2016 Reading Challenges

 This year was a mixed bag for reading challenge success.I could give up, but I know that the challenges do improve my overall reading quality and variety. So this year I am keeping that goal in mind and I am doing far fewer challenges, and fewer that don't really challenge me.

You Read How Many?
12 Month Classics Challenge
Foodies Read
Dystopia
European Reading Challenge
Mount TBR
Random Reading Challenge

2016 Reading Challenge

This is one of those rather random challenges, but it looks like purposeful randomness.

1. Heat by Bill Buford (1/3/2016) PREVIOUSLY ABANDONED (9)
2. Faust by Goethe (1/6/2016)  OWNED BUT UNREAD (10)
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (1/12/2015) PUBLISHED BEFORE I WAS BORN (7)
4. Pretties by Scott Westerfield (1/13/2015) FINISHED IN A DAY (2)
5. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (2/8/2016) SHOULD HAVE READ IN SCHOOL (5)
6. The Law by Frederic Bastiat (2/14/2016) BEEN MEANING TO READ (3)
7. The Pharos Gate by Nick Bantock (4/27/2016) WRITTEN THIS YEAR (1)
8. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (4/22/32016) BANNED (8)
9. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (6/5/2016) SUGGESTED BY MY SON-IN-Law  (6)
10. Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh ( 6/17/2016) Recommended by librarian(4)

Classics Challenge

This challenge dovetails nicely with the other classics challenge that I am doing, and I am mainly doing it because I really like the suggested questions for blogging about the books. When I list each book I will link to the post about it.

WHEN I Discovered This Classic
WHY I Chose to Read It
WHAT Makes It A Classic
WHAT I Thought of This Classic
WILL It Stay A Classic
WHO I’d Recommend It To

1. Faust by Goethe (1/6/2016)
2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (2/8/2016)
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (3/22/2016)
4. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (4/22/2016)
5. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee  Masters (5/21/2016)
6 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (6/22/2016)

Mount TBR 2016

Of course I need a TBR Pile Challenge. I feel like I'm wimping out by going with the lowest level, which is 12 books, but I have done so horribly this year, that 12 will feel like a win. I do intend to list some that I plan to read this year.

***I bumped up my level to the third level, since this is going well this year. Maybe this is the year the TBR pile finally shrinks a little! 36 books

1. Heat by Bill Buford (1/3/2016)
2.  Faust by Goethe (1/6/2016)
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (1/12/2016)
4. Watership Down by Richard Adams (1//18/2016)
5. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (2/4/2016)
6. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (2/8/2016)
7. The Law by Frederic Bastiat (2/14/2016)
8. Typhoon by Joseph Conrad (2/15/2016)
9. Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2/19/2016)
10. Shift by Hugh Howey (2/24/2016)
11. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (3/7/2016)
12. An Examined Life by Theodore Dalrymple ( 3/14/2016)
13. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (3/22/2016)
14. All-of-a-kind Family by Sydney Taylor (3/29/2016)
15. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (4/22/2016)
16. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters (5/21/2016)
17. Everything's Eventual by Stephen King (6/2/2016)
18. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (6/22/2016)
19. Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand (6/24/2016)
20. Little Greta of Denmark 
21. All Quiet on the Western Front  
22. Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill (11/16/2016) 
23.  Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (11/16/2016)

2016 European Reading Challenge

This challenge is one that I have passed up in recent years, but because I am paring down my challenges, and attempting to add variety, I'm going to do it this year. I'm going for the Five Star level, which means books set in, or written by authors from, five different European countries.

1. The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (1/2/2016) England
2. Heat by Bill Buford (1/3/2016) Italy
3.  Faust by Goethe (1/6/2016) Germany
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson (1/26/2016) Sweden
5. The Law by Frederic Bastiat (2/14/2016) France
6.  Little Greta of Denmark by Bernadine Bailey (7/14/2016)

2016 Foodies Read

This is a challenge that I always enjoy, and it keeps me reading foodie books.  This year I will be reading at the Pastry Chef level, which is 4-8 books.

1. Heat by Bill Buford (1/3/2016)
2.  The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White (3/29/2016)

2016 Dystopia Challenge

I am excited to do this challenge again this year, because I utterly failed last year.

This year I plan to read 6-10 dystopian books.

1. Uglies by Scott Westerfield (1/11/2016)
2. Pretties by Scott Westerfield (1/13/2015)
3. Specials by Scott Westerfield (1/15/2013)
4.  The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (2/4/2016)
5. Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2/19/2016)
6. Shift by Hugh Howey (2/24/2016)

12 Month Classics Challenge

This challenge will give me more inspiration to keep reading classics, especially since I have gotten through quite a few in the last few years.

I'm going to post some possibilities by each month, in italics.


January- A classic you've always wanted to read-Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
February- A classic you've always dreaded reading-The Lord of the Flies
March- A classic you've been recommended-A Tale of Two Cities
April- A classic you've seen the movie/miniseries/TV show of Gone With the Wind
May- An American classic Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee  Masters
June- A British classic Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
July- A European classic (non-British) Les Miserables
August- A modern classic- Up to your interpretation
September- A children's classic
October- A classic by a female author
November- A classic by a male author
December- A classic written under a pseudonym A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

2016 You Read How Many Books? Challenge

This challenge is the one that there was no question about. I will read at least 100 books, and I will list them here.

Even though I am not doing many genre challenges, or library (L) book or ebook (E) challenges, I am going to include that information on my list.

1. The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (1/2/2016) (L) (Historical Fiction) (European)
2. Heat by Bill Buford (1/3/2016) (TBR) (Foodie) (European) (General Challenge)
3. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber  (1/4/2016) (L) (SciFi) (Book Group)
4. Faust by Goethe (1/6/2016) (TBR) (Gaps) (European) (Classics) (General Challenge)
5. Promises in Death by J.D. Robb (L) (Crime)
6. Uglies by Scott Westerfield ( 1/11/2016)(L) (Dystopia)
7. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (1/12/2016) (E) (Gaps) (12 Classics) (General) (TBR)
8. Pretties by Scott Westerfield (1/13/2016) (L) (Dystopia) (General)
9. Specials by Scott Westerfield (1/15/2013) (L) (Dystopia) 
10. Watership Down by Richard Adams (1/18/2015) (E) (Gaps) (TBR)
11. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson (1/26/2016) (E) (Crime) (European)
12. Lukewarming by Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. Knappenberger (1/28/2016) (E) (Science)
13. 31 Days to a Clutter Free Life by Ruth Soukup (1/29/2016) (Non-fiction)
14. Beyond Armageddon ed. by Martin H. Greenberg and Walter M. Miller (1/31/2016)  Shorts
15. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (2/4/2016) (E) (Dystopia) (TBR)
16. The Dante Connection by Estelle Ryan (2/7/2016) (E)
17. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (2/8/2016) (Classics) (12 Classics) (TBR) (Gaps) (General)
18. Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (2/11/2016) (L)
19.  The Law by Frederic Bastiat (2/14/2016) (Euro) (TBR) (Gaps) (General)
20. Typhoon by Joseph Conrad (2/15/2016) (E) (TBR) (Gaps) (Century)
21. Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2/19/2016) (E) (TBR) (Dystopia)
22. Shift by Hugh Howey (2/24/2016) (E) (TBR) (Dystopia)
23. Kindred in Death by J.D.Robb (2/26/2016) (L) (Crime)
24. Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah (2/28/2016) (L) (Chicklit) (HF)
25. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (3/7/2016) (Non) (TBR) (Gaps)
26. An Examined Life by Theodore Dalrymple (3/14/2016) (TBR)
27. The End is Now by John Joseph Adams (3/20/2016) (TBR)
28. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (3/22/2016) (TBR) (Classics) (12 Classics) (Gaps)
29.  All-of-a-kind Family by Sydney Taylor (3/29/2016) (Children's) (TBR) (Gaps)
30. The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White (3/29/2016) (Foodies)
31. Cross Injustice by James Patterson (3/31/2016) (L)
32. The Lake House by Kate Morton (4/7/2016) (L) (HF) (MYS)
33. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (4/22/2016) (E) (Classics) (12 Classics) (Gaps) (Century) (General)
34. Coming Apart by Charles Murray (4/22/2016) (L) (Non)
35. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (4/22/2016) (TBR) (Classic)
36. Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb (4/25/2016) (L) (Crime)
37. The Pharos Gate by Nick Bantock (4/27/2016) (L) (Epistolary) (General)
38. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (4/27/2016) (L) (MYS)
39.The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (4/30/2016) (L) (HF)
40. The Good Neighbor by A.J. Banner (5/3/2016) (E) Abandoned
41. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman (5/5/2016) (L) (Non) (Gaps)
42. Brave New Family by G.K. Chesterton (5/10/2016) (L) (Non)
43. Unstuffed by Ruth Soukup (5/13/2016) (Non)
44. It Happened in Indiana (5/18/2016) (L) (Non)
45. The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major (5/18/2016) (Non)
46. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters  (5/21/2016) (Gaps) (TBR) (Classics) (12 Classics) (Century)
47. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (5/23/2016) (Gaps) (Century) (1001)
48. The Atlantic Slave Trade by David Northrup (5/27/2016)  (Non)
49. Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi (5/28/2016) (L) (Non) (Gaps)
50. Everything's Eventual by Stephen King (6/2/2016) (TBR)
51. Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick (6/4/2016) (Childrens)
52. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (6/5/2016) (Gaps) (1001) (Century) (2016)
53. Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh ( 6/17/2016) (L) (SF)(General)
54. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (6/22/2016) (Gaps) (TBR) (Classics) (12 Classics) (1001)
55. Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand (6/24/2016) (E) (TBR)
56. Invader by C.J. Cherryh (7/6/2016) (L) (SF) (Century)
57. Fashionista by Simone Werle (7/6/2016) (L)
58. Extreme Prey by John Sandford (7/7/2016) (L)
59. Crowns by Michael Cummingham (7/8/2016) (L)
60. Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline (7/13/2016) (L)
61. Little Greta of Denmark by Bernadine Bailey (7/14/2016) (TBR) (European)
62. All Quiet on the Western Front (7/20/2016) (TBR) (Gaps) (Classics) (12 Classics)
63. The One that Got Away by Leigh Himes (7/25/2016) (L) (Chick-lit)
64. Brush Back by Sarah Paretsky (7/31/2016) (L) (M)
65. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (8/7/2016) (L) (HF)
66. Betsy-Tacy by Maude Hart Lovelace (8/8/2016) (E) (Classics) (12 Classics) (Gaps) (Century)
67. The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton (8/13/2016) (L) (M)
68. Every Woman's Guide to Foot Pain Relief by Katy Bowman (8/13/2016) (N)
69. Running the Rift by Natalie Berenson (8/18/2016) (L)
70. Nine Women, One Dress by Jane Rosen (8/18/2016) (L)
71. Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb (8/20/2016) (L) (M)
72. Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates (8/21/2016) (L) (Gaps)
73. 15th Affair by James Patterson (8/21/2016) (L) (M)
74. By the Numbers by Jen Lancaster (8/23/2016) (L) (Chicklit)
75. X by Sue Grafton (8/25/2016) (L) (Mystery)
76. Brighton by Michael Harvey (8/27/2016) (L)
77. Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty (8/29/2016) (E)
78. Death of a Cad by M.C. Beaton ( 8/31/2016) (L) (M)
79. The Roll Model by Jill Miller (9/4/2016) (Non)
80. Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman (9/4/2016) (Non)
81. Bullseye by James Patterson (9/4/2016) (Thriller)
82. Death of an Outsider by M. C. Beaton (9/7/2016) (L) (M)
83. Pendulum by Roy Williams (9/9/2016) (L) (Audio) (Non)
84. Once Upon a Time in Camelot by James Patrick Hunt ( 9/9/2016) (L)
85. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (9/18/2016)
86. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (9/19/2016) (L)
87. Night by Elie Wiesel (9/24/2016) (Gaps) (Century) (Classics)
88. The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley (9/30/2016) (L) (HF) (M)
89. Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston (10/4/2016) (M) (L)
90. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (10/6/2016) (L)
91. New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb (10/11/2016) (L) (M)
92. The Queen's Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler (10/27/2016) (E) (Fan)
93. The Thief's Daughter by Jeff Wheeler (11/6/2016) (E) (Fan)
94. The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup by Rosemary Sutcliff (11/9/2016) (Children)
95.Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill (11/16/2016) (Gaps) (TBR) (HF)
96. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (11/16/2016) (Re)
97. Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (11/16/2016) (Gaps) (TBR)
98. An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments by Ali Almossawi (111/16/2016) (E) (Non)
99. Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible by Tim Gunn (11/18/2016) (TBR)
100. Go South to Freedom by Frye Gaillard (11/22/2016) (L)
101. Deliver Her by Patricia Donovan
102. One Year After by William Fortschen (12/3/2016)
103. Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb (11/30/2016)
104. Good and Cheap by Leanne Brown (12/15/2016) (Foodie)
105. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (TBR) (Gaps) (Century)
106. The King's Traitor by Jeff Wheeler
107. The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot (12/4/2016)
108. Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster (12/8/2016) TBR
109. Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood (12/15/2016) (L)
110. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (SF)
111. The Economics of Freedom by Frederic Bastiat (12/30/2016) (TBR) (Gaps)
112.Seventeen by Booth Tarkington (12/30/2016) (TBR)
113. The Art Forger by B.A. SHapiro 12/31/2016 (TBR)

Looking for book suggestions

Once again I am looking for suggestions for a reading challenge.

I am looking for the gems of classic literature or contemporary fiction. I am looking for those books, fiction or non-fiction, that are foundational to cultural literacy. I am looking for the non-fiction books that really taught you something or made you think. Or maybe a book was just so enjoyable that you think everyone should read it.

If you're worried about suggesting something I've read, don't. (But I have read all of Steinbeck and Austen, and most Shakespeare.) Other authors have spottier coverage.

Someone asked last night what my must-reads are, and that's a hard question. So instead I'll tell you some of my favorites: East of Eden, and everything else by John Steinbeck; Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion by Jane Austen; The Count of Monte Cristo; A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett; . . .And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Satmeyer;The Screwtape Letters;  Nicholas Nickleby; Vanity Fair; Katherine by Anya Seton; The Lord of the Rings trilogy; Their Eyes Were Watching God; Death Comes for the Archbishop; The Stand by Stephen King; The Remains of the Day; Doomsday Book by Connie Willis; Unbroken; The Captains and the Kings; The Jeeves books by P.G.Wodehouse; The Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers; Kristin Lavransdatter; Charlotte's Web; The Little House books; Harry Potter; The Poisonwood Bible; American Gods  and The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman; The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon, 1984; A Canticle for Leibowitz; All the Light We Cannot See.

So give me your suggestions! If I've read them they may still help someone else.

Still some gaps

Update August 5, 2021: Fixed numbering. Consolidated those that I have read. Feeling like I need to get disciplined about reading some of these. And I need five more books.

Update 12/7/2020: A blog update wiped out the numbering. I will renumber them eventually.

Update: 12/31/2019 I am adding five more years and 50 books. I have read as many in four years as I did in five before so my pace is improving. I'll get the books all added in the next couple of weeks. So, new deadline is 12/17/2025.

12/17/2015: Five years ago tomorrow, I embarked on a reading challenge. The challenge was to pick 100 books to read that I felt would fill in "gaps" in my reading.

I have managed to read 65 of them. Not good, especially since I had read 47 over two years ago. But this year has been a particularly weak reading year for me. After I accepted that, I started thinking about what I wanted to do about this challenge, and I have decided to expand it.

I am extending it for five more years, to December 17, 2020. I am going to add 100 more books,75 over the next few weeks and five in each of those years. This has been a very worthwhile challenge, to this point, for the most part, and I look forward to continuing to fill some gaps.

I am not giving myself a pass on anything that is already on the list, although there are a couple that I suspect will remain gaps.

The new list will be here. For simplicity I am going to group the books that I have read and those that are unread.

1.Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (11/18/2013)

2.Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (2/13/2012)

3. Dune by Frank Herbert (3/19/2011)

4. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (9/21/2014)

5. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

6. Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

7. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (1/26/2014)

8. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (3/16/2012)

9. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (3/17/2013)

10. Beach Music by Pat Conroy (3/22/2012)

11. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

12. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (4/2015)

13. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (12/5/2011)

14. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2/21/2012)

15. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (3/2014)

16. The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling (1/27/2012)

17. The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov (2/5/2013)

18. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (4/29/2011)

19. Death Comes for the Archbishop  by Willa Cather (10/30/2014)

20. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (11/4/2012)

21. Summerland by Michael Chabon (6/25/2012)

22. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (5/16/2014)

23. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (10/10/2014)

24. The House on the Strand by Daphne DuMaurier (5/19/2011)

25. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (6/28/2012)

26. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (3/24/2014)

27. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller (2/9/2011)

28. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson 12/10/2013)

29. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1/18/2014)

30. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (4/12/2011)

31. A Life Worth Living by John Holt (1/15/2014)

32. Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536 by Reston (10/9/2014)

33. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois (12/13/2012)

34. Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple (3/20/2011)

35. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (1/7/2011)

36. Desolation Road by Ian McDonald (7/10/2012)

37. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (9/25/2012)

38. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (4/3/2012)

39. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (5/29/2013)

40. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington (4/7/2013)

41. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (4/24/2012)

42. Redwall by Brian Jacques (11/22/2014)

43. The Complete Poetry of  John Donne (12/16/2015)

44. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot (4/23/2012)

45. My Antonia by Willa Cather (1/15/2013)

46. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (9/28/2011)

47. East Lynne by Ellen Wood (6/18/2011)

48. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (1/6/2012)

49. The Hobbit JRR Tolkien

50. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald (12/26/2010)

51. Robinson Crusoe (9/9/2013)

52. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (7/18/2011)

53. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (4/30/2015)

54. Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (3/25/2013)

55.  Middlemarch by George Eliot (12/13/13)

56. Introducing Father Brown by GK Chesterton (10/6/2011)

57. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (5/2/11)

58.The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

59. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (5/6/2013)

60. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (7/2/2012)

61. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1/20/2013)

62. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (10/4/2014)

63. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (3/6/2011)

64. The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes (12/30/2012)

65. The Warden by Anthony Trollope (1/28/2013)

66. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (6/5/2015)

67. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (3/22/2016)

68. Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (11/16/2016)

69. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (12/29/2015)

70. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn (11/2017)

71. Faust by Goethe (1/6/2016)

72.  Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (10/6/2018)

73. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (6/2018)

74.  Lord of the Flies by William Golding (2/8/2016)

75. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (1/12/2015)

76. Typhoon by Joseph Conrad (2/15/2016)

77. Watership Down by Richard Adams (1/18/2016)

78. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (11/20/2016)

79. Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill (11/16/2016)

80. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (4/21/2018) 

81. All Quiet on the Western Front (7/2016)

82. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (6/2018)

83. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (4/22/2016)

84. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (4/2018)

85. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (5/23/2016)

86. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

87. On Writing by Stephen King (3/2018)

88. All-of-a-kind Family by Sydney Taylor (3/29/2016)

89. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks (Substituted Musicophilia) 2/2017

90. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (2/2018)

91. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (10/2017)

92. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters(5/21/2016)

93. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman (2/2018)

94. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (10/10/2017)

95. Bonfire of the Vanities by Thomas Wolfe (8/21/2018)

96. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (10/10/2018)

97. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (6/10/2014)

98. Salt by Mark Kurlansky (3/7/2016)

99. Double Indemnity by James Cain (9/29/2017)

100. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (6/22/2016)

101. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (10/17/2018)

102. Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi (5.28/2016)

103. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (3/9/2017)

104. The Law by Frederic Bastiat (2/14/2016)

105. Ex Libris by Ann Fadiman (5/5/2016)

106. Betsy-Tacy by Maude Hart Lovelace(8/8/2016)

107. Something by Joyce Carol Oates Beasts (8/21/2016)

108. Lost Horizon (10/2017)

109. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett 

110. The Mysterious Benedict Society (3/1/2018)

111. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (12/19/2017)

112. A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman (1/26/2018)

113. Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry (7/23/2018)

114. Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan (10/12/2017)

115. The Economics of Freedom by Frederic Bastiat

116. Night by Elie Wiesel by (9/24/2016)

117. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (6/2019)

118. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (10/23/2019)

119.  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie 

120. Steve Jobs by Walter Isacson (5/24/2019)

121. Exodus by Leon Uris (11/26/2019)

122. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (2/24/2019)

123. Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie (7/6/2019)

124. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham (January 2019)

125.The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (6/2018)

126. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (4/2019)

127. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (3/17/2019)

128. The Winds of War by Herman Wouk (9/2019)

129. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (6/2019)

130. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (9/2019)

131. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (8/26/20)

132. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (2019)

133. North and South by Gaskell (3/2020)

134. Churchill by Paul Johnson Subbed Churchill: Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts (3/2020)

135. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (9/2020)

136. David Copperfield by Dickens (2/2020)

137. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (2019-half)

138. Master and Commander by Patrick O' Brian (12/2020)

139. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (2020)

140. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (10/2020)

141.  Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (2/1/2020)

142. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith ( 2/2021)

143. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (5/2020)

144. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (9/2020)

145. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (1/2021)

146. Shogun by James Clavell (7/2021)

147. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (9/26/2020)

148. Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum (3/2021)

149. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (1/2020)

150. The Twenty-One Balloons by Pene duBois (9/7/2020)

151. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (1/2020)

152. The Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (7/2020)

153. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry (6/2020)

154. The Man of Property by John Galsworthy (12/7/2020)

155. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup (2/27/2019)

156. Hillbilly Elegy (4/5/2017)

157. Friday Night Lights (10/2020)

158. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (10/4/2018)

159. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (6/8/2021)

160. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (12/12/2017)

161. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (3/12/20200

162. The Shallows by Nicholas Carr (2/23/2020)

163. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (2/2020)

164. The Godfather by Mario Puzo (5/19/2021)

165. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (8/2020)

166. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John LeCarre (3/2021)

167. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (2020)

168. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (3/2020)

169. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (3/2020)

170. Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

171.  Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

172. Law and Gospel by CFW Walther

173. The Histories by Herodotus

174. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

175. Trinity by Leon Uris (10/2022)

176. The Stranger by Albert Camus

177. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (12/2022)

178. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

179. Aeneid by Virgil

180.  Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

181. The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther

182. The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien

183. Dead Souls by Gogol

184. The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek

185. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (4/23)

186. The Once and Future King by T.H. White 

187. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper (3/2023)

188. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

189.  The Coming by Daniel Black

190. The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton

191. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

192.  The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

193. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

194. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

195. The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft

196.  To Rule the Waves by Arthur Herman

197.The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

198. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

199. I, Claudius by Robert Grave

200. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (1/1/2024)

201. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (4/2022)

202. Eleanor of Aquitaine By Alison Weir 

203. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott

204. The Kalevala

205. A Dance to the Music of Time: Movement One by Anthony Powell

206. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (5/2022)

207. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

208. Riders of the Purple Sage (4/2023)

209. The Epic of Gilgamesh 

210. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (4/2022)

211. Les Fleurs de Mal by Baudelaire

212. The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric

213. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

214. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz 

215.  A book by Beverly Nichols 

216. Evelina by Fanny Burney

217.   Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

218.  Areopagitica by John Milton 

219. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (set aside)

220. The 13 Clocks by James Thurber

221. The World According to Garp by John Irving 

222. The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat (2/2023)

223. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee & Walker Evans

224. The Decameron by Bocaccio

225. Germinal by Emile Zola

226. Zorba the Greek

227. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (5/2022)

228. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (8/2021)

229. The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Maryat

230. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

231. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (8/2022)

232. Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

233. The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

234. The 39 Steps by John Buchan (3/2023)

235. Tartuffe by Moliere

236. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

237. The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek

238. Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins (2020)

239. Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor

240. A Separate Peace by John Knowles (11/2022)

241. Centennial by James Michener 

242. In the First Circle by Solzhenitsyn

243. Life of Pi by Yan Martel (5/2022)

244. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

245. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

246. Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

247. The Three Musketeers (7/2023)

248. Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern

249. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

250. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark (4/2022)

251. Silence by Shusaku Endo

252. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

253. Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (10/2022)

254. Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald

255. Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges

256. Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin (11/2022)

257. Wind, Sand, & Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (4/2022)

258. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Petersen 5/2023)

259. Old Filth by Jane Gardam ( 3/2022)

260. Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham

261. A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

262. The Quartzsite Trip by William Hogan

263. Taking Care by Joy Williams

264. The Cay by Theodore Taylor (3/29/2022)

265. On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

266. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (4/1/2022)

267. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz 6/1/2023)

268. Kon-tiki by Thor Heyerdahl (6/29/2023)

269. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (8/2021)

270. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (3/29/2022)

271. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

272. Hunger by Knut Hamsun

273. Zeituon by Dave Eggers

274. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

275. Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

276. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

277. Guardians of Time by Poul Anderson (4/2022)

278. The Red and the Black 

279. The Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy (11/2021)

280. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

281. Passing by Nella Larsen (4/2022)

282. A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway

283. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy

284. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (6/2023)

285.Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

286. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

287. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

288. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

289. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

290. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (May 2022)

291. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

292. Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (4/2023)

293. Nora Webster by Colm Toibin  (6/2023)

294. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari (3/2023)

295. The Education of Little Tree 

296. Life on The Mississippi by Mark Twain (9/2022)

297. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (11/2022)

298. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (12/2021)

299. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

Foodies Read Challenge 2015

My final challenge for 2015 is Foodies Read.

I'm taking part at the Pastry Chef level, which is 4-8 books.

1. Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson (1/18/2015)
2. The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin (1/27/2015)
3. My Last Supper by Melanie Dunea (4/25/2015)
4. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (6/16/2015)
5. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (10/2/2015)
6. Kitchen Matrix by Mark Bittman (12/31/2015)

Historical Fiction 2015

One of the challenges that wasn't set up yet when I was looking before Christmas was the Historical Fiction Challenge, so I was glad to find it today.

I am going to take part at the Renaissance Reader Level, which is 10 books.

1. The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fanny Flagg (1/22/2015)
2. One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters (2/3/2015)
3. Some Luck by Jane Smiley (2/17/2015)
4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2/28/2015)
5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (3/21/2015)
6.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (3/31/2015)
7.  Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (4/8/2015)
8.  A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner  (4/19/2015)
9. The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye (4/24/2015)
10. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (4/28/2015)
11. Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye (6/12/2015)
12. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (6/26/2015)
13.  Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez  (7/2/2015)

14. Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (7/10/2015)
15. The Queen's Head by Edward Marston (7/14/2015)
16. Citizen's Creek by Lalita Tademy (7/29/2015)
17. Blind Justice by Bruce Alexander (8/8/2015)

Dystopia 2015

I was so glad to find that this challenge was being repeated.



I'll be taking part at the Rebel Level, which is 7-12 books.

1. The Maze Runner by James Dashner (1/20/2015)
2. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (3/1/2015)
3. Anthem by Ayn Rand (9/2015)
4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (9/6/2015)
5. Winter by Marissa Meyer (12/31/2015)

2014 end report was: Still to read this year

Because of surgery on both hands, I'm taking the lazy way out on the post. I finished all but two challenges. The Arthurian challenge and my very own Friends Challenge. I read 119 books this year, and when my hands are a little better I will do a round up of the best/worst/most memorable, etc.

To finish my various challenges, I still have some reading to do. (With updates as of 10/10)

I need to read a graphic novel.
-- a book in which the protagonist changes forms. (HELP!) (At least now I have some ideas!)
-- two one more historical fiction works.
-- at least nine (NINE EIGHT SEVEN SIX FiveFOUR Three Two
ks from my TBR pile. I may be reevaluating some of those.
-- four three two one more books from my Friends challenge.
-- a couple one more vintage mysteries.
-- three two one cozy mystery.
--two one work of Arthurian literature.
-- one more foodie book.

My reading has been lazy this summer. I've read quite a few books, but not much that I've had to think about at all. Time to get back to some challenging reading.