Reading Challenge Updates

Completed
-A book recommended by a librarian.  The first book I read this year was The Woman in Cabin 10, which was recommended at Library Reads.  I really enjoyed it.  It's not as twisty as some and I felt like the "alcoholic female main character" trope is a bit overdone at this point (and not as well done as with The Girl on the Train) but this was still an intriguing weekend read which had me trying to figure out the mystery.  The end felt a bit truncated, though.

-A book with a cat on the cover.  As planned I went with Silvern for this--it has a tiger on the cover.  While I saw a lot of potential in the first book in this series when I read it a couple of years ago, Silvern didn't really do anything for me and I don't intend to read the last book in the trilogy.

-A book with a title that's a character's name.  Though it features a character's nickname rather than given name as the title, I read Mechanica for this category.  It's a Cinderella story but with a focus on finding family rather than necessarily love.  And if you're concerned it might overlap too much with Cinder, don't worry--other than the Cinderella structure, the details of them are nothing alike.

-An espionage thriller.  For this, I went for the sequel to a book I read a few years ago, Red Sparrow.  Palace of Treason, the sequel, is a spy novel set in contemporary Russia, Greece, and the United States.  Oh and a little Paris, too.  While the author is a former CIA agent and the spycraft in this is interesting, I got so sick of there being no twists, no suspicious motives, and instead being bombarded with descriptions of the female characters' nipples in every imaginable situation.

-A book with a red spine.  I wanted to use one of my backlog of Book of the Month books for this.  I've been subscribed less than a year but I get the full 3 books every month so they're building up.  So I picked The Magician's Lie, which has a lovely red cover and a spine to match.  It's a historical fiction set around a female illusionist trying to both fulfill her passion and escape an abusive past, and I really enjoyed it.

-A book set in two different time periods.  I was originally going to use The Bone Clocks for this, but read Girls in the Moon and determined it probably fit better, with two distinct time periods rather than what seems like will be a variety.  This was an absolutely lovely contemporary young adult book and I definitely recommend it.


Still to Come
-A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long.  Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (added Dec. 2011)

-A book of letters.  The Color Purple, Alice Walker

-An audiobook.  The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah

-A book by a person of color.  The Stone Sky, N. K. Jemisin

-A book with one of the four seasons in the title. Devil in Spring, Lisa Kleypas

-A book that is a story within a story.  Afterworlds, Scott Westerfeld

-A book with multiple authors.  Mutiny on the Bounty, Charles Nordhoff and James Hall

-A book by an author who uses a pseudonym.  Seven Minutes in Heaven, Eloisa James (Mary Bly)

-A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read.  Carrie, Steven King

-A book by or about a person who has a disability.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeT, Mark Haddon

-A book involving travel.  SEAsoned, Victoria Allman

-A book with a subtitle.  Frozen in Time, Mitchell Zuckoff ("An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II)

-A book that's published in 2017.  Given to the Sea, Mindy McGinnis

-A book involving a mythical creature.  Nice Dragons Finish Last, Rachel Aaron

-A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile.  Cress, Marissa Meyer

-A book about food.  In the Devil's Garden, Stewart Lee Allen

-A book with career advice.  Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl

-A book from a nonhuman perspective.

-A steampunk novel.  Boneshaker, Cherie Priest

-A book set in the wilderness.

-A book you loved as a child.  Squire, Tamora Pierce

-A book by an author from a country you've never visited.  Mornings in Jenin, Susan Abulhawa (Palestine)

-A novel set during wartime.  Atonement, Ian McEwan

-A book with an unreliable narrator.

-A book with pictures.  No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain

-A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you.  A Disobedient Girl, Ru Freeman

-A book about an interesting woman.  Notorious RBG, Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik

-A book with a month or day of the week in the title.  A June of Ordinary Murders, Conor Brady

-A book set in a hotel.  A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

-A book written by someone you admire.  A Court of Wings and Ruin, S. J. Maas

-A book that's becoming a movie in 2017. Beauty and the Beast, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

-A book set around a holiday other than Christmas.

-The first book in a series you haven't read before.  Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo

-A book you bought on a trip.  The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

-A book recommended by an author you love.  The Lace Reader, Brunonia Barry (rec'd by Tamora Pierce)

-A bestseller from 2016.  Magic, Danielle Steel

-A book with a family-member term in the title.  Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor

-A book that takes place over a character's life span.  The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan

-A book about an immigrant or refugee.  Stealing Buddha's Dinner, Bich Minh Nguyen

-A book from a genre/subgenre you've never heard of.  The Six-Gun Tarot, R. S. Belcher (Weird West)

-A book with an eccentric character.  Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan

-A book that's more than 800 pages.  Voyager, Diana Galbadon

-A book you got from a used book sale.  Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

-A book that's been mentioned in another book.  Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift (mentioned as Gullible's Travels in Marissa Meyer's Heartless)

-A book about a difficult topic.  Rape is Rape, Jody Raphael

-A book based on mythology.  Olympos, Dan Simmons