After a LONG hiatus…I’m back to blogging. Hopefully, kelleybean is too (insert not-so-subtle hint here).
For my first post in several years, and given that the very last post entered on the site was about this very same thing in 2015, I’m hereby committing to the Popsugar Reading Challenge for 2018. This year’s challenge includes 40 books (or 50 if you’re going the advanced route). Since my Goodreads goal for the year is a book a week, this is perfect 🙂The categories are listed below and they have a handy printable graphic on the site linked above to help you chart your progress. I’ll update this post as I finish each category along the way and try to do a individual review of each book choice. Join me and we’ll have some fun, discuss some books, and maybe I’ll even get out of my reading (and blogging) rut!
- A book made into a movie you’ve already seen – Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (ok, so it’s a play, and I guess shorter than a book, but whatever…)
- True crime
- The next book in a series you started – Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
- A book involving a heist
- Nordic noir
- A novel based on a real person –Â The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (This features actual famous Nazis as potential world leaders in an alternate universe, although they aren’t really central figures, but I guess it counts).
- A book set in a country that fascinates you
- A book with a time of day in the title – Night by Elie Wiesel
- A book about a villain or antihero – Circe by Madeline Miller
- A book about death or grief – Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym
- A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist
- A book that is also a stage play or musical
- A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you – The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (A reread for school, but this is truly one of my favorites. The prose is sparse and poetic in its simplicity while delving into heavy topics such as racism, poverty, domestic and sexual abuse.)
- A book about feminism
- A book about mental health
- A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift – The Clothes Make the Girl (Look Fat?) by Brittany Gibbons
- A book by two authors – Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
- A book about or involving a sport – Beartown by Fredrick Backman
- A book by a local author – A Thousand Miles from Nowhere by John Gregory Brown (Does an author who lives within two hours of my house count? For now, this book will go here. I guess if I find someone MORE local, I can move this to a book about mental health.)
- A book with your favorite color in the title
- A book with alliteration in the title
- A book about time travel
- A book with a weather element in the title
- A book set at sea
- A book with an animal in the title – The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
- A book set on a different planet
- A book with song lyrics in the title
- A book about or set on Halloween
- A book with characters who are twins
- A book mentioned in another book
- A book from a celebrity book club – The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
- A childhood classic you’ve never read
- A book that’s published in 2018 – Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
- A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner –Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham (How past must this be? This won in 2017 for the Humor category.)
- A book set in the decade you were born
- A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get to – The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Bachman
- A book with an ugly cover – Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
- A book that involves a bookstore or library
- Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenges
- A bestseller from the year you graduated
- A cyberpunk book
- A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place
- A book tied to your ancestry
- A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title
- An allegory
- A book by an author with the same first or last name as you
- A microhistory
- A book about a problem facing society today –Â Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (It’s about gang violence and retaliation)
- A book recommended by someone else taking the Popsugar Reading Challenge
Others that fit nowhere: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Dinner with the Smileys by Sarah Smiley, Feed by M.T. Anderson, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, That’s Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us by Erin Moore, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Anthem by Ayn Rand.