CLOSED - "The" Challenge - Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2022

[Edwina]

Whilst searching through my books one day, I was amazed by how many I have that start with the word "The" so for my 2022 challenge I've decided to thin them out by reading at least 2 per month.
If you'd like to join me then please post below.

In a nutshell - Read at least 24 books (or more) starting with the word "The" in 2022. Please wait until Jan. 1st to start.

Happy New Year & Happy Reading!

[Cheryl]

Oh, this sounds like fun! I'm not at home right now, but I'll see what I can find when I get back next week.

[Deb]

Count me in!

1. The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
2. The Shark Club by Ann Kidd Taylor
3. The Outcast by Louise Cooper
4. The Master by Louise Cooper
5. The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
6. The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustain
7. The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott
8. The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson
9. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
10. The Joys of Love by Madeleine L'Engle
11. The Reader by Bernhard Schink
12. The Known World by Edward P. Jones
13. The Girls by Lori Lansens
14. The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great by Ben Shapiro
15. The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor
16. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
17. The Serpent in the Garden by Janet Gleeson
18. The Widow's War by Sally Gunning
19. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
20. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Stories by F.Scott Fitzgerald
21. The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish
22. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
23. The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century Edited by Harry Turtledove with Martin H. Greenberg
24. The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory

[Chana]

Yes, I would like to do this

[Nancy]

Count me in, too.

1. The Venus School by Golden Angel (DONE 1/9/22)
2. The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis (DONE 1/18/22)
3. The Dogs of Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron (DONE 1/19/22)
4. The Cat Who Came for Christmas by Cleveland Amory (DONE 2/3/22)
5. The Missing Sister by Elle Marr (DONE 2/21/22)
6. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (DONE 2/24/22)
7. The Christmas Journey by Donna VanLiere (DONE 1/24/22)
8. The Trouble with Valentine's Day by Rachel Gibson (DONE 2/12/22)
9. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (DONE 3/2/22)
10. The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson (DONE 3/7/22)
11. The Chocolate Rose by Laura Florand (DONE 3/11/22)
12. The Awful Mess by Sandra Hutchison (DONE 3/17/2022)
13. The Charmer by C.J. Archer (DONE 3/26/2022)
14. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (DONE 4/8/2022)
15. The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore (DONE 4/16/2022)
16. The Women With Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck (DONE 4/18/2022)
17. The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes by Eva Leigh (DONE 4/26/2022)
18. The Passion of Patrick MacNeill by Virginia Kantra (DONE 5/25/2022)
19. The Kew Gardens Girls at War by Posy Lovell (DONE 6/8/2022)
20. The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick (DONE 6/9/2022)
21. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (DONE 3/23/2022)
22. The Brighter the Light by Mary Ellen Taylor (DONE 7/8/2022)
23. The Rusalka Ritual and Other Stories by Freya Pickard (DONE 7/17/2022)
24. The Twelve Jays of Christmas by Donna Andrews (DONE 7/26/2022)
25. The Three Rules of Everyday Magic by Amanda Rawson Hill (DONE 7/28/2022)
26. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (DONE 8/28/2022)
27. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (DONE 9/14/2022)
28. The MacKInnon's Bride by Tanya Anne Crosby (DONE 10/24/2022)
29. The Night Watchman by Louise Eerdrich (DONE 11/15/2022)
30. The Lightkeeper by Susan Wiggs (DONE 11/20/2022)
31. The Noel Letters by Richard Paul Evans (DONE 12/8/2022)
32. The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo (DONE 12/19/2022)
33. The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson (DONE 12/23/2022)

[Alison]

Count me in

[Diane]

I'm gonna try! I don't have a ton of time to read, but I like the idea of doing a challenge like this. Has been a LONG time since I participated in BC challenges. Thanks, Edwina!

[KF-in-Georgia]

I'm in.

[Lisa]

Count me in!

[KF-in-Georgia]

KF-in-Georgia wrote: "I'm in."

After a year of barely reading for pleasure--reading politics and genealogy books--this week I decided to read Christmas books. I've got more than 130 on my shelves. So starting on 7 December, I began plowing through Christmas books. And I decided to get a jump start on "The" books.

I've read six books in three days. Among the reads is J.K. Rowling's The Christmas Pig and M.J. Lee's The Christmas Carol.

That last title isn't an error. It's a book about the writing of Dickens's famous book and contains a genealogy-related mystery...a chance to tie my latest occupation to the holiday season.

[Carole888]

Thanks Edwina, I'm in too. Will edit this post and add in as I finish. :)


1. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
2. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain
3. The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
4. The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin
5. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin
6. The Carer by Deborah Moggach
7. The Gentle Art of Swedish Deathcleaning by Margareta Magnusson
8. The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester
9. The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
10. The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey
11. The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali
12. The Case of the Reincarnated Client by Tarquin Hall
13. The Yield by Tara June Winch
13. The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan
14. The Reindeer Hunters by Lars Mytting
15. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
16. The Promise by Damon Galcut
17. The Night Before Christmas by NikolaigGogol
18. The Strange Library by Harui Murakami
19. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
20. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
21. The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz
22. The Death of Ivan Illych by Leo Tolstoy
23. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
24. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
25. The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
26. The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chim
27. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
28. The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates
29. The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
30. The Crocodile Dies Twice by Shamus Frazer

[K M]

Sure, why not? Maybe I'll do better with this one than I did on your A-Z challenge, Edwina. Hi, everyone! (waving). Happy New Year to all and Happy Reading.

KM (Pashmack on BC)

[Cheryl]

Ok here we go.

The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness - not from Mt. TBR but hard work so I want credit for it.

Mt. TBR that I really hope to get to this year:

The Final Frontier (big short story collection)
The Food of a Younger Land (history)
The Painting
The Best of Leigh Brackett
The Best of Edmund Hamilton

[Edwina]

Thank you all for joining me!
You have no idea how happy it makes me to see that you all enjoy my crazy little challenges.
Are we ready? Then let's put a hurtin' on Mt. Toobie!
Happy Reading!!!

[Edwina]

"The" Challenge

1. The Name of the Game - Nora Roberts - Finished

2. The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl - Finished

3. The Weight of Water - Anita Shreve - Finished

4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - Finished

5. The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler - Finished

6. The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout - Finished

7. The Watchers by Jeffrey A. Ballard - Finished

8. The Lioness of Morocco by Julia Drosten - Finished

9. The Eye of God by James Rollins - Finished

10. The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman - Finished

11. The Magician by Colm Toibin - Finished

12. The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood - Finished

13. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - Finished

14. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor - Finished

15. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James - Finished

16. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester - Finished

17. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank - Finished

18. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith - Finished

19. The Hideout by Eve Bunting - Finished

20. The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood - Finished

21. The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg - Finished

22. The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit - Finished

23. The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton - Finished

24. The Pressed Fairy Journal of Madeline Cottington by Brian & Wendy Froud - Finished

[Lisa]

I'm in! Better late than never:)

1. The Devil's Teeth--Susan Casey
2. The Memory Box--Eva Lesko Natiello
3. The Sugar Queen--Sarah Addison Allen
4. The Second Life of Mirielle West--Amanda Skenandore
5. The Professor and the Madman--Simon Winchester
6. The Littles to the Rescue--John Peterson
7. The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean--Alexander McCall Smith
8. The Art of Mending--Elizabeth Berg
9. The Buddha in the Attic--Julie Otsuka
10. The Animal Family--Randall Jarrell
11. The Celery Stalks at Midnight--James Howe
12. The Full Cupboard of Life--Alexander McCall Smith

[Edwina]

6 months in - How is everyone doing?

[K M]

Edwina wrote: "6 months in - How is everyone doing?"

Not well at all! Not only am I in a bit of a reading slump, I haven't read a single book this year that begins with the word "The"! Guess I'll be dropping out of this one, alas.

[Rebecca]

Edwina wrote: "6 months in - How is everyone doing?"

I sort of forgot that I had planned on doing this, but let's see where I'm at:

1. The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
3. The Wrong One by Dervla McTiernan
4. The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian
5. The Sisters by Dervla McTiernan
6. The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan
7. The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
Hmm! Lets see how many more "the" ones I can get...

[Inge (Inge1990)]

Late to the party, but I can still try until the end of the year ;) This is what I've read with The this year

1. The Last
2. The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
3. The Jewel
4. The Jam Factory Girls
5. The Duke and I
6 The Pride of the Peacock
7. The Mermaids Singing
8. The Hex Factor

[Chana]

These are the THE books I have finished so far:

The Ax by Donald Westlake

The Backbone of the World by Frank Clifford

The Color Code by Taylor Hartman

The Dreaming by Barbara Wood

The Escape by David Baldacci

The Forgotten by Elie Wiesel

The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill

The Holdouts by Clements

The Innocent by David Baldacci

The Jailing of Cecilia Capture by Janet Campbell Hale

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman

The Never Open Desert Diner by James Anderson

The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

The Quick by Lauren Owen

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

The Summons by John Grisham

The Toughest Indian in the World by Alexie Sherman

The Ungodly by Richard Rhodes

The Vision of Emma Blau by Ursula Hegi

The White Bone by Emma Gowdy

The Yonahlosse Riding Camp for Girls by Anton Disclafani

[Edwina]

Please vote on the challenges that you would enjoy doing next year.
Link below.

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

[Edwina]

WooHoo ... I completed this challenge! :)

Thanks to all who joined me in this little reading adventure!
I hope you all sign up on the 2023 thread.
Happy New Year & Happy Reading!

This thread is now closed.