A challenge of relative ease and merriment 2017 discussion
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I have a hard time finding my post here - so am starting a new condensed version of just those categories that I have left :)a book released in 2017 Detective Cross
a book of fantastical fiction (fantasy/scifi/paranormal) Outlander
a debut novel - An Ember in the Ashes
a book of poetry or drama (that is to say a play, not just ~dramatic~) Come Sunday
a media tie-in (clarification in a thread) Star Wars: Darth Vader and Son
an LGBTQIA* book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
a Goodreads Choice Awards winner (any year, any category) End of Watch
a book that was adapted into a movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
0 books left as of 12/20
Well I am finishing up the last two books.. and its actually before the end of the year!!!
Did I say the end of October? My how time flies!Basically everything went to shit in the world in the last week and I reacted by baking, getting sick, and reading a lot. In other words, I'm DONE! \o/
✔️01. a book released in 2017 - Etched in Bone
✔️02. a book written before 1900 - Alice's Adventures In Wonderland ::NEW::
✔️03. a non-fiction book. - Reflections: On the Magic of Writing
✔️04. a kids book - Castle Hangnail ::NEW::
✔️05. a YA novel - Newt's Emerald
✔️06. a book of fantastical fiction - Crosstalk
✔️07. a cozy mystery - Murder With Peacocks
✔️08. a debut novel - Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged
✔️09. a book of poetry or drama - Horoscopes for the Dead
✔️10. a biography/autobiography/memoir - The Princess Diarist
✔️11. a book written by someone under the age of 30 - Dumplin' ::NEW::
✔️12. a media tie-in - The X-Files: Year Zero
✔️13. an LGBTQIA* book - When the Moon Was Ours
✔️14. a book about food - A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table ::NEW::
✔️15. a scary/creepy book - The Haunting of Hill House
✔️16. a book that is part of a series but not the first book - A Symphony of Echoes
✔️17. a Goodreads Choice Awards winner - The Martian
✔️18. a book with an animal on the cover I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats ::NEW::
✔️19. a book mostly set in the desert - Stranger
✔️20. a book that was adapted into a movie - Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into pace
My favorite books that I read for this challenge are Castle Hangnail and Murder with Peacocks, both of which I enjoyed immensely and will be rereading. I also loved A Homemade Life and really enjoyed the Martian, but I'm not as sure that I'll be reading those again. The Haunting of Hill House was amazing and I will 100% not be reading it again any time soon - and if I do I'll make sure to be sober as a priest (which I very much was not the first time I read it - WHOOPS.) There were also a couple of poems in Horoscopes for the Dead (including the title poem) which were well worth the price of admission and I'll be keeping that book around to poke at again later.
Now for the books I did NOT like: I haaaaated When the Moon Was Ours, which means I'm very much in the minority on that one. I guess that particular brand of twee magical realism isn't my thing? A Symphony of Echoes was kind of blah and I won't be reading further in the series - I've already forgotten what happened in that book, which isn't a usual thing for me. I was given I Could Pee On This as a gag gift and 100% the best part of it was the photos - it was just kind of dumb.
Anyway, this challenge was great! I definitely read some stuff in areas I would not otherwise have ventured and seeing everyone else's progress was super fun. I'll definitely be participating in 2018's challenge of relative ease and merriment, should one take place. Oh, and thank you Pocki for running this!
Bunny wrote: "Did I say the end of October? My how time flies!Basically everything went to shit in the world in the last week and I reacted by baking, getting sick, and reading a lot. In other words, I'm DONE!..."
Way to go!! I'm getting close, just have a couple more to go...
Nancy wrote: "I have a hard time finding my post here - so am starting a new condensed version of just those categories that I have left :)a book released in 2017
a book of fantastical fiction (fantasy/scifi/..."
6 left now that I finished Fried Green Tomatoes. woo hoo. But not sure if will finish. The books I have lined up to read next might not fit into any remaining categories. LOL
Oh I loved Fried Green Tomatoes! All of her books are solid reads. :)
I would like to say that I have truly enjoyed this challenge. It has forced me to read a few things that were out of my comfort zone. Which is a good thing because who likes to get stagnant in their reading. Thanks again to everyone here - there were several books that were read that gave me ideas for my own challenge.Much fun :)
Only a very few weeks left to go, and I have... not completed the challenge. A couple of the categories stump me so far, but I have a few books lined up, I just don't think I'll have the time to finish them all before 31 December. This is my list of completed challenges:
2. A book written before 1900 -- Madame de Villeneuve's The Story of the Beauty and the Beast: The Original Classic French Fairytale (1740)
3. A non-fiction book - Grejen med substantiv och pronomen by Sara Lövestam
5. A YA novel -- Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton
6. A book of fantastical fiction (
7. A cozy mystery -- Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates
11. A book written by someone under the age of 30 -- Red Rising by Pierce Brown
12. A media tie-in -- Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America by Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)
13. An LGBTQIA* book -- The Sumage Solution by G. L. Carriger (gay paranormal romance)
15. A
16. A book that is part of a series but not the first book - Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan
18. A book with an animal on the cover -- Song of the Lion by Anne Hillerman
19. A book mostly set in the desert -- Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
20. A book that was adapted into a movie - En man som heter Ove by Fredrik Backman
BONUS: watch a movie that was based on a book! (maybe make it the same as #20) -- En man som heter Ove
Books I have lined up for uncompleted challenges:
1. a book released in 2017 - Neil Gaiman: Norse Mythology
8. a debut novel -- Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus
10. a biography/autobiography/memoir -- Patti Smith: Just Kids
17. a Goodreads Choice Awards winner (any year, any category): Neil Gaiman: Trigger Warning
Challenges where I still have no idea of what to read, or haven't decided:
4. a kids book
9. a book of poetry or drama (that is to say a play, not just ~dramatic~)
14. a book about food
A challenge of relative ease and merriment 2017
Books mentioned in this topic
Mort: The Play (other topics)Star Wars: Darth Vader and Son (other topics)
End of Watch (other topics)
Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann (other topics)
Grejen med substantiv och pronomen (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Susan Day (other topics)Lena Dowling (other topics)
Cindy Muir (other topics)
Peter Bartram (other topics)
Joel Crofoot (other topics)
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I wanted to read something other than Star Wars for this, since I've already read one for this challenge and I read them so much anyway. This was not as good, but still had its strong places. I gave up at a certain point trying to figure where, even loosely, it might fit in the timeline...but even if it did "fit" somewhat, its scope is such that I feel like if it happened to our Earth One Barry, Oliver, and co. it would have been mentioned later...so for me it's some other Earth (yay multiverse; that actually ties into the canon nicely.) That also helped with some of the characterization I didn't like.... It was just a mixed bag. Sometimes the plot was really strong, and some of the characters were spot-on most of the time (others hardly ever) and it did provide a good closure/continuation for the metas who escaped at the end of season one (tho now I see at least one will be returning to proper canon in season 4! Yay!) I will probably read the continuation Arrow book, just to see how the main plot ends, but overall this was just...very mixed for me.
an LGBTQIA* book - Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire -
Very good, but some confusing or otherwise off-putting bits. Also too short to get to know any one character enough to care about them a lot. I probably won't continue with the series, but I'm glad I read this one.
a book released in 2017 - Red Sister by Mark Lawrence -
To be brief: AWESOME!!!!
To be a bit longer: my review
memoir - Crash Override by Zoe Quinn
I thought this category would be one I'd struggle with, maybe even not do, and it def looked that way with two bios languishing on my currently-reading shelf (both very well-written & on interesting subjects, but hella depressing for me right now) and then I discovered this book and read it in two days. Quinn is a really engaging author, bringing humor and heart into even the most gross/horrifying subjects and events, and everything she has to say is IMO super important, esp for anyone on the internet. So, yeah, highly recommended!
So that's me at 12 out of 20...but I'm not sure how much more I'll do. I have a lot of books I want to read that won't fit any of my remaining categories and knowing that I can't totally complete makes me rather meh about the whole thing atm. (What Bunny wrote in this thread back in April about "cosy mystery" being a specific subgenre...if indeed only books that fit criteria that are "allowed" for fulfilling that category, I won't be able to complete. Even if I did own a book like that, or even wanted to look for recs in the genre to rent at the library, I likely wouldn't read it as it sounds like a total snore. Oh well. We'll see; perhaps I'll read a couple of the books I'd planned to do for other categories, or something I read this year will win a Goodreads Choice Award. Or maybe I'll try again next year if that category is removed/changed out for another.)