Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

I've already signed myself up for quite a few challenges next year. After years spent reading basically nothing but fanfiction, it seems like I need some discipline to not slack of completely. (Not sure Anne Rice qualifies as something more worthwhile than fanfiction, but in the end, it's the mix of everything that counts, right?).

So, first of all, I'm planning to read all the Award winners and series that I haven't read yet.
I'm also going to participate in some, but not all of the Buddy reads and the group reads that appeal to me ...

January:
[✔] Landline
[✔] Station Eleven
[✔] The Night Circus
[✔] Interview with the Vampire (re-read)

February:
[✔] Lullabies
[✔] Serenity: Those Left Behind
[✔] The Vampire Lestat
[✔] Bel Canto
[✔] Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty

March:
[✔] Mr. Mercedes
[✔] The Queen of the Damned
[✔] Serenity: Better Days
[✔] I Am Pilgrim (abandoned due to it being awful)

April:
[✔] Yes Please
[✔] Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
[✔] The Tale of the Body Thief
[✔] The Girl on the Train

May:
[✔] The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories
[✔] Serenity: Leaves on the Wind
[✔] Memnoch the Devil

June:
[✔] Make It Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
[✔] The Martian
[✔] The Vampire Armand
[✔] Lock In

July:
[✔] The Pigeon Needs a Bath!
[✔] The Book of Life
[✔] Merrick (summary only)

August:
[✔] Red Rising
[✔] #GIRLBOSS
[✔] The Enchanted
[✔] Blood And Gold (summary only)
[✔] The Truth About Alice

September:
[✔] The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
[✔] Blackwood Farm (summary only)
[✔] In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette (abandoned)

October:
[✔] This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl
[✔] Blood Canticle (summary only)

November:
[✔] We Were Liars
[✔] Prince Lestat
[✔] An Echo in the Bone (re-read, summary only)
[✔] The Rest of Us Just Live Here
[✔] I'll Give You the Sun
[✔] The Girl with All the Gifts

December:
[✔] Written in My Own Heart's Blood

And, of course, I'm doing the Popsugar challenge that everyone is doing this year ... (stole this from Kirsten, thank you!)

[✔] A book with 500 pages ... The Bone Clocks
[✔] A classic romance ... The Princess Bride
[✔] A book that became a movie ... All the President's Men
[✔] A book published this year ... Vision in Silver
[✔] A book with a number in the title ... Station Eleven
[✔] A book written by someone under 30 ... Fool on the Hill
[✔] A book with nonhuman characters ... The Vampire Lestat
[✔] A funny book ... What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
[✔] A book with a female author ... Lullabies
[✔] A mystery or thriller ... The Girl on the Train
[✔] A book with a one-word title ... Landline
[✔] A book of short stories ... Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales
[✔] A book set in a different country ... Bel Canto
[✔] A nonfiction book ... On Immunity: An Inoculation
[✔] A popular author's first book ... Diary of a Wimpy Kid
[✔] A book from an author you love that you have not read yet ... The Rifter Book Two: The Holy Road
[✔] A book a friend recommended ... The Unbearable Lightness of Being
[✔] A Pulitzer Prize winning book ... The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
[✔] A book based on a true story ... Das Schneekind
[✔] A book at the bottom of your to-read list ... The Night Circus
[✔] A book your mom loves ... Pride and Prejudice
[✔] A book that scares you ... One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
[✔] A book more than 100 years old ... The Count of Monte Cristo
[✔] A book based entirely on its cover ... The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
[✔] A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't ... Deutschstunde
[✔] A memoir ... The Glass Castle
[✔] A book you can finish in a day ... Yes Please
[✔] A book with antonyms in the title ... The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act
[✔] A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit ... Großer-Tiger und Christian.
[✔] A book that came out the year you were born ... Interview with the Vampire
[✔] A book with bad reviews ... Mr. Mercedes
[✔] A trilogy ... Ink, Rain, Storm
[✔] A book from your childhood ... Die rote Zora und ihre Bande
[✔] A book with a love triangle ... Talon
[✔] A book set in the future ... UnSouled
[✔] A book set in high school ... The Age of Miracles
[✔] A book with a color in the title ... A Clockwork Orange
[✔] A book that made you cry ... Blindness
[✔] A book with magic ... City of Stairs
[✔] A graphic novel ... Saga, Volume 4
[✔] A book by an author you've never read before ... Annihilation
[✔] A book you own but have never read ... Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
[✔] A book that takes place in your hometown (or close to where you live) ... I'll Give You the Sun
[✔] A book originally written in a different language ... The Brothers Lionheart
[✔] A book set during Christmas ... How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
[✔] A book written by an author with your same initials ... Career of Evil = JkR
[✔] A play ... Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
[✔] A banned book ... Brave New World
[✔] A book based on or turned into a TV show ... A Dance with Dragons
[✔] A book you started but never finished ... A Discovery of Witches

(the book that made me cry will be tough though as I've barely ever (if ever) cried about a book ... unless I was pregnant and I don't plan on being pregnant ever again .. not even for the sake of a challenge).
edit: Ha! And now I'm done with Station Eleven and was THIS close to crying out of sheer joy at the end. Where to put it??

This aim of this challenge is to ask others for three of their favorite books and read at least one of them per month. My selections for 2015 are:

[✔] Das Schneekind
[✔] Fool on the Hill
[✔] The Brothers Lionheart
[✔] The Unbearable Lightness of Being
[✔] Pride and Prejudice
[✔] The Corrections
[✔] Milchgeld
[✔] Großer Tiger Und Christian
[✔] Jan, mein Freund
[✔] Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
[✔] Deutschstunde
[✔] Du bist zu schnell

The Full House Reading Challenge (by "Book Date" blog):


[✔] a library book ... Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales
[✔] a top book of 2015 ... On Immunity: An Inoculation
[✔] you heard about the book online ... The Rifter Book Two: The Holy Road
[✔] set in the southern hemisphere ... Bel Canto
[✔] published in 2015 ... Vision in Silver
[✔] novella ... Messenger’s Legacy
[✔] setting that you now want to visit ... Ink
[✔] award winning ... Blindness
[✔] first in a series ... Interview with the Vampire
[✔] a keeper ... Saga, Volume 4
[✔] author outside your country ... The Count of Monte Cristo
[✔] book by an author you really like ... Talon
[✔] free choice (any book) ... What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
[✔] published 2000-2013 ... The Glass Castle
[✔] outstanding hero/heroine ... City of Stairs
[✔] won or borrowed ... Fool on the Hill
[✔] book set in the northern hemisphere ... Das Schneekind
[✔] debut novel by author ... The Girl on the Train
[✔] published pre 2000 ... A Clockwork Orange
[✔] author new to you ... Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
[✔] 2nd book or more in a series ... UnSouled
[✔] on your tbr list forever ... The Night Circus
[✔] published in 2014 ... Landline
[✔] type of book you rarely or never read ... Lullabies
[✔] you love the cover ... Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty

Eclectic Reader Challenge by Book'Out (blog)


[✔] Retellings (fairy tale, legends, or myth) ... Fool on the Hill/Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty
[✔] A book set in a country starting with S ... Jan, mein Freund (Sweden)
[✔] PI Crime ... Mr. Mercedes
[✔] A novel published before you were born (1976) ... The Count of Monte Cristo
[✔] Contemporary romance ... The Unbearable Lightness of Being
[✔] Fiction for foodies ... The Corrections
[✔] Microhistory ... All the President's Men
[✔] Science Fiction set in space ... Saga, Volume 4
[✔] Sports (fiction or nonfiction) ... Ink (Kendo)
[✔] Featuring diversity ... The Rifter Book Two: The Holy Road
[✔] Epistolary fiction ... Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
[✔] Middle Grade/YA adventure ... The Brothers Lionheart

I think that's it, isn't it?

bump

all done :)

Wowza! Well done Janina!

Way to go, Janina! Congrats!

Janina wrote, "(the book that made me cry will be tough though as I've barely ever (if ever) cried about a book ... unless I was pregnant and I don't plan on being pregnant ever again .. not even for the sake of a challenge)."

OMG, Janina...I just saw this. Too funny!!

Hahahaha! That is hilarious!

:)

Thanks. Challenges make reading even more fun and I love (and sometimes hate) that they force me to read books I would never choose otherwise.