Happy April Fool’s Day! No tricks here though, I’m here to tell you accurately 🙂 how my reading challenges for the year are going a quarter of the way in. I was very laid-back about challenges last year, and I’ve been greatly enjoying digging in on challenges this year, after that break.
Newbery Medal Winners
Goal: 15 Newbery Medal Winners, to bring myself to half of the total list
Host: Smiling Shelves
I’ve been making great progress reading these, though I’ve been disappointed more than once by a book. For now I’m continuing on and hoping to hit some better ones (suggestions welcome!)
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (best of the bunch)
- The Grey King by Susan Cooper (very disappointing)
- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (pretty good)
- The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (enjoyable, but unrealistic)
- Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (the poor man’s L. M. Montgomery)
- A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (uncertain start but grew on me)
Parallel Universes
Goal: 12 books
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this one. Even imperfect books are just so fascinating in how they handle the question of parallel universes and crossing between them.
- Pivot Point by Kasie West
- A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
- Parallel by Lauren Miller
Diversity On the Shelf
Host: The Englishist
Goal: 18 books
Just a few months has made it abundantly clear that if I don’t seek out non-white protagonists, they rarely happen. Depressing, although not surprising.
- Otherbound by Corrinne Duyvis (Hispanic)
- Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (African-American)
- Stars Above by Marissa Meyer (Asian) (the only chance-met book)
- Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (Indian)
- Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed (Pakistani)
The Bardathon: Shakespeare Plays
Host: Samantha Lin
Goal: 5 plays read or seen (but ideally, read 5 comedies, read 5 tragedies, and watch 5 movies)
I’ve loved getting back into Mr. Shakespeare’s language, and even though I have a ways to go to reach my ideal goal, I feel like I’m making wonderful progress. I like the feeling that the Bard and I are getting closer again!
- Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon production)
- Comedy of Errors (read)
- Comedy of Errors (BBC production)
- Measure for Measure (read)
Carl’s Seasonal “Challenges”: We’re just at the beginning of Once Upon a Time, so I’m signed up and reading fantasy. I’ll have more to report on this at the next update.
I’m also quite pleased that I’ve been reviewing many of my challenge books (and still plan to review some of the recent, unreviewed ones). I hate to do these updates and have no information on the blog about the books or what I thought of them!
So far I’m still enjoying these challenges, and feeling good about how they’re impacting my reading. How has your reading been going for 2016?
Some suggestions for Newbery Medal Winners (though you’ve probably already read one or more of these): Maniac Magee, The Westing Game, Bridge to Terabithia. I’m going to throw The Egypt Game in there, even though it looks like it didn’t actually win (I could have sworn otherwise). These were books I loved as a kid, but haven’t read in at least 15 years, so I don’t know how good they are now… it sometimes happens that I reread a book I loved as a kid and find that I’m not such a fan any more.
Well done! And clearly I need to go sign up for the Diversity on the Shelf challenge, as it aligns so nicely with my own personal challenge this year.
Well done for making progress on all your challenges. 2016 is going well for me too – I am taking part in What’s in a Name challenge (2/6), Once Upon a Time X (1), and I am continuing with The Classics Club (40/50) and its spin-off The Women’s Classic Literature Event (3).
I wish you more progress and happy reading in your next quarter 🙂