Play Book Tag discussion

As I was looking over the books which I read this year, I noticed that I had many noteworthy books, which I read because of challenges.

What noteworthy books have you read this year, because of challenges?

Are many from your tbr or are they new?

Intriguing question! I certainly have read some wonderful books thanks to challenges so far this year. I'd say it's about 1/2 and 1/2 from TBR and new ones. Here are I few I truly enjoyed:
Black Cake
Hadley & Grace (TBR)
Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II (TBR)
Dial A for Aunties
A Ladder to the Sky (TBR)
The Marriage Portrait (TBR)
The Reading List (TBR)
Notes on an Execution
In a Sunburned Country
I'm certainly looking forward to quite a few more during the rest of the year.

For Challenges I only use my GR's TBR That is a solid rule for me. I am never concerned about winning a challenge, for me it is all about reading what I said I want to read. So if I cannot fit a book it is no big deal. I do have many that I was so glad I added and read this year.

The Summer Before the War
Fragile Cargo: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City
Honor
The Hunt for Mount Everest
The Perfect Horse: the Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis
A Thread of Grace

When I look at my favorite books read so far for 2023, three were read for challenges and 5 were not.

Challenge Books:

We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship - Nonfiction
The Bird Hotel
The Bean Trees - *can be used for Immigration Tag

Other Books:

Hotel Cuba - *can be used for Immigration Tag
The Chinese Groove - *can be used for Immigration Tag
Künstlers in Paradise - *can be used for Immigration Tag
Eventide
Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia - Nonfiction

I'm interested to see everyone else's notable books.

I ended up with so many because of Subdue and it made me realize how many hidden gems I have on my TBR. These are the best, but there were others I found that I'm glad I read.

Noteworthy challenge books from TBR:
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted- NF
The Sixth Lamentation 5 star
Hamnet 5 star
The Island of Missing Trees 5 star
Transcendent Kingdom
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat
West with Giraffes
Remarkably Bright Creatures
A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France NF
Between Shades of Gray
Loving Frank 5 star
How Lucky 5 star
Shutter

The new books are from our little unofficial Edgars Awards reading challenge

New Books from Challenges:
Cleopatra's Dagger
A Dreadful Splendor
The Marlow Murder Club

I've already had more 5* reads this year than all of last year, and all of them were already on my TBR. What has surprised me most looking back is that 4 of these were non-fiction, and my reading tends to be probably about 90% fiction.

My favourites so far:

Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
The Sealed Letter
Lady Clementine
The Winners
Black Cake

Like JoAnne, I select books from my TBR for challenges. The others I read are normally new releases not read for any challenge. I have read some great books for the Subdue the Shelf Challenge that may have taken me years to get to.

New Releases: (2022 or 2023)
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - 5* - My Review
- Victory City by Salman Rushdie - 5* - My Review
- Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang - 5* - My Review
- Search by Michelle Huneven - 5* - My Review
- Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang - 5* - My Review
- The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph - 5* - My Review
- The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher - 5* - My Review

From TBR:
- Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes - 5* - My Review
- Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn - 5* - My Review
- The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley - 5* - My Review
- Solaris by Stanisław Lem - 5* - My Review
- The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri - 5* - My Review
- The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller - 5* - My Review
- Us by David Nicholls - 5* - My Review
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell - 5* - My Review
- Short Nights Of The Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan - 5* - My Review
- The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler - 5* - My Review
- Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese - 5* - My Review
- The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough - 5* - My Review
- World's Fair by E.L. Doctorow - 5* - My Review
- Brave Men by Ernie Pyle - 5* - My Review
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder - 5* - My Review
- Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky - 5* - My Review

Joy D wrote: "Like JoAnne, I select books from my TBR for challenges. The others I read are normally new releases not read for any challenge. I have read some great books for the Subdue the Shelf Challenge that ..."

Joy, with all of those 5 stars already, you are going to have trouble picking your top 10 of the year.

@ Joy, I agree that Subdue has dug out some great sleepers from my list, and I am loving it!

Booknblues wrote: "Joy D wrote: "Like JoAnne, I select books from my TBR for challenges. The others I read are normally new releases not read for any challenge. I have read some great books for the Subdue the Shelf C..."

Indeed-for Joy to have so many 5 stars is utterly amazing!

I mostly use TBR for challenges - and at this time of year with the full year challenges, it's usually 100% off the TBR - either books I own already, have on wishlists, or the want-to-read list here on GR. This year I added an Agatha Christie Challenge as I wanted to start re-reading all those I last read in my youth, so I'm more like 98% right now as I don't own all those Christies any longer nor were any on my TBR. By year end, the read from TBR will likely end up around 95% as there are prompts in the year long challenges that either specify reading a book or books published in 2023, or a random impulse purchase that gets read immediately, or I just don't have anything in the TBR that I can jam into the prompt.

Subdue is making this a banner year for reading and removing books from my massive TBR Towers! I've had a lot of 5 star reads already, already making me start isolating the ones that might make the top 10 -- I can give a book 5 stars but not consider it in the top 10.

So far, my top books read from TBR simply because of challenges and total delights, like finding jewels in my TBR Towers - all 5 stars:

The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s - NF - don't faint!
The Summer Before the War - JoAnne and I talked about a buddy read on this for 3 years at least - Unofficial Trim got us there.
Lulu in Hollywood - another NF!
Hedy Lamarr's Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor (Volume 4) - NF again, and a middle-grade book. introduced me to an amazing series
Kafka on the Shore
And Only to Deceive
The Bells of Old Tokyo: Meditations on Time and a City - another NF - am I going to beat Hannah?
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Hamnet
The Casual Vacancy
The Turn of the Key
The Cook
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany - NF that puts me past Sue!
Parsnips in Love

Honorable Mentions - new books but read for challenges:
A Dreadful Splendor - Edgar Nominees
The Marlow Murder Club - Edgar Nominees and a 4 star but deserving of mention.

Honorable Mentions - from TBR only 4 stars but introduced me to a series or author
The Autumn Bride
A Study in Scarlet Women
Family Business

So many of these have been ignored for years, I read them, and wonder what took me so long!

I can only think of a couple of times I've had a NF on my top reads -- and I have 4! Gauntlet thrown down, Hannah, to see which one of us who read 90% Fiction has most NF in our 2023 top reads.

I try to use my TBR for challenges but often get sidetracked. Below are some good books from 2023. I am a hard grader, giving only a few books 5 stars in a year.

Some TBR books for this year that got prioritized because of challenges, many because of Subdue the Shelf:
Small World - 5 stars
Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century - 4 stars
Eternal Life - 4 stars
Dark Angels - 4.5 stars
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle - 4 stars
Evvie Drake Starts Over - 4 stars
Babel: An Arcane History- 4 stars
Demon Copperhead - 5 stars
Century in Scarlet - 4 stars
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise - 4 stars
A Trip to the Stars - 4 stars
Spinning Silver - 4.5 stars


Books not on my TBR read because of challenges
Dial A for Aunties 4.5 stars
Kon-Tiki - 5 stars
The Secret Adversary - 4 stars
The Cat Who Saved Books - 4 stars
Love & Saffron - 4 stars
Quicksand - 4 stars
Heartstopper: Volume One - 4.5 stars (I would never have picked up a graphic novel without the challenge and I then read the whole series!)