Wrap-Up of the 2024 Color Coded Reading Challenge

I have enjoyed participating in the Color Coded Reading Challenge over the years. It's getting harder to find books with a color in the title. At this point I need to be selecting new releases. Fortunately, the 2025 challenge allows books with covers that have a majority of a color. That makes it easier! 

The challenge requires participants to read books with these colors in the title:  blue, red, green, yellow, brown, white, black, and any other color. Below are links to the books that I read in 2024.

Blue:  The Blue Monsoon - Dimyanti Biswas

Yellow:  Yellowface - R. F. Huang

Red:  Red Sky Mourning - Jack Carr

Red:  Pink Lemonade Cake Murder - Joanne Fluke

Any other color:  Peach Tea Smash - Laura Childs

Green:  Key Lime Pie Murder - Joanne Fluke

Brown:  The Cinnamon Roll Murder - Joanne Fluke

Black:  The Black Ghost - Alex Segura

White:  White Mulberry - Rosa Kwon Easton

Favorite Book:  Peach Tea Smash

Second Favorite Book: Blue Monsoon

Least Favorite Book: Pink Lemonade Cake Murder 

White Mulberry

White Mulberry was just published a few days ago on December 1, 2024. It is an Asian fiction story similar to Pachinko. It was inspired by the life of the author’s North Korean grandmother who was living in Japan in the 1930s and in Japan occupied Korea during WW11.

The publisher's summary:

Inspired by the life of Easton’s grandmother, White Mulberry is a rich, deeply moving portrait of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan who is torn between two worlds and must reclaim her true identity to provide a future for her family.

1928, Japan-occupied Korea. Eleven-year-old Miyoung has dreams too big for her tiny farming village near Pyongyang: to become a teacher, to avoid an arranged marriage, to write her own future. When she is offered the chance to live with her older sister in Japan and continue her education, she is elated, even though it means leaving her sick mother—and her very name—behind.

In Kyoto, anti-Korean sentiment is rising every day, and Miyoung quickly realizes she must pass as Japanese if she expects to survive. Her Japanese name, Miyoko, helps her find a new calling as a nurse, but as the years go by, she fears that her true self is slipping away. She seeks solace in a Korean church group and, within it, finds something she never expected: a romance with an activist that reignites her sense of purpose and gives her a cherished son.

As war looms on a new front and Miyoung feels the constraints of her adopted home tighten, she is faced with a choice that will change her life—and the lives of those she loves—forever.

White Mulberry is a heartwarming novel about two sisters who were separated by Korean traditions for women as well as the war in the Pacific. Miyoung and Bohbeh enjoyed growing up together and were close. When a stranger arrives in their village, he stays overnight in the family’s boarding house. During that first evening the stranger tells the girls' mother that Bohbeh would make a good wife for his brother who lives in Kyoto, Japan. I was shocked when mom agreed to let her daughter leave home with a stranger and forced her into marriage. I expected that there was no brother and that Bohbeh would be assaulted by this stranger. However, that was untrue.

Miyoung is the protagonist in this story. She was the youngest in the family and wanted to be educated. Tradition dictated that she marry after finishing primary school at 11. Miyoung became betrothed to a boy with pockmarked skin who she disliked. She got lucky when her parents finally agreed to let her travel to Kyoto and live with her sister while she attended middle school and high school. Miyoung was scared to travel the two days to get to Kyoto but Bohbeh helped her adjust to her surroundings. It's amazing that Miyoung excelled in school because she didn't know the Japanese language. The setup for the rest of the story is now complete. 

The setting is essential to the story. There is a huge contrast between the rural Korean village the family lived in and Kyoto. You cannot help but see how these communities impacted the lives of the sisters. Miyoung loved the simplicity of life in her village where she often climbed a mulberry tree. Both experienced discrimination, Miyoung particularly. They accepted their so-called inferiority to the Japanese, fearing retaliation. I couldn't understand why they acquiessed but then again I have never lived in an occupied country. I felt the fear they experienced in my own soul. 

White Mulberry is a wonderful family saga. If you enjoy these types of stories you simply must read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Black Ghost: Hard Revolution

This graphic novel is a short, 135 page super-hero story. I selected it for the Color Coded Reading Challenge. I have been struggling to finish my reading challenges this year and am thrilled to find a short read that meets the requirements of the challenge. This Season One edition collects releases 1 through 5 in a print for the first time. It was published in 2020.

In the story Lara Dominguez is a troubled City of Creighton police reporter who is obsessed with the city's debonair vigilante, the Black Ghost. With the help of a mysterious cyber-informant named Lone, she is getting closer to uncovering the Ghost's identity. But as she searches for the breakthrough story that she desperately needs, Lara will have to navigate the corruption of her city, the uncertainties of virtue, and her own personal demons. The question is whether she will have the strength to be part of the solution or will she become the problem?

There was plenty of suspense in this mystery. Each release ended with a bang and that kept me interested enough in the plot to continue reading. The book is a blend of the crime noir and vigilante superhero genres. Lara is an alcoholic, lesbian vigilante who takes on the Black Ghost identity after the previous Black Ghost was killed in action. Our heroine is always drunk or has a hangover. She abandoned all her other journalist assignments to pursue the vigilante in the night and loses her job as a result. Also, Lara has a lot of family history to process concerning the death of her brother and all of this impedes her judgement. In addition, Lara also finds time to teach night GED classes and this where she meets Ernesto, who becomes her unlikely partner. 

Lara is a great character. She is tough physically and is a fabulous investigative rreporter. I also liked Ernesto. He played a small role on these releases but I can see he is going to be a good sidekick for Lara. He met Lara in a GED class that she was teaching. This is an odd dimension to her character but I assume it will be drawn upon in later editions. Other characters were either co-workers or the villains the Black Ghost is fighting.

The story had a light feel and was a fun, relaxing read. Season 2 of the story is out and I am definitely going to read it.  5 out of 5 stars.

Yellowface

I decided to read Yellowface for the Color Coded Reading Challenge because I needed a book title containing yellow. However, I have wanted to read it since it was published in May of last year because it is about an Asian American and the publishing business. I am a big lover of Asian fiction. This book was hard to put down and I ended up reading it in one sitting.

The publisher's summary:  

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel. 

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Yellowface is a suspenseful, plot driven story with a fast pace. Our protagonist June Hayward is a white American writer who wants success and fame. However, her first book is a flop. Her nemesis is the Chinese American writer Athena Liu. Liu is a celebrated novelist with a Netflix series on the way. Liu is not the traditional “good girl” character that publishers prefer in Asian fiction. Kuang breaks new ground in Asian fiction with this Liu character. I thought it was funny that Liu died from choking on a pancake. That was a creative way to go in my mind. Most of the suspense in the story comes from Twitter posts where people are not afraid to be nasty. The mystery in the story is heightened as each new event in the plot raises the stakes for June/Juniper. 

In Yellowface Rebecca Kuang  takes a swipe at the publishing industry for their mistreatment of ethnic characters. Publishers have publicly pledged, since 2020, to represent ethnic minorities with more authenticity but Kuang’s plot reveals that she believes the industry has fallen short of that goal.

The novel's plot is timely. It grapples with questions on cultural appropriation as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Cinnamon Roll Murder

Joanne Fluke has written 30 books in this Hannah Swensen Mystery Series. Cinnamon Roll Murder is the 15th installment of the series. I chose this book as a selection for the Color Coded Reading Challenge. I needed a book with a brown shade in the title and cinnamon is it. 

The publisher's summary:  

April is a busy time for Hannah Swensen and her bakery; the warm weather makes folks in Lake Eden, Minnesota, go wild for something sweet. When Hannah hears that the Cinnamon Roll Six jazz band will be playing at the town's Weekend Jazz Festival, she's more than happy to bake up a generous supply of their namesake confections to welcome the band to town.

Before the festival even begins, tragedy strikes when the tour bus overturns. Among those injured is Buddy Neiman, the band's beloved keyboard player. Buddy's injuries appear minor, until his condition suddenly takes a turn for the worse--as in dead. Hannah's no doctor, but she suspects that the surgical scissors someone plunged into Buddy's chest may have something to do with it. Hannah isn't sure just how she'll unravel the mystery, but one thing's for sure: nothing's sweeter than bringing a killer to justice. . .

What can I say? These later books in the series are OK. Just OK. They are not serious mysteries as early books in the series were. While the series has always been light reading, I believe that the plots have suffered as the series gets bigger. Maybe the author is bored with churning out a new book every year. With 30 books written to date, I think the author needs something different to write about. Cinnamon Roll Murder is light on plot and character development. We see the characters having a new dilemma to deal with but there is no real character development. Hannah keeps dating two men, Mike and Norman, but there is no progress in her relationship with either of them. Having read later books in the series, I know that she will marry Mike. Both men continually drop in at all hours for sweets which would annoy me personally.

All the books are the same. Hannah bakes up a storm, then finds a body, and solves the crime after getting into a dangerous situation with the killer. There was some mystery in the beginning of Cinnamon Roll Murder but there weren't any twists or turns to keep me entertained.

I am sorry to say I am rating the book 2.5 stars out of 5 stars.

The Key Lime Pie Murder

The Key Lime Pie Murder is the 9th book in a 30 book, to date, cozy mystery series by Joanne Fluke. It was published in 2012 and is a selection for the Color Coded Reading Challenge. I am using lime for the required green entry.

The publisher's summary:

It promises to be a busy week for Hannah Swensen. Not only is she whipping up treats for the chamber of commerce booth at the Tri-County fair, she's also judging the baking contest; acting as a magician's assistant for her business partner's husband; trying to coax Moishe, her previously rapacious feline, to end his hunger strike, and performing her own private carnival act by juggling the demands of her mother and sisters.

With so much on her plate, it's no wonder Hannah finds herself on the midway only moments before the fair closes for the night. After hearing a suspicious thump, she goes snooping–only to discover Willa Sunquist, a student teacher and fellow bake contest judge, dead alongside an upended key lime pie. But who would want to kill Willa and why?

Now Hannah needs to crank up the heat, hoping that Willa's killer will get rattled and make a mistake. If that happens she intends to be there, even if it means getting on a carnival ride that could very well be her last. . .

This was an enjoyable and relaxing read. The storyline was interesting and suspenseful. I loved the recipes and character development from prior books in the series. I have read many books in the series, including more current books, and I believe that the earlier books were better because the plots are tighter. There is alot of humor in these books which also make them delightful to read. The 16 recipes that are in the back of the book were expertly introduced into the plot. With a plot containing a baking contest, Hannah Swensen was a judge instead of being a baker. I could literally taste the entries in the county fair contest. As the judges tasted and discussed the merits of each entry we read about a murder and who could have done the deed. I liked that the investigation of the crime was slowly revealed from discussion among the judges.

ToHighly-creative confection recipes plumped the pages in KEY LIME PIE MURDER. Not knowing when to stop, the recipes opened themselves into luscious, heavy-laden, in-plot cooking, tasting, and contest judg

5 out of 5 stars.

Pink Lemonade Cake Murder

Last month I was looking for a book title with a holiday theme for the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge. I read several books for the challenge in August but didn't get around to this one. It would have qualified for the challenge as a an August holiday because August 20 is National Lemonade Day!  

The publisher's summary:

The Tri-County Summer Solstice Celebration has come to town, and even among local artisans, athletes, and marching bands, Hannah attracts fans of her own while serving lip-smacking pink lemonade desserts. But the mood sours when a body turns up, leading revelers to wonder if the festivities mark both the longest day of the year and the deadliest . . . 

A retired professional MLB player has met a terrifying end—and, considering the rumors swirling about his past, the list of suspects could fill a small stadium. Among them could soon be Delores, Hannah’s mother, who publicly held a grudge against the victim after he infamously dunked her in the tank at a previous county fair. With her mother’s innocence on the line, a life-changing announcement at The Cookie Jar, and a plethora of desserts to bake, Hannah can’t afford to strike out as she begins a dangerous investigation into the ruthless killer who’s truly in a league of their own . . .

I was disappointed that the murder did not occur until page 100. The first 100 pages were about Hannah and her sister Andrea making and decorating cakes and cookies. It was mouthwatering to read about baking with pink lemonade, especially since there were recipes at the end of each chapter. Because I concentrated on studying thise recipes, the flow of the mystery was slow. I was also disappointed that each of the recipes used cake mixes. In all of the other books of the series the author had recipes made from scratch. However, I am aware that there are other bakers who prefer to use cake mixes.

Regarding the resolution of the mystery, there wasn't much plot action. Hannah’s aha moments in solving the crime always happened while she was drinking coffee. The reveal of the whodunnit was a surprise but the whydunnit was odd, i.e., girls riding on top of a car. In fact, I wasn't sure if this was really the reason for the murder and had to go back to the beginning and reread a few chapters. 

This installment of the series is not the strongest and I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars.

The Blue Monsoon

The Blue Monsoon is the second book in the Mumbai Blue crime thriller series. In this installment of the series Senior Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput has to find a serial killer who leaves his victims spreadeagle and castrated at the entrance to Hindu temples with their faces cut beyond recognition. Drawn into their flesh are symbols of a tantra cult. He also must deal with friction within the caste system. His own associate will not investigate premises that are owned by lower castes. While the victims are from different castes so are the suspects and none of them want to be associated with each other. A video of the first murder is uploaded onto the account of a Bollywood social media influencer and millions of people had viewed it before her social media accounts were suspended. The desecration of this body at a Hindu place of worship puts the city on edge and divides Arnav’s priorities: stopping a fanatic from killing again and caring for his wife who’s struggling through a challenging pregnancy. If you’ve read the first book in the series, The Blue Bar, you will remember that Arnav Singh Rajput married his wife Tara, after she became paralyzed.

The setting was the weather. The story takes place during the monsoon season and the rain is mentioned on almost every page. I never knew much about monsoons but have learned that they are rain showers where the flood waters can reach up to a person's knees. It is impossible to remain dry when you walk from a car to inside a building and the characters' clothes stayed damp all day with mud splattered all over them. Of course, this makes keeping a crime scene dry near impossible. However, Arnav and his fellow inspectors had no problems reading the crime scenes. The monsoon atmosphere takes the reader to Mumbai in July and I could almost feel my arthritis kicking in when I read about the characters always being damp from coming inside from the rain.

I love the main character Arnav. He seems to be a realistic guy. Arnav's relationship with his wife and daughter resemble families we all know. While he has a good relationship with both, he feels the usual aggravation from them that all couples must deal with. Arnav makes mistakes but doesn't become angry when they happen and he always admits making mistakes when he is called on the carpet. When he gets caught speaking white lies, he always admits doing so and you think that these admissions will result in a change in the plot. Instead, after the admission of guilt, Arnav takes the plot somewhere else.  I also love that he chose an outspoken woman as his wife. Tara continues to push all his buttons even though she is totally dependent on him for care and support.

Mystery lovers who have not read the series yet should begin with the first book, The Blue Bar.  I was just as good as this one and I highly recommend it.  5 out of 5 stars. 

2024 Color Coded Reading Challenge

The Color Coded Reading Challenge is returning in 2024!  I love this challenge and will be participating next year.  The categories will be more open.  The color may either be named in the title or it may appear as the dominant color for the cover of the book. For "implies color" the image implying color should dominate the cover--for instance a large rainbow, a field of flowers, or the image of a painter. Get ready for a rainbow of reading in 2024. 

General Rules:

1)    The Challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2024 and any book read after January 1 may count regardless of when you sign up. You may sign-up any time.

2)    Read nine books in the following categories:

1. A book with "Blue" or any shade of Blue in the title/on the cover.

2. A book with "Red" or any shade of Red in the title/on the cover.

3. A book with "Yellow" or any shade of Yellow in the title/on the cover.

4. A book with "Green" or any shade of Green in the title/on the cover.

5. A book with "Brown" or any shade of Brown in the title/on the cover.

6. A book with "Black" or any shade of Black in the title/on the cover.

7. A book with "White" or any shade of White in the title/on the cover.

8. A book with any other color in the title/on the cover (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, etc).

9. A book with a word/image that implies color in the title/on the cover (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Shadow, Paint, Ink, etc).

3)    Crossovers with other challenges are fine.

4)    To Sign Up please fill in the form below. If you have a blog, please post about the challenge on your site and enter the url link. You may also enter a link to a Goodreads or Library Thing list, Instagram, etc. If you can't use the form for any reason, you may also sign up by commenting below. 

5)    If you post on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media to log a book, please use #ColorCoded2024.

6)    At the beginning of the new year, posts for review links for each color category and the sidebar image will be updated to the new challenge links.