This year I decided to do a reading challenge to try and move some of the books from my TBR list to my Read list. I don’t even remember how I found this one, but it’s by MommyMannegren and I started it Jan. 1st right on time. I am almost done with the challenge and am struggling through the last 3. I have a “Bookstagram,” which is apparently a thing now, where I review all of the books I’ve read. I’m at 125 out of my yearly goal of 150, so I’m a little bit ahead of the 52 books in 52 weeks pace set for this challenge. Haha
52 Books in 52 Weeks
- A book by a Canadian author – Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood *
- A childhood favorite – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll *****
- A novel that is considered a classic – Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls ***
- A mystery novel – The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney ***
- A book you’ve been meaning to read, but haven’t gotten to – If I’m Found by Terri Blackstock ***
- A science fiction novel – We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson *****
- An adventure/espionage novel – The Alice Network by Kate Quinn ***
- A biography – Night by Elie Wiesel *****
- A book that challenges your viewpoint – Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult ***
- The first book in a trilogy – Firelight by Sophie Jordan ***
- A book with over 600 pages – Bag of Bones by Stephen King ****
- A book you can read in a day – Road Rage by Richard Matheson, Joe Hill and Stephen King ***
- A book that has won a Pulitzer Prize – The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson ***
- Any book from the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards –
- A book that has been made into a movie – John Dies at the End by David Wong **
- A book chosen solely by it’s cover – Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg ***
- A book on theology – The Zealot by Reza Aslan ****
- A celebrity memoir – Neil Patrick Harris Choose Your Own Autobiography *
- A book with a six word title – Hunger: A Memoir of My Body by Roxane Gay
- A book set in a country you want to visit – Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie ****
- A book that makes you laugh out loud – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
- A book you read in school – The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger ***
- A book with a green spine –
- A book with a character that shares your name –
- A book published in 2018 – Look For Me by Lisa Gardner *****
- A book recommended by a friend – Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult *****
- A book recommended by a librarian – Artemis by Andy Weir *****
- A book written by an author under 30 – Whisper by Lynette Noni *****
- A book written before 1920 – The Jungle by Upton Sinclair *****
- A book that makes you cry – And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman – *****
- An e-book – Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky *****
- A book with bad reviews – The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold ****
- A YA Bestseller – Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman *****
- A book set in Africa – Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo *****
- A book by Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express ***
- A historical non-fiction book – The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson *****
- A book that inspires you – How to Be A Bawse by Lily Singh *****
- A short story – Skellig by David Almond *****
- A book that has been on the NY Times Best Seller List for more than 10 weeks – Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly *****
- Political Book – When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors *****
- A book by a Scandinavian author – Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman ****
- A book with non-human characters – The Curse of Crow Hollow by Billy Coffey ***
- A book about a topic you’re passionate about – A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard *****
- A book set in the Middle East – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini *****
- A book already on your bookshelf – Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling ****
- A book that was once banned – The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde ****
- A book originally published in the year that you were born – The Talisman by Stephen King **
- A book about travel – Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee *****
- A foreign book translated into English – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ****
- A book with the letter ‘Y’ somewhere in the title – The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman ****
- A book with food on the cover – Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty *****
- A book about a current world issue – Not That Bad by Roxane Gay
I have my three remaining books picked out, I just need to get to them. The book with the green spine was hard to choose because I mostly read ebooks. That’s the easiest for me since I read so many and also that’s how I receive the majority of my ARCs. I chose The One and Only by Emily Giffin because it was the closest to green I had on my physical book shelf. It pretty meh reviews, so I haven’t been excited to read it.
For the 2017 Goodreads Awards, I chose Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. I’ve been excited to read this one, but I’ve been stuck on my next book and haven’t gotten to it yet.
For a book with a character who shares my name, I chose Ilium by Dan Simmons. A character in the book shares my dad’s exact first and last name so I went with that one. Ashlee is a pretty common name, so I did a search for my not so common last name thinking it may be more difficult. This book is a retelling of The Iliad, which I didn’t love…I didn’t realize that until I bought it. The author also uses a lot of big words, so I feel dumb when I’m reading it, but I will attempt to finish by the end of the year. All 570 pages of it.
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