The Reading Challenge Group discussion
Personal Challenges - 2018
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Tracey's 2018 Reading Challenge
2018 Popsugar Reading Challenge1. A book made into a movie you've already seen - Fight Club
2. True Crime - In Cold Blood
3. The next book in a series you started - Finders Keepers
4. A book involving a heist - The Good Daughter
5. Nordic noir - The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
6. A novel based on a real person - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
7. A book set in a country that fascinates you - A Room with a View
8. A book with a time of day in the title - Midnight at the Electric
9. A book about a villain or antihero - Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
10. A book about death or grief - Lincoln in the Bardo
11. A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym - Career of Evil
12. A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist - The Animators
13. A book that is also a stage play or musical - Les Misérables
14. A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you - Pachinko
15. A book about feminism - Men Explain Things to Me
16. A book about mental health - The Woman in the Window
17. A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift - Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
18. A book by two authors - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
19. A book about or involving a sport - Rabbit, Run
20. A book by a local author - The Obsession
21. A book with your favorite color in the title - Red Clocks
22. A book with alliteration in the title - Peter Pan
23. A book about time travel - Slaughterhouse-Five
24. A book with a weather element in the title - Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories
25. A book set at sea - Moby-Dick or, The Whale
26. A book with an animal in the title - The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art
27. A book set on a different planet - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
28. A book with song lyrics in the title - Heart-Shaped Box
29. A book about or set on Halloween - Dark Harvest
30. A book with characters who are twins - In the Woods
31. A book mentioned in another book - To the Lighthouse
32. A book from a celebrity book club - The Haunted Vagina
33. A childhood classic you've never read - A Little Princess
34. A book that's published in 2018 - Circe
35. A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner - Little Fires Everywhere
36. A book set in the decade you were born - My Best Friend's Exorcism
37. A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn't get to - The Girls
38. A book with an ugly cover - The Vampyre; A Tale
39. A book that involves a bookstore or library - Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
40. Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges (about immigrant or refugee - 2017) - The Leavers
2018 Popsugar Advanced Reading Challenge
1. A bestseller from the year you graduated high school - The Road
2. A cyberpunk book - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
3. A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place - The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
4. A book tied to your ancestry - White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
5. A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title - The Grapes of Wrath
6. An allegory - Don Quixote
7. A book by an author with the same first or last name as you - New Boy
8. A microhistory - I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
9. A book about a problem facing society today - The Hate U Give
10. A book recommended by someone else taking the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - The Song of Achilles
1. The Hate U Give - I read this right after reading "Little and Lion", and I couldn't help but compare the two. They are both contemporary books about young, black female characters and the plot theme is diversity and identity. Where I think "Little and Lion" misses the mark, "The Hate U Give" succeeds. In "Little and Lion", I felt the author threw too many identity issues together, and that left the book moving in too many different directions. In "The Hate U Give", the author took a deep dive into one particular issue, and as a result, the book felt more developed and more serious. 2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - I put this book off for awhile, and am glad that I finally read this one. The author does a good job of portraying the important role that Henrietta Lacks and her cells played in medicine, as well as the ethical concerns. My only criticism is that the author spends a lot of time talking about herself in her attempts to connect with the family.
Thank you for including these reviews! Adding these to my to-read list.
3. Lincoln in the Bardo - There are very few books that I would say that I truly loathe, but this is one of them. I know I'm in the minority on this. I just could not get into the writing style; it just seemed like a bunch of disjointed sentences thrown together related to the death of Lincoln's son. Maybe all over my head?
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5. Little Fires Everywhere - This one started out slow for me but I really enjoyed it by the end. I started off not caring about the characters, but felt very involved with them later on. I think that in connecting with the characters, it helped that the author raises a few moral questions that I found myself thinking about for awhile after I'd finish a chapter.
6. Midnight at the Electric - Was okay, but I definitely didn't feel the emotions I was supposed to feel from this book. The connections between characters didn't feel terribly strong.
7. Pachinko - If you like 100 Years of Solitude and the House of the Spirits, I think you'll like this one.
8. The Leavers - For a debut novel, I think this is elegantly written book, but it just wasn't for me. I never felt like I connected enough with the characters to justify their motives/behaviors. I would recommend others read this one because of the issues it brings to light with illegal immigration.
9. Fight Club - I do love dark & grim novels. It's been awhile since I've seen the movie to know if I liked the book more or less.
10. In Cold Blood - I'm a fan of listening to true crime podcasts, but true crime books just don't seem to entertain me as much.
11. The Good Daughter - I liked it, but it was graphic to the point that it felt a little gratuitous. At some points I think the book got away from the plot a little bit in favor of the graphic backstory.
12. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye - If you've read the first three original "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" books, just stop there. Don't read any further.
13. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened - I had some laugh out loud moments so I gave the book four stars.
14. Finders Keepers - I don't remember much about Mr. Mercedes anymore to be honest. This book is a sequel, but it holds its own for the most part.
16. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Welp, that was a bust. I was definitely reading only to finish it. Should have just waited for the musical.
17. Career of Evil - A solid 3rd book to an okay series. The "who-dun-it" moment isn't as thrilling as it should be.
18. Red Clocks - I know that it's only February but this may be my favorite book of the year. Many will compare it to the Handmaid's Tale, but I think that its unique style of writing allows it to hold its own too.
19. The Animators - There is a great plot to the book but it gets buried under all of the situational drama.
20. Les Misérables - It took me forever, but I finally finished this beast! When there was actual story, I did love it. However, there's a lot of filler you have to weed through, including 10 chapters just on sewers...
21. The Woman in the Window - A lot like The Woman in Cabin 10 or The Girl on the Train and I think I'm growing tired of those. I was able to guess some of the plot twists.
Tracey wrote: "21. The Woman in the Window - A lot like The Woman in Cabin 10 or The Girl on the Train and I think I'm growing tired of those. I was able to guess s..."Good to know, so I won't read them in a row....
23. Rabbit, Run - It's astounding how much an author can make you both empathize and detest a character. Updike really gives you a sense of what his characters are going through, no matter how much you loathe them.
24. The Obsession - First 100 pages, an exciting thriller. Next 100 pages, solely about furniture shopping. Third 100 pages, a rushed finale.
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25. Men Explain Things to Me - Not bad, but there are better feminism essays out there than the ones in this book.
26. The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art - This reads a bit dry and my lack of true interest in both economics and contemporary art probably didn't help.
27. Peter Pan - Some of this book is quite surprising if you've only watched the disney version. I don't know why it took me so long to read this.
28. Slaughterhouse-Five - An interesting critique about war told through a series of seemingly unrelated scenes but they come together rather well.
29. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - This quirky book reminded me of the Mass Effect video game that I watched my husband play, or Firefly. The plot is a simple one and the world building and characters carry this story.
30. Don Quixote - It's interesting to me that the most famous part of Don Quixote is 50 pages into this 1000 page chunkster.
31. Lilac Girls - It's amazing how many books one can read on WWII and still learn something new (and still feel appalled by all the atrocities). I do feel this one is a must read. I didn't care for one of the character's plot lines though - it didn't really tie in with the other two character plot lines until the end. I'm sure she was still a fascinating person in real life.32. Welcome to Night Vale - Without having ever listened to the podcast, I can only say that this was a quirky book.
33. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - I learned of this book through the "My Favorite Murder" podcast and was engrossed in it the whole time. This is probably one of the best "true crime" books that I have ever read.Update: OMG! Only a week or two after I read this and they catch the guy!
34. Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories - I liked how most of these short stories told what could have been a mundane story but left it at an eerie ending.
36. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry - I was really tired of the fictional world in this book by the end of the story.
38. Moby-Dick or, The Whale - I think I fell asleep a few times while reading this one, which I guess isnt a surprise seeing as I fell asleep through the movie version of the book that they had us watch in high school. While I enjoyed the times there were actual plot, 300+ pages of this 700 page book was just about the biology of whales.
39. Dark Harvest - The prose was up there, but needed another 100 pages to really be a hit. On the plus side, it was a much needed quick read after Moby-Dick.
41. To the Lighthouse - I think I need to read this one again to truly understand Virginia Woolf. I understood the individual pieces, but I think if I re-read it, I would pick up on so much more. The second part is gorgeously written.
42. The Haunted Vagina - Read this as part of the Bloggess bookclub. Everyone needs absurd books to laugh at once in awhile.
43. In the Woods - Up until the last 50 or so pages, I didn't think much of this book. The red herring outweighs the actual plot itself. The last 50 pages turned me around because (view spoiler)
44. Of Mice and Men - A classic that I never had to read in high school. I'm glad I read it now - this one sticks with you.
45. My Best Friend's Exorcism - Well, I didn't expect much out of it so it actually surpassed my expectations. It was quirky.
The Reading Challenge Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Lair of Dreams (other topics)The Casual Vacancy (other topics)
The Husband's Secret (other topics)
The Sword of Summer (other topics)
Everything I Never Told You (other topics)
More...
- Read some of the larger books that have been on my TBR shelf for awhile.
- Read 75 books (reduced from 100 in 2017 in order to accommodate reading larger books).
- Read more nonfiction books.