Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge
I completed my goal! 223 books for 2019; my goal was 190.
The Backlist Reader Challenge 2019
Host: Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Progress: 6/20 (30%)
1 January, 2019 — 5 January, 2020
Failed
- Start Spinning by Maggie Casey
- The 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
- By Book or By Crook by Eva Gates
- The Last Moriarty by Charles Veley
- The Unholy by Heather Graham
The Backlist Reader Challenge (which I host) focuses on reading the older books on your to-read lists (and shelves, and Kindle.) To qualify, a book must have been published in 2017 or earlier, and must be on your “want to read” list. Rereads only count if it’s been more than 10 years since you last read it, and you don’t remember a lot of the details.
If you want to participate in The Backlist Challenge 2019, click the image above to go to the rules-and-signup page—and get some of those older books off your TBR list or pile!
This year, I set my goal at 20 backlist titles, and read at least 30. My secondary goal was to review most of them, and I didn’t do as well with that. Books I’ve reviewed are listed above; books I’ve read but not yet reviewed are listed below.
- Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (Cokie Roberts) – audiobook
- Lies By Moonlight (Amanda Quick)
- Born in Fire (Nora Roberts)
- A Stash of One’s Own (Clara Parkes)
- Birthright (Nora Roberts)
- The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs (Sarah Anderson)
- Code Girls (Liza Mundy) – audiobook
- The Rosemary Tree (Elizabeth Goudge) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- Haunted (Heather Graham)
- Ghost Walk (Heather Graham)
- The Presence (Heather Graham)
- The Diamond Throne (David Eddings) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- The Ruby Knight (David Eddings) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- The Sapphire Rose (David Eddings) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- The Uninvited (Heather Graham)
- The Unseen (Heather Graham)
- The Unspoken (Heather Graham)
- he Night is Watching (Heather Graham)
- The Night is Alive (Heather Graham)
- The Night is Forever (Heather Graham)
- The Cursed (Heather Graham)
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Becky Chambers)
- The Betrayed (Heather Graham)
Audiobook Challenge 2019
Host: Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer
Progress: 3/20 (15%)
1 January, 2019 — 1 January, 2020
Failed
- The 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
- The Last Moriarty by Charles Veley
The Audiobook Challenge 2019 was hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Reviewer. The challenge was to read more audiobooks than you did in 2018. Any book in audio format counted toward the challenge, including rereads, borrowed audiobooks, and crossovers from other challenges. (So, for instance, I could listen to a book for The Backlist Reader Challenge and count it for this challenge as well.) You can see the full list of rules by clicking the image.
My overall goal for 2019 was 20 books, which put me in the “Socially Awkward (Don’t talk to me)” challenge level (15-20 books.) My secondary goal is to listen to 10 “new” books, meaning I’ve never read or listened to them before. I only listened to 14 books, 8 of which were new to me, so I guess I failed this one. Books I’ve reviewed are listed above; books I’ve read but not yet reviewed are listed below.
- Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (Cokie Roberts) – new to me
- Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution (written and read by Todd S. Purdum) – new to me
- Mary Poppins (P.L. Travers, read by Sophie Thompson) – reread, first listen
- A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle, read by Hope Davis) – reread, first listen
- Mary Poppins Comes Back (P.L. Travers, read by Sophie Thompson) – reread, first listen
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum, read by Anne Hathaway) – reread, first listen
- The Marriage Spell (Mary Jo Putney, read by Simon Prebble) – reread, first listen
- Code Girls (Liza Mundy, read by Erin Bennett) – new to me
- A Natural History of Dragons (Marie Brennan; read by Kate Reading) – new to me
- Perilous Gard (Elizabeth Marie Pope; read by Jill Tanner) – reread, first listen
Blogger Shame Challenge 2019
Host: Anna @ Herding Cats & Burning Soup
Progress: 0/10 (0%)
1 January, 2019 — 31 January, 2020
Failed
None yet!
The Blogger Shame Challenge, hosted by Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup, is for “all those review books that somehow slipped through the cracks and just didn’t get reviewed when they should have.” Any review copy that is more than 4 months past due counts for the challenge. And boy, do I have a lot of those!
My goal was to read and review 10 ARCs that are more than 4 months overdue, and I failed pretty spectacularly: I didn’t review a single overdue ARC.
Library Love Challenge 2019
Host: Angel's Guilty Pleasures
Progress: 6/12 (50%)
1 January, 2019 — 4 January, 2020
Failed
- Start Spinning by Maggie Casey
- Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom by Nancy Atherton
- The 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
- The Unholy by Heather Graham
- How the Dukes Stole Christmas by Joanna Shupe, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, Tessa Dare
The 2019 Library Lovers Challenge is hosted by Angel’s Guilty Pleasures. It runs all year. I aimed for the “Dewey Decimal” goal of 12 books and knocked it out of the park with more than double that, although I didn’t review everything I read.
Books I’ve reviewed are listed above; books I’ve read but not yet reviewed are listed below.
- Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (Cokie Roberts) – audiobook
- I’d Rather Be Reading (Anne Bogel)
- A Stash of One’s Own (Clara Parkes, ed.)
- Birthright (Nora Roberts)
- The Spinners Book of Yarn Designs (Sarah Anderson)
- Montana Sky (Nora Roberts) – reread
- Mary Poppins Comes Back (P. L. Travers) – audiobook
- Code Girls (Liza Mundy) – audiobook
- The Hills Have Spies (Mercedes Lackey) – ebook
- Ghost Walk (Heather Graham)
- All Shall Be Well (Deborah Crombie) – ebook; reread
- Under Currents (Nora Roberts)
- The Stalking (Heather Graham)
- The Uninvited (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Unseen (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Unholy (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Unspoken (Heather Graham) – ebook
- he Night is Watching (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Night is Alive (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Night is Forever (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Cursed (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Betrayed (Heather Graham) – ebook
- A Dangerous Conspiracy (Deanna Raybourn) – I also have an ARC
POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2019
Progress: 7/50 (14%)
1 January, 2019 — 4 January, 2020
Failed
- Start Spinning by Maggie Casey
- The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
- Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
- The 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith
- The Liar by Nora Roberts
- The Last Moriarty by Charles Veley
- Death with Dostoevsky by Katherine Bolger Hyde
The POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2019 offers 50 specific prompts intended to help you stretch beyond your reading “comfort zone.” I have to admit that this year, I stayed pretty much in my comfort zone. This is a year-round challenge, but I put it toward the bottom because I don’t need or expect to achieve all the prompts. I’m just in it for the fun of it. Periodically, I’ll update the list with the books I read for each prompt, and link to my review once it’s available.
Read so far: 21 / 50
Standard prompts:
1. A book becoming a movie in 2019 – Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) (reread)
2. A book that makes you nostalgic – Something Wonderful (Todd S. Purdum)
3. A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction)
4. A book you think should be turned into a movie – The Liar (Nora Roberts) (reread)
5. A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads
6. A book with a plant in the title or on the cover – Death and Daisies (Amanda Flower)
7. A reread of a favorite book – Locked Rooms (Laurie R. King)
8. A book about a hobby – Start Spinning (Maggie Casey)
9. A book you meant to read in 2018 – The Hills Have Spies (Mercedes Lackey)
10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title – Mary Poppins (P. L. Travers) (reread)
11. A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover – The Game (Laurie R. King) (reread)
12. A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore – Perilous Gard (Elizabeth Marie Pope) (reread)
13. A book published posthumously
14. A book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie
15. A retelling of a classic
16. A book with a question in the title
17. A book set on college or university campus
18. A book about someone with a superpower
19. A book told from multiple POVs – The Harp of Kings (Juliette Marillier)
20. A book set in space – The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Becky Chambers)
21. A book by two female authors
22. A book with SALTY, SWEET, BITTER, or SPICY in the title
23. A book set in Scandinavia
24. A book that takes place in a single day
25. A debut novel
26. A book that’s published in 2019 – The Best of Us (Robyn Carr)
27. A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature – A Natural History of Dragons (Marie Brennan)
28. A book recommended by a celebrity you admire
29. A book with LOVE in the title – The Viscount Who Loved Me (Julia Quinn)
30. A book featuring an amateur detective – Death with Dostoevsky (Katherine Bolger Hyde)
31. A book about a family – The 101 Dalmations (Dodie Smith)
32. A book by an author from Asia, Africa, or South America
33. A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in title
34. A book that includes a wedding – The Designs of Lord Randolph Cavanaugh (Stephanie Laurens)
35. A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter
36. A ghost story – The Sherwood Ring (Elizabeth Marie Pope)
37. A book with a two-word title – Devil’s Daughter (Lisa Kleypas)
38. A novel based on a true story
39. A book revolving around a puzzle or game
40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading challenge
Advanced prompts:
41. A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) book
42. A “choose-your-own-adventure” book
43. An “own voices” book – Rebel (Beverly Jenkins)
44. Read a book during the season it is set in – The Last Moriarty (Charles Veley)
45. A LitRPG book
46. A book with no chapters / unusual chapter headings / unconventionally numbered chapters
47. Two books that share the same title (1)
48. Two books that share the same title (2)
49. A book that has inspired a common phrase or idiom
50. A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, convent or vicarage
COYER Winter 2018-2019
Host: Michelle & Berls @ Because Challenges
Progress: 7/8 (88%)
1 December, 2018 — 3 March, 2019
Failed
- Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
- Santa Puppy by Lynn Cahoon
- Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare
- Hot Winter Nights by Jill Shalvis
- Rendezvous by Amanda Quick
- The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman
- Playing for Keeps by Jill Shalvis
The COYER Winter 2018-2019 Challenge was hosted by Michelle and Berls of Because Reading and Because Challenges. It ran from Dec. 1, 2018 through March 2, 2019. The rules were both easy and strict: Read digital books (ebooks or audiobooks) that cost less you less than $1.99 ($5 for audiobooks.)
My unofficial goal was 8 qualifying books over 3 months. Books I’ve reviewed are listed above; books I read but didn’t review are listed below.
- Kaleidoscope (Dorothy Gilman)
- The Princess Bride (William Goldman)
- The Black Gryphon (Mercedes Lackey)
- The Best of Us (Robyn Carr)
- The White Gryphon (Mercedes Lackey)
- Cyanide with Christie (Katherine Bolger Hyde)
Newbery Medal Challenge
Host: La La in the Library
Progress: 0/96 (0%)
In Progress
None yet!
The Newbery Medal Challenge is an open-ended (no time limit) challenge to read all the Newbery Medal winners. In my lifetime, I’ve read 17 of them, all of them well before I started blogging. (Most I read as a child.) This year, I’d like to read and review 2 Newbery winners that I haven’t read, and re-read and review at least 2 others.
Books I’ve read in my lifetime, but not reviewed, are in bold below.
Newbery Medal Winners:
2018: Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
2017: The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
2016: Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
2015: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
2014: Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
2013: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
2012: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
2011: Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by L.A. Schlitz
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
2004: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
1996: The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
1989: Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
1983: Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt
1982: A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
1980: A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by M.D. Taylor
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by R.C. O’Brien
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L.Konigsburg
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
1964: It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Neville
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
1954: …And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by W. Pène du Bois
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon
1934: Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigsl
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by E. Lewis
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by E. Coatsworth
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by D.G. Mukerji
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
