Lynne O's Winter Challenge

[Lynne]

I've never done this before and trying the yearly challenge, so I'll see how this goes....

Winter Reading Challenge Tasks

DECEMBER

1. Winter

1. Read a book with a title beginning with a letter in WINTER (you can use or ignore a, an or the)
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

2. December birthdays: Ann Patchett

1. Read a book published between 1992 and 2019 (inclusive).
Someone KnowsSomeone Knows by Lisa Scottoline, published April 2019

3. Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year... Time for decorating the Christmas tree, singing carols, wearing a novelty Christmas jumper, and hopefully waking up on Christmas morning to find the new release you’ve been excited to read waiting under the Christmas tree for you to unwrap. Merry Christmas!

1. Read a book that was recommended to you in our Christmas book recommendations game
Please make sure you have signed up here by 14 December if you’d like to participate
2. Read a book that has one of the gifts referred to in The Twelve Days of Christmas shown on its cover (ignore the numbers - eg a book with a gold ring works, you don’t need a book with five gold rings!)
3. Read a book on one of the following Christmas reading lists:
🎁 Oprah magazine: 35 best Christmas books of all time
🎁 Bustle: 9 classic Christmas books for adults
🎁 Stylist: 50 best Christmas books

4. Winter sports: yukigassen

3. Read a book set in a country where yukigassen is played (Japan, Armenia, Canada, China, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, or Slovakia).
A Nearly Normal Family by M. T. Edvardsson (set in Sweden)

JANUARY

1. Happy New Year!

1. Read a book by an author who is new to you.
2. Read a book from a genre that is new to you (you can use a sub-genre, eg urban fantasy, historical romance, etc if you already read books from most genres).
This is How It Always Is This book would meet both of these prompts. I have never read Laurie Frankel before and it's an LGBT genre, also a first for me.

2. January birthdays: A.A. Milne

2. Read a book by an author who was born in a capital city (for this task, a capital city means the capital of a country rather than a state or province)
Miracle CreekMiracle Creek by Angie Kim, who was born in Seoul, South Korea

3. New Year Resolutions

2. Read a book that looks into the past (historical fiction, history, etc) or a book that looks into the future (science fiction, fantasy, etc).
The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain (may be stretching this prompt a little bit)

4. Winter sports: bobsleigh

1. Read a book set mostly in a location that begins with a letter in SWITZERLAND.
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen; set in Washington state. Seattle and Raymond, Washington

FEBRUARY

1. Valentine’s Day

February 14th is celebrated around the world as Valentine’s Day. It was originally a feast day honouring an early Christian saint and only became associated with love and romance in the 14th century. Fun fact: Cadbury first began producing heart-shaped boxes of chocolates for Valentine’s Day in 1868. Buying overpriced novelty chocolates as a token of love has a long history!

1. Read a book with Romance listed as one of the top five genres on its Goodreads page.
2. Read a book by an author whose first and last initials appear in VALENTINE’S DAY.
3. Read a book written in or set in the Medieval period (usually defined as the 5th to 15th centuries).

2. February birthdays: Toni Morrison

1. Read a book with a colour in the title OR a book with a cover that is mostly blue. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

3. Winter sports: Ski jumping

3. Read a book where the plot “jumps” about (a non-linear narrative as it’s normally called). These lists might be useful as inspiration but your book doesn’t have to appear on one to work for this task:
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

4. Leap year

2. Read a book in which the numbers 2 and 9 appear in the number of pages.
The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain, 352 pages