the sweetness at the bottom of the pie

I'm meant to be at the pool.  I said I would be, but I'm not.  Instead, I've spent most of the morning in bed, finishing this book.  I enjoyed it so much!  Am I starting to like crime fiction, or is it just that I like stories about precocious girls in crumbling abodes?  Either way, so good!  And a very pleasant change of pace following on from 100 Years Of Solitude, which I found slow and hard-going, though not unenjoyable for all that.

Not that I have any hope of completing the Semi-Charmed Book Challenge any more (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his 22 characters named Aureliano put paid to that!) but I've done a bit of a rejig of my categories and am still going to keep going and see how many points I can amass.  Here's what I'm planning to read now.  (Red means yet to read, green means I've read it.)

5 points: Freebie!
 THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO (Nick Cave - 288 pages, audiobook) 

10 points: Read a book written by an author who has published at least 10 books.

 THE GRAVE TATTOO (Val McDermid - 400 pages) 

10 points: Read a book of short stories.

 VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE (Karen Russell - 243 pages) 

10 points: Read a book with a food in the title.

 THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE 
 (Alan Bradley - 363 pages) 

15 points: Read the first book in a series that is new to you.

 SHADOW OF THE WIND (Carlos Ruiz Zafon - 487 pages) 

15 points: Read a book that was originally written in a language that is not your native language.

100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE (Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 457 pages) 

15 points: Read a book written by a local author.

BUDDHA DA (Anne Donovan - 352 pages) 

20 points: Read a "bookish book.

 THE THIRTEENTH TALE (Diane Setterfield - 456 pages) 

20 points: Read a book with a direction in the title.

 EAST, WEST (Salman Rushdie - 224 pages) 

25 points: Read a book from a genre you don't usually read.

 THE PAST IS MYSELF 
(Christabel Bielenberg - 288 pages, autobiography) 

25 points: Read a book with a song lyric in the title.

 FREEDOM (Jonathan Franzen - 576 pages) 
(i.e. Freedom by George Michael) 

30 points: Read two books with a different meal in each title.

 BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS (Kurt Vonnegut - 302 pages) 

and THE CORONER'S LUNCH (Colin Cotterill - 272 pages)
 
125 points achieved, 75 points to go!  I'm already predicting that Grave Tattoo and Freedom won't be read, or at least not before the challenge deadline is upon me.  Ah, well, I can but try and I could always sacrifice swimming for reading...?  Yes, nice try, Laura.