal.  But, as you can see, I'm also giving myself room for more than that in my bullet journal.  Just in case!

Mount TBR

Because the Unread Shelf Challenge has come to an end, I am once again joining the Mount TBR Challenge from My Reader's Block.  I am aiming for the Mount Ararat level, which means reading 48 books from my TBR shelves -- but only books I already own by January 1, 2024, will count.  This makes it much more challenging, so we'll see how that goes!  I'm going to continue keeping track of how many books I buy and how many I take off my shelves, too, even though those aren't part of the Mount TBR challenge.

Disney Origins Bookclub

This fun reading challenge has returned to Bookstagram!  I want to read the four fairy tales that are scheduled, plus at least three of the books.  To learn more, and/or join, click here.

Jane Austen Deep Dive 2024

This is another Bookstagram reading group challenge -- we're going to read all six of Jane Austen's major works together, but very slowly.  I aim to read all of them, specifically the annotated editions.  To learn more about that, and/or join, click here.

My Years with the Sacketts

I have ten Sackett books by Louis L'Amour left to read for this personal challenge!  My teen son has been reading them as I finish them, which has been such a great experience for us both, giving us lots of wonderful heroes and heroines to talk about.

That's all for this year!  How about you?  Do you set reading goals?  Participate in challenges, or make your own?  Do tell!

"Mojave Crossing" by Louis L'Amour

I say!  This book is a rollicking good time.  It's all about Tell Sackett again, star of the earlier book Sackett, but this time he gets a much more straight-forward and focused story, and I appreciated that.  His narration wasn't quite as drily humorous, though that did return here and there, but I overall liked this book about him better.

Tell Sackett is basically just on his way to exchange a whole lot of gold for some trade goods in California.  Then he'll head back to Arizona and sell the trade goods.  Some of the gold is his, and some of it belongs to friends and neighbors who invested in his idea.

Well, he finds himself agreeing to take a black-eyed "witch woman" across the desert to California with him because she appears to be on the run, and he can't find it in himself to refuse to help a woman in trouble.  Only thing is, that woman IS trouble.  And Tell finds himself in plenty of dire situations before he finishes his errand and heads on back to Arizona.  Some of which involve a distant cousin of his, Nolan Sackett.

Also, there's a really fun, albeit small, twist at the very end that kinda makes me want to flip back through the book and reexamine a few conversations to find clues to it.  And I LOVE that kind of thing.

Particularly Good Bits:  

There are men who prefer to keep trouble from a woman, but it seems to me that is neither reasonable nor wise.  I've always respected the thinking of women, and also their ability to face up to trouble when it comes, and it shouldn't be allowed to come on them unexpected.  Many a man has sheltered his wife from his troubles, until suddenly he dies and she awakens to poverty as well as grief (p. 38).

It was not in me to believe myself fated to die at any given time.  Deep within me I knew, having seen many men die, that no man is immune to death at any time at all (p. 115).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for quite a few cuss words, some western violence, and the brief mention of rape.

This is my 47th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Lando" by Louis L'Amour

Now, that's what I call a rousing good adventure story!

Lando Sackett leaves the Appalachian mountains as a young man, hunted by three of his uncles who are convinced he knows where there's a fabulous buried treasure.  Not Sackett uncles, of course, but his mother's brothers.  Lando and a man known only as the Tinker strike out to find their fortunes in the West, but the Tinker turns out to be involved with that buried treasure too.  After many misadventures and a stint in a Mexican prison where hard labor turned his muscles hard even if his disposition is still pretty kind, Lando ends up duking it out with his childhood nemesis in the middle of a Texas town.  Also, there's pirate gold.  And Lando's dad turns up again and falls for the woman Lando kinda fancies himself.  But somehow, Lando just remains a good-hearted, sensible, nice man through it all.

Honestly, this book just kind of trots along from one adventure to the next, all of which are tied together by that search for pirate gold, which Lando himself is not really all that interested in, but which people around him keep dragging him toward.  I could have trotted along beside Lando for another couple hundred pages.  This is probably going to end up being one of my favorites of the Sackett books.

Particularly Good Bits:

"Mr. Sackett, face a man with a gun or a sword, but beware of bookkeepers.  They will destroy you, Sackett" (p. 43).

"The place for a woman," she said, smiling at me, "is where she is needed" (p. 83).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a lot of violence, including a brutal boxing match.  Some minor cussing too.

This is my 41st book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Sackett" by Louis L'Amour

I really loved Tell Sackett's dry, self-deprecating humor.  He was a charming narrator, and I thoroughly enjoyed his wry observations about people and life.

The story in this one is not my favorite -- too much gold-hunting, maybe?  Too many people impinging on Tell's plans?  The love interest did annoy me a bit because she was so easily swayed against him, and then she just shifted right back onto his team with too much ease too.

The part where Tell has to survive an ice storm high in the mountains was pretty spectacular, and I loved that he helped found a new town.  But overall, this one grabbed me less than the previous books in the Sackett series.  It was still enjoyable, don't get me wrong.

Particularly Good Bits:

Folks talk about human nature, but what they mean is not human nature, but the way they are brought up (p. 55).

But the fact of the matter is, no man can shape his life according to woman's thinking.  Nor should any woman try to influence a man toward her way.  There must be give and take between them (p. 85).

Women are practical.  They get right down to bedrock about things, and no woman is going to waste much time remembering a man who was fool enough to kill himself.  Thing to do is live for love, not die for it (p. 117).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for violence, dangerous situations, and some mild cussing.

This is my second book read from my Ten Books of Summer list and my 40th read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"The Daybreakers" by Louis L'Amour

Wow.  I mean, wow.

When L'Amour sets out to write a serious book, he writes a really serious book.  What these boys go through in this story -- it's no picnic.

Tyrel Sackett saves his brother Orrin from getting shot on his wedding day.  Orrin's bride-to-be takes the bullet instead, all part of the Sacketts' feud with the Higginses.  Tye downs her murderer, the last of the Higgins clan, then flees Tennessee for the West.  Orrin comes along because, well, his bride was just killed at the altar and he really doesn't have any use for Tennessee anymore just then.

Tyrel and Orrin take odd jobs here and there, mainly herding cows, and make friends with a couple men called Tom Sunday and Cap Rountree.  The four of them get the idea to start rounding up wild cattle and selling them, and they wind up down near Santa Fe.  Orrin falls for Laura Pritts, daughter of Johnathon Pritts, who is a no-good conniver.  Tye falls for Drusilla Alvarado, daughter of a wealthy and honorable Mexican don.  Then commences what basically becomes another feud like the one Tye and Orrin fled, only it's a Pritts-Alvarado feud instead, and they get tangled up in it. 

There's a lot of symmetry in this book, like how the two feuds get contrasted, and also the two women the brothers fall for being very different, too.  Tyrel and Orrin also get compared a bit, but only here and there.  Still, you could say they're foils for each other, as the choices of one highlight the different choices of the other.  The book ends with a killing just like it began, too.

It really digs into some deep subjects, too, like the importance of loyalty and community, the dangers of stubbornness, and the value of family relationships.

The Daybreakers was so good, I had to pause every chapter or so to just digest and enjoy and revel in it.  Definitely one of the best L'Amour books I have read!  Also, Tye may describe himself as ornery and contrary and mean, but I found him pretty dreamy, tbh.

Particularly Good Bits:

There would be trouble enough, but man is born to trouble, and it is best to meet it when it comes and not lose sleep until it does (p. 8).

Reed Carney wanted a shoot out and he wanted to win, but me, I'm more than average contrary (p. 23).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some mild cussing, alcohol use, and multiple scenes of western violence.

This was my 34th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Ride the River" by Louis L'Amour

This Sackett book is mostly from the point of view of Echo Sackett, a sixteen-year-old girl on a mission: she needs to collect a sizable inheritance left her by the descendants of a friend of her forebear Kin Sackett.  She has to go to Philadelphia to get it, and on the way home to the mountains of Tennessee, she's waylaid repeatedly by rogues cutthroats, and thugs determined to steal her money.  But Echo is a Sackett, and she has a handy guy named Dorian Chantry and another called Archie along to sort of chaperone her on her way home, and the three of them all take turns proving to each other just how surprisingly handy they can be in a tight spot.

I absolutely loved Echo Sackett.  She put me in mind of Mattie Ross from True Grit by Charles Portis, but more capable and determined and savvy yet.  Not to mention sweeter and kinder.

Since I love Borden Chantry, I was excited to have a couple Chantrys play such a big role in this!  L'Amour put Chantrys in quite a few of his books, which tickles me :-)

Particularly Good Bits:

"Do not let yourself be bothered by the inconsequential.  One has only so much time in this world, so devote it to the work and the people most important to you, to those you love and things that matter" (p. 38).

"How many are there?  Of the Sacketts, I mean?"
"Nobody rightly knows, but even one Sackett is quite a few" (p. 160).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some scattered mild cussing, some violence, and lots of perilous circumstances.

This is my 28th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Jubal Sackett" by Louis L'Amour

Well, this is by far my favorite Sackett book so far!!!  The entire thing was about surviving in the wilderness, living off the land, and defending yourself with a few weapons and your wits.  

Jubal Sackett, wandering son of Barnabas Sackett, explores the land between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.  He's tasked with finding a Natchez princess named Itchakomi and telling her that her people need her to return home, and he races to find her before the Natchez warrior who intends to force Itchakomi to marry him.  Jubal and Itchakomi get married instead, and then have to fend off the other warrior and his pals, plus Spanish soldiers, raiders from other tribes, predators, and the weather.

Particularly Good Bits:

To talk too much is always a fault.  Information is power (p. 19).

That was how I would remember my father.  There was never a place he walked that was not the better for his having passed (p. 242).

If strength could not win, one must use wit, if one has any (p. 243).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for violence, danger, a handful of old-fashioned cuss words, and man bent on buying a woman so he can traffick her.

This has been my 23rd book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"The Warrior's Path" by Louis L'Amour

The Warrior's Path had a much more focused plot than the previous two Sacketts books, which I appreciated.  Kin and Yance Sackett (sons of Barnabas, who was the star of those first books) get word that Yance's wife's young sister has disappeared up in Massachusetts, along with a young woman that people believe to be a witch.  Kin and Yance set off through the wilderness, arrive at the colony where the girls lived, discover nobody is particularly inclined to seek the lost girls, and set off to find and rescue them.  

That section was my favorite, as it was filled with the kind of woodcraft and woodlore that has always thrilled me.  I used to read these junior biographies of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett and Kit Carson and their woodsy brethren over and over and over as a kid -- I even had sections of my favorites memorized.  I would practice tracking critters in the snow: my cats, our dog, birds, raccoons, my little brother, and anything else that traipsed through.  Good, good times.

The Sacketts find and rescue the girls, but Kin thinks this is not enough.  They've uncovered a "white slaver" ring -- we would call them human traffickers today -- that is stealing teenage girls from the colonies in America and selling them to planters in the West Indies.  Kin is sure that, unless they can catch and convict the ringleaders, more girls will keep getting kidnapped and trafficked, over and over.  So he sets off for Jamaica, tracing one of the leaders to Port Royal.

Kin's totally right about the trade in white women not slowing down just because they rescued two girls.  The gang's leaders are making too money to be stopped by the loss of two captives.  They even manage to re-kidnap the older one, Diana, and take her to Jamaica, thinking they can force Kin to stop fighting them by threatening her or something.

But these guys clearly don't understand Sacketts.  Kin won't stop until the gang of traffickers is brought to justice, either at the end of a rope or the end of his sword.  The last quarter of the book has a lot of swashbuckling and swordplay and fist fighting and other thrilling heroics.

Also, Kin and Diana get married.  This is not really a spoiler, as you should be able to see that coming by the time you've finished chapter one.

Particularly Good Bits:

"To make a country we need all kinds.  He is a thoughtful man, and such are needed.  He reads, he thinks.  Too many of us are so busied with living that we do not" (p. 62).

Yet aside from her beauty there was much in her to admire, for she was a quietly capable person who did not scream, faint, or cry so far as I had seen.  She looked matters in the face and did something about them (p. 73).

"You have your books.  They are the best companions" (p. 80).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for lots of violent fights, the understated but obvious fact that these teen girls were being sold as sex slaves, lots of peril and danger, and a handful of old-fashioned cuss words.

This has been my 18th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"To the Far Blue Mountains" by Louis L'Amour

This second book about Barnabas Sackett was a lot of fun.  But I don't think I liked it quite as well as Sackett's Land, mostly because this one had more exciting adventures and less downtime to get to know the characters.  I commented to my husband a couple of times that L'Amour tosses his characters into one thrilling escapade after another so quickly that the reader really never has a chance to catch their breath between one set of heroics and the next.  Each adventure that befalls Barnabas was cool, but the pacing didn't quite hit me the way I'd like.

Barnabas Sackett is a cool dude, though, and no mistake.  You just can't keep him down.  He refuses to be daunted.  And I loved that.  I also loved a new character in this one: Lila, the maid to Barabas's intended.  She can swordfight and shoot a rifle, ride a horse all day and all night, cook so well that men will mutiny on her behalf, and is generally a completely awesome person.  I wish there was a book about her all on her own, because I bet it would be a roaringly good time.

Once again, Barnabas Sackett spends the bulk of this book just trying to get to America and set up a home there.  Which he does, eventually, but not before multiple shipboard battles, kidnappings, treasure hunts, and so on.  He and his wife do eventually build a home together, have kids, and raise those kids to adulthood.  But it takes quite a while to get there.

Particularly Good Bits:

We must not lose touch with what we were, with what we had been, nor must we allow the well of our history to dry up, for a child without tradition is a child crippled before the world.  Tradition can also be an anchor of stability and a shield to guard one from irresponsibility and hasty decision (p. 21).

I had never complained, for who cares for complaints?  If something is wrong, one does something (p. 64).

"I do not wish.  I do what becomes the moment.  If it be a cook-pot, I cook.  If it be a needle, I'll sew, but if it be a blade that is needed, I shall cut a swath" (p. 76).  (That's Lila, btw.  Precisely what I love about her, really!)

"The tongue of Wales is music, and you write it well" (p. 84).

How deep, how strange is the courage of women!  Courage is expected of a man, he is conditioned to it from childhood, and we in our time grew up in a world of wars and press-gangs, of highwaymen and lords sometimes as high-handed as they.  We grew up to expect hardship and war.  But a woman?  I'd seen them follow their men to war, seen them seeking over battlefields to find their lonely dead, or the wounded who would die but for them.  I have seen a woman pick up a man and carry him off the field to a place where he might have care (p. 129).

Where go the years?  Down what tunnel of time are poured the precious days? (p. 248)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for lots of violent fights, deaths, captures, escapes... but all told in non-gruesome or terrifying ways. It does have a handful of old-fashioned cuss words. 

This is my 11th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Sackett's Land" by Louis L'Amour

Do you know what I was absolutely not expecting this book to be?  A swashbuckler.  But that's what it is!  Complete with swordfights, shipboard fights, chases and escapes and various other thrilling heroics.  It's absolutely smashing.

Barnabas Sackett falls afoul of a pampered nobleman by, well, laughing at him.  And then failing to be easy to beat up.  The nobleman vows revenge and keeps trying to find Barnabas and wreak his vengeance, but Barnabas just keeps getting wind of his attempts, or slipping through his fingers, or beating him in various ways. 

Barnabas, meanwhile, never makes any secret of the fact that, basically, he's on his way to America.  It's the early 1600s, he's living in England and wanting to start life fresh somewhere bigger and wilder, and America sounds like the perfect spot.

But, while he's just about to embark for the New World, he gets shanghaied by friends of that same nobleman.  But he manages to stay alive all the way across the ocean while surrounded by ruffians aboard ship, then escapes them and sets about trading with the American Indians for furs.  And then he gets kidnapped again, and escapes again, etc.

Barnabas has a great knack for making friends with awesome guys like him who are brave, honorable, and doughty.  Unfortunately, his nemesis has a great knack for killing off Barnabas's new friends while trying to kill Barnabas.  But some of them do survive.  Barnabas eventually makes his way back to England with his fortune pretty well made.  The woman of his dreams agrees to marry him, and they get ready to go back to America and build a new home together there.

It's just a roaring good yarn, I tell you.  And when was the last time you read a Louis L'Amour book that involved going to see a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Globe Theater in London... with William Shakespeare as one of the actors?  I mean, how cool is that?

Particularly Good Bits:

"Each man owes a debt to his family, his country and his species to leave sons and daughters who will lead, inspire and create" (p. 18).

"A man needs heroes.  He needs to believe in strength, nobility and courage.  Otherwise we become sheep to be herded to the slaughterhouse of death" (p. 58).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for lots of violent fights, deaths, escapes... but all told in non-gruesome or terrifying ways. It does have a handful of old-fashioned cuss words. There's also just the smallest insinuation that something really bad could happen to the female love interest when she falls into the hands of some bad guys, but she comes through just fine.

This is my first book read for My Years with the Sacketts and my third book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.