2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

My goal for 2019 is to read 60 books, 40 of them by women authors.

JANUARY READINGS
1. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

2. The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

5. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

6. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

7. An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

FEBRUARY READINGS
8. Phantastes by George MacDonald.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

9. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

10. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

11. The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories by Ilan Pappé.

12. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

13. Hotel Silence by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

14. The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed.
My review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'll update this at the end of March.

MARCH READINGS

15/60. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

16/60. The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales by Bessie Head
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

17/60. What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West By David Wengrow
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

18/60. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

19/60. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

20/60. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, Revised Edition, with a New Preface by Ross E. Dunn
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

21/60. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
I didn’t write a review since the book wasn’t for me.

22/60. The Subtle Knife (#2 in His Dark Materials Series) by Philip Pullman
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

23/60. Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism by Tikva Frymer-Kensky
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

24/60. The Red Collar: A Novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin; Trans. Adriana Hunter
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

25/60. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

APRIL READINGS

26/60. Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

27/60. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield.
My 5 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

28/60. Outline by Rachel Cusk.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

29/60. Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

30/60. Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

31/60. Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present by Linda Grant De Pauw.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

MAY READINGS

32/60. Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

33/60. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

You are doing great you are half way there! Do you have a book that stands out for you this year.

Blagica wrote: "You are doing great you are half way there! Do you have a book that stands out for you this year."

Blagica, thanks for the encouragement.

It's hard to choose just one book that stands out because there are several of them that really stand out for me. They're not at all alike, and I loved them for different reasons. My taste is somewhat eclectic :)

In no particular order, these are the books that stand out for me so far:

An Orchestra of Minorities
Hotel Silence
Warlight
What We Lose
Once Upon a River
Outline

I've posted reviews of each of these books explaining why I thought they were so good. If you've read them and/or plan to read any of them, I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

Thanks. And happy reading!

34/60. A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

35/60. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

36/60. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

37/60.Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

38/60. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

39/60. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, the winner of the 2019 Man Booker International prize.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

40/60. Border Districts: A Fiction by Gerald Murnane.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

41/60. Everything Under by Daisy Johnson.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

JUNE READINGS

42/60. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

43/60. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ, winner of the 1980 Noma Award.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

44/60. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, a retelling of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

45/60.I finished The Book of Collateral Damage by Sinan Antoon about the Iraq war and occupation.

My 5-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

46/60. Autumn by Ali Smith, shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. I loved it and intend to read the rest of the series.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

JULY READINGS

47/60. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari, a 1940s international best seller. Set in ancient Egypt at the time of Pharaoh Akhnaton, it is told in the first person point of view of Sinuhe, Akhnaton's physician. The book is long but well worth reading. Waltari's research is impressive. He paints a compelling portrait of life in ancient Egypt at a time of political upheaval.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

48/60. Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield. It wasn't as good as her novels, The Thirteenth Tale or Once Upon a River.

My 3-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

49/60. Ithaca: A Novel of Homer's Odyssey by Patrick Dillon, told mostly from Telemachus' perspective.
Disappointing--mainly because of inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

50/60. Measuring Time by Helon Habila. The lives of twin boys is interwoven with the recent history of Nigeria. I thought it was very good.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

You have read some very interesting books this year. Keep up the great reading!

Blagica wrote: "You have read some very interesting books this year. Keep up the great reading!"

Thank you, Blagica.

It's been a good year for reading so far :)

51/60. The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye.
A charming children's story about a young boy's preparation to leave his Muscat home with his parents to spend a few years in Michigan. It's a book one can give to a child who has apprehensions about leaving home.

52/60. Goat Mountain by David Vann. Unsettling, replete with graphic violence and visceral language. Not for everyone.
My 3-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

53/60. Winter by Ali Smith, the second book in her seasonal quartet.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

AUGUST READINGS

54/60. Minutes of Glory by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. A compelling collection of short stories addressing the topics of colonialism, classism, and corruption in Kenya. Woven throughout are threads of magic, superstition, and folklore.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

55/60. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani. It focuses on the fate of a young girl passionate about making rugs. The setting is 17th century Persia. The details bring the sights and sounds and smells of the city to life. The description of rug-making was fascinating. And in true Middle Eastern fashion, there are folk tales within the tale.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

56/60. Chaucer's People: Everyday Lives in Medieval England by Liza Picard. It was a wonderful romp through the life and times of medieval England.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

57/60. Spring by Ali Smith. This is the third book in her seasonal quartet. I loved her Autumn and Winter This one was even better--one of my favorite books of the year so far.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

58/60. Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from the French by Melanie Mauthner.

It uses the backdrop of a girls' school in Rwanda as a microcosm of Rwandan society leading up to the Rwandan genocide. Mukasonga packs a lot in a fairly short novel.

My 4-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” I hope the last month has found you some best books.

Blagica wrote: "“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” I hope the last month has found you some best books."

I'm just chugging along with the reading--picking whatever book is on my TBR that takes my fancy as my next read. I'm having a blast. I've only got a few more books to read until I reach my goal of 60 books this year. And there's still quite a few months left in the year!