Q1 - Looking Back at the Best

[Claire]

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's lists for this challenge. There are some really GREAT books on the awards lists mentioned above!

Best of luck to everyone who joins the challenge! Here's what we have so far:

Alicja 0/6
Anna (msg #3) 0/6
Anna (msg #23) 8/12
Blagica 2/6
Brittany (msg #5) 1/4
Brittany (msg #10) 4/5
Candiss 7/6 Challenge complete!
Carmen 30/30 Challenge complete!
Chafic 0/7
⚜Chalmation⚜ 2/3
Cindy III 0/10
Claire 4/5
Consuelo 0/3
Den 0/2
Diane 3/3 Challenge complete!
Elina 4/4 Challenge complete!
Hope 0/3
Janet 4/5
Janine 8/6 Challenge complete!
Jennifer 0/3
Jessica 0/20
Jill 0/6
Kara quinata 0/8
Katherine 0/4
Kelly 5/5 Challenge complete!
Kristin 14/20
Laura Jane 0/4
Lindsay 5/3 Challenge complete!
Lisa 0/3
Megan 3/6
Meghan L 3/3 Challenge complete!
Mie 5/5 Challenge complete!
Nikki 8/4 Challenge complete!
Octothorpe Reader Leora K 7/5 Challenge complete!
oshizu 21/21 Challenge complete!
Rina 4/10
Samantha 0/3
SarahKat 6/6 Challenge complete!
Savannah 1/3
Steph 4/4 Challenge complete!
Susan C 3/3 Challenge complete!
Susan 1/5
Tahera 0/2
Tina 5/5 Challenge Complete!
Yngpsych 1/12

I thought it might be fun to track how the group as a whole is doing. So far, we have 298 books listed by 45 participants. with 158 books read toward challenges, plus 14 additional books read, and 16 challenges completed!

[[deleted user]]

LOOKING BACK AT THE BEST
Duration: January 1, 2019 - March 31,

Read/Goal - 0/6

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

I will sign up for 6 please!

4/6

Full List

[Brittany]

I'm in for 4!

2/4

Full possibilities list

Books read:

[Claire]

I'm going for 5 from the Man Booker Prize for this challenge, but I might add some others before I'm done:

1. Warlight
2. Everything Under
3. The Mars Room
4. Snap
5. From a Low and Quiet Sea

[oshizu]

Please sign me up for 9 books, please!
Raised challenge goal to 15 books.

Progress: 21/21

✔️1. The Sense of an Ending (2011 Man Booker)
✔️2. Doomsday Book (1992 Nebula & 1993 Hugo/Best Novel)
✔️3. Interpreter of Maladies (2000 Pulitzer/Fiction)
✔️4. Ready Player One (2012 Locus nominee/Best 1st Novel)
✔️5. Warcross (2017 Goodreads Choice nomineeYA Fantasy & Scifi)
✔️6. Home (2017 Goodreads Choice nominee/Scifi)
✔️7. Parable of the Talents (1999 Nebula/Best Novel)
✔️8. Wildcard (2018 Goodreads Choice nominee/YA Fantasy & Scifi)
✔️9. The Time Traveler's Wife (2004 Locus nominee/Best 1st Novel)
✔️10. A Confederacy of Dunces (1981 Pulitzer)
✔️11. Flowers for Algernon (1966 Nebula/Best Novel)
✔️12. The Night Masquerade (2018 Goodreads Choice nominee/Scifi)
✔️13. Heart Berries (2018 Goodreads Choice nominee/Memoirs & Autobio)
✔️14. To Say Nothing of the Dog (1999 Hugo/Best Novel, 1999 Locus/Best Sci Fi Novel)
✔️15. The Astonishing Color of After (2018 Goodreads nominee/YA Fiction & Debut Novel)
✔️16. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016 Goodreads nominee/History & Bio)
✔️17. Huntress (2018 Lambda Literary Award/Lesbian Mystery)
✔️18. The Plague of Doves (2009 Pulitzer finalist/Fiction)
✔️19. The Widows of Malabar Hill (2018 Goodreads/Mystery & Thriller)
✔️20. A Fine Balance (1996 Man Booker shortlist/Fiction)
✔️21. Shadow and Bone (2012 Goodreads nominee/YA Fantasy & Scifi)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Kelly]

I am going to go for 5!! Will start reviewing lists and anthologies!
First book will be: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (Wayne Johnston) past finalist for the Giller Award and Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction. Winner of the Thomas Raddall Award for Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction

[Brittany]

I'm in for 5. All of mine are going to be from the final round of the goodreads choice awards.

4/5

1. The Astonishing Color of After finished 1/6/2019
2. The Hate U Give finished 2/20/2019
3. The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After finished 3/3/2019
4. From Lukov with Love finished 3/21/2019

[Candiss]

I will be reading from NPR's 2018 Book Concierge. As some of the books I plan to read are poetry or graphic novels, and thus shortish, I will aim for 6.


Read: 7/6 - COMPLETED!


1. My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite (fiction)
2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh (fiction)
3. Split Tooth - Tanya Tagaq (poetry/short story cycle hybrid)
4. Infidel - Pornsak Pichetshote (graphic novel)
5. Why Art? - Eleanor Davis
6. A Cruelty Special to Our Species: Poems - Emily Jungmin Yoon
7. The Carrying: Poems - Ada Limón

[Mie]

I will go for 5 GR winners/nominees, please 😊

5/5 COMPLETE ✔️

📗 1. Morning Star - Sci-fi winner 2016
📗 2. Lethal White - Mystery nominee 2018
📗 3. Glass Sword - YA fantasy nominee 2016
📗 4. The Nightingale - Historical winner 2015
📗 5. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Fantasy winner 2013

[Diane]

I'm in for 3!

Goal: 3/3

My "best of" source is Literary Hub's ultimate best books of 2018 list which tracks how many (American?) "best of" lists a book made it on to in the year.

1. Circe, Madeline Miller (18 "best of" lists)
2. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones (17 "best of" lists)
3. All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir, Nicole Chung (9 "best of" lists)

[Tahera]

I will go for 2 from the Goodreads Choice Awards
0/2

[Jessica]

Please put me down for 20 :)

LOOKING BACK AT THE BEST
Duration: January 1, 2019 - March 31, 2019

I'll be utilizing Goodreads Choice Awards nominees for this one.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

20/20 - COMPLETED!

[Lisa]

I'm in!
I'll be reading from the Goodread Choice Awards.


Put me down for 3, please :) That should be doable in three months, right? Right!

[Susan C]

Put me down for 3 from the Goodreads Choice Awards nominees

3/3 Challenge completed

✓ 1. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer read 1/18/2019
✓ 2. A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea read 2/23/2019
✓ 3. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America read 3/24/2019

[Meghan L]

My goal is 3.

Possibilities are:

1. Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy (multi-author anthology)
2. Still Me (Goodreads Choice Award Winner)
3. Elevation (Goodreads Choice Award Winner)

[Consuelo]

I'm in for 3 from Ignotus Awards 2018
1. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
2. Señora de los caídos
3. Cuentos para Algernon: Año V

[Janet]

I'm in for 5 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Gilead 2/1/19 ****
Arrowsmith 2/13/19 ***
Angle of Repose 3/5/19 *****
Guard of Honor 3/22/19 ****

[Chalmation]

I'm in for 3.

3/3
Complete

A Monster Calls Red House Children’s Book Award 2012
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania Goodreads Choice Award 2015
The Library Book NPR Book Concierge 2018

[Chafic]

I'm in for 7.

0/7
Good Reads Choice Award Nominee's 2017-8

I'll keep track on my member's corner and update here when I can:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[[deleted user]]

I'm in for 12 books.

8/12

1. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
2. Elevation by Stephen King 12.01.2019 ★★☆☆☆
3. Educated by Tara Westover 17.03.2019 ★★★★★
4. A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa 12.02.2019 ★★★★☆
5. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi 30.01.2019 ★★☆☆☆
6. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
7. The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks 12.03.2019 ★★★★☆
8. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
9. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
10. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin 19.01.2019 ★★★★☆
11. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah 09.02.2019 ★★★★★
12. The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro 31.03.2019 ★★☆☆☆

[Nikki]

I'll join for 4 books please.

8/4 --- CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

1. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White ★★★
2. A Room Away From the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma ★★
3. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang ★★★★★
4. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi ★★★
5. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert ★★
6. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson ★★★★
7. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo ★★★★★
8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ★★★★

[Lindsay]

I'm in for 3 from the Goodreads Choice Awards.

1 Eleanor & Park 2018 Best of the Best
2 Convenience Store Woman Akutagawa award
3 The Ocean at the End of the Lane 2018 Best of the Best
4 Red Rising 2018 Best of the Best
5 The Bear and the Nightingale 2017 Best Fantasy

[Elina]

I'm reading from the Goodreads Choice Awards.
4/4
5⭐️ 01. jan.
5⭐️ 17. feb
2,5⭐️ 09. march
4⭐️ 12. march

[Jennifer]

I will sign up for 3 from the Goodreads Choice Awards

1.Graveminder
2.Uprooted

[Samantha]

Goal: 3 books

List I'll be reading from: NPR Best Books of 2018

Completed:
The Cabin at the End of the World
Sadie
My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Currently reading:


DNF:
The Immortalists
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown
Circe

Options I'm interested in:
The Immortalists
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
The Wedding Date
The Cabin at the End of the World
Trail of Lightning
Sadie
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Circe

[Rina]

Hi Claire, thanks for leading the challenge! I'd like to join with 10 books from the Goodreads Choice Awards 2018 list, please.

LOOKING BACK AT THE BEST
Duration: January 1, 2019 - March 31, 2019

Progress: 10/10 (Completed)

1 - The President Is Missing
2 - The Last Time I Lied
3 - Sometimes I Lie
4 - Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
5 - Herding Cats
6 - A Court of Frost and Starlight
7 - The Cruel Prince
8 - The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One
9 - Force of Nature
10 - Leah on the Offbeat

[Mie]

Update msg 12: 2/5

[Kelly]

Update to message #9; 1/5 completed.
French Exit, Patrick deWitt.
-Finalist for Giller Prize (2018)
-Voted NY Public Library Best of the Year List
-Voted Amazon.com Best Book of the Month List

[[deleted user]]

Please sign me up for 5 from Lit Hub’s Ultimate Best Books of 2018 List.
(Jan-Mar 2019)


1. The Overstory, 1/30 *** Richard Powers
2. Washington Black , Esi Edugyan 1/21 **
3. Warlight , Michael Ondaatje - 1/4 ***
4. Transcription , Kate Atkinson - 1/11 ****
5. The Library Book , Susan Orlean - 1/6 ***

[Steph]

Please sign me up for 4. I will be reading from the NPR Best Books of 2018 list.

Progress: 4/4 Challenge complete!

1. An American Marriage
2. Becoming
3. The Immortalists
4. Calypso

Thanks, Claire!

[Carmen]

Hola!
I'm in for 30
TOTAL: 30/30
✔1. [British Book Award (2006), ALA Alex Award (2004)]
✔2. [Prometheus Award for Best Novel (2012), ALA Alex Award (2012)]
✔3. [National Book Critics Circle Award]
✔4. [Hugo Award for Best Novel (2009), Newbery Medal (2009), Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel (2009)]
✔5. Blue Hen Book Award for Teen Readers (2011)
✔6. [ Specsavers National Book Award for Book of the Year (2013)
Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy (2013 and Nominee for Best of the Best (2018) ]
✔ 7. [Audie Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (1988)]
✔ 8. [Barry Award for Best First Novel (2008), Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel (2008), Anthony Award for Best First Novel (2008), Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author (2008)]
✔9. [Dioraphte Jongerenliteratuurprijs for Vertaald boek (2016), Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction (2015)]
✔10. [Hugo Award for Best Novel (1986), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1985)]
✔11. [Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (RT Award) for Vampire Romance (2007)]
✔12. [Stonewall Book Award for Non-Fiction (2007), Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction (2007), Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir/Biography (2007), Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for Best Reality-Based Work (2007)]
✔13. [American Book Award (1985), George C. Stone Center for Children's Books Recognition of Merit Award (1994)]
✔14. [Weatherford Award for Fiction (2012)]
✔15. [American Booksellers Book Of The Year Award for Adult Trade (1993), Audie Award for Romance (2015)]
✔16. [Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel (1987), Audie Award for Fiction (2013), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (1986), Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général for Fiction (1985)]
✔17. [Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (RT Award) for Women's Fiction (2008)]
✔18. [ALA Alex Award (2013)]
✔19. [Audie Award for Multi-Voiced Performance (2017), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2016) ]
✔20. [All About Romance (AAR) Annual Reader Poll for Funniest Romance (2014), Goodreads Choice Award for Debut Author and Nominee for Romance (2013)]
✔21. [All About Romance (AAR) Annual Reader Poll for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements (2014), Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for General Fiction (2014), UC Book of the Year (2015)]
✔22. [California Book Award for Young Adult (Gold) (2016), John Steptoe New Talent Author Award (2017)]
✔23. [Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2014), Audie Award for Literary Fiction (2014)]
✔24. [Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller and Nominee for Goodreads Author (2012) and Nominee for Best of the Best (2018)]
✔25. [Newbery Medal (1979), Banta Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction (1978)]
✔26. [California Book Award for Fiction (Silver) (1975)]
✔27. [Lefty Award (1999) ]
✔28. [Davitt Award for Best Adult Novel (2015), Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Nominee for General Fiction (2015), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2014)]
✔29. [Barry Award for Best First Novel (2010), Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel (2010), Dilys Award (2010), Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel (2010)
Agatha Award for Best First Novel (2009), CWA Debut Dagger (2007), ]
✔30. [Martin Beck Award (2004) ]

[Jill]

0/6

I’d like to join with 6!!

[Janine]

I'm in for 6.

I'll be choosing from the 2018 Goodreads Choice finalists.

[Megan]

I am aiming for 6. Probably chosen from the Giller finalists/winners (I have many of those on my TBR pile).

Update Mar 31 3/6 read

[Candiss]

I updated message #11.

Read: 1/6

[Steph]

Update to message 34. 1/4

[Cindy III]

I am in for 10

Sadie
City of Ash and Red
Julián Is a Mermaid
Dragons in a Bag
Dreamers
The Court Dancer
The Science of Breakable Things
Trail of Lightning
Ana María Reyes Does Not Live in a Castle
The Sky Is YoursA Duke by Default

Shade, the Changing Girl Vol. 2: Little RunawayDactyl Hill Squad
Children of Blood and Bone
Front Desk
The Poet X
The Prince and the Dressmaker
A Duke by Default
Odd One Out
The Parker Inheritance
How Long 'til Black Future Month?
Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World
Blue
The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War

[Brittany]

Update to message 10

1/5 complete

[Laura Jane]

I had already planned to try and read more of the GoodReads Choice Awards winners this year, so I'll try for 4!

[Kelly]

Update to Message #9. I have completed 2/5 books for this challenge. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston.
Winner: Canadian Author's Association Award for Fiction and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize
Finalist: Giller Prize and Governor General's Award for Fiction

[Carmen]

Message #35 updated: 1/30

[Carmen]

Message #35 updated: 2/30

[Carmen]

Message #35 updated: 4/30

[[deleted user]]

Message #33 updated- 3/5

[[deleted user]]

Message #23 update

1/12

2. Elevation by Stephen King 12.01.2019 ★★☆☆☆

[Bill]

8/13 Books Read
The Ultimate Best Books of 2018 List
1. Circe Read-Excellent
2. The Great Believers Read-A masterpiece
3. My Year of Rest and Relaxation Read-Interesting
4. There There Read- Very Good
5. An American MarriageRead-ok
6. The Overstory
7. Asymmetry Read-not my favorite
8. The Mars Room
9. Florida
10. The Witch ElmRead-Excellent
11. The Incendiaries Read-Ok
12. Friday Black
13. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden

[Candiss]

I updated message #11.

Read: 2/6

[oshizu]

Update to msg #7:
Please raise my challenge goal to 12, Claire.

Progress: 5/12

[Lindsay]

Update msg 25

1/3 complete