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Kiwi’s 2015 Reading Challenges
My challenges
✿ ✿ ✿Big and Small challenge : 12/12 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 12 March 2015
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Other chunksters:
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# chunksters (500+Pages): 29
✿ ✿ ✿TBR slimming challenge Read at least 48 books from my TBR:126/48 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 20 April 2015(view spoiler)
✿ ✿ ✿Hoarder’s challenge Read 12 books I already own: 12/12 + 11 extraPick books from “waiting on the shelf” list (as it stands on 01/01/15)✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 26 July 2015
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✿ ✿ ✿New To Me Authors challenge Read 6 popular authors that I have never read: 6/6 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 2 July 2015✿ ✿ ✿
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✿ ✿ ✿Favourite Authors challenge Read 6 books by my favourite authors: 6/6✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 3 June 2015
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✿ ✿ ✿Masochist challenge Read 4 books from my TBR that come recommended but I think I’ll hate: 4/4 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 19 May 2015
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✿ ✿ ✿Guilty Pleasure challenge: Read 4 books that I just can’t wait to read: 4/4
Pick a book to be combined (as a reward :-) with a masochist read ✿ ✿ ✿Completed 24 June 2015
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✿ ✿ ✿SF&F 2015 Reading Challenge for the group Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy: 24/24 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 9 May 2015
SF&F Challenge
✿ ✿ ✿SF&F 2015 Bookshelf Challenge (Read all the books! the sequel) for the group Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club: 16/16 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 6 August 2015
SF&F Bookshelf Challenge
✿ ✿ ✿Sci-Fi Challenge for The Reading For Pleasure Book Club: 10/10 ✿ ✿ ✿Completed 27 June 2015
SF Challenge thread and post link
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✿ ✿ ✿Serendipity Non-Fiction challenge Pick up a book by browsing the library aisles I don’t normally venture in: 4/4 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 9th April 2015
Pick books according to the Dewey classification
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✿ ✿ ✿Recommended by family/friends challengeRead at least 6 books that have been recommended or given to me as a gift:6/6 ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 9 May 2015
Note to self: tread carefully when reviewing!
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✿ ✿ ✿TBR Favourite Genre challenge: 24/24Read 6 books of each genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Classic, Children/Ya ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 6 August 2015 ✿ ✿ ✿
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✿ ✿ ✿History challenge Read a book for each time period (either 8 or 12 if I have time): 8/8 + 4 extra ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 21 June 2015 ✿ ✿ ✿My interests lie in classical era, this challenge is to learn more about each period
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✿✿✿2015 Monthly Genre challenge Read at least one book a month:55/12 ✿✿✿ Completed 3 Dec 2015 ✿✿✿ ✔January - Historical Fiction
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✔February - Romance & Chick-Lit
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✔March - Contemporary and Literary Merit
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✔April - Poetry and Plays
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✔May - Fantasy (including Utopian)
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✔June - Minority Studies/LGBT
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✔July - Manga/Graphic Novels &/OR Humor
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✔August - Mysteries
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✔September - Science-Fiction
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✔October - Horror/Thriller &/OR Short Story Collections
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✔November - Adventure &/OR Travel
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✔December - Children's Lit &/OR Traditional Lit
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✿✿✿2015 Monthly Non-Fiction Challenge: Read at least one book a month: 37/12 ✿✿✿ Completed 3 Dec 2015 ✿✿✿ ✔January - History
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✔February - Sociology/Relationships/Family
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✔March - Autobiography/Memoir
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✔April - Arts/Hobby/Skill related
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✔May - Health/Wellness/Self-Improvement
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✔June - Biography
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✔July - Nature/Animals
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✔August - True story/True crime/Current Events
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✔September - Science/Maths/Technology
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✔October - Psychology
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✔November - Travel/Food/Essays
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✔December - Religion/Spirituality/Philosophy
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✿ ✿ ✿Original Bingo (May-August 2015) for the group The 2015 Reading Challenge Group ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 21 June 2015 
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✿ ✿ ✿ABB Bingo Challenge ✿ ✿ ✿ Completed 7 March 2015
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✿✿✿ 3rd Reading Bingo✿✿✿Completed 23 August 2015 
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✿✿✿ 4th Reading Bingo✿✿✿Completed 1 Dec 2015
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Month summary
January
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# Books read: 24
# Pages read: 6,589
Best book of the month: Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman
Best yield/payoff read: The Shelters of Stone (6 challenges!)
February
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NotInGR
# Books read: 22 (GR counter says 45 as one of the books isn't present in GR)
# Pages read: 6,184 (the missing book page count compensates for DNF book)
Best book of the month: Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
Best yield/payoff read: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (5 challenges)
March
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# Books read: 26
# Pages read: 6,799
Best book of the month: Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Best yield/payoff read: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (5 challenges)
April
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# Books read: 25 (GR counter says 95 as one of the books isn't present in GR)
# Pages read: 6,855 (the not-in-GR book page count compensates the DNF book)
Best book of the month: A History of Roman Art by Fred S. Kleiner
Best yield/payoff read: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (5 challenges)
May
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# Books read: 20
# Pages read: 6,605
Best book of the month: The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Best yield/payoff read:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (4 challenges)
June
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# Books read: 19
# Pages read: 5,791
Best book of the month: Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky
Best yield/payoff read: Ordinary Grace (3 challenges)
Half year challenge recap:
1.Overall reading goals: 131/180, 38,823 /40,000
2.Big and small: 12/12 Completed
3.TBR slimming:75/48 Completed but ongoing
4.Hoarder’s challenge: 10/12 + 5 extra
5.New-2-Me: 5/6
6.Favourite authors: 6/6 Completed
7.Masochist: 4/4 Completed
8.Guilty pleasure: 4/4 Completed
9.SF&F 2015 Reading Challenge for the group Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy: 24/24 Completed
10.SF&F 2015 Bookshelf Challenge for the group Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club: 14/16
11.Sci-Fi Challenge for The Reading For Pleasure Book Club: 10/10 Completed
12.Serendipity: 4/4 Completed
13.Recommended by: 6/6 Completed
14.TBR favourite genre: 18/24
15.History: 8/8 + 4 extra Completed
16.Decade: 12/12 Completed
17.Monthly Genre: 22/12 – ongoing
18.NF monthly genre: 23/12 – ongoing
Original Bingo (May-August 2015) – Completed
ABB Bingo Challenge - Completed
July
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# Books read: 23
# Pages read: 7,804
Best book of the month: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Best yield/payoff read: Eldest (4 challenges)
August
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# Books read: 25
# Pages read: 7,950
Best book of the month: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Best yield/payoff read: The Murder at the Vicarage (2 challenges)
September
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# Books read: 23
# Pages read: : 7,683
Best book of the month: The Whistling Season
October
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# Books read: 20
# Pages read: 6,637
Best book of the month: A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
November
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# Books read: 20
# Pages read: 6,314
Best book of the month: Macbeth by A.J. Hartley
December
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# Books read: 29
# Pages read: 82,240
Best book of the month: The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
My Year in review# books read: 273 (8 abandoned)
# pages read: 82,240
# books over 500 pages: 29
# new-to-me authors now on my watchlist (with 4 or 5 stars ratings): 38
# 5 stars reads: 22 … 4 stars reads: 68 … average: 3.1 stars
# books on TBR at the beginning (pre-2015): 361
# pre-2015 TBR books read: 126 (TBR is now 309)
Top 10 Fiction reads:
• I, Claudius
• Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
• Dissolutions
• Roadside picnic
• Big Little lies
• The whistling season by Ivan Doig (Best Fiction of the year)
• My cousin Rachel
• Gentlemen and players
• Macbeth: a novel
• The bottoms
Honourable mention: Bull Mountain, A Land More Kind Than Home and The Enchanted
Top 5 Non-fiction:
• A history of Roman Art
• Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman (Best NF of the year)
• All Creatures Great and Small
• The Cathars
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Honourable mention: Historical Atlas of the Celtic World and Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History
Wow great challenges! I look forward to seeing all the books you read next year...p.s. I hope you like Ken Follett, he's one of my favourite authors! Depending on what mood you're in I'd recommend Pillars of the Earth (historical fiction), Hornet Flight (action/spy/WWII) or Dangerous Fortunes (mystery).
Thanks Erica for the recommendations, I have Pillars of the Earth on my TBR and I was thinking about reading it, it could also double as colossal read :-)
Oh my God, a lot of books and challenges! I would never be able to remember them all. Good luck!
Wow! You're really pushing yourself here!
The Martian is definitely worth reading, it's really fun, I loved the main character Mark.
I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and it's intriguing, the plot thickens as you read. There's a Readalong for it actually, so when you read it and want to discuss it, the topic isn't going anywhere.
I'm curious, is Pride and Prejudice a re-read or you never got around to read it before?
The Martian is definitely worth reading, it's really fun, I loved the main character Mark.
I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and it's intriguing, the plot thickens as you read. There's a Readalong for it actually, so when you read it and want to discuss it, the topic isn't going anywhere.
I'm curious, is Pride and Prejudice a re-read or you never got around to read it before?
I read Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett this year. It was one if my favorites!
Great challenges! I particularly like the decade challenge -- I might have to steal that in 2016! :-)
Giorgia wrote: I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and it's intrig..."I saw the thread, Georgia, I'll def. going to look at it when I'll read the book. It's great that you guys have marked the spoilers.
I confess I never read the original book from Jane Austen, I know, it's unforgivable :-), but I loved the movie (the old BBC version with a young Colin Firth).
Beth wrote: "I read Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett this year. It was one if my favorites!"
I see Ken Follet is well-loved author, being a prolific writer I'll be spoilt for choice.
Leslie wrote: "Great challenges! I particularly like the decade challenge -- I might have to steal that in 2016! :-)"
Feel free Leslie, my list is actually a reduced version from another group; the original version includes the 800s as well, but I reduced it given that I already have the history challenge.
Thanks guys for your good wishes! I am tidying up and completing my 2014 reads and I can't wait to get started on 2015!
January reading planOK, let’s start. Here is my January reading plan (subject to change), to read in no particular order:
✔The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel (History + Colossal + Bingo)
✔Tomorrow to Be Brave: A Memoir of the Only Woman Ever to Serve in the French Foreign Legion by Susan Travers (Monthly non-fiction + Hoarder’s + Bingo)
✔The Martian by Andy Weir (Favourite genre: sci-fi + Bingo)
✔ A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Decade + Classic + Bingo)
✔Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction by Hugh Bowden (Monthly Non-fiction:history + shortie)
✔Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (Monthly Genre: Historical Fiction + Bingo)
I've started The Shelters of Stone and I'll mix with other books in the list as it is quite a long book.
Happy reading everyone!
Let me know what you think of Shelters of Stone...I've read the first three books in the series but the third one disappointed me so haven't picked up any since.
My plan is to complete at least one book per week. I have started reading many books from various genres. I particularly like philosophy, psychology, history, historical fiction, literature meaning classics and some crime. As of now I am stuck in reading English history in preparation for reading Shakespeare. My first book on my list is To Hold The Crown by Jean Plaidy.
@Erica: from reading some GR reviews I suspect is not the best book of the series. I read the first 2 books some years ago and I liked them. Now that I have started this book I can see that, although entertaining, it is not going to be one of my favourites. I picked this book because I already own it and I needed a book for my History challenge, I could not find another well rated pre-history fiction book.
@Denise, I too am an eclectic reader. Good luck with your 2015 reads, To Hold The Crown looks good, I have a few "Tudor" related books on my TBR waiting
Edited to add my first 2015 completed read: A Little Princess, while reading my colossal :The Shelters of Stone.Review: A charming novel, it remind us of the power of nobility of the heart, imagination, self-respect, friendship and of believing you can be a princess no matter what.
I loved this little novel, I think I will re-read it at some point, probably next Christmas given its heart-warming properties :-)
Erica wrote: "Let me know what you think of Shelters of Stone...I've read the first three books in the series but the third one disappointed me so haven't picked up any since."I thought the Clan of the Cave Bear was so original and gripping but the others each got more and more predictable. I actually could not finish The Shelters of Stone after looking forward to it a long time. I wondered if her writing was always that simplistic and I had become more sophisticated in my tastes, or if she just got lazy. There are such obviously Good and Bad characters and it's so overwritten.
Thanks Robin for your review, I'm still "chewing" my way through the book so I'm holding my opinion till I finish it :-)Finished another book: Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction by Hugh Bowden
review:
I acknowledge and appreciate the author’s aim at proving that many episodes in Alexander’s life and career have different (and often conflicting) accounts of the same events, as reported by various historians (Diodorus, Curtius, Plutarch, Arrian, Justin among others). However, the continuous reference to multiple sources render this book narrative confusing and difficult to follow (e.g. the section of the oracle of Amun). Perhaps it would have been better to stick to a “version” first and provide evidence from other sources where the different “versions” differ?
I was also surprised at the inclusion of arbitrary statements dropped without further explaining the basis for such statements, such as:
“The period of dictatorship in Europe in the second quarter of the 20th century, and the rebirth of the idea of the ‘clash of the civilizations’ in the wake of 9/11 have both had their impact on Alexander’s studies, as prejudices of the Romans have seemed to pre-echo the politics of the 20th and 21th centuries”.
Although this book is short, I would not recommend it to someone looking for a "introduction" to Alexander’s life but rather to someone already very familiar with the political landscape and the historical events of the period and appreciates the effort by the author to provide some interesting reflections on the historical evidence available today.
I have a passion for classical antiquity (and on Alexander in particular), have read quite a few books on the subject but despite its potential to be a much better book, unfortunately I would rate this book no more than 2 stars.
Mod
Hi Greg, it depends on whether you'd like a historical fiction or a non-fiction book. Many people enjoyed Mary Renault's The Alexander Trilogy, I have it on my TBR but I haven't read it myself, or Steven Pressfield's The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great which is a shorter book (BTW I recommend his Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae which I read earlier this year and reviewed here).
I find that good historical novels can capture the "magic" of an important character, provided they are based on accurate research of course, and can serve as a good "introduction" on the subject. Sometimes the non-fiction books on the same historical figure may be dry, being more preoccupied with the authenticity of historical sources, precision of dates for events etc, than the personality of the people if you know what I mean?
Mod
For me, I definitely prefer historical novels since it's for my own enjoyment as opposed to a thesis. I know what you mean about non-fiction sometimes being dry when its main concern is accuracy - to dramatize events, assumptions often have to be made since there will be always be some details & motivations that remain unknown. And any assumptions will reduce the accuracy somewhat. That's OK for my purposes.
Finished Tomorrow to Be Brave: A Memoir of the Only Woman Ever to Serve in the French Foreign Legion by Susan Travers, interesting true story of a remarkable woman
Yes Pink, her story is quite remarkable, I remember reading about her when she died. I found a couple of articles here and here. I particularly liked her account of her childhood and then then when she was a "spirited" young woman during the 1020s and 1930s. The WWII part a bit less although she managed to make it interesting.
Thanks for linking those articles, I especially liked the BBC one, which has made me want to read about her life even more.
Finished The Shelters of Stone, the first of my "colossal" reads (800+ pages) for the year. I was tempted to rate this novel 3 stars but downgraded to 2 stars, as by my own rating rules, I'm not planning to read more from this series.review:
Historical fiction based on prehistory are, by their nature, speculative, but the book is based on good archaeological research.
I found some parts very interesting, e.g. the making of tools and clothes, the description of the burial rites, and in particular the cave drawings. The evocative description of the Zelandoni cave rituals reminded me of a great movie, the “Cave of the forgotten dreams”, which documents the discovery in 2011 of the Chauvet Cave that contains the oldest human-painted images yet discovered (while the book was published in 2002 and probably is based on the cave drawings of another well-known cave in France: Lascaux).
I often felt that the book was long due to unnecessary repetitions, e.g. direct and indirect speech referring to the same event over and over, the Mother song which appears three times in the book, the characters’ lengthy formal introductions and the “flashbacks” from the previous books in the series. All these felt like “fillers” to intentionally make the book longer for what is a very simple plot (Ayla and Jondalar coming home and settling within his tribe).
I'm continuing The Martian by Andy Weir.
Kiwi wrote: "Finished The Shelters of Stone, the first of my "colossal" reads (800+ pages) for the year. I was tempted to rate this novel 3 stars but downgraded to 2 stars, as by my own rating rule..."Your comments are exactly the reason I stopped bothering with this series after book 3...good on you for giving her another chance. I also felt like she was always repeating things...especially the inner dialogue.
Looking forward to hearing what you think of The Martian, I've got this on my tbr list.
Finished
for me it was a true 3 1/2 stars. I won't do a full review as there are many good ones on GR already. I agree with many reviewers that the calculation and explanations were a little too much. I like science and I am an engineer but being a novel not a text book, some of them could have been easily left out of the book.I enjoyed the humour in the book very much and a chuckled quite a few times. I liked the dynamics of the other characters on Earth, it felt a lot like some work meetings I've been involved LOL. GR doesn't allow 1/2 stars unfortunately so I'm giving this book a 3 stars, it is already a bestseller and its overall rating won't suffer much
I agree Robin, I listened to Wil Wheaton Audible version (while reading on the kindle), he is awesome!
Finished
, lovely book about the story of a orphan-train rider, I never knew about the events in the story. 4 stars.After being disappointed by my earlier book choice about Alexander the Great, I have decided to read another book on the subject:
. This books comes highly recommended, I have read only a couple of pages and it looks like it's just what I was looking for :-)
Continuing Alexander the Great which I'm greatly enjoying: finally a book written by a classicist and historian but that obviously has a talent for writing history as if it were a novel.In the meantime I finished a few short novellas:
by the author of The Martian,
by the author of Coraline and
. The latter is a short dystopian novella written in 1909 (!) which warns humanity about the dangers of losing our own self-reliance in favour of machine dependency.
All About Books
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The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History (other topics)
The Gospel of Loki (other topics)
The Gospel of Loki (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Leslie Marmon Silko (other topics)James Wright (other topics)
Roald Dahl (other topics)
E.M. Forster (other topics)
John Green (other topics)
Overall 2015 reading goals
• Read 180 books ✿✿✿ Completed 29 August 2015 ✿✿✿
• Read 40,000 pages (2015 Reading Challenge - Let's Turn Pages Challenge)✿✿✿ Completed 4 July 2015 ✿✿✿