The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Need a break from those long books? This challenge is for books 280 or fewer pages, so relax with some easy to lift books!

Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
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2
3
4
5
Level 2 Flapping Wings
6
7
8
9
10

Level 3 Taking Flight
11
12
13
14
15

I will do 15

Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
🔹1: A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare 24 Jan
🔹2: A Match Made for Thanksgiving Jackie Lau 25 Jan
🔹3: The Nakano Thrift Shop Hiromi Kawakami 26 Jan
🔹4: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde 21 Feb.
🔹5: Bibliolepsy Gina Apostol 1 Mar
Level 2 Flapping Wings
🔹6: Walden, or Life in the Woods and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 22 Mar
🔹7: Reasons to Stay Alive Matt Haig 29 Mar
🔹8: A Separate Peace John Knowles 3 May
🔹9: The Garden Party and Other Stories Katherine Mansfield 23 May
🔹10: Anne of Avonlea L.M. Montgomery 24 May

Level 3 Taking Flight
🔹11: Daughter of Fire Sofia Robleda 5 Jun
🔹12: The Quiet American Graham Greene 17 Jun
🔹13: Three Apples Fell from the Sky Narine Abgaryan 22 Jun
🔹14: 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization: History's Most Influential Felines
🔹15: Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

Featherweight Challenge

18/15

Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
1 Boulder by Eva Baltasar
2 The Employees by Olga Ravn
3 The Door by Magda Szabó 5 stars
4Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 5 stars
5. God's Children Are Little Broken Things: Stories by Arinze Ifeakandu 5 stars
Level 2 Flapping Wings
6 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk 5 stars
7. Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán 4 stars
8. Cousin Henry by Anthony Trollope 3 stars
9. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee 5 stars
10. Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima 4 stars

Level 3 Taking Flight
11 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 5 stars
12Snap by Belinda Bauer 3 stars
13 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 5 stars
14 Mary / The Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft 5 stars
15. Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar 4 stars
16. A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir 4 stars
17. Gliff by Ali Smith 5 stars
18. Musafir Cafe: An Unusual Love Story by Divya Prakash Dubey 5 stars

Finished: 2025/07/27

Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
1 Otaku Stories: Aus dem Leben eines Manga- und Anime-Fans by Amir Yarahi (240) ✓ 01/09
2 Der Fall by Albert Camus (117) ✓ 01/13
3 Die Vegetarierin by Han Kang (190) ✓ 01/18
4 A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (152) ✓ 02/07
5 Mord im Orientexpress by Agatha Christie (223) ✓ 02/11

Level 2 Flapping Wings
6 Racheopfer by Ethan Cross (160) ✓ 02/28
7 Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's True Love by Jonathan Fryer (231) ✓ 03/13
8 Wackelkontakt by Wolf Haas (239) ✓ 03/19
9 Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (266) ✓ 05/02
10 1000 und ich: Zweifle nicht, zögere nicht, hinterfrage nicht by Yorick Godewijk (176) ✓ 05/18

Level 3 Taking Flight
11 Ruhm und Verbrechen des Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum (224) ✓ 06/16
12 Alle Farben grau by Martin Schäuble (272) ✓ 07/06
13 Unschärfen der Liebe by Angelika Overath (224) ✓ 07/24
14 Die Probe by Katie Kitamura (155) ✓ 07/27
15 Die Geschichte des Klangs by Ben Shattuck (104) ✓ 07/27

Good to see you all! A great way to balance the chunckster!

Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
1 - Sipsworth
2 - Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
3 - Clear
4 - Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps' Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life
5 - The Fall Risk
Level 2 Flapping Wings
6 - The Widows’ Guide to Murder
7 - The Sideways Guide to Composers
8 - I Shot a Man in Reno: A History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease and General Misadventure, as Related in Popular Song
9 - Natural Selection
10 - The Sublet

Level 3 Taking Flight
11 - Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive
12 - Death Row
13 - The Recess Queen
14 - Letters from Rifka
15 - Artificial Condition

Finished July 2025

Level 1: Ruffled Feathers

1. Un hivernage dans les glaces by Jules Verne
2. The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price
3. Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read
4. Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
5. Rocketship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein

Level 2: Flapping Wings

6. The Fate of Fenella by Helen Mathers
7. Winona's Pony Cart by Maud Hart Lovelace
8. The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke
9. Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
10. Beware of the Trains by Edmund Crispin

Level 3: Taking Flight

11. Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein
12. Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein
13. The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton
14. Narrative Of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth
15. Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein

I'm taking up this challenge, there are times this is just what I need but for myself I’m also going to say that I read the < 280 pages without making any notes. It will be interesting to see how I do.


Level 1 Ruffled Feathers – made a few notes, I really tried not to
1 Tender Buttons (Gertrude Stein) 📖 ✅ 3* my review read in Feb 2025
2 The Women (Clare Boothe Luce) 📖 ✅ 4* my review read in Feb 2025
3
4
5


Level 2 Flapping Wings – so close, almost got though it
6
7
8
9
10


Level 3 Taking Flight – yeyy, no notes, just reading and enjoying the book
11
12
13
14
15

I finished this challenge, but longer books are calling me now!
It's a fun challenge.

completed 15/15:
Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
🔹1: A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare 24 Jan
🔹2: A Match Made for Thanksgiving Jackie Lau 25 Jan
🔹3: The Nakano Thrift Shop Hiromi Kawakami 26 Jan
🔹4: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde 21 Feb.
🔹5: Bibliolepsy Gina Apostol 1 Mar
Level 2 Flapping Wings
🔹6: Walden, or Life in the Woods and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 22 Mar
🔹7: Reasons to Stay Alive Matt Haig 29 Mar
🔹8: A Separate Peace John Knowles 3 May
🔹9: The Garden Party and Other Stories Katherine Mansfield 23 May
🔹10: Anne of Avonlea L.M. Montgomery 24 May

Level 3 Taking Flight
🔹11: Daughter of Fire Sofia Robleda 5 Jun
🔹12: The Quiet American Graham Greene 17 Jun
🔹13: Three Apples Fell from the Sky Narine Abgaryan 22 Jun
🔹14: 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization: History's Most Influential Felines Sam Stall 22 Jun
🔹15: Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return Marjane Satrapi 25 Jun

Round 2:
Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
🔹1: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky 26 Jun
🔹2: Why Cats Are Assholes Liz Miele 22 Jun
🔹3: Sandwich: A Global History Bee Wilson 2 Jul
🔹4: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish Douglas Adams 17 Jul
🔹5: Mostly Harmless Douglas Adams 21 Jul
Level 2 Flapping Wings
🔹6: How Proust Can Change Your Life Alain de Botton 22 Jul
🔹7: The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 27 Jul
🔹8: The Missing Half Ashley Flowers 4 Aug
🔹9: My Ántonia Willa Cather 14 Aug
🔹10: How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup J.L. Carr 24 Aug

Level 3 Taking Flight
🔹11: A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day Jackie Lau 30 Aug
🔹12: Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs Dave Barry 30 Aug
🔹13: Three Days in June Anne Tyler 30 Aug
🔹14: Sandwich Catherine Newman 13 Sep
🔹15: Snowdrops in Spring: A Tale of the Sleeping Beauty Penelope Daniels 21 Sep

Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
1: Die Verwandlung
2: Lovesong
3: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
4: Die Physiker
5: Paper Girls, Volume 1

Level 2 Flapping Wings
6: Paper Girls, Volume 2
7: EinFach Deutsch Textausgaben - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Emilia Galotti: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Emilia Galotti: Ein Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen. Gymnasiale Oberstufe
8: Fangirl, Vol. 4: The Manga
9: The Assassin and the Healer
10: Feralsong

Level 3 Taking Flight
11: Lovesong Part II
12: The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
13
14
15

Round 3:
Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
🔹1: The Full Moon Coffee Shop Mai Mochizuki 21 Sep
2
3
4
5
Level 2 Flapping Wings
6
7
8
9
10

Level 3 Taking Flight
11
12
13
14
15

Level 1 Ruffled Feathers
1. Northanger Abbey: 176 pages - 1/25
2. Dance Hall of the Dead: 255 pages - 3/8
3. The Crime at Black Dudley: 223 pages - 5/8
4. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: 222 pages - 5/11
5. Heat of the Moment: 190 pages - 5/29

Level 2 Flapping Wings
6. The Ghostway: 201 pages - 6/3
7. Finding Tomorrow: 192 pages - 7/3
8. Peter Pan: 165 pages - 7/6
9. Dying to Meet You: 148 pages - 8/10
10. The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy: 224 pages - 8/26

Level 3 Taking Flight
11. Finding Home: 240 pages - 9/2
12. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 121 pages - 9/11
13. All Systems Red: 160 pages - 9/15
14. Among the Mad: 255 pages - 9/20
15. The Marvelous Land of Oz: 133 pages - 9/28