March Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge Sign Up & Goals Post

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Even though I’m already taking part in a backlist challenge, I had a poor showing in February and only finished 3 of my backlisted books.  I decided to take part in the March 2018 Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by  Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer because I think it will be a great way to jumpstart my backlist reading again.

 

The rules are simple: for the entire month of March, you focus on reading/listening to books in your TBR pile released before March 1, 2018. They can be eBooks, physical books or audiobooks. Let’s clean off those shelves and finish those series and trilogies!

RULES

  • Link-up! This is open to everyone. If you do not have a blog then link a shelf entitled Take Control 2018 from your Goodreads account. It is a good idea to friend me if your shelves are private.
  • Create a Goals/Updates/Results post (can be combined) It can also be a shelf created on Goodreads. Be sure to friend Kimberly so she can see it.
  • Begins midnight March 1st, 2018 and ends March 31, 2018, at 11:59 pm.
  • Read/listen to books from your TBR pile.
  • ALL books/audios must have been published before March 1,  2018. I don’t care where you got them, so old ARCS count.
  • Post a review to Goodreads, or your blog then add the URL link it to the Rafflecopter for an entry. ( These can be a mini review. Just one or two sentences)
  • You can combine events, challenges etc.
  • Page count must be over 100 pages to qualify.
  • The rafflecopter will only allow you to enter up to two books daily, so update as soon as you finish a book.
  • Use hashtag #TakeControlTBR
  • Twitter Party March 11th @ 2:30 pm (CST)  Come chat about books you have read and win prizes.
  • Earn extra entries for participating in the Twitter Party
  • Rafflecopter will close on April 2, 2018, at midnight and a winner will be chosen within 72 hours. Open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to you. Prize: New 2018 release valued at up to 20 US dollars or 1 Audiobook Credit from Audiobooks.com. I will do pre-orders as well. (may request eBook copy from Amazon or B&N)

 

TENTATIVE READING LIST

I hope I’m not being over ambitious, but I’m setting a goal of 10 backlist books to read this month.  I’ve come up with a tentative reading list, but this is subject to change since I’m such a mood reader.  As of this moment, I’m in the mood to read the following titles, all published prior to March 1, 2018, per the rules:

  1. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
  2. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
  3. Tarnished City by Vic James
  4. Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
  5. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  6. Golden Son by Pierce Brown
  7. Nemesis by Anna Banks
  8. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
  9. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
  10. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

 

Wishing the best of luck to all who are taking part in the challenge!  Let’s take control of those TBRs!

A Look Ahead to My 2018 Reading Challenges

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Designed at canva.com

 

It’s that time of year again! Time to start thinking about what reading/blogging challenges I want to participate in during 2018.  I love taking part in challenges, but I like to pick challenges that I think won’t overwhelm me and make reading suddenly feel like a chore.  There are so many great challenges out there for the upcoming year though, that it’s easy to find a few that I think will be perfect for me.  So, please consider this my as my sign-up post for the following challenges:

 

1.  GOODREADS READING CHALLENGE

 

It’s not even time to sign up for the 2018 Goodreads Challenge yet, but I already know that I’ll be doing this one.  My reading goal for last year was only 60 books, so this year I’m pretty sure I’ll be increasing that, possibly as high as 90.  I love this challenge because aside from marking the books you’ve read, Goodreads keeps track of everything else. All I have to do is read.  The only stress is self-imposed and that’s if I set my goal too high.

 

2.  2018 BEAT THE BACKLIST CHALLENGE

 

 

I did do a separate sign-up post with all of the rules, etc., for the 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge here so that I could post my intended TBR. I participated in this one last year and loved it because it helped me to knock 24 backlisted titles off my TBR.  Since I was able to make it through 24 backlisted titles by September last year, I’ve decided to increase my goal to 30 for 2018.  Wish me luck!

 

3.  2018 NEW RELEASE CHALLENGE

 

The rules for the 2018 New Release Challenge are simple:

  • Books have to be released and reviewed in 2018.
  • Other challenges can be used as well, if you are participating in the Netgalley / Edelweiss challenge or in the COYER challenge, books can count towards more than one challenge, as long as the ones you use for the 2018 New Release Reading Challenge qualify to the other rules.
  • The minimum length for a book to qualify is 100 pages, it can be in any format though, physical, e-book, ARC or audiobook.
  • The New Book Release Challenge is open from January 1st through December 31st 2018, and sign-ups are open until September 1st 2018.
  • You don’t have to be a blogger to participate, you can link to your review on Goodreads or Booklikes instead – so don’t be shy!

There are five levels  in the 2018 New Release Challenge:

  1. 1-30 books per year – New Release Newbie
  2. 31-60 books per year – New Release Pro
  3. 61-100 books per year – New Release Veteran
  4. 101-200 books per year – New Release Enthusiast
  5. 200+ books per year – New Release Obsessed

Since I will also be trying to focus on finally reading backlisted titles this year, I will be aiming to read 20 new releases, which would put me firmly in the New Release Newbie level.

 

4.  2018 DEBUT AUTHOR CHALLENGE

 

 

I love to read debut authors so I thought this challenge was a great fit for me, and at a goal of 12, I think it’s going to be quite manageable even with all of the other challenges I’m taking part in .

Challenge Objectives:

  • To introduce readers to this year’s wonderful group of debut authors.
  • To challenge readers to read 12 or more (or less! It’s up to you!) middle grade, young adult, and new adult debuts this year.

Challenge Rules:

  • You must post your thoughts on each debut book you read in order for it to count towards the challenge. You can post anywhere: your blog, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, etc. If you can link it up, it counts!
  • You can join the challenge whenever you want.
  • The debuts must have a publishing date in 2018 and must have been read between January 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019 (this extra month allows readers adequate time to read December debuts) in order to count.
  • Each review gives you an entry into the bi-annual (two times a year) debut book giveaways (you will get to choose the book you win). Make sure you post the links to my bi-annual link-ups. I will post these link-ups on the first day of January and July.
  • This challenge is open internationally, as are the bi-annual debut book giveaways (provided Book Depository ships to you).
  • I don’t care what language you write your reviews in, I just need to know which book you have reviewed so I can verify your entry. When you post your link in the Linky, please include the book title in English.
  • Use the hashtag #DebutAuthorChallenge so we can all see what everyone’s up to!

Which Books Count:

  • The book must be classified as middle grade, young adult, new adult fiction.
  • The book must be a full-length novel and not a novella.
  • The book must be the author’s MG/YA/NA 2018 debut. (If the author has published adult fiction before, but this is their first MG/YA/NA book EVER it still counts. If the author has published a YA book before and this is their first MG or NA book, it does not count. We are reading the author’s first book for young people, excluding picture books.)
  • Self-published books do not count, so if the author has self-published a MG/YA/NA book before and this is their first book published by a traditional publisher it counts toward the challenge.
  • ARCs are fine, but only if you read them the year they are published. (If you read a 2018 debut in 2017, it does not count. If you read a 2019 debut in 2018, it does not count. This way, participants who do not have access to ARCs are not at a disadvantage.)
  • Since this challenge is international, some books will be debuts in some countries and not in others. This can be tricky and put some books into a gray area, so here’s what we will do. If the book came out this year in your country for the first time, even though it was available elsewhere, then you can count it. I’m going to trust you, so please be honest.
  • Please feel free to tweet, email, etc. me if you do not know if a book counts or not. I am happy to help you.

 

5.  2018 BOOK BLOGGER DISCUSSION CHALLENGE

 

Writing discussion posts continues to be a fear/weakness of mine, so I’m hoping this challenge will push me to write more of them this year.  So as not to stress myself completely out, I’ll be aiming for one post a month, for a total of 12 discussion posts, which would put me firmly in the Creative Conversationalist level.

Here’s All You Have to Do:

  • The 2018 Book Blog Discussion Challenge runs from January 1st until December 31st, 2018.
  • Sign-ups will remain open until December 31st, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. Central. (So, you can sign up all year long! Come join us!)
  • Create a sign-up post announcing your intention to participate and link up below. There is no need to say what your discussion posts will be about – just tell us that you’re joining and let us know what your goal is. (Please note, you may do this in an update post, or a post of other challenges—you’re not required to make a completely separate post—but you can if you’d like!)
  • Please link back to both challenge hosts and include the challenge button in your sign-up posts.
  • There will be a kick-off post on January 1, 2018 on both Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight where you’ll be able to leave your links for any January discussions. At the beginning of every month, a new post will go up on both blogs for that month’s links. Every month, we’ll update this 2018 Book Blog Challenge Page with the links to that month’s Challenge linky—so you’ll always know where to find the latest link-up!
  • Share it! The more people we get to participate in this, the more awesome discussions we can all be a part of and the more fun it will be! So, invite your friends to join us!
  • This challenge is to help get us discussing books and book blogging, so talk about whatever you want as long as it’s relevant to book blogging. Discussions can be book related or book blogging related (or generally blogging related—no discussions about things that are completely off-topic like travel or fashion, etc). Discussions can also be about you personally if it’s a get-to-know-you type post.
  • If you forgot to leave your discussion link in the challenge month in which you posted the discussion or the linky list closed before you had a chance to leave it, you can leave it in a future month. (No duplicates, though.)
  • There will also be monthly giveaways, so make sure you check in each month!
  • Every month, we’ll feature our favorite posts from one randomly chosen participant. There will be extra options in the Rafflecopter for commenting on posts by our featured blogger.
  • Use the hashtag #LetsDiscuss2018 to share your progress and connect with other participants on Twitter.
  • Have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments!

The Levels:

1-10 – Discussion Dabbler
11-20 – Creative Conversationalist
21-30 – Chatty Kathy
31-40 – Terrifically Talkative
41+ – Gift of the Gab

2018 BEAT THE BACKLIST GOALS & TBR

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The Beat the Backlist Challenge is hosted by Austine at NovelKnight.com and its focus is to encourage readers to finally get through some titles that have been on your TBR for a while, or even those that have gotten pushed aside for new releases.  The primary guideline for the challenge is that the books you choose must have been published prior to 2018.  Also, this challenge  runs from January 1st to December 31st, 2018 so you have a whole year to work on that TBR.  Post updates throughout the year with #beatthebacklist.  The complete details about the 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge can be found HERE.

I was able to knock 24 titles off my backlist through this challenge last year, so I’m excited to see if I can beat that number in 2018. My TBR is of course still out of control so I’m going to up my goal to 30 backlist books this year and see how that shakes out.  I’m going for a mix of Kindle reads and physical books in hopes of making a dent in both areas.  I’ve made a tentative Backlist TBR list below but I’m a terrible mood reader so this list is subject to change as my moods dictate.

 

  1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
  2. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
  3. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
  4. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
  5. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  6. Timekeeper by Tara Sim
  7. Vicious by V.E. Schwab
  8. Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab
  9. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
  10. Winter by Marissa Meyer
  11. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
  12. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
  13. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
  14. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
  15. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
  16. Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer
  17. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
  18. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
  19. Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman
  20. Nemesis by Anna Banks
  21. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
  22. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
  23. Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello
  24. Salt to the Sea by Ruth Sepetys
  25. Hunted by Meagan Spooner
  26. History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
  27. How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
  28. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
  29. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
  30. The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman

I’ll also be participating as a member of the Dewey Dragons BTB Team.  Let me know if you’re a fellow Dragon!

Are you planning to join the Beat the Backlist challenge in 2018?

Summer TBR Wipeout 2017: Wrap-Up

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The Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge ends today so it’s time to wrap up and take stock of how I did.  Can you believe I actually ended up reading all 12 of the books I had chosen for the challenge?!  After my last update, I still had 7 left on my list and was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it through all 12, but I really kicked it into high gear and finished the final book this morning.  I’m excited because it actually put a visible dent in the pile of books stacked up in the corner of my office.  I’ll definitely be looking for a similar reading challenge as we move into the fall months.

 

BOOKS I READ FOR THIS UPDATE:

 

   
      
 

I adored This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab. I’m working on a review for this one right now so I won’t say too much here, but it was a fantastic read full of creepy monsters.  It’s everything I hope for when I pick up one of Schwab’s novels.  This was a 5 star read for me.

Cress by Marissa Meyer.  My love for The Lunar Chronicles series has only continued to grow with my reading of Cress.  I’m forever amazed how Meyer managed to keep weaving new versions of these classic fairy tale characters into her unique narrative.  I keep thinking it’s going to start to get hokey at any moment, but it never does.  Cress adds a Rapunzel-like characters to the narrative who takes a liking to my favorite character from the series, Carswell Thorne. (Man, I just love that guy!)  The action really ramps up in Cress too as our fairy tale-inspired characters get closer and closer to taking out the evil Queen Levana.  This was also a 5 star read for me and I can’t wait to get my hands on Winter, the next book in the series.

Lauren Graham’s Talking As Fast As I Can was a quick and fun read for me.  Its similar in style to Anna Kendrick’s Scrappy Little Nobody in terms of it being a collection of humorous essays, but I enjoyed Lauren’s.  I don’t know if it’s because Lauren is closer to my age and so I found some of it more relatable or if I just liked that Lauren reminds me so much of her most famous character, Lorelai Gilmore, but it was just a delight to follow her on this journey.  I especially loved the parts of the book where she talked about writing both of her books – her writing process, meeting deadlines, etc. My absolute favorite part was the section where she talks about the Gilmore Girls Netflix revival series and even includes some of the journal entries she wrote while filming it.  I loved that she was experiencing so many of the same emotions that most fans were feeling at first hearing the news that there would be a revival and then actually sitting down and finally watching it.  She was as much of a blubbering mess as I was, lol.  This was such a fun read, 4 stars.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon was another quick read for me.  I loved the characters, Maddy and Olly, and watching how they were able to forge a beautiful relationship in spite of a rare and potentially deadly illness that has kept Maddy locked in her home and home-schooled, completely isolated for most of her life.  She’s basically the girl in the bubble.  Olly is Maddy’s new next door neighbor.  After seeing Maddy watching him from her window a few times and then being turned away at the front door by Maddy’s mom when he tries to come and introduce himself, Olly decides to get creative and puts his email address on his window.  Maddy writes to him and they immediately click.  The more they talk, the more Maddy desperately wants to meet him in person, even if it could compromise her health.  Her nurse secretly helps her set up a short meeting, and as soon as she and Olly finally meet in person, Maddy realizes that this life in a safe bubble is just not what she wants anymore even if it means she doesn’t live long.  I just thought this was such a beautiful story and then the plot twist near the end is just OMG, WOW!  I don’t want to give that away, but needless to say, it completely blew me away.  This was a 4-star read for me and I’m really looking forward to watching the film when it comes out.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.  What a heart-wrenching story this is! I think this is one of those books best read not knowing too much about it ahead of time, so I’m not going to say too much about it.  I’ll just say that it’s about monsters, both literal and figurative, and it’s about the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to help us through difficult times and what happens when those lies are shattered and the hard truth is all that’s left.  Filled with incredible illustrations, this is a read unlike any other.  4.5 Stars.

Fractured by Catherine McKenzie.  Fractured is a thriller in the vein of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and The Party by Robyn Harding.  You know the type — something horrible has happened and the reader spends the entire book trying to figure out who’s telling the truth, who’s lying, and who’s ultimately responsible.  Yeah, that kind of book.  Fractured was great because even though you find out almost immediately that someone has died – it’s not until the closing pages that you find out who and how.  This was also one of those books where I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, but the story was so compelling, I still couldn’t put it down.  Instead, I actually hated a couple of the characters so much, that I spent most of the book hoping they were the ones who turned up dead during the reveal.  If you read this and meet Cindy, you’ll know exactly what I mean, lol.  If you like a plot filled with twists and turns and lots of domestic drama (OMG, you went jogging with my husband, you whore! – I’m paraphrasing here but that’s the gist anyway), then you’ll love Fractured.  It’s a wild ride for sure.  4 Stars from me.

A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess.  I just read this yesterday and absolutely devoured it.  In some ways it reminded me of the Harry Potter series almost as soon as I started reading. Since I adore HP so much, I was hooked by this story immediately.   Henrietta Howell learns that she is a sorcerer and that she fits the description of a prophecy that says she will be the one to help defeat a group of ancient monsters who are hell-bent on wreaking havoc and destroying London.  When the Sorcerer’s order finds her, they bring her to London so that she can begin training to be a sorcerer because they want her to join Her Majesty’s sorcerers as soon as possible because the ancient monsters have been attacking the city more and more frequently.  It’s a race against the clock to get the ‘Chosen One’ up to speed before the Ancients are able to break through the protective ward that has been placed around the heart of the city.  Most of the book is centered around Henrietta’s training, which doesn’t go all that well.  Henrietta soon finds out why her training isn’t going well and what she learns throws into question everything –  she may not be the Chosen One after all and may not even really be a sorcerer for that matter.  Lots of twists and turns in this story as she tries to figure out who she really is and how she fits into the Prophecy, if at all.  I loved watching Henrietta go through her training and interact with her classmates, all of whom were male. This leads me to my one gripe about the book. Henrietta is the first female sorcerer to come along in 400 years and these boys act like idiots gawking at her.  It’s like the love triangle/love square from The Red Queen where everyone who sees Henrietta is immediately infatuated with her.  Can we stop doing that, please?  Thankfully there was lots of action, bloody battles, and wild sorcerer magic tricks to distract me from these ridiculous boys and keep this at a 4 star read for me.

 

* * * * * *

So, there you have it.  Challenge completed!  Thanks so much to The Candid Cover for hosting it!  And now it’s time to move on to the rest of the books piled high on my TBR pile. 12 down, countless more to go….

Update Post # 2: Summer TBR Wipeout 2017

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It’s time to post my update for the first leg of the Summer TBR Wipeout challenge.  So, how am I doing?  Not as great as I had hoped because I had to get some ARCs read that I hadn’t put on my list.  This time around I have managed to knock a couple off my TBR that had been on there for way too long though so I am happy about that.  Out of the twelve books I had originally put on my challenge list, I’ve managed to read 5 so far.

 

BOOKS I READ FOR THIS UPDATE…

 

 
 

Of these two, Heartless was definitely my favorite.  It was just so whimsical and fun, and I think if I lived in the sexist environment that Cath did, I’d probably turn into a raging ‘Off with his head!’ kind of girl myself, haha.  Caraval, which was one of my most anticipated reads of this year, didn’t quite live up to the hype for me, although I still thought it was an entertaining read.  It just seemed to drag out the ending. I’m curious to see how that one will be turned into a series because I felt like the story was pretty well wrapped up by the time I finally reached the end.

 

BOOKS STILL LEFT ON MY CHALLENGE LIST…

 

   
      
I don’t know if I’ll make it through all 7 by the end of the challenge or not, but we’ll see how it goes!  Hope everyone else is doing great with their challenge!

Update Post # 1: Summer TBR Wipeout 2017

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It’s time to post my update for the first leg of the Summer TBR Wipeout challenge.  So, how am I doing?  Not too bad actually.  Out of the twelve books I had put on my challenge list, I’ve managed to read three so far.  I started with some of the longest books on my TBR to get those out of the way first, which will hopefully make it a littler easier to make it to the finish line later in the challenge.

 

BOOKS I’VE READ SO FAR…

      

 

Out of these three, Illuminae was definitely my favorite read.  I haven’t written a proper review for it yet, but it was just such an action-packed read. I loved the unique format, the dialogue, and the ultra creepy premise about an AI that tries to take over control of a spaceship from the humans.  I had mixed feelings about about both A Court of Wings and Ruin, which I reviewed yesterday, and Scrappy Little Nobody.  ACOWAR, while a good solid read, just left me a little underwhelmed after the sheer epic nature of the second book in the series.  I rated the first two books in the series 5 stars each, but this one only got 3.5.  Scrappy Little Nobody was a fun read but one that just didn’t have as much substance or behind-the-scenes information as I had hoped it would.  I actually think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had done the audio version instead of the print.  The writing style is very conversational and I think hearing it in Anna’s voice would have made it more entertaining than trying to read it for myself.

 

CHALLENGE BOOKS I’M PLANNING TO READ NEXT…

 

       

That might be an overly ambitious list since I do have a few ARCs I need to get read by the beginning of August, but we’ll see how it goes.  It’s so hot outside right now and there’s so little on TV that I’m spending nearly all of my free time reading anyway.  Hope everyone else is doing great with their challenge!

Summer Reading Challenge: Summer TBR Wipeout 2017 – Intro Post

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I seem to have an endless list of books that I say I’m dying to read but never quite seem to ever get around to actually reading them.  I’m really trying to push myself to finally get some of those lingering books off my TBR, so I was thrilled to come across this challenge, which is hosted by The Candid Cover.  I feel like this challenge is exactly what I need to focus my attention on cleaning out the backlog of books.  I had originally thought about purging, but I do truly still want to read all of these books so that’s not going to cut it.  Below is the very ambitious list of books that I would love to knock off my TBR this summer.  It will probably end up being more like early fall before I get to them all, but even getting half of these read would be a major accomplishment for me at this point!

THE BOOKS

 

      
                        
   

Are you looking to finally knock some backlisted books off your TBR this summer?  Maybe you should consider taking the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge too.

#ReReadIt 2017 Reading Challenge – My TBR

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Wishing all of my followers a Happy New Year!  May 2017 be all that you want it to be!

I’m finishing out 2016 by signing up for one more challenge for the upcoming year.  Ashley @ Inside My Minds created the #ReReadIt Challenge and the goal is to re-read one book a month throughout 2017.  The primary requirement is that the books have to be at least 120 pages in length. Today is the last day to sign up for this challenge as it starts tomorrow.  I chose this challenge because I’m horrible about going back and re-reading books no matter how much I love them.  I’m hoping this challenge will push me to be better about re-reading. I’ve also chosen a few titles that I want to share with my son, so I’m hoping that will be extra motivation for me to successfully complete the challenge.

 

Below are my chosen titles for the #ReReadIt Challenge:

January – Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

February – The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

March – Matilda by Roald Dahl

April – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

May – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

June – 1984 by George Orwell

July – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

August – Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

September – The Color Purple by Alice Walker

October – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

November – Watership Down by Richard Adams

December – The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

 

Best of luck to all who are participating in the challenge!

Beat the Backlist 2017 Reading Challenge: My TBR

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The Beat the Backlist Challenge is hosted by Austine at NovelKnight.com and its focus is to encourage readers to finally get through some titles that have been on your TBR for a while, or even those that have gotten pushed aside for new releases.  The primary guideline for the challenge is that the books you choose must have been published prior to 2017.  Also, this challenge  runs from January 1st to December 31st, 2017 so you have a whole year to work on that TBR.  Post updates throughout the year with #beatthebacklist.

This will be the first challenge I’ve participated in since I joined the blogging community so I’m pretty excited about it.  My TBR is also out of control so I think this challenge is perfect for me.  I’m forever shoving aside books I still really want to read in favor of newer releases.  It’s time to take control of my TBR!

Below is my tentative (and possibly overly ambitious) list of books that I want to get off my backlist this year. May the force be with me!

  1.  A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
  2. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
  3. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
  4. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
  5. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
  6. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
  7. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
  8. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
  9. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
  10. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
  11. A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess
  12. Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
  13. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  14. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
  15. Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
  16. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
  17. Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
  18. Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
  19. When We Collided by Emery Lord
  20. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman
  21. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng 
  22. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  23. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
  24. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
  25. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

 

 

I also signed up for the optional Hogwarts House mini challenge because it sounded like fun.  The house I chose to represent is Gryffindor.  Thanks so much to Austine for hosting such a great challenge and good luck to everyone who is participating!