Pam's Completed 2023 ATY Challenge

[Pam]

This year I plan to focus on reading books I own, some of which are challenging doorstops, and less on completing challenges. For this reason, I've decided to set my goal for the ATY52 challenge at 26.
Edit 7/9: Since I've passed the halfway point, I will revise my goal to 52.
Books Finished: 52/52

✅1. A book set in a location that begins with A, T, or Y
Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul (set in Trinidad)
✅2. A book by an author you read in 2022
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
✅3. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the 2023 list
In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way: A Graphic Novel
✅4. A book with an interracial relationship
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
✅5. A book with 4 or more colors on the cover
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
✅6. A book where books are important
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
✅7. A book with ONE of the five "W" question words in the title
The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
✅8. An author's debut book
All Russians Love Birch Trees by Olga Grjasnowa
✅9. A book nominated for an award beginning with W
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Award: WH Literary Award)
✅10. A book related to one of the Spice Girls' "personalities"
Patina by Jason Reynolds
✅11. A book about a person/character with a disability
Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism by Naoki Higashida
✅12. A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
✅13. A book that has an object that is repeated on the cover
Living With Mochi by Gemma Gene
✅14. A book with a con, deception, or fake
Psycho by Robert Bloch
✅15. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 1: (19th century)
The Alienist and Other Stories of Nineteenth-Century Brazil by Machado de Assis
✅16. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 2: (20th)
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford
✅17. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 3 (21st)
The Next Sure Thing by Richard Wagamese

✅18. A book related to science
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
✅19. A book related to the arts
Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula by Koren Shadmi
✅20. A book with a cover or title that includes a route of travel
How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino
✅21. A book by an Asian diaspora author
The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Yan Ge
✅22. A book with a faceless person on the cover
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
✅23. A book with a body of water in the title
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
✅24. A character that might be called a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy
Moonraker by Ian Fleming
✅25. A book with a tropical setting
Dolphin Island by Arthur C. Clarke
✅26. A book related to pride
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
✅27. A book by an author from continental Europe
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
✅28. A book that is dark
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
✅29. A book that is light
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
✅30. A book related to a chess piece
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
✅31. A book found by inputting a favorite author on https://www.literature-map.com (Input my favoirte children's author Avi)
The Tiger Rising and Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo
✅32. A book set in a UNESCO City of Literature
Kafka by David Zane Mairowitz (Set in Prague)
✅33. A book by an author with a first name popular in 1923
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes (Richard was #9 on the US list.)
✅34. A novella
House of Mist by María Luisa Bombal
✅35. A book with a school subject in the title
The History of Science Fiction: A Graphic Novel Adventure by Xavier Dollo

✅36. A book that has been translated from another language
Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau (French)
✅37. A book with the theme of returning home
Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain
✅38. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover
My Neighbor Totoro by Tsugiko Kubo
✅39. A western
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
✅40. A book with a full name in the title
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
✅41. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
✅42. A book related to a ghost, spirit, phantom, or specter
The Ghost Collector by Allison Mills
✅43. A book that involves a murder
Julius by Daphne du Maurier
✅44. A book where the cover design includes text that is not completely horizontal
The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout

✅45. A book whose author has published more than 7 books
Mr. Breakfast by Jonathan Carroll
✅46. A title that contains a word often found in a recipe
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
✅47. A book related to a geometric shape
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
✅48. A book with an unusually large version of an animal in the story
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame

✅49. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2022 or 2023
Chivalry by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Colleen Doran
✅50. A second book that fits your favorite prompt: A novella, also a route of travel on the cover
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

✅51. A book published in 2023
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
✅52. A book with an unusual or surprising title
Monday Starts on Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky

[Pam]

Authors to read for my 60 Before 60 Challenge (by end of July)
1/25

1. Michael Crummey
2. Lawrence Durrell
3. Tan Twang Eng
4. Graham Greene
5. Jane Harper
6. Iris Murdoch
7. Ben Okri
8. Marilynne Robinson
9. RL Stevenson
10. John Boyne
11. Michael Chabon
12. JM Coetzee
13. Herman Hesse
14. Mark Twain
15. Jane Urquhart
16. Kingsley Ames
✅17. Charlie Jane Anders
18. Saul Bellow
19. Michel Faber
20. Primo Levi
21. John O'Hara
22. Ayn Rand
23. Stendahl
24. Bill Bryson
25. Jack Kerouac

Others:
Eleanor Catton
Alistair McClain
Thomas Mann
Ken Follett

[Pam]

Continuing a personal challenge that I started in 2022 to read at least 5 books every year from the Are You Well Read in World Lit? list. The challenge ends when there are no more books on the list that I am interested in or if I can't find them

*****2022***** Complete!
1. My Brilliant Friend
2. The Metamorphosis
3. A Planet for Rent
4. The Invention of Morel
5. Anna Karenina


***2023***
1. Convenience Store Woman
2. Miguel Street
3. All Russians Love Birch Trees
4.Wide Sargasso Sea

[Pam]

Personal Challenges on Storygraph

2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize Longlist
Completed 0/12

2023 Booker Prize Longlist
Completed 1/13
1. This Other Eden by Paul Harding

The Storygraph Reads the World
Set in and by an author from that country
Completed 2/10
1. Argentina
2. Columbia - reading Collected Stories
3. Cuba
4. Italy - The Story of a New Name
5. Nigeria
6. Norway
7. Pakistan
8. South Africa
9. Syria
10. Trinidad & Tobago - Miguel Street

[Pam]

I've decided to update my post once, at the end of each month. January was a really good reading month and I finished 6 books! The focus wound up being on sci-fi. I read 3 SF novels and a history on SF. My focus this year was going to be Latin American (LA) and German authors plus books I own so I will have to get back on track. I read one LA book - Masters of the Dew by Haitian author Jacques Roumain. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. That story will stay with me for awhile!

For Feb, I plan to finish Fairy Tale by Stephen King and Horse by Geraldine Brooks, short stories by Vladimir Nabokov, Stefan Zweig and Anton Chekhov, and My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (for our library's new horror book club). I don't plan to be an active participant in the group but wanted to at least go to the first meeting.

[Pam]

Although Feb is not quite finished, I'm updating early. I've finished 5 books (3 of which were set in the Caribbean islands): A High Wind in Jamaica, Miguel Street, James and the Giant Peach, Wide Sargasso Sea, and Sea of Tranquility. I'm halfway through Fairy Tale but lost interest in the 2nd half of the book! That's never happened to me before with a Stephen King book. Still working on Horse.

For March, I'm planning to read 1) House of Mist and the Shrouded Woman Two Novels: Two Novels by Maria Luisa Bombal and count it as 2 books - prompts 34 Novella and 36 A translation and 2) A Canticle for Leibowitz - for prompt 28 A book that is dark (Maybe?) and 3) something by Carlos Fuentes.

[Pam]

Well. I missed my March and April updates but am now updated through May. My goal this year was only 26 but I'm at 24 so I will keep going! I'm on track to finish the challenge. I'm not taking on any seasonal challenges though.

The 3 books I'm currently reading are David Copperfield, Demon Copperhead, and The Alienist and Other Stories of Nineteenth-Century Brazil. All 3 can easily be fit into remaining prompts. I'm liking Copperfield and Copperhead for the different centuries since one is a retelling of the other.

My next book up is The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. I don't know anything about it and want to be surprised so I don't know where it fits but I could always use it for a book with a word found in a recipe - Water!

Favorite books so far this year- In the Distance and books 2 and 3 from Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels series - The Story of a New Name and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. I absolutely plan to read the 4th novel later this year!

[Pam]

19 prompts to go with 21 weeks to go!

[Pam]

September was a great reading month thanks to the fall reading challenge and my reading of several graphic novels! I only have 5 prompts to go!

In my thread, I changed 2 of my messages to include some side challenges I'm doing.
Post 3 is my ongoing Are You Well Read in World Lit? challenge. (Only 2 left for this year!)
Post 4 includes my Storygraph challenges that I started recently. The Longlist ones will continue into 2024. The Read the World I may continue for fun but it technically ends this year. I still need to add the Longlisted books but will do that another day or as I read them!

[Pam]

1.5 books to go! October reading is going really well! I am not reading what I planned to finish this challenge but I am perfectly happy with that! Looking forward to 2 months of "free reading".