2025 Reading Challenge discussion

TOC

1. 2023 Member Corner
2. 2024 Goodreads Year in Books
3. 2024 Goodreads Challenge
4. 2024 Reading Summary
5. 2024 Challenge Tracker
6. 2024 Book Tracker

⭐ 2024 Reading Summary ⭐

Reading Resolutions
1. Don't finish books that I hate, or are a waste of time.
2. Finish more challenges.
3. Read more non-fiction
4. Work on clearing my shelves

Stats
📚 Books read: 61
📖 Pages read: 16,617
★ Average Rating: 3.6
📏 Average Length: 272
📆 Average Days to Read: 2.76

Ratings

Rating System
★★★★★ - LOVED IT! It's a Desert Island book
★★★★☆ - I really liked it, a lot.
★★★☆☆ - Good (enough)
★★☆☆☆ - It might be good, for someone else
★☆☆☆☆ - Hated it!

2024 Ratings
★★★★★ 8
★★★★☆ 25
★★★☆☆ 27
★★☆☆☆ 2
★☆☆☆☆ 1


Likes & Dislikes

Likes
💟 Favorite title: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
🙇‍♀️ Favorite literary fiction: The Good Lord Bird
🕵️ Favorite genre fiction: These Alien Skies
🤔 Favorite non-fiction: The Undefeated
📕 Favorite cover: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Dislikes
👎 Least favorite books:
* Pet

Diversity
🤎 BIPOC Authors: 37 (59.7%)
🚺 Women: 41 (66.1%)
🏳️‍⚧️ GNC: 4 (0.07%)
🌎 Author location (non US/Canada/UK): 17 (3.59%)
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ (author or main character): 10 (16.3%)
👵🏽 Senior (author or main character): 4 (0.07%)
🤔 Non-fiction: 6 (0.10%)
🇸🇪 In translation: 4 (30.07%)

Notes

Challenge Tracker

Challenges: 10/18

Yearly Challenge - Just Read
✅ Goodreads Challenge (100/100)

Yearly Challenges - Growth Challenges
1. Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (14/20)
2. Genre Bingo (17/24 books, 4/13 bingos)

Yearly Challenges - Fun Challenges
1. Let's Turn Pages (27,054/35,000 pp)
2. Clear the Shelves (5/24)
3. A - Z Book Titles Challenge (23/26)
4. ✅ Personal Challenge: Tournament of Books (16/12)
5. Personal Challenge: Color Challenge (15/18)
6. Personal Challenge: Every Year (25/30)
7. Personal Challenge: Follow Ups (3/10)

Quarterly Challenges
1. ✅ Q3 Quarterly Challenge: Summer Games (19/15)

Monthly Challenges
1. ✅ January Challenge: Marathon Challenge (5,271/5,000)
2. ✅ February Challenge (Personal): Honor Black History Month (15/5)
3. ✅ March Challenge (Personal): Honor Women's History Month (13/5)
4. ✅ May Challenge (Personal): Honor Asian-American History Month (8/5)
5. ✅ June Challenge: Life Changes (6/5)
6. ✅ June Challenge (Personal): Honor Queer History Month (7/5)
7. ✅ Sept 15 - Oct 15 (Personal): Latinx Heritage Month (0/5)

✅ Goodreads Challenge

Goal: 113/100

January
1. Several People Are Typing, Calvin Kasulke ★★★☆☆
2. Too Bright to See, Kyle Lukoff ★★★☆☆
3. Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O'Brien ★★★★☆
4. The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, Malcolm Gladwell ★★★★☆
5. Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir, Natasha Trethewey ★★★★☆
6. While We Were Dating, Jasmine Guillory ★★★☆☆
7. Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson ★★★☆☆
8. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi ★★★★☆
9. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin ★★★★☆
10. Erasure, Percival Everett ★★★★☆
11. The Female Persuasion, Meg Wolitzer ★★★★☆
12. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer ★★★★★
13. The History of Love, Nicole Krauss ★★★★☆
14. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender ★★★★☆
15. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson ★★★★☆
16. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee ★★★★★
17. My Brother's Husband, Volume 1, Gengoroh Tagame ★★★☆☆

February
18. Sharks in the Time of Saviors, Kawai Strong Washburn ★★★★☆
19. The Undefeated, Kwame Alexander ★★★★★
20. Pet, Akwaeke Emezi ★☆☆☆☆
21. Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ★★★★☆
22. Real Life, Brandon Taylor ★★★★☆
23. The Visit, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ★★★★☆
24. The Black Pages, Nnedi Okorafor ★★★☆☆
25. 2043... a Merman I Should Turn to Be, Nisi Shawl ★★☆☆☆
26. These Alien Skies, C.T. Rwizi ★★★★★
27. Clap Back, Nalo Hopkinson ★★★☆☆
28. We Travel the Spaceways, Victor LaValle ★★★☆☆
29. Treasure, Oyinkan Braithwaite ★★★☆☆
30. The Good Lord Bird, James McBride ★★★★★
31. Graceful Burdens, Roxane Gay ★★★☆☆
32. Lone Women, Victor LaValle ★★★★☆

March
33. You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain, Phoebe Robinson ★★★☆☆
34. Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin ★★★☆☆
35. The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich ★★★★★
36. The Invisible Hour, Alice Hoffman ★★★★☆
37. Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy ★★★★☆
38. Xingu, Edith Wharton ★★★★☆
39. The Perfect Nanny, Leïla Slimani ★★★☆☆
40. A Cold Day for Murder, Dana Stabenow ★★★★☆
41. The Vulnerables, Sigrid Nunez ★★★★☆
42. Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli ★★★★☆
43. Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit ★★☆☆☆
44. The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman ★★★☆☆
45. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin ★★★★☆

April
46. Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel ★★★☆☆
47. Coraline, Neil Gaiman ★★★☆☆
48. The Librarianist, Patrick deWitt ★★★★★
49. The Shamshine Blind, Paz Pardo ★★★☆☆
50. A Fatal Thaw, Dana Stabenow
51. The Lost Bookshop, Evie Woods ★★★☆☆
52. Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road, Bernard Ollivier ★★★☆☆
53. Intimacies, Katie Kitamura ★★★☆☆

May
54. The Satapur Moonstone, Sujata Massey ★★★☆☆
55. The Bombay Prince, Sujata Massey ★★★☆☆
56. The Mistress of Bhatia House, Sujata Massey ★★★☆☆
57. The Queen of the Night, Alexander Chee ★★★★☆
58. The Book of Goose, Yiyun Li ★★★★★
59. A Woman of Pleasure, Kiyoko Murata ★★★★☆
60. Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang ★★★★☆
61. The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey ★★★☆☆
62. A Nest of Vipers, Harini Nagendra ★★★☆☆

June
63. So Lucky, Nicola Griffith ★★★★★
64. Day, Michael Cunningham ★★★★★
65. Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy ★★★★★
66. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives, Dashka Slater ★★★★☆
67. A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood ★★★★★
68. The Wonder, Emma Donoghue ★★★☆☆
69. The Mermaids Singing, Val McDermid ★★★☆☆
70. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan ★★★☆☆
71. Memorial, Bryan Washington ★★★☆☆
72. The Comfort of Ghosts, Jacqueline Winspear ★★★☆☆

July
73. The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue ★★★☆☆
74. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan ★★★☆☆
75. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters ★★★★★
76. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan ★★★☆☆
77. A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles ★★★★★
78, Gourmet Rhapsody, Muriel Barbery ★★☆☆☆
79. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery ★★★☆☆

August
80. Possession, A.S. Byatt ★★★★☆
81. The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton ★★★★☆
82. The Plotters, Kim Un-Su ★★★☆☆
83. The House of Fortune, Jessie Burton ★★★☆☆
84. The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler ★★★★☆
85. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar ★★★★★
86. The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón ★★★★☆
87. How to Solve Your Own Murder, Kristen Perrin ★★★★☆

September
88. The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide ★★★☆☆
89. The Husbands, Holly Gramazio ★★★★☆
90. Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books, Kirsten Miller ★★★★☆
91. Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe ★★★★☆
92. Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng ★★★★☆
93. Yellowface, R.F. Kuang ★★★★☆
94. The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith ★★★★☆
95. Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia ★★★☆☆
96. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, Claire Jiménez ★★★★☆
97. Butter, Asako Yuzuki ★★★★☆
98. The Last Cuentista, Donna Barba Higuera ★★★★☆
99. A Dash of Trouble, Anna Meriano ★★★☆☆
100. Sanctuary, Paola Mendoza ★★★☆☆

October
101. Killing Floor, Lee Child ★★★☆☆
102. Die Trying, Lee Child ★★★☆☆
103. Without Fail, Lee Child ★★★☆☆
104. Shameless: Republicans' Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy, Brian Tyler Cohen ★★★★☆
105. Horse, Geraldine Brooks ★★★★☆
106. Give Me a Sign, Anna Sortino ★★★☆☆
107. 61 Hours, Lee Child ★★★☆☆
108. Worth Dying For, Lee Child ★★★☆☆
109. The Hard Way, Lee Child ★★★☆☆
110. Personal, Lee Child ★★☆☆☆
111. One Shot, Lee Child ★★★☆☆
112. Night School, Lee Child ★★☆☆☆
113. The Lion Women of Tehran, Marjan Kamali ★★★★☆

Yearly Challenge: Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

Goal: 15/20

1. ✅ Cozy fantasy book
* The Lost Bookshop, Evie Woods
2. ✅ YA book by a trans author
* Pet, Akwaeke Emezi
3. ✅ Middle grade horror novel
* Coraline, Neil Gaiman
4. History book by a BIPOC author
5. ✅ Sci-fi novella
* Several People Are Typing, Calvin Kasulke
6. ✅ Middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character
* Too Bright to See, Kyle Lukoff
7. Indie published collection of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author
8. ✅ Book in translation from a country you’ve never visited
* A Woman of Pleasure, Kiyoko Murata (Japan)
9. ✅ Book recommended by a librarian
* The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, Malcolm Gladwell
10. ✅ Historical fiction book by an Indigenous author
* The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich
11. ✅ Picture book published in the last five years
* The Undefeated, Kwame Alexander
12. ✅ Genre book (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) by a disabled author
* Give Me a Sign, Anna Sortino (romance, author/characters are deaf)
13. Comic that has been banned
14. Book by an author with an upcoming event (virtual or in person) and then attend the event
15. YA nonfiction book
* ✅ The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives, Dashka Slater
16. ✅ Book based solely on the title
* Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson
17. Book about media literacy
18. Book about drag or queer artistry
19. Romance with neurodivergent characters.
20. ✅ Book about books (fiction or nonfiction)
* The Invisible Hour, Alice Hoffman
21. ✅ Book that went under the radar in 2023
* The Shamshine Blind, Paz Pardo
22. ✅ Manga or manhwa
* My Brother's Husband, Volume 1, Gengoroh Tagame
23. “Howdunit” or “whydunit” mystery
24. Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!
* From 2023: Read one of your favorite author's favorite books

Yearly Challenge: Genre Bingo

Progress:
* 17/24 Books
* 4/13 Bingos



B1. ✅ Historical Fiction
* The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman
B2. ✅ Dystopian
* Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang
B3. ✅ Epic Adventure
* Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road, Bernard Ollivier
B4. ✅ Speculative Fiction
* Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy
B5. ✅ Banned Books
* The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

I1. ✅ Science Fiction
* Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
I2. ✅ Police Procedural
* A Cold Day for Murder, Dana Stabenow
I3. ✅ Western
* Lone Women, Victor LaValle
I4. ✅ Psychological Thriller
* Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson
I5. ✅ Chick Lit
* While We Were Dating, Jasmine Guillory

N1. Scientific Non-Fiction
N2. Middle Grade Fantasy
N3. ✅ Free Space
N4. ✅ Horror
* Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin
N5. ✅ Magical Realism
* The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender

G1. ✅ Biography or Memoir
* Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir, Natasha Trethewey
G2. Young Adult
G3. ✅ Fantasy
* The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
G4. ✅ Post Apocalyptic
* Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O'Brien
G5. Retelling

O1. Anime
O2. Graphic Novel
O3. Cookbook
O4. ✅ Humor
* You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain, Phoebe Robinson
O5. ✅ Cozy Mystery
* The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey

Yearly Challenge: Let's Turn Pages

Goal: 31,350/35,000 pp

January: 5,271
February: 2,423
March: 3,567
April: 2,323
May: 3,420
June: 3,908
July: 2,891
August: 3,251
September: 4,296

Yearly Challenge: Clear the Shelves

Goal: 5/24

Physical
1. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

eBook
1.

Audiobook
1. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi
2. Erasure, Percival Everett
3. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
4. A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

Yearly Challenge: A - Z Book Titles

Goal: 23/26

A:
B: The Bombay Prince
C: Clap Back
D: The Dovekeepers
E: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
F: A Fatal Thaw
G: Graceful Burdens
H: The History of Love
I: The Invisible Hour
J:
K:
L: The Librarianist
M: The Mistress of Bhatia House
N: A Nest of Vipers
O: Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road
P: The Perfect Nanny
Q: The Queen of the Night
R: Real Life
S: The Satapur Moonstone
T: Treasure
U: The Undefeated
V: The Vulnerables
W: The Wonder
X: Xingu
Y: You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain
Z: Z for Zachariah

Yearly Challenge (Personal): Tournament of Books

Make progress on ToB Books.

📚 20 years, 131 books
📚 At EOY 2023 I'd read 26

* 🏆 = winner
* = finalist
** = semi-finalist
🧟‍♀️ = zombie round winner

2024 Goal: 17/12 more

Primary ToB

2005
* 🏆 Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
* The Plot Against America, Philip Roth (read in 2019, ★★☆☆☆)
** Heir To The Glimmering World, Cynthia Ozick
** I am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe

2006
* 🏆 The Accidental, Ali Smith (read in 2019, ★★★★☆)
* 🧟‍♀️ Home Land, Sam Lipsyte
** ✅ The History of Love, Nicole Krauss (read in 2024, ★★★★☆)
** Saturday, Ian McEwan
** ✅ Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer (read in 2024, ★★★★★)

2007
* 🏆 The Road, Cormac McCarthy
* 🧟‍♀️ Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart
** ✅ Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (read in 2024, ★★★★☆)
** Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
** One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson (read in 2020, ★★★★☆)

2008
* 🏆 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (buy used so he doesn't get any $$)
* 🧟‍♀️ Remainder, Tom McCarthy (read in 2019, ★★★★☆)
** Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
** The Shadow Catcher, Marianne Wiggins
** Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson

2009
* 🏆 A Mercy, Toni Morrison (own)
* City of Refuge, Tom Piazza
** 2666, Roberto Bolaño
** Shadow Country, Peter Matthiessen

2010
* 🏆 Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
* The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver (own)
** Let the Great World Spin, McCann Colum
** The Book of Night Women, Marlon James

2011
* 🏆 A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
* Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
** Next, James Hynes
** ✅ The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender (read in 2024, ★★★★☆)

2012
* 🏆 The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt (read in 2019, ★★★★☆)
* Open City, Teju Cole
** IQ84, Haruki Murakami
** Lightning Rods, Helen DeWitt

2013
* 🏆 The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson (read in 2019, ★★★★★)
* 🧟‍♀️ The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (read in 2018, ★★★★★),
** Building Stories, Chris Ware
** Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (read in 2013, ★★★★☆)
** How Should a Person Be?, Sheila Heti

2014
* 🏆 ✅ The Good Lord Bird, James McBride (read in 2024, ★★★★★)
* 🧟‍♀️ Life After Life, Kate Atkinson (read in 2019, ★★★★★)
** A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki (read in 2020, ★★★★★)
** The Son, Philipp Meyer
** The People in the Trees, Hanya Yanagihara

2015
* 🏆 🧟‍♀️ Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel (read in 2019, ★★★★★)
* 🧟‍♀️ All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (own)
** A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James
** The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters
** An Untamed State, Roxane Gay (read in 2021, ★★★★★)
** Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante

2016
* 🏆 The Sellout, Paul Beatty
* The Turner House, Angela Flournoy
** Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel, Zachary Thomas Dodson (own)
** The Tsar of Love and Techno, Anthony Marra

2017
* 🏆 The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (read in 2019, ★★★★★)
* Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (read in 2019, ★★★★★)
** Version Control, Dexter Palmer
** The Nix, Nathan Hill

2018
* 🏆 ✅ Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin (read in 2024, ★★★☆☆)
* 🧟‍♀️ Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
** Pachinko, Min Jin Lee (read in 2021, ★★★★☆)
** Exit West, Mohsin Hamid (read in 2018, ★★★★★)
** Dear Cyborgs, Eugene Lim

2019
* 🏆 🧟‍♀️ My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite (read in 2019, ★★★★★)
* Warlight, Michael Ondaatje
** The Dictionary of Animal Languages, Heidi Sopinka
** The House of Broken Angels, Luis Alberto Urrea
** The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner (own)

2020
* 🏆 🧟‍♀️ Normal People, Sally Rooney
* Optic Nerve, María Gainza
** Saudade, C. Zaragoza
** ✅ Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli (read in 2024, ★★★★☆)
** Trust Exercise, Susan Choi

2021
* 🏆 Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu
* 🧟‍♀️ The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett (read in 2021, ★★★★★)
** Deacon King Kong, James McBride
** Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami
** Red Pill, Hari Kunzru

2022
* 🏆 🧟‍♀️ Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (read in 2021, ★★★★☆)
* No One Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood
** The Trees, Percival Everett
** ✅ Intimacies, Katie Kitamura (read in 2024, ★★★☆☆)
** Nervous System, Lina Meruane

2023
* 🏆 ✅ The Book of Goose, Yiyun Li (read 2024, ★★★★★)
* 🧟‍♀️ Babel, R.F. Kuang
** Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, Alison Espach
** ✅ Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel (read 2024, ★★★☆☆)
** The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty

2024
* 🏆 Blackouts, Justin Torres
* 🧟‍♀️ The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride
** The Guest, Emma Cline
** ✅ The Librarianist, Patrick deWitt (read in 2024, ★★★★★)

Camp ToB

2018
* An American Marriage, Tayari Jones (read 2019, ★★★★★)
* Census, Jesse Ball
* Circe, Madeline Miller (read 2019, ★★★★☆)
* The Friend, Sigrid Nunez (read 2021, ★★★★★)
* Kudos, Rachel Cusk (own?)
* Tomb Song, Julián Herbert

2019
* American Spy, Lauren Wilkinson (read 2019, ★★★☆☆)
* Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James
* Bowlaway, Elizabeth McCracken
* Daisy Jones & The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid (read in 2019, ★★★☆☆)
* 🏆 Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli (tracked above)
* Trust Exercise, Susan Choi

2020
* The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin
* ✅ The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich (Read in 2024, ★★★★★)
* ✅ Sharks in the Time of Saviors, Kawai Strong Washburn (read in 2024, ★★★★☆)
* Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid (read in 2022, ★★★★☆)
* Weather, Jenny Offill
* 🏆 Writers & Lovers, Lily King

2021
* ✅ Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters (read in 2024, ★★★★★)
* Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, Rivka Galchen
* Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (read in 2021, ★★★★☆)
* No One Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood
* Peaces, Helen Oyeyemi (DNF)
* Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri

2022
* The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
* Devil House, John Darnielle
* Either/Or, Elif Batuman
* Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel (tracked above)
* Trust, Hernan Diaz
* Young Mungo, Douglas Stuart

2023
* Big Swiss, Jen Beagin
* The Birthday Party, Laurent Mauvignier
* Couplets, Maggie Millner
* Good Night, Irene, Luis Alberto Urrea
* ✅ Lone Women, Victor LaValle (read in 2024, ★★★★☆)
* Western Lane, Chetna Maroo

2024
* James, Percival Everett
* Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange
* ✅ Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar (read in 2024, ★★★★★)
* The Book of Love, Kelly Link
* All Fours, Miranda July
* ✅ The Husbands, Holly Gramazio (read in 2024, ★★★★☆)

Yearly Challenge (Personal): Color Challenge

Goal: 15/18

White


Pink


Red


Orange


Yellow


Green


Light Blue


Dark Blue


Purple


Brown


Black


Metallic


5 colors on cover


Geometric pattern


"Ugly" cover


Two or more color words in title


The word "Color" in the title


Word describing color in the title

Yearly Challenge (Personal): Every Year

Decades

Goal: 7/7

* ✅ 2020s
* ✅ 2010s
* ✅ 2000s
* ✅ 1990s
* ✅ 1980s
* ✅ 1970s
* ✅ 1960s

Years

Goal: 27/30

2024: The Lost Bookshop
2023: The Vulnerables
2022: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
2021: Several People Are Typing
2020: The Pull of the Stars
2019: Pet
2018: The Female Persuasion
2017: My Brother's Husband, Volume 1
2016: The Perfect Nanny
2015:
2014: Men Explain Things to Me
2013: A Woman of Pleasure
2012:
2011: Before I Go to Sleep
2010: The Plotters
2009: The Hypnotist
2008:
2007:
2006: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
2005: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
2004:
2003: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
2002: Coraline
2001: Erasure
2000: Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road
1999:
...
1994:
1993: A Fatal Thaw
1992: A Cold Day for Murder
1991:
...
1988:
1987: Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy
1986:
...
1979:
1978 The Westing Game
1977:
1976 Woman on the Edge of Time
1975:
1974: Z for Zachariah
1973:
...
1965:
1964: A Single Man

Bonus

1960: To Kill a Mockingbird
1916: Xingu

Yearly Challenge (Personal) - Follow Ups

Reread the first book to set myself up to read the sequel or retelling.

Goal: 3/6 (from this list, not all of this list)

1. ✅ To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Go Set a Watchman

3. The Handmaid’s Tale
4. The Testaments

5. Life After Life
6. A God in Ruins

7. ✅ The Miniaturist
8. ✅ The House of Fortune

9. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
10. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

11. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
12. James (retelling of Huck Finn)

13. The Searcher
14. The Hunter

Q3 Quarterly Challenge: Summer Games

Goal: 19/15

Read books set in:

🇺🇸 New York, United States (1984)
Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters
Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar
Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, Claire Jiménez

🇷🇺 Moscow, Soviet Union (Russian Federation) (1980)
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

🇫🇷 Paris, France (1900, 1924, 2024)
Gourmet Rhapsody, Muriel Barbery
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery

🇬🇧 London, England (1908, 1948, 2012)
Possession, A.S. Byatt
How to Solve Your Own Murder, Kristen Perrin
The Husbands, Holly Gramazio
The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith

🇳🇱 Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1928)
The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton
The House of Fortune, Jessie Burton

🇰🇷 Seoul, Korea (1988)
The Plotters, Kim Un-Su

🇸🇪 Stockholm, Sweden (1912, 1956)
The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler

🇪🇸 Barcelona, Spain (1992)
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón

🇯🇵 Tokyo, Japan (1964, 2020)
The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide
Butter, Asako Yuzuki

🇲🇽 Mexico City, Mexico (1968)
Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

✅ January Monthly Challenge: Marathon Challenge

Goal: 5,271/5,000 pages

1. Several People Are Typing (256 pp)
2. Too Bright to See (192 pp)
3. Z for Zachariah (249 pp)
4. The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War (266 pp)
5. Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir (213 pp)
6. While We Were Dating (336 pp)
7. Before I Go to Sleep (359 pp)
8. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (356 pp)
9. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (401 pp)
10. Erasure (280 pp)
11. The Female Persuasion (454 pp)
12. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (326 pp)
13. The History of Love (255 pp)
14. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (292 pp)
15. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (371 pp)
16. To Kill a Mockingbird (323 pp)
17. My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 (352 pp)

Personal Challenge

1. Read 3 Book Riot Read Harder books: 5/3
2. Read 3 Genre Bingo books: 8/3
3. Read 3 books I own: 3/3
4. Read 2 books that fulfill a color challenge: 10/2
5. Read 4 books that fulfill a decade for the Every Year challenge: 11/4

✅ 🖤 February Challenge (Personal): Honor Black History Month

Only read books by black authors.

Goal: 15/5

1. Sharks in the Time of Saviors, Kawai Strong Washburn
2. The Undefeated, Kwame Alexander
3. Pet, Akwaeke Emezi
4. Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
5. Real Life, Brandon Taylor
6. The Visit, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
7. The Black Pages, Nnedi Okorafor
8. 2043... a Merman I Should Turn to Be, Nisi Shawl
9. These Alien Skies, C.T. Rwizi
10. Clap Back, Nalo Hopkinson
11. We Travel the Spaceways, Victor LaValle
12. Treasure, Oyinkan Braithwaite
13. The Good Lord Bird, James McBride
14 Graceful Burdens, Roxane Gay
15. Lone Women, Victor LaValle

✅ 🚺 March Challenge (Personal): Honor Women's History Month

Only read books by female authors.

Goal: 13/5

1. You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain, Phoebe Robinson
2. Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin
3. The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich
4. The Invisible Hour, Alice Hoffman
5. Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy
6. Xingu, Edith Wharton
7. The Perfect Nanny, Leïla Slimani
8. A Cold Day for Murder, Dana Stabenow
9. The Vulnerables, Sigrid Nunez
10. Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli
11. Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit
12. The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman
13. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

✅ 🥢 May Challenge (Personal): Honor Asian-American History Month

Only read books by Asian authors.

Goal: 9/5

1. The Satapur Moonstone, Sujata Massey
2. The Bombay Prince, Sujata Massey
3. The Mistress of Bhatia House, Sujata Massey
4. The Queen of the Night, Alexander Chee
5. The Book of Goose, Yiyun Li
6. A Woman of Pleasure, Kiyoko Murata
7. Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang
8. The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey
9. A Nest of Vipers, Harini Nagendra

✅ June Monthly Challenge: Life Changes

Read books about significant life changes.

Goal: 6/5

1. So Lucky, Nicola Griffith (divorce, major illness diagnosis, becoming disabled)
2. Day, Michael Cunningham (surviving a natural disaster)
3. Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy (grieving death, surviving a criminal act, emigrating, coming out, joining [and leaving] the military)
4. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives, Dashka Slater (both committing and surviving a crime, coming out)
5. A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood (grieving death)
6. Memorial, Bryan Washington (separation, major illness, death of a loved one, emigration)

✅ 🏳️‍🌈 June Challenge (Personal): Honor Queer History Month

Only read books by queer authors.

Goal: 7/5

1. So Lucky, Nicola Griffith
2. Day, Michael Cunningham
3. Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy
4. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives, Dashka Slater
5. A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
6. The Wonder, Emma Donoghue
7. Memorial, Bryan Washington

✅ Sept 15 - Oct 15 Challenge (Personal): Honor Latinx Heritage Month

Read at least 5 books by Latinx authors.

Goal: 5/5

1. Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
2. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, Claire Jiménez
3. The Last Cuentista, Donna Barba Higuera
4. A Dash of Trouble, Anna Meriano
5. Sanctuary, Paola Mendoza

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