Christian Fiction Devourers discussion

Welcome to our Just Talk thread. This is where we can chat about things that don't fit elsewhere in our group.

Note: Solicitation is not permitted on this thread.

I think I am participating in too many challenges. LOL!

Me too!!! But I’ll have fun anyway.

Every year, I convince myself to scale back... and then all the challenges are posted and I end up joining a ton of them. Ah well. There's always next year. ;)

I joined Goodreads this last summer. Im excited to have all of these challenges coming up for me to jump in to at the start of the year with everyone else.

Also, not sure if this is the right thread for this. But I’m wondering about the challenge where we fully read an author. One I’d like to read is Rachelle Dekker. Can I only read her adult CF and that count, or would I need to read her YA as well?

Crystal wrote: "I joined Goodreads this last summer. Im excited to have all of these challenges coming up for me to jump in to at the start of the year with everyone else.

Also, not sure if this is the right thre..."

Glad you've joined us Crystal! Rachelle's YA works too.

Crystal, I'm asking Loraine which way she prefers in the challenge thread and will report back what I learn. Thanks for asking!

Thanks Andrea! I misread the question. :-( Teamwork for the win indeed!

No worries, Staci. I read it three times to make sure I was understanding it. My brain's frazzled with all the posting and linking and such I've been doing ALL DAY today. :)

Crystal, Loraine said you can do both the adult and young adult OR you can choose to do only one of them. Totally your choice. I would specify which way you're doing it, though, for clarity's sake.

Getting all my books lined up for challenges and eagerly awaiting the new year.

Awesome! Glad to hear that, Lauri.

Hi everyone! Super excited for this upcoming year. I am participating in a lot of challenges but I think it will help me to clean down my TBR. I made a challenge this last October to dwindle down my list and not add anymore books to it. I did get weak once and added a book but it said Christian Fantasy and that's my weakness.

Andrea wrote: "Crystal, Loraine said you can do both the adult and young adult OR you can choose to do only one of them. Totally your choice. I would specify which way you're doing it, though, for clarity's sake."

Thanks so much!

Jamie (The Kansan Reader) wrote: "Hi everyone! Super excited for this upcoming year. I am participating in a lot of challenges but I think it will help me to clean down my TBR. I made a challenge this last October to dwindle down m..."

I need to check out your fantasy shelves! I'm wanting to dip my toe in those waters this year.

Jamie, welcome to the fun! So glad you're finding some fun challenges to try.

FYI - maybe this will help someone else participating in many challenges; on my laptop I made a desktop icon that takes me directly to the Challenge Catalogue 2023 page. This will make it much more simple to keep track and find the places to log the books read for each challenge.

Thank you, moderators, for all the time and effort you put into all the great challenges!! Looking forward to reading more in the upcoming year!

You're welcome, Bridget. It's been fun creating my part of them for you.

Yes, thank you all. It's more work for y'all each year since you keep adding challenges.

It's split among three of us now, so the burden feels light.

I was thinking that I’m not starting the year out well because I’ve been busy and haven't spent much time reading in the past two days, so I haven't finished a book. Then I remembered that I’ve already finished four books: Bluey: Little Library. 😆 But I don't count those as read. I have an exclusive shelf for books I read but don't want to be counted in the yearly GR reading challenge. I don't put a date read for any of the books on it.

Crystal wrote: "Jamie (The Kansan Reader) wrote: "Hi everyone! Super excited for this upcoming year. I am participating in a lot of challenges but I think it will help me to clean down my TBR. I made a challenge t..."

I love fantasy so finding Christian fantasy makes me extremely happy. One of my favorites that I found last year was Heart of Red, Blood of Blue

I’m not really new at Goodreads but I’m a bit overwhelmed with the hugeness of it and having a hard time figuring out how to use it! I think the first book I need to read is ’An Authors Guide to Goodreads!’

Welcome, Shimrit! I know; Goodreads is massive! It can be a fun place once you sort it out.

We have a place for authors to share about themselves and their books, if that might be of interest to you: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We also offer reading challenges of all sorts. The catalogue of our offerings this year is found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

If there's anything else you're looking for in particular, please let us know.

Happy reading!

Hi! Wondering if anyone has read , and would consider it to fall under survival? It seems like it would fit to me. Wondering if I can use it for Cloak and Dagger.

Also, how do you know what sub genres a book can fall under? Goodreads lists so many different things but it looks like they are shelves people select, not an official sub genre. I just joined Goodreads last summer so I'm still not 100% there yet in figuring everything out. Thanks so much!

What is everyone's favorite Bible Storybook for elementary school age? I love The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, but I'm looking for something that includes questions or application to real life.

Hi all, new group member here. Are there any Christian fantasy fans/authors on this thread? I'm a fantasy allegory author, first book in a trilogy recently released, and love reading books in that genre. Right now my favorite books are by Chuck Black. Also trying out Ted Dekker books. Besides the old favorites, like CS Lewis, any recommendations?

Have you read Kara Swanson's books? Her first was sci-fi, but the latter two were fantasy.



I also enjoyed the first two books in Amanda G. Stevens's No Less Days trilogy (haven't yet read the final book in the trilogy, but I'll go ahead and post the cover anyway because it's pretty).

Cheryl wrote: "Hi all, new group member here. Are there any Christian fantasy fans/authors on this thread? I'm a fantasy allegory author, first book in a trilogy recently released, and love reading books in that ..."

Camille Elliot's Lady Wynwood series is excellent fantasy:

Ok, I am trying to learn Goodreads, at my speed. Which is slower than a snail, lol. I have written a nonfiction memoir about my struggle with mental illness that falls in the Christian category. But I cannot find the right groups to share it! There is tons of Christian fantasy, romance, sci-fi...I am feeling like a goldfish in a sea of angelfish here...

February was a hard month for me. One of our children ended up in the hospital a couple of times, and life is just now smoothing out enough that I can reincorporate *some* reading. Due to the circumstances, can I make up the challenge goals I missed for February sometime this month or next? I only have 4 challenges I didn't meet so I think I can hit them between this month and next if that's allowed.

Reading is such a big stress reliever for me. I'm looking forward to jumping back in slowly but steadily.

I’m okay with that for the ones I host, Crystal. I hope your children are feeling better now.

I love doing all the challenges so much, but I am going to have to scale back, or make smaller challenge goals, because I just got a job! It is 3 days a week, so part time, but it will lessen my reading time. Since the challenges are just for fun anyway, I can use them to help choose books to read, but not stress if I don't fully complete them.

Andrea wrote: "I’m okay with that for the ones I host, Crystal. I hope your children are feeling better now."

Thanks Andrea!

Katrina wrote: "I love doing all the challenges so much, but I am going to have to scale back, or make smaller challenge goals, because I just got a job! It is 3 days a week, so part time, but it will lessen my re..."

Congratulations on the job!

Katrina wrote: "I love doing all the challenges so much, but I am going to have to scale back, or make smaller challenge goals, because I just got a job! It is 3 days a week, so part time, but it will lessen my re..."

Congratulations Katrina! I agree challenges are just for fun and shouldn't create stress.

Thanks Crystal and Staci. I am excited for the job but nervous too. I have been a stay at home mom for 31 years.

So exciting, Katrina! Congrats!

file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attach...
Above is a nice graphic for today’s special day.
Got this from Half Price Books text. D.E.A.R. Day
Can’t believe I never knew about this day.
Has anyone else heard of it ?

Half Price Books - Drop Everything and Read: Best Adult Books to Read in A Day
Today is D.E.A.R. Day ! :) 😎😁

Nancy wrote: "file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attach...
Above is a nice graphic for today’s special day.
Got this from Half Price Books text. D.E.A.R. Da..."

Yes! We celebrated this at my elementary school growing up!

Just wondering if a new TBR Crusher will start in June?! I would love to join the next one that will begin.

Crystal wrote: "Just wondering if a new TBR Crusher will start in June?! I would love to join the next one that will begin."

Thanks for the interest, Crystal! I have new challenges planned for the 18-month section this next time around, but I will make a note to bring the TBR Crusher back in a future round.

Thanks for bringing that up, Crystal! I was wondering the same. Looking forward to what you have in store for us, Andrea :)

Bridget wrote: "Thanks for bringing that up, Crystal! I was wondering the same. Looking forward to what you have in store for us, Andrea :)"

Aw, thanks, Bridget! I'm glad you're excited about the challenges.

I have a question...how do you know for sure what subgenre something is? When you type a book into Goodreads...how my devices show it is a bar that lists, "regency romance, mystery, thriller" etc. There usually around 5, sometimes repeats. If I click on the bar, it shows me every single shelf other readers have listed that book under. So do readers decide? Sometimes on Amazon it'll say..."best selling author does it again with this fast paced mystery", so it tells you it's a mystery. But does Goodreads just trust that other readers will collectively assign books to the proper shelves to identify it to other readers? I hope this question is making sense because I am really wondering! Thanks.

Crystal, the shelves on Goodreads are subjective, because they are other readers' opinions. I usually count books for any tags that show up on the book's main page or the first page of tags (on desktop), for subgenres. But the more you read, the more you recognize subgenres in the books you consume. So a Christian Fiction (main genre) book could have subgenres of Mystery, Regency, and Romance if those elements are keys to the content of the story. Others might be just Suspense or True Crime, while still more may be classified as Women's Fiction or Cozy Mystery. It just depends on what the story itself is, and usually it's pretty clear by the halfway point of the book, if not before.

Hello! I was wondering if anyone has read books by Nicholas Sparks. If so, are they clean? I know most of the movie adaptations are not but if anyone has any idea about the book I’d love to know.

I've read a couple but gave up on finding a clean one. He writes general market rather than Christian fiction.