Reading Challenges

Hey There,

I like books. And since you clicked on a button titled ‘Reading Challenges,’ I’m betting so do you.

There are all kinds of reading challenges out there – for whatever it is you’re looking to do with your reading goals. Here are the two I’ve enjoyed doing.

A Year of Reading and #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks

A Year of Reading: A Month-by-Month Guide to Classics and Crowd Pleasers for You or Your Book Club is a book by Elisabeth Ellington and Jane Freimiller. It is organized by themes for each month with six book suggestions for each one. What I love about this guide is the diversity in both authors and genre.

One of my goals was to read books by more authors of color this year, and I’m always interested in trying different genres. I’m pretty eclectic anyway, but this guide includes fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels, poetry collections, and short story anthologies too.

I completed this challenge in 2017. Read about my experience here. 

With #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks, the goal is obviously to READ MY OWN DAMN BOOKS! If you’re a fellow bibliophile, your rooms (yes, plural) are full of books you intend to one day read but don’t always get to. This challenge allows you to focus on the books you already have an interest in reading, but haven’t got around to yet, and it saves you money because you’re reading books you already own instead of buying a bunch of new ones!

Last year I read 38 books of 131 titles. Here’s what’s left on my shelf to get to:

A

1. Flawed by Cecelia Ahern
2. Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed
3. Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
4. Resistance by Tori Amos
5. My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews
6. Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge
7. Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework
8. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

B

1. Her Life is Showing by Alice Benson
2. A Year in Her Life by Alice Benson
3. Circle of Nine: Beltany by Valerie Biel
4. Paris Love Match by Nigel Blackwell
5. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
6. Descension by B.C. Burgess
7. Beneath the Bonfire by Nickolas Butler

C

1. Last Words of the Holy Ghost by Matt Cashion
2. Our 13th Divorce by Matt Cashion
3. Weepers by Nick Chiarkas
4. The Other Side of Paradise by Staceyann Chin
5. The Second Home by Christina Clancy
6. So, Anyway by John Cleese
7. Officer Clemmons by Dr. Francois S. Clemmons
8. Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

D

1. Sea Creatures by Susanna Daniel
2. Stalk Me by Jillian Dodd
3. Forever Fae by L.P. Dover
4. Braver Than You Think by Maggie Downs

E

1. Here & Now by Gayle C. Edlin
2. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
3. The Stones of Kaldaar by Tameri Etherton

F

1. Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone
2. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

G

1. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
2. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon
3. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
4. On Maggie’s Watch by Ann Wertz Garvin
5. Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman
6. The Uncommitted by Margaret Goss
7. Originals by Adam Grant
8. Tin God by Stacy Green
9. The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

H

1. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows
2. A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew Hefti
3. November 9 by Colleen Hoover
4. Get Me Out by Randi Hutter Epstein
5. The Ugly Truth by Cheryel Hutton

I

J

1. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

K

1. A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller
2. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
3. I Don’t Care About Your Band by Julie Klausner
4. Dark Perceptions by Debra Kristi
5. The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

L

1. The Burn Zone by Renee Linnell
2. Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little
3. First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

M

1. To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal
2. Remembrance by Michelle Madow
3. Embraceable edited by August McLaughlin
4. GirlBoner by August McLaughlin
5. Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon
6. Soundless by Richelle Mead
7. The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo
8. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
9. Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
10. Ethereal by Addison Moore
11. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

N

1. Devil’s Eye by Kait Nolan
2. Once Upon an Heirloom by Kait Nolan

O

1. The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell
2. Carpe Diem, Illinois by Kristin A. Oakley
3. Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates
4. Forged by Greed by Angela Orlowski-Peart
5. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
6. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

P

1. Dolly by Dolly Parton
2. Montaign in Barn Boots by Michael Perry
3. Visiting Tom by Michael Perry
4. No Time for Kings by Mark Petruska
5. Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter

Q

R

1. Well That Escalated Quickly by Francesca Ramsey
2. Any Day With You by Mae Respicio
3. Forever Road by Catie Rhodes
4. The Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington
5. We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier by Celia Rivenbark
6. Spook by Mary Roach
7. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne
8. Travels With David by Fran Rybarik

S

1. The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna
2. Revolution’s End by Brad Schreiber
3. Shrilugh by Myndi Shafer
4. Don’t Lick the Minivan by Leanne Shirtliffe
5. Everland by Wendy Spinale
6. Heartless by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
7. The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennett by Bernie Su

T

1. Fairest by Meredith Talusan
2. Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway
3. The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni 
4. Angelopolis by Danielle Trussoni

U

V

W

1. P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
2. Bali Daze by Cat Wheeler
3. The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

X

Y

Z

1. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin