2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion
ARCHIVE 2016
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Laurie's 70 books
good luck with your challenges and your 70!
Good luck with your challenge, Laurie!
Thanks, ladies. I am ready to get the new year started.
Book 1: Heidi by Johanna Spyri. This is a group read for my classic group and it fits a few of my challenges. I never read it as a child. I know it has very good ratings, but it was much too saccharine for me. 3 stars.
Congrats on finishing your first book in 2016!
Book 2: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Awesome but sad little children's book. Also a group read for my classic group and one that fits my bingo challenge. 4 stars. Now on to my first non-fiction of the year for a buddy read.
Book 3: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. A reread for me and, luckily I liked it better this time. I read this again for a buddy read for this group, and it works for some of my challenges. 4 stars
Book 4: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. A light easy read that I enjoyed despite the predictable storyline. 3 stars
Book 5: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau. Wow, this was slow in the middle but the end is worth the wait. I think I understand why it won the Pulitzer Prize. 4 stars
Book 6: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Whew! This author pulls no punches in this letter to his son about being black in a "white" world (he puts quotation marks around white all through the book). It made me ashamed and outraged to read this man's words and to know that he is right. 4 stars
Book 7: Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi. 3 stars for the writing which makes me feel bad since this is by a man being held as a prisoner for terrorism at Guantanamo Bay by the US. He wrote this diary during 2005 in a language that he barely knew before his time of imprisonment there in 2002. The redacted (blacked-out) parts by the US government make this hard to read since they are so pervasive. There are no people's names, very few places names, some genders are removed, so it's pretty distracting. But the story itself is fairly riveting but repetitious. It makes ashamed of my government though, if it is true.
Book 8: Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. 3 stars, but only because it is poetry which is just not my thing. This is an interesting compilation of poems told as epitaphs of the citizens of the fictional town of Spoon River. I read it for my classic group bingo challenge.
Book 10: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. 4 depressing stars for this short story. This is a reread for me, and it is just as sad as I remembered. I read it for the short story selection for February in my classic group. Did Steinbeck ever write anthing cheerful? Travels with Charley wasn't depressing, but all of his other works I have read so far are.
Book 11: Native Son by Richard Wright. Very powerful and heartbreaking. Truly a worthy classic that should be read by everyone. 4 stars.
Book 12: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Awesome book. This is the second book by Adichie that I have read and I have loved them both. This certainly isn't a comfortable novel to read since it about war, starvation and suffering. But the characters were so real to me, and I cared about what happened to them. 5 enthusiastic stars.
Good luck on your reading goal! Looks like you've already read some great books this year!
Hannah wrote: "Good luck on your reading goal! Looks like you've already read some great books this year!"Thanks, Hannah I have enjoyed most of my books so far. It's nice not to have any two star books yet, but I will
That is very lucky, I sadly have already had a few 2 star books.
I am lucky to have only had one 2 star book so far this year.
Hannah and Alicia, I hope you have both had a 5 star book this year as well to make up for the less than stellar books.
Oh yes, I have had a few 5 star books! Those are always the best to have, especially when some of them are books you wish you could grant more than 5 stars to!
thankfully most of the books that I have read this year are 5 star books so far.
Book 13: Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure by Christopher S. Stewart. This was an okay adventure story which I probably liked better than most other reviewers. They seemed to feel gypped that the book didn't live up to the exciting title. I disagree that it wasn't exciting, but the chapters alternate between the modern adventure of the author and the 1940 trip of Theodore Morde, the WWII spy of the title. It is a little distracting to constantly switch between the two. Anyway I'll give it 3.5 stars.
Book 14: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. A classic of Latin America that I have wanted to read for a long time. So it is disappointing that I didn't like it better. I think it was primarily a style issue for me. 3 stars
Book 15: Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. My second 5 star book this year. And I am usually stingy about giving 5 stars, so this is a good book. This is about two lonely people in their 70s finding love and companionship. It is a beautiful story of brave people going against expectations in a small town. Truly lovely and heartbreaking.
Laurie wrote: "Book 9: My Ántonia by Willa Cather. 4 stars for this classic."I have been trying to decide which 20th century classic to read for one of the challenges, and then I saw your post about My Antonia. I've never read it and have been meaning to, so I think I will. Thanks!
Cheri wrote: "Laurie wrote: "Book 9: My Ántonia by Willa Cather. 4 stars for this classic."I have been trying to decide which 20th century classic to read for one of the challenges..."
I certainly hope you enjoy it. I found it interesting that it is part of a trilogy, but it works just fine as a stand alone novel.
Book 16: The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. This is actually a trilogy which was first published as a single novel in 1922. John Galsworthy won the Nobel prize for literature in 1932, and this is his masterpiece. It is a lengthy but entertaining look at three generations of the Forsyte family from 1881 to 1920. A solid 4 stars for this classic.
Book 17: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. It's been a long long time since I read any Shakespeare, and I haven't read very many of his comedies. This was a fun read even though I am quite positive that I didn't get half of the humor. I listened to an audiobook while I read along on my Kindle. It made the whole play much more enjoyable and easier to understand. 4 stars and I will read some more of his plays this way soon, I think.
Book 18: The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami 4 starsVery interesting fictional account of an actual failed Spanish expedition to Florida in 1528 which was survived only by Cabeza de Vaca and three others. The basic story is taken from the historical accounts by the surivors, but the details are fiction. While I have heard of Cabeza de Vaca, I couldn't have recited anything factual about him. This account told from the viewpoint of the Moor slave who survived the expedition is an entertaining story. Of course the real story by Cabeza de Vaca was undoubtedly told in a manner to make him and the other Spaniards look good. This account does not make them look particularly good, but it is also fiction. It is fun to consider how close any of this story could be to the truth, especially the end.
Book 19: My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. 3 stars because I simply could not engage with the main character. Consequently much of the story bored me due to the lack of connection.
Book 20: Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah. 4 stars for the first fiction novel from this author. I haven't read his memoir which is about his experience in the civil war of Sierra Leone and is highly acclaimed. This story of people who return to their village after 7 years of war and devastation is captivating.
Book 21: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh. This is so fun and witty, but there are some serious issues here. I laughed quite a bit and enjoyed the crazy drawings. But some of the introspective parts were very insightful and unexpected. 4 amused stars
Book 22: Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill. An Pulitzer Prize winning play which was simple in plot and the universal theme of love conquers all is the main point, but I wasn't very impressed. 3 disappointing stars
Book 23: The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo by Germano Almeida. A solid 3 stars. A little strange because the story kind of wanders around and doesn't have much organization. But it is still interesting and really fulfilled my goal of reading authors from different countries.
Book 24: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. 4 stars for this classic. It sounds so dull when you read this book's description which is a series of correspondence between a woman living in New York who writes to a bookseller in London over a period of over 20 years. But the letters are so engaging. They begin very formally at the beginning, but over the years a nice friendship develops between Helene and Frank, the bookseller. Others in the bookstore and Frank's wife write to Helene at times. Helene is generous with gifts to the bookstore employees during England's years of rationing after WWII. They all come to love Helene through the years even though they never meet in person. So this small book contains more than meets the eye.
Book 25: Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder. Nice story overall but a cliched ending that was a letdown. 3 stars
My goal is similar Laurie! I have it down as 70, but in reality I'd like to actually hit between 85 & 100. I don't have things as well organized as you do though! Kudos!!
Amanda wrote: "My goal is similar Laurie! I have it down as 70, but in reality I'd like to actually hit between 85 & 100. I don't have things as well organized as you do though! Kudos!!"Thanks, I'm kind of an organization nut. But I am like you in having a goal that is less than I will undoubtedly read. I don't like to fall short, so I go lower and raise my goal if necessary. Good luck on your goal this year.
Book 26: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. 4 stars - I know this novel is supposed to be funny since it satirizes certain Victorian novels with a rural setting. And there are definitely humorous parts that made me grin: the names of the cows, Feckless, Aimless, Pointless and Graceless, some of the character's names like Agony Beetle and Harkaway Starkadder, and there are some funny scenes. But this is not a roll-on-the-floor, pee-in-your-pants kind of funny. But it is enjoyable to read the light-hearted scenes, and Flora is a very engaging main character.
Book 27: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 4 stars. This is so stark, sad and grotesque. The ultimate novel on alienation.
Great progress Laurie! :)
Book 28: In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria. 3.5 stars. A little dry with lots of facts and some interesting points made. As a person with a liberal arts degree, I certainly agree that such an education is still valuable in our high tech world.
Book 29: Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid 3.5 stars A nice coming of age story set in Antigua. The struggle between mother and daughter in the daughter's teenage years was very familiar to me.
Book 30: My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk This was a 3 star book for me because you need to be a much bigger fan than I of art during the middle ages, specifically art of the Ottoman empire to love the terribly long descriptions in this novel. This is purportedly a mystery novel but the murder mystery is really a side story. Illustrations and in what style they should be performed is the real story. While I found the arguments interesting and the history of the different styles was completely unknown to me, I would have preferred less verbosity.
2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands (other topics)The Tortoise and the Hare (other topics)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (other topics)
At the Bottom: A Woman's Life in Central America (other topics)
The Birds (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Michael Chabon (other topics)Elizabeth Jenkins (other topics)
Willa Cather (other topics)
Luisa González (other topics)
Daphne du Maurier (other topics)
More...
Books by Month
January: 10
February: 6
March: 8
April: 7
May: 6
June: 6
July: 9
August: 5
September: 5
October: 10
November: 8
December: 7
Type
Fiction: 63
Non-Fiction: 21
Play: 3
Length
Short (<250 pages): 47
Medium (250-500 pages): 33
Long (501-800 pages): 5
Very Long (>800 pages): 2
Author Gender
Female: 40
Male: 46
New to Me or Repeat Author?
New to Me: 65
Repeat: 22
Year Published
2010s: 27
2000s: 8
1990s: 7
1980s: 6
1970s: 3
1960s: 4
1950s: 6
1940s: 3
1930s: 3
1920s: 4
1910s: 4
1900s: 1
Pre-1900s: 12