A Bookish Life: Books & Writing

Category: Bookish Life Page 3 of 4

January 2019 Wrap-up & February Plans for TL Wright | A Bookish Blog

January 2019 Wrap-Up

Posts in January

[wrap-up-posts date=”January 2019″]

In Review

So in review, I’ve made a lot of lists for 2019 and started posting in general. Next month I’m going to work on being a bit more consistent and not have clumps of posts.

February plans are doing some reviews of books and trying to post at least once a week. I hope to also start a newsletter, once I’ve nailed down a format and content just for the newsletter.

January 2019 Wrap-up & February Plans for TL Wright | A Bookish Blog
Book Tracking & Nerdery @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

Book Tracking & Nerdery

I’m very proud to admit I am a nerd about books. And tracking, though I am not very consistent. Yet. That’s one of my goals this year is to be more consistent in tracking what I’ve read, so I’m going to share my methods in book tracking as a way to keep me accountable.

My Methods

So along with my Goodreads account, I’m using a notebook and a book tracking spreadsheet. It’s copied from Book Riot’s spreadsheet with the addition of some more granular genres and the challenges I’m doing this year. I’m still fixing up the formulas, as they don’t really fill down correctly in the cells, so I have to do them manually. That’s a lot of formulas and I’ve already gotten cross-eyed once today.

I’m still figuring out exactly what I want to put in my journal, but I’m starting out with some reading lists: my classics list, and a couple of others, so I have the fun of crossing them off when I’ve read them. Or put a nice red mark for DNF.

As more keeping track of the books I have, I use a combo of Calibre, Goodreads, and LibraryThing. Well, my LibraryThing is a mess right now. I did an import, and none of them kept their covers, so I’m having to back and edit. And there’s a lot in there whoops. So right now, Calibre & GoodReads are much easier to use.

I buy my books from Amazon & Google Play Books mostly, with FeedBooks as a secondary source of nicely formatted public domain books.

For my e-reader, I use Moon+Pro after I’ve converted my ebooks to epub. I keep the original version + the epub version and use calibre to manage the device. I just had to tell it where to put the books, and Moon+ does the rest. I do wish Moon+ does LastName, FirstName sort of authors names, as it’s a bit weird to look for Jane Austen in the J’s and not A’s.

The notebook is also new to me this year in my book tracking. I’ve bounced around looking at bujo setups and wishing I could draw like the ones I’ve seen on Pinterest or Instagram, but finally found a really pretty hardbound notebook with ruled pages. My writing starts climbing mountains if I don’t have a line to write on.

The first few pages are for the index, then I started numbering the pages from 1 after the index. It’s been a while since I did much of anything long hand so it’s going to be slow going getting my reading lists in my journal.

Additional Readings & Links

Book Tracking & Nerdery @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life
#TBR @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

#TBR

A little Friday fun, lol. I got a box from Amazon yesterday full of goodies. A birthday gift to myself (and a replacement for a lost tool for my vacuum cleaner but shh, that’s not nearly as fun as books)

I’m excited to start! I ordered I Have A Dream/Also A Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr, Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List by James Mustich, and last, but not least, The Widows of Malabar Hill: A Mystery of 1920s India by Sujata Massey and they arrived yesterday. Josie was very interested in helping me open the box, but I didn’t get a picture. Woe. But he does love the new box to sit in.

In the #TBR pile, not counting the new books, I have my e-reader, an Asus Z380M, and I use calibre to manage it, along with MoonReader + Pro, the Amazon Kindle app, and Google Play Books. I put all of my ebooks in calibre and use MoonReader to read, but buy via the apps.

Besides the tablet, I have Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Alexander Freed, Star Wars: Guardians of the Whills by Greg Rucka, Rebel Rising by Beth Revis, Lock In by John Scalzi, Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi, and The Lost Colony by John Scalzi, and Dust by Elizabeth Bear. Rounding out the list is The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You’ve Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer.

My nightstand’s not free from the pile of books, either. All but one are for dipping in and out as I try to get in the habit of not reading a screen just before bed. Insomnia’s really hard to fix. Books in the nightstand are:  Sailing The Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill, How To Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, A Lifetime’s Reading: Five Hundred Books to Read in a Lifetime by Phillip Ward, Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rosseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World by David Denby, The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classic Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded by Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major, and The Western Canon: The Books and School of Ages by Harold Bloom. HTRAB is waiting for me to sit down and take notes on, and the rest are all dip in and out of for reading ideas. They are all very heavy on white male writers, but useful anyway. I’ll have a longer post on those books at a later point in the year.

The Scalzi books and the Elizabeth bear book along with my nightstand books are re-reads and everything else linked is new to me. I’ve had the Star Wars books for over a year now, time to read. I’m dipping in and out of 1,000 Books and  The Well-Educated Mind, the first for book ideas, the second to learn how to educate myself. I’ll be discussing that project at a later point as well.

What’s in your TBR piles? And how do you like to manage them?

2019 Reading Challenges List of Books @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

2019 Reading Challenges Reading List

2019 Reading Challenges List of Books @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

In an effort to have an organized reading list, I made a spreadsheet of all the prompts in the various reading challenges I’m a part of this year then threw the entire thing in a google doc just to see how nicely it’ll print.

I got the idea from this Google Sheets spreadsheet, but I did a little editing. I did use some of the suggestions for my own list as they sounded really interesting.

There are 152 prompts on the list with 34 extra options. Not all the prompts have a choice in them and will be filled once I find the book to fit. Those will be edited in when I’ve made my choice, and I’ll also edit in the book I chose for the prompts with multiple options.

 

Challenge Prompt

Choice 1

Choice 2

Choice 3

Choice 4

           

BR 1

An epistolary novel or collection of letters

The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O’Connor

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

 

BR 2

An alternate history novel

Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove

Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

 

BR 3

A book by a woman and/or POC that won a literary award in 2018

The Art of Death by Edwidge Danicat

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

   

BR 4

A humor book

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

Forever, Erma by Erma Bombeck

   

BR 5

A book by a journalist or about journalism

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young

     

BR 6

A book by an POC set in or about space

Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu

BR 7

An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America

Blood of the Dawn by Claudia Salazar Jiménez, trans. by Elizabeth Bryer

Leaving Tabasco by Carmen Boullosa

   

BR 8

An #ownvoices book set in Oceania

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

   

BR 9

A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads

The Diamond: A Novel by Julie Baumgold

     

BR 10

A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

     

BR 11

A book of manga

A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori

The Ancient Magus’ Bride by Kore Yamazaki

   

BR 12

A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character

The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

   

BR 13

A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

     

BR 14

A cozy mystery

What Child is This?: An Ellie Kent Mystery by Alice K. Boatwright

Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett

   

BR 15

A book of mythology or folklore (PS 12, RW 13)

Circe by Madeline Miller

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

   

BR 16

An historical romance by an AOC

In The Midst of Winter by Isabella Allende

The Beautiful Ones by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

   

BR 17

A business book

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

     

BR 18

A novel by a trans or nonbinary author

The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang

     

BR 19

A book of nonviolent true crime

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury

Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich

The Library Book by Susan Orlen

 

BR 20

A book written in prison

De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol & Other Writings by Oscar Wilde

Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.

   

BR 21

A comic by an LGBTQIA creator

Strong Female Protagonist by Molly Ostertag

Black Panther: World of Wakanda by Roxanne Gay

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

 

BR 22

A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009

Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, Vol 1 edited by Arigon Starr

     

BR 23

A self-published book

The Martian by Andy Weir

     

BR 24

A collection of poetry published since 2014

Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

     

PS 1

A book becoming a movie in 2019

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

   

PS 2

A book that makes you nostalgic

       

PS 3

A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction)

Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide by Darryl McDaniels

Creative Quest by Ahmir Questlove Thompson

   

PS 4

A book you think should be turned into a movie

Granted by John David Anderson      

PS 5

A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads

1984 by George Orwell

     

PS 6

A book with a plant in the title or on the cover

The book of Memory by Petina Gappah

     

PS 7

A reread of a favorite book

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

     

PS 8

A book about a hobby

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson

     

PS 9

A book you meant to read in 2018

Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno

     

PS 10

A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title

No More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality by Jordan Flaherty

     

PS 11

A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover

       

PS 12

A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore (BR 15, PS 15, RW 13)

Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Circe by Madeline Miller

   

PS 13

A book published posthumously

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

     

PS 14

A book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

     

PS 15

A retelling of a classic

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler {retelling of The Taming of the Shrew}

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal {retelling of Pride and Predjudice}

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma {twist on the Odyssey}

 

PS 16

A book with a question in the title

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

     

PS 17

A book set on college or university campus

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

     

PS 18

A book about someone with a superpower

Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee

     

PS 19

A book told from multiple POVs

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

     

PS 20

A book set in space (BR 6)

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

     

PS 21

A book by two female authors

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele

     

PS 22

A book with SALTY, SWEET, BITTER, or SPICY in the title

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

     

PS 23

A book set in Scandinavia

Britt-Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman

     

PS 24

A book that takes place in a single day

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Jason Reynolds

     

PS 25

A debut novel

Update

     

PS 26

A book that’s published in 2019

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Children by Anissa Gray

   

PS 27

A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature

Animals of a Bygone Era by Maja Säfström

     

PS 28

A book recommended by a celebrity you admire

Becoming by Michelle Obama

     

PS 29

A book with LOVE in the title

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

     

PS 30

A book featuring an amateur detective (BR 14)

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

What Child is This? An Ellie Kent Mystery by Alice K. Boatwright

Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett

 

PS 31

A book about a family

Please Look After my Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin, Chi-Young Kim (Translator)

     

PS 32

A book author from Asia, Africa, or South America

Mrs. Funnybones by Twinkle Khanna

     

PS 33

A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in title

Aries by Rachel Medhurst

     

PS 34

A book that includes a wedding

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

     

PS 35

A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

     

PS 36

A ghost story

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

     

PS 37

A book with a two-word title

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

     

PS 38

A novel based on a true story

Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig

     

PS 39

A book revolving around a puzzle or game

The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers {chess in Uganda}

     

PS 40

Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading challenge

Circe by Madeline Miller

     

PS+ 1

A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) book

Archipelago by Monique Roffey

American War by Omar El Akkad

   

PS+ 2

A “choose-your-own-adventure” book

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose your own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

     

PS+ 3

An “own voices” book (BR 7/8)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

     

PS+ 4

Read a book during the season it is set in

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

     

PS+ 5

A LitRPG book

Mass Effect: Initiation by N.K. Jemisin

     

PS+ 6

A book with no chapters / unusual chapter headings / unconventionally numbered chapters

The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin

     

PS+ 7

Two books that share the same title

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Salt by Nayyirah Wheed

   

PS+ 8

Two books that share the same title

Great Expectations by Kathy Acker

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

   

PS+ 9

A book that has inspired a common phrase or idiom

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

     

PS+ 10

A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

     

RW 1

A mystery or thriller written by a woman of color

Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon

     

RW 2

A book about a woman with a mental illness

Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher

     

RW 3

A book by an author from Nigeria or New Zealand

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

     

RW 4

A book about or set in Appalachia

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold Story of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

   

RW 5

A children’s book (BR 22)

       

RW 6

A multigenerational family saga

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

     

RW 7

A book featuring a woman in science

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt

In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall

   

RW 8

A play

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

     

RW 9

A novella

Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold

     

RW 10

A book about a woman athlete

Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Summit with Sally Jenkins

     

RW 11

A book featuring a religion other than your own

The Viking’s Kurdish Love: A True Story of Zoroastrians’ Fight for Survival, Part I: 988-1003 by Widad Akreyi

     

RW 12

A Lambda Literary Award winner

Hunger by Roxane Gay

     

RW 13

A myth retelling (BR 15, PS 12, RW 13)

The Just City by Jo Walton

     

RW 14

A translated book published before 1945

The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon

     

RW 15

A book written by a South Asian author

A Newlywed’s Adventures in Married Land by Shweta Ganesh Kumar

     

RW 16

A book by an Indigenous woman

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

     

RW 17

A book from the 2018 Reading Women Award shortlist

Educated by Tara Westover

     

RW 18

A romance or love story (B16)

In The Midst of Winter by Isabella Allende

     

RW 19

A book about nature

Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

     

RW 20

A historical fiction book

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

     

RW 21

A book you bought or borrowed in 2019

       

RW 22

A book you picked up because of the cover

       

RW 23

Any book from a series

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

     

RW 24

A young adult book by a woman of color

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

     

RW+ 1

BONUS: A book by Jesmyn Ward

Sing, Unburied, Sing OR Salvage the Bones

     

RW+ 2

BONUS: A book by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Lowland

     

PingSis 1

A Book With More Than 500 Pages

The Outsider by Stephen King

     

PingSis 2

Book You Haven’t Read by Author You Love

The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick

     

PingSis 3

Goodreads winner in 2018

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn, Patton Oswalt

     

PingSis 4

You Can Read in a Day

The Firm by John Grisham

     

PingSis 5

Book About a Difficult Topic

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

     

PingSis 6

Recommended by a Friend

The Ancient Magus’ Bride by Kore Yamazaki

     

PingSis 7

Book That Will Make You Cry

       

PingSis 8

Book Published in 2009

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

     

PingSis 9

Book Becoming Movie in 2019

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

     

PingSis 10

A Genre You Don’t Usually Read

Elevation by Stephen King

     

PingSis 11

Children’s Classic

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

     

PingSis 12

Cover With Your Favorite Color

       

PingSis 13

Bought at a Thrift Store

Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings

     

PingSis 14

Young Adult Fiction

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

     

PingSis 15

First Book in a Trilogy

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

     

PingSis 16

Second Book in a Trilogy

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

     

PingSis 17

Third Book in a Trilogy

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

     

PingSis 18

Dystopian Novel

The Stand by Stephen King

     

PingSis 19

Award-Winning Book

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

     

PingSis 20

A Book from the Rory Gilmore Challenge

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

     

PingSis 21

Published the Decade Before You Were Born

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

     

PingSis 22

Historical Fiction From A Favorite Time Period

The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #1) by Caleb Carr

     

PingSis 23

Classic You’ve Never Read

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

     

PingSis 24

A Book That Will Keep You Up All Night

The Stand by Stephen King

     

PingSis 25

2018 Bestseller

Becoming by Michelle Obama

     

PingSis 26

Nonfiction Book about Science

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson

     

PingSis 27

Listen to an Audiobook

Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly

     

PingSis 28

Set in Your Home State

The Firm by John Grisham

     

PingSis 29

You Once Started But Never Finished

Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno

     

PingSis 30

With a One Word Title

Hunger by Roxane Gay

     

PingSis 31

A Fairy Tale Retelling

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

     

PingSis 32

Celebrity Book Club Pick

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

     

PingSis 33

A Book You Read in High School

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

     

PingSis 34

Business or Personal Finance Book

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

     

PingSis 35

Autobiography or Memoir

Becoming by Michelle Obama

     

PingSis 36

Book Set in Another Country

The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon

     

PingSis 37

Reread a Favorite Book

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

     

PingSis 38

Book by a Local Author

Death in the Family by James Agee

     

PingSis 39

Banned Book

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

     

PingSis 40

Narrative Nonfiction

Educated by Tara Westover

     

PingSis 41

On Your To-Read List the Longest

Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings

     

PingSis 42

A Book About Travel

West With The Night by Beryl Markham

A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert by Gertrude Bell

   

PingSis 43

Popular Book You’ve Never Read

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

     

PingSis 44

True Crime

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury

     

PingSis 45

Nonfiction Bestseller

Educated by Tara Westover

     

PingSis 46

Science Fiction Novel

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

     

PingSis 47

A Book You Own But Haven’t Read

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

     

PingSis 48

Recommended by a Local Librarian

       

PingSis 49

New Release

       

PingSis 50

The First Book in a Series

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

     

PingSis 51

Prettiest cover

       

PingSis 52

An Inspirational Story

       

 

Classics Club Challenge

This is an ambitious challenge but simple: anywhere from fifty to 200 books on a reading list. Five years to do it, though, which does help since many of the books I picked are door-stoppers.

I aim to feature more women writers and a wide range of eras and cultures in my list. I’ll be adding to the list as I find more but so far my list is at 124 books. Each book finished will be linked back here for easy location.

Care to join me? Check out The Classics Club for more info.

2019 Reading Women Challenge Reading List @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

2019 Reading Women Challenge

The Challenge

In an effort to diversify my reading, I found this challenge. Fairly simple, I think. 24 books with a couple of bonus options to round things out to read a book every other week.

I’ll be working on this along with my other challenges and projects and will be editing the list as I find books to fit the prompts.

Graphic showing prompts for the reading women challenge
2019 Reading Women Challenge Reading List @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

The Prompts

  1. A mystery or thriller by a woman of color – Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon
  2. A book about a woman with a mental illness – Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher
  3. A book by an author from Nigeria or New Zealand – The Bone People by Keri Hulme
  4. A book about or set in Appalachia What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte OR White Trash: The 400-Year Untold Story of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
  5. A children’s book
  6. A multigenerational family saga – Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  7. A book featuring a woman in science – Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt OR In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall
  8. A play – A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
  9. A novella – Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
  10. A book about a woman athlete – Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Summit with Sally Jenkins
  11. A book featuring a religion other than your own – The Viking’s Kurdish Love: A True Story of Zoroastrians’ Fight for Survival, Part I: 988-1003 by Widad Akreyi
  12. A Lambda Literary Award winner – Hunger by Roxane Gay
  13. A myth retelling – The Just City by Jo Walton
  14. A translated book published before 1945 – The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon
  15. A book by a South Asian author A Newlywed’s Adventures in Married Land by Shweta Ganesh Kumar
  16. A book by an Indigenous woman – Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
  17. A book from the 2018 Reading Women Award shortlist – Educated by Tara Westover
  18. A romance or love story – In The Midst of Winter by Isabella Allende
  19. A book about nature – Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  20. A historical fiction book – The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
  21. A book you bought or borrowed in 2019
  22. A book you picked up because of the cover
  23. Any book from a series – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
  24. A young adult book by a woman of color – Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
2019 Reading Women Challenge Reading List @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

BONUS:

  1. A book by Jesmyn Ward – Sing, Unburied, Sing OR Salvage the Bones
  2. A book by Jhumpa Lahiri – The Lowland

2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge List @ TL Wright | A Bookish Blog

2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge

I’ll be doing the PopSugar Reading Challenge for 2019. Fifty books is pretty ambitious considering my other challenges but I’m giving it my best shot.

2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge Reading List @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

The PopSugar Prompts

 

  1.  A book becoming a movie in 2019 – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott OR The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  2. A book that makes you nostalgic
  3. A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction) –Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide by Darryl McDaniels (Run DMC) OR Creative Quest by Ahmir Questlove Thompson
  4. A book you think should be turned into a movie
  5. A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads – 1984 by George Orwell
  6. A book with a plant in the title or on the cover – The book of Memory by Petina Gappah
  7. A reread of a favorite book – Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
  8. A book about a hobby – Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson
  9. A book you meant to read in 2018 – Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno
  10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title – No More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality by Jordan Flaherty
  11. A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover
  12. A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore – Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni OR Circe by Madeline Miller
  13. A book published posthumously – When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  14. A book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  15. A retelling of a classic – Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler {retelling of The Taming of the Shrew} OR Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal  {retelling of Pride and Predjudice} OR An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma {twist on the Odyssey}
  16. A book with a question in the title – What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
  17. A book set on college or university campus – The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
  18. A book about someone with a superpower – Not Your Villian – C.B. Lee
  19. A book told from multiple POVs – A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
  20. A book set in space – Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
  21. A book by two female authors – When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
  22. A book with SALTY, SWEET, BITTER, or SPICY in the title – Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
  23. A book set in Scandinavia – Britt-Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman
  24. A book that takes place in a single day – Long Way Down – Jason Reynolds
  25. A debut novel – Update
  26. A book that’s published in 2019 – Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark OR The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Children by Anissa Gray
  27. A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature – Animals of a Bygone Era by Maja Säfström
  28. A book recommended by a celebrity you admire – Becoming by Michelle Obama
  29. A book with LOVE in the title – The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
  30. A book featuring an amateur detective – Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann OR What Child is This? An Ellie Kent Mystery by Alice K. Boatwright OR Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett
  31. A book about a family – Please Look After my Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin, Chi-Young Kim (Translator)
  32. A book author from Asia, Africa, or South America – Mrs. Funnybones by Twinkle Khanna
  33. A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in the title – Aries by Rachel Medhurst
  34. A book that includes a wedding – Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
  35. A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter – The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota
  36. A ghost story – Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
  37. A book with a two-word title – Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
  38. A novel based on a true story – Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig
  39. A book revolving around a puzzle or game – The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers {chess in Uganda}
  40. A book based on mythology (2017) – Circe by Madeline Miller

 

Advanced

 

  1. A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) book – Archipelago by Monique Roffey OR American War by Omar El Akkad
  2. A “choose-your-own-adventure” book – Neil Patrick Harris: Choose your own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris
  3. An “own voices” book: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
  4. Read a book during the season it is set in: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
  5. A LitRPG book – Mass Effect: Initiation by N.K. Jemisin
  6. A book with no chapters / unusual chapter headings / unconventionally numbered chapters – The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin
  7. Two books that share the same title – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens OR Salt by Nayyirah Wheed
  8. Two books that share the same title – Great Expectations by Kathy Acker OR Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
  9. A book that has inspired a common phrase or idiom – The Princess Bride by William Goldman
  10. A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent – The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

2019 Pingel Sisters Reading Challenge

A Book A Week with the Pingel Sisters

This is a fairly ambitious list, only by virtue of the numbers. I’m planning on putting different books than my other challenges, but I may double up, depending on if anything grabs my attention.

2019 Pingel Sisters Reading Challenge Reading List @ TL Wright | A Bookish Life

 1. A Book With More Than 500 Pages – The Outsider by Stephen King
 2. Book You Haven’t Read by Author You Love: The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick
 3. Goodreads winner in 2018 – I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn, Patton Oswalt
 4. You Can Read in a Day – The Firm by John Grisham
 5. Book About a Difficult Topic – The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
 6. Recommended by a Friend – The Ancient Magus’ Bride by Kore Yamazaki
 7. Book That Will Make You Cry
 8. Book Published in 2009 – Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
 9. Book Becoming Movie in 2019 – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
 10. A Genre You Don’t Usually Read – Elevation by Stephen King
 11. Children’s Classic – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
 12. Cover With Your Favorite Color
 13. Bought at a Thrift Store – Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings (my copy was purchased at a used bookstore)
 14. Young Adult Fiction – Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
 15. First Book in a Trilogy – The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
 16. Second Book in a Trilogy – The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
 17. Third Book in a Trilogy – The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
 18. Dystopian Novel – The Stand by Stephen King
 19. Award-Winning Book – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
 20. A Book from the Rory Gilmore Challenge – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
 21. Published the Decade Before You Were Born – The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
 22. Historical Fiction From A Favorite Time Period – The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #1) by Caleb Carr
 23. Classic You’ve Never Read – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
 24. A Book That Will Keep You Up All Night – The Stand by Stephen King
 25. 2018 bestseller – Becoming by Michelle Obama
 26. Nonfiction Book about Science – Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson
 27. Listen to an Audiobook – Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly
 28. Set in Your Home State – The Firm by John Grisham (TN)
 29. You Once Started But Never Finished – Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno
 30. With a One Word Title – Hunger by Roxane Gay
 31. A Fairy Tale Retelling – The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
 32. Celebrity Book Club Pick – The Library Book by Susan Orlean (Reese Witherspoon’s book club)
 33. A Book You Read in High School – The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
 34. Business or Personal Finance Book – Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
 35. Autobiography or Memoir – Becoming by Michelle Obama
 36. Book Set in Another Country – The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon
 37. Reread a Favorite Book – Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
 38. Book by a Local Author – Death in the Family by James Agee
 39. Banned Book – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
 40. Narrative Nonfiction – Educated by Tara Westover
 41. On Your To-Read List the Longest – Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings (reread but per GR it’s been on the to-read list since Oct 2008)
 42. A Book About Travel – West With The Night by Beryl Markham OR A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert by Gertrude Bell
 43. Popular Book You’ve Never Read – Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
 44. True Crime – Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury
 45. Nonfiction Bestseller – Educated by Tara Westover
 46. Science Fiction Novel – Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
 47. A Book You Own But Haven’t Read – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
 48. Recommended by a Local Librarian
 49. 2019 New Release
 50. The First Book in a Series – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
 51. Prettiest cover
 52. An Inspirational Story

West With The Night by Beryl MarkhamA Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert by Gertrude Bell


 43. Popular Book You’ve Never Read
 44. True Crime
 45. Nonfiction Bestseller
 46. Science Fiction Novel
 47. A Book You Own But Haven’t Read
 48. Recommended by a Local Librarian
 49. 2019 New Release
 50. The First Book in a Series
 51. Prettiest cover
 52. An Inspirational Story

Source: Pingel Sisters 2019 Reading Challenge

2019 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

Reading List

Here is my reading list for the 2019 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I’ll be linking reviews for each book as I read them. I look forward to seeing how many I read this year.

2019 Book Riot Read Harder Reading List

The Book Riot Read Harder List

  1. An epistolary novel or collection of letters – The Martian by Andy Weir OR The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O’Connor OR The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows OR Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
  2. An alternate history novel – Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove OR Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale OR The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
  3. A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018 – The Art of Death by Edwidge Danicat or Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
  4. A humor book – The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish OR Forever, Erma by Erma Bombeck
  5. A book by a journalist or about journalism – Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young
  6. A book by an AOC set in or about space – Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly OR Binti by Nnedi Okorafor OR Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee OR The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu
  7. An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America – Blood of the Dawn by Claudia Salazar Jiménez, trans. by Elizabeth Bryer OR Leaving Tabasco by Carmen Boullosa
  8. An #ownvoices book set in Oceania – The Bone People by Keri Hulme OR The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera 
  9. A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads – The Diamond: A Novel by Julie Baumgold
  10. A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman – The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
  11. A book of manga – A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori OR The Ancient Magus’ Bride by Kore Yamazaki
  12. A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character – The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith OR The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
  13. A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse – The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
  14. A cozy mystery – What Child is This?: An Ellie Kent Mystery by Alice K. Boatwright OR Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett
  15. A book of mythology or folklore – Circe by Madeline Miller OR The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
  16. A historical romance by an AOC – In The Midst of Winter by Isabella Allende OR The Beautiful Ones by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
  17. A business book: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
  18. A novel by a trans or nonbinary author – The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang
  19. A book of nonviolent true crime – Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury OR Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich OR The Library Book by Susan Orlen
  20. A book written in prison – De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol & Other Writings by Oscar Wilde OR Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
  21. A comic by an LGBTQIA creator – Strong Female Protagonist by Molly Ostertag OR Black Panther: World of Wakanda by Roxanne Gay OR Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
  22. A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009 – Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, Vol 1 edited by Arigon Starr
  23. A self-published book – The Martian by Andy Weir
  24. A collection of poetry published since 2014 – Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

2019 Reading Challenges

TL Wright | A Bookish Life Reading Challenges

I’m going to be very ambitious this year, hah. I’ve decided to start a few reading challenges. For Goodreads in general, I’ll be setting it for 75 books, like last year. I read 99 books in 2018, so that wasn’t a hard stretch. But this year I’m going for more directed reading.

For 2019, I’ll be participating in the 2019 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (my summary post with reading list), the 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge (my summary post with reading list), the 2019 Pingel Sisters Reading Challenge (my summary post with reading list), and the 2019 Read Women Challenge (my reading list).

I’ll also be doing three long-term reading projects: The Classics Club, Around The World in 80 Books, and The Well-Educated Mind Challenge.

Page 3 of 4

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén