Annual Reading Challenge--2020

[willowsnn3]

 

[JennM]

3/42 - Us Against You - Fredrik Backman (and I read it before I saw the mentions of it in this thread - I enjoyed Beartown and thought this sequel was pretty good)

4/42 - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne (this one was recommended to me by my sister - a very quick read - there were some parts of the writing style that I didn't care for, but the story itself was powerful - I read some reviews from people disappointed in historical inaccuracies about how Auschwitz was portrayed in the book, but to me, it's fiction and liberties can be taken)

 

[MGMmjl]

4/30 - Sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman

Another excellent novel in the Leaphorn and Chee series. I only have one more to go and I will have completed the series by Tony Hillerman and then can continue it with his daughter Anne Hillerman.

 

[Disney_Alli]

8/75 - Waiting for the Sun: Lindsey Iler

This is the duo of the last book (or the sequel) and wraps up Nick and Hannah’s journey.

I hope I can keep my pace up this year!

 

[OKW8297]

2. Summer of ‘69 by Erin Hilderbrand
It was quite good. It bogged down a bit but overall I enjoyed it.

 

[jf256]

I would love to join in. I am doing Good Reads and the Pop Sugar challenge but the more accountable the better.

I only managed to read 10 non work related books last year as i was in my final year of studies and had 2 x big exams and dissertation.

This year i am going for 55 books.

So far i have read:

1) State of Sorrow : Melinda Salisbury 3/5*. Political fantasy.
2)A Curse So Dark and Lonely -Brigid Kemmerer 5/5. Fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast
3) A Heart so Fierce and Broken -Brigid Kemmerer sequel to the above. 3/5
4) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen. Regency Classic 5/5

Currently Reading
5) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. Gothic Romance
6)Venus and Aphrodite- B Hughes Historic Non Fiction Classical

Currently Listening to:
7) The Histories, Herodotus. Classical Text

 

[willowsnn3]

I would love to join in. I am doing Good Reads and the Pop Sugar challenge but the more accountable the better.

I only managed to read 10 non work related books last year as i was in my final year of studies and had 2 x big exams and dissertation.

This year i am going for 55 books.

So far i have read:

1) State of Sorrow : Melinda Salisbury 3/5*. Political fantasy.
2)A Curse So Dark and Lonely -Brigid Kemmerer 5/5. Fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast
3) A Heart so Fierce and Broken -Brigid Kemmerer sequel to the above. 3/5
4) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen. Regency Classic 5/5

Currently Reading
5) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. Gothic Romance
6)Venus and Aphrodite- B Hughes Historic Non Fiction Classical

Currently Listening to:
7) The Histories, Herodotus. Classical Text

Glad you are joining us. Just added you to first post.

 

[willowsnn3]

#6/60 The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules by Catharina Ingleman
79-year-old Martha Anderson dreams of escaping her care home and robbing a bank. She has no intention of spending the rest of her days in an armchair and is determined to fund her way to a much more exciting life-style. Along with her four oldest friends - otherwise known as the League of Pensioners - Martha decides to rebel against all of the rules imposed upon them. Together, they cause an uproar with their antics: protesting against early bedtimes and plastic meals. As the elderly friends become more daring, their activities escalate and they come up with a cunning plan to break out of the care home and land themselves in a far more attractive Stockholm establishment. With the aid of their Zimmer frames, they resolve to stand up for old aged pensioners everywhere - Robin Hood style. And that's when the adventure really takes off . .

This was just ok. A light read tho it seemed to go on forever. First in a series but I didn't like it enough to read any further.

 

[allenfane]

2/12 The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman.

Allenfane

 

[melk]

4/25 Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

This is a young adult/children’s book about a young girl in Pakistan who offends a powerful man in her village and is taken to his home to be a servant. It focuses on her longing for her family, longing to continue her education and the plight of her fellow servants.

I enjoyed this book. It’s a quick read and while I kept expecting something really horrid to happen to her (I read too many adult books, lol) I was satisfied with the justice served in the end.

 

[KevM]

I’ve read 5 books in January. In future months I’ll try to actually up date after each book, instead of all at once at the end.

Jan. ‘20 Books Read

Books Read 2020

1 Will My Cat Eat My Eyeball? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty - Non-Fiction Science/Humor. Doughty is a mortician and the book is based off of questions that kids have asked her. Fun, easy read about death and various other topics surrounding it. 4/5.

2 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear - Self Help. A decent read on how habits are formed and on ways to strengthen good habits and break bad one. 3/5.

3 Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen - Sci-Fi. A Time Travel story. After being stranded in the 90s for 18 years after a mission the main character is brought back to his time. At the at point he needs to do all he can to save his daughter who shouldn’t exist. 4/5

4 Life’s To Short to Go So F*ucking Slow: Lessons From an Epic Friendship that Went the Distance by Susan Lacke - Memoir. Lacke’s a writer and triathlete. This memoir covers her friendship with her boss, Carlos. From introducing her/training/coaching her through multiple Ironmans through his battle with an incurable cancer. A beautiful mix of humor and heartbreak. 4.5/5

5 There There by Tommy Orange - Contemporary Fiction. The story is told through multiple perspectives of Natives living in Oakland leading up to a powwow. An excellent debut novel. This is the selection for One Book, One Philadelphia. 4.5/5

 

[virge]

2/50 The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart -- he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone -- but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

This was one I read for book club. It was a lovely twist on a familiar fairy tale.

3/50 Malcom X by Walter Dean Myers
I must admit, I didn’t know much about Malcolm X. I enjoy Walter Dean Myers, so I decided to read his young adult biography about Malcom X. I really enjoyed it and was disappointed in myself for not learning more about him earlier.

4/50 Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks & Gita Varadarajan
Joe and Ravi might be from very different places, but they're both stuck in the same place: SCHOOL.
Joe's lived in the same town all his life, and was doing just fine until his best friends moved away and left him on his own.
Ravi's family just moved to America from India, and he's finding it pretty hard to figure out where he fits in.
Joe and Ravi don't think they have anything in common -- but soon enough they have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week.

This book was a fast read. As an adult, it was predictable, but I think it would be a good read for an upper elementary student.

 

[monarchsfan16]

I'll join. I'm doing one of those "read x book, read a book by so and so" challenges with friends, and have set a goal on goodreads, but accountability is good, and I'm seeing this as a good spot for new book ideas too (not that I'm caught up at all on books that I have!) I've set a goal of 30 books for this year, although, if January is any indicator, I may need to increase that goal.

1/30: Little Women. This fit the "classic" category on the book challenge. I'm not a fan of the classics (sorry) but the story wasn't bad. 4/5

2/30: It's What I do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario. This fit the "nonfiction" category on the book challenge. I enjoyed this. It was an intriguing and eye opening read, and very readable. 4/5

3/30: A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum. I read this to take a break from the challenge. I found this book to be very readable, very humbling, and very eye-opening. 5/5

4/30: Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. This was an "everyone is going to read this book" book on the challenge list. It's a selection of very poorly written feminist essays. If I see any other book by this author appear on one of these challenges my friend hands me, I'm done with her book challenge lists. 1/5

5/30: Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins by Katarina Bivald. Read this to break up the challenge. Readable, and I liked the characters a lot, but there was something about it that wasn't quite right and I still can't put my finger on it. I liked it, but I didn't love it. 3.5/5

6/30: Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. Another specific book on the book list and one I wouldn't have necessarily picked for myself. I ended up enjoying it overall. Something was missing, but it was very readable. 4/5.

 

[Tiggerish]

Make-Believe Fiance by Vivi Holt. Christian romantic fiction with the standard happy ending.

Beard Science by Penny Reid. This is part of a series about the Winston Brothers. It was a fun read and kept my interest. It does have some adult content.

Breakfast at the Beach House Hotel by Judith Keim. This is the first book in the series. It was a quick, easy read.

3 of 80

 

[willowsnn3]

I'll join. I'm doing one of those "read x book, read a book by so and so" challenges with friends, and have set a goal on goodreads, but accountability is good, and I'm seeing this as a good spot for new book ideas too (not that I'm caught up at all on books that I have!) I've set a goal of 30 books for this year, although, if January is any indicator, I may need to increase that goal.

1/30: Little Women. This fit the "classic" category on the book challenge. I'm not a fan of the classics (sorry) but the story wasn't bad. 4/5

2/30: It's What I do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario. This fit the "nonfiction" category on the book challenge. I enjoyed this. It was an intriguing and eye opening read, and very readable. 4/5

3/30: A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum. I read this to take a break from the challenge. I found this book to be very readable, very humbling, and very eye-opening. 5/5

4/30: Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. This was an "everyone is going to read this book" book on the challenge list. It's a selection of very poorly written feminist essays. If I see any other book by this author appear on one of these challenges my friend hands me, I'm done with her book challenge lists. 1/5

5/30: Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins by Katarina Bivald. Read this to break up the challenge. Readable, and I liked the characters a lot, but there was something about it that wasn't quite right and I still can't put my finger on it. I liked it, but I didn't love it. 3.5/5

6/30: Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. Another specific book on the book list and one I wouldn't have necessarily picked for myself. I ended up enjoying it overall. Something was missing, but it was very readable. 4/5.

Welcome! Added you to the first post.
I have thought about doing one of those challenges you are talking about. Maybe I'll research it further.

 

[BonnieF]

5/50 - Something in the Water, Catherine Steadman. A couple leading the good life in London have things suddenly turn bad and they compound it with bad, bad decisions. I found myself wanting to slap the female lead character - she always makes the choice that increases danger. I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[mini22]

8/35 Hot ice by Nora Roberts

 

[monarchsfan16]

Welcome! Added you to the first post.
I have thought about doing one of those challenges you are talking about. Maybe I'll research it further.

If you are a pinterest user you can find many book challenges on there.

 

[OKW8297]

3. Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout excellent and thought provoking. Takes people who’s lives intersect and tears back the facade they present to the world.

 

[SaintsManiac]

#1-What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
It’s book 2 in her new series. Really enjoyed the characters and setting. Ended on a cliffhanger ugh! Next one comes out in October. She is one of my all time favorite authors, so I know I will enjoy anything she writes.

#2-The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
A solid “sequel” to Handmaid’s Tale. I enjoyed getting to learn things from other perspectives. Very interesting and I love Atwood’s writing style.

#3-This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Amazing book. I could not put it down. 5 stars all around.

#4-Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
I enjoyed this one, but some of the "southern" descriptions in the present day portion were way over the top. I'm interested in reading the non-fiction that came out after this one. I fell down the Wikipedia rabbit hole while reading this.

#5-The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (currently reading)

#5-The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

I really wanted to like this one more. I started reading, because when I was watching the HBO show it didn't make sense. I thought parts of this book were really great, but I just can't see the hype. I received the trilogy as a Christmas gift, so I will read the next one at a later date.

#6--The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (currently re-reading for the 5th time at least) Just watched the Tolkien biopic and realized I had not been to Middle Earth in a long time.