2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

I've just joined the group in October, so I'm starting this quite late. However, I've been keeping track of my challenge goal in another group, so it's not too much of a problem to transfer the info here. I'm lumping it all in one post then making single posts for what I read from now on.

1. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya *****
2. Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley *** (my review)
3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams ***** (a re-read of a favorite for a group challenge)
4. Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll **
5. Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock ***
6. Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg ****
7. The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany **** (4.5, really)
8. Dawn by Octavia E. Butler ***** (Awesome! Now I need to read the rest of the series.)
9. Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughan ****
10. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu *****
11. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells **** This is an enduring classic totally worth the effort, compact and simply a great story. My equally compact review is here.
12. Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente *****
13. The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns ****
14. Isis by Douglas Clegg **** (4.5) (my review)
15. From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury *** (3.5?)
16. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr ****
17. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr. **** (my review)
18. Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny ****
19. Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber *** (3 for personal enjoyment, 4 for writing/craft...so 3.5?)
20. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein ***
21. Graceling by Kristin Cashore ****
22. The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King ****
23. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald **
24. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff ***** and a spot filled on my Favorites shelf! This completely makes up for the last book-about-books, #23 above, which was tediously and resoundingly meh.
25. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto ***** (4.5) (my review)
26. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway ****
27. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery ***** and another to go on my Favorites shelf! I've been so lucky with my reading lately; this makes four wonderful reads in a row.
28. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed **** (4.5?)
29. The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang *****
30. The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach ****
31. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys ****
32. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin ****
This was really good. It was so much subtler than either of the movies, and Levin made a really good social critique without being heavy-handed. It felt far less dated than I'd feared and was a fast read. Recommended!
33. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan **** (3.5? Parts of this soared to 5, while most of it was a solid 4. But the end sort of unraveled, neither keeping my attention as the first 3/4 of the book did, nor feeling even half as coherent. So...3.5, I think.)
34. The Etched City by K.J. Bishop **** (I'm wrestling with whether this is actually a closer to a 5-star book for me. It was quite stunning, with wonderfully grey characters, if also very brutal at times.)
35. Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie *** or **** (I'm still deciding. As a mystery, this was fairly mediocre, especially for a Christie mystery. But as psychological fiction, character portraits, and historical fiction, it was very good - surprisingly so. I wish Christie had explored ancient cultures/eras more in her fiction. I found the ending/whodunit rather unbelievable and abruptly-decided, but I enjoyed the book as a whole very much.)
36. Light Boxes by Shane Jones ****-*****
37. A Cat, a Man, and Two Women by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. **** (4.5?) Tanizaki is one of my favorite authors.
38. The Invention Of Morel & Other Stories by Adolfo Bioy Casares **** (I don't know if I can even begin to review this. I would need 20 pages of obscure references, analysis of symbols and allegory, and wild conjecture. It is one of the more fantastical/science fictional of the classic Latin American magical realist works I've ever read. Yet it is so accessible, so engagingly written. Of course, if you don't like oddness and ambiguity, you would surely hate this...)
39. Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery **** This book contained many flashes of absolute brilliance and stunning beauty, prose bordering on poetry, fantastic character development, and deep insight into human nature. It also contained some droning, relatively dull passages that added to the overall portrait of the protagonist but did little to enhance my enjoyment. Still, the excellence far outweighed the few examples of mediocrity, and the gestalt effect was deeply affecting. I liked the author's more famous work (to which this book provides a companion piece) The Elegance of the Hedgehog more, but this was definitely worth my time.
40. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson **** (3.5? I loved - 5 stars - her Sexing the Cherry and liked very much - 4 stars - The Passion, and although I did like this one, and it has some utterly beautiful writing, I liked it less than either of her previous works I have read. This one is semi-autobiographical and much less fantastical than the others. I think I just prefer her brand of strangeness and magical realism over her more realist work. Still...a very effective coming-of-age portrait and definitely recommended.
41. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky ****
42. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie ***** Wonderfully entertaining and engaging murder mystery. Christie was certainly a master!
43. Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi ****
44. Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury *** (3.5)
45. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters ****
46. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley ****
47. The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson ****
48. The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin ***** (This author is quickly becoming a fave of mine.)
49. Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts *** (3.5)
50. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs **** (more like 4.5)

Welcome Candiss! What a great list! I see a few Agatha Christie's. :D She's my favorite author!

51. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood *****

Trevor wrote: "Welcome Candiss! What a great list! I see a few Agatha Christie's. :D She's my favorite author!"

Thanks, Trevor! I only discovered Christie a few years ago, and I've been bowled over by how clever and entertaining her work is.

Hey! Your almost there (:
Congrats!

52. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny ***** (re-read, an October tradition)

Omg, LOVE the Margaret Atwood MaddAdam trilogy! Can't wait for #3.

Kara wrote: "Omg, LOVE the Margaret Atwood MaddAdam trilogy! Can't wait for #3."

I'm looking forward to reading the second installment!

53. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami **** (Excellent and surreal. Murakami is one of my favorite authors.)

54. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ****

55. The Devil's Alphabet by Daryl Gregory ****

56. Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand **** (It was looking like a 5* read for a long while, despite the very difficult-to-like protagonist, but it started rushing along a bit near the end, which jolted me out of the "moment," so to speak. Still, this was a very smart, unsusual mystery/thriller, and I think I might have accidentally learned a thing or three about photography process and history along the way.)

57. Ring by Koji Suzuki **** (This was so much better than either the Japanese or American film versions. The book isn't really a horror but rather a mystery/thriller with supernatural underpinnings. There are no horrific images on the video tape and no individuals crawling out of a television. It's more about folklore meets modern technology and society's prejudices and medical and psychological issues. It was quite good - much subtler and smarter than the films.)

58. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux ****

my review here at Goodreads

Candiss wrote: "58. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux ****

my review here at Goodreads"

I read that a few years back! It is soo good. :D

59. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor ****

60. Get Jiro! by Anthony Bourdain *** 1/2