2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This is my first ever post here in the 2015 Reading Challenge Group!! I have put my challenge down as 20 books for this year as I have been studying up until now and haven't really been able to read at the level I would like. I will increase this if I get close to the 20 later in the year. Fingers crossed!!

So, back in January I read The Nameless Deadby Brian McGillowaywhich is one of his Inspector Devlin series. They are set in Co. Donegal in the north of the Republic of Ireland and feature a member of the Irish police force, Ben Devlin. You need, I feel, to read them in order so you can see his progression as a character and also because there are many spoilers about what happened in earlier books. If you haven't come across these books, do try them!

In February, I read Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill. This isn't really what I expected (a kind of self-help book for how to get through your TBR pile without buying more books!!) but is instead a kind of memoir with thoughts generated by the books in her house. I loved it's meandering, name dropping way!

I obviously wasn't studying too hard in March as I read Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney (well, I finished reading this in March anyway!), At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman (I love her essays!) and Dissolution byC.J. Sansom which is the start of my Shardlake period! I really didn't enjoy The Lord of the Flies but the others were really good!

On to April. Dark Fire , Sovereign and Revelation by C.J. Sansom continue my Shardlake obsession but I am really interested in the Tudor period so I guess that explains it. I can't fault these books! (and I have to stop using so many exclamation marks, I look like a teenager, OMG!)

Just over half way through May and I have read Call Me by Lena Matthews, Heartstone (another Shardlake novel and possibly the weakest of the series in my opinion) by C.J. Sansom and The Taking of Snow White by Christian M. Darcy. The first and the third of these books are on my Kindle and were free books I downloaded a while ago. They are both erotica but not terribly good (a bit more porn than erotica). Not sure if they really count towards my challenge as they were novellas rather than novels. What does anyone else do about novellas?

I read The Bell Jarby Sylvia Plath as part of the monthly read here. I found it strange to read, unsettling and very poignant - considering the author's own descent into depression and subsequent suicide. I feel however that the book deserves a second reading to really appreciate its writing and style.

I have just finished the latest Shardlake novel in the series, Lamentation by C.J. Sansom. I feel that it was a much better read than Heartstone. I have always been intrigued by Henry VIII's sixth wife, Catherine Parr. This story is about the fictional theft of the manuscript of her book Lamentation of a Sinner and its political ramifications. To say any more would be a spoiler but I can say that the description of the executions at the beginning of the book remained with me for quite a while!

I finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte just now. I'm not very enamoured by this book. I feel it is overwrought and I can't empathise or even sympathise with any of the characters.

I'm intrigued. Will have to check out Shardlake!

Apologies for being so long updating my challenge, I was away on holidays. I have a few books to list that I finished in the last month - the first is The Tainted Relic: An Historical Mysteryby The Medieval Murderers. I wasn't overly impressed with this but it is an interesting concept - different stories from different periods in history linked by a common thread, in this case a relic. I think I will probably read another couple in this series just to be fair before I say I don't like them.

Next I read a series of erotica books. The first was a novella Love Letters, Historical Romance by Lori Brighton. This was a quick and light read, I would be interested in reading more by this author. The next three books were by Evangeline Anderson, they were the first books in her Brides of the Kindred series,Claimed: 1 Huntedand Sought. I like these books but sometimes the heroine protests too much! They could have been shorter without losing too much. I am currently reading the fourth in the series. They are very interlinked so you do need to read them in sequence.

Okay, I have started a number of books in the last while but haven't finished them. I started The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín. This is a short book but I found it a little heavy reading. It tells the story of the Crucifixion from Mary's point of view. It muses about what is truth and what is legend and how does legend begin? I think this is a book I will have to read again to fully appreciate it.

I forgot to post my books here since August!! I have had to look back at my Read shelf in Goodreads to remember what I read. Here goes:
In August, I read The Woman in Black by Susan Hill which I have been meaning to read for years since I saw the stage play. It wa s not too bad but I would recommend reading the book before seeing it on stage or movie, it would be more scary that way! In September, it was Wicked Prey by John Sandford - another attempt to read this fantastic crime series about Lucas Davenport. Then came A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka which was not anything as funny as I had hoped it would be. Another novella on Kindle came next : Masks by Evangeline Anderson which is a very light read. October was a busy month with only one book listed as read : Dragon's Kiss by Tielle St. Clare which was quite good.

So to November. I had read the first two books in Philippa Gregory's Cousin's War series about the War of the Roses in England in the 15th century but the third book in the series takes place before the first two so I read that as the starting point in reading the series in entirety - The Lady of the Rivers tells the story of Jacquetta, the mother to Edward IV's wife, Elizabeth Woodville. She is a fascinating woman (she had at least 13 children!) and I don't think this book does her justice at all but as very few books are available to read about her, it is quite good. I am a sucker for series so Slave by Cheryl Brooks was my next read. It is a quick and easy read so Warrior byt he same author came next, followed by book 3 in the series, Rogue at the beginning of December. Outcast, the 4th in the series was next and then it was back to 15th Century England to The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. Last night, I finished the 3rd Cousin's War book, Red Queen Cd about the mother of Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), Margaret Beaufort. I just couldn't like her! A well-written book when you feel strongly about the main character, even if it is dislike! I have now started the 4th book, The Kingmaker's Daughter, about Anne Neville, Queen to Richard III, who may have killed the Princes in the Tower, his nephews.

How many books is that? It looks like you're well on your way to meeting your challenge. I love the username, by the way. :)

33 books in all! I really didn't know how many books I read in a year as I had never kept a record before. I thought 20 books sounded like I could achieve it. Looks like I read far more than I thought! !

That's awesome! I hope 2016 is even better. :)