2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Post here when you and your twin have decided what to read for March. Don't forget to let us know what you thought of it afterwards!

I have so far messaged some but not all of the participants and will need to finish up in the morning. For those antsy to get started, below is the list of pairings:

Kelsi
Sheryl

Karina
Amanda

Morgan
Alessia

Quenby
Melanie

Zara
Kathryn (message 28)

Colby
Sharon

Tammy
Kathryn (message 3)

Wynn
Shannon

Ashley (mod)
Lindy

Michelle
Megan

Craig
Lianne

Erin
Jack

Heather
Jodi

Brittany
Leonie

Fatma
Jessica

Jackie
Lavinia

Kai
Khaleesi

Emily (message 5)
Robyn

Natalie
Dalynn

Brianna
Emily (message 36)

Sara
Jenny*BookGyrlfromMO*

Stefani - Cheshire Cat
Kara

I did my very best to pair those with similar tastes, but it's not an exact science (yet!).

Hi Jodi, any suggestions for what you would like to read this next month? We seem to have a lot in common when it comes to interests. Is there anything on your TBR list that you are really looking forward to reading? I am pretty flexible.

Hi Kara, just wondering why I don't have a pair? I think I was message 34 of the other thread.

Amanda and I are both embarrassed to never have read Animal Farm, so we're going to mend that. :)

Hi Stefani, I'm sorry for the confusion! Your pair is me. :) I'm participating in a challenge to read new-to-me female authors of science fiction and fantasy, so I thought it would be a good match. I'll send you a message.

My TBR Buddy Sara and I have decided to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Neither of us have read it and am looking forward to the discussion both here and between us. Happy reading everyone!

Stefani and I will be reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. I'm super excited about it!

Kathryn and I will be reading Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia.

I am having trouble making Ashley a friend. I would have l;used a post from here here, but there were none.

Zara and I are reading The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham. It's on both our TBR's and easily available at our libraries and we're looking forward to reading it.

Kai and I decided to read Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood for March. Pretty excited for it since I've read only one other graphic novel (Watchmen).

Lindy wrote: "I am having trouble making Ashley a friend. I would have l;used a post from here here, but there were none."

Hi Lindy! I am your friend now. :) I sent you a PM. :)

Me and Jackie are going to read Divergent, since we both had it on our to-read list. :D

Jenny*BookGyrlfromMO* wrote: "My TBR Buddy Sara and I have decided to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Neither of us have read it and am looking forward to the discussion both here and between us. Happy reading every..."

I am so excited for you to read Infinite Jest! So what everyone told me when I started was that it would take 3 months to read, but if you only read Infinite Jest and you read daily, you can probably do it in a month (I think I finished in 3 weeks). Also, don't skip the end notes, because they're precious.

Sheryl and I will be reading A Dangerous Inheritance. I'm very excited for my first work by Alison Weir.

Kai wrote: "Jenny*BookGyrlfromMO* wrote: "My TBR Buddy Sara and I have decided to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Neither of us have read it and am looking forward to the discussion both here and b..."

Yeah it seems that it will be a challenging read for us but I am excited to start. We are going to break it into chapters so we have discussion points instead of being overwhelmed with all of it at once. I've heard great things about the book!

Jodi and I will be reading Gone by Michael Grant.

Kai wrote: "Jenny*BookGyrlfromMO* wrote: "My TBR Buddy Sara and I have decided to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Neither of us have read it and am looking forward to the discussion both here and b..."

Thanks for this, I had been thinking two weeks but now that seems ambitious. Looking forward to reading it with Jenny, we will truck through it together!

Erin and I will be reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. I'm really looking forward to it! :-)

Lol we posted at the same time!

Fatma and I are going to read The Book Thief. Thanks Kara for organizing!

Megan and I are also reading Divergent.

Natalie and I are reading Eldest by Christopher Paolini, from the Eragon series. We both read the first one and stopped, so are continuing with the series and might even get to Brisingr after this! :) We had lots in common - great pairing! Thank you!

Alessia and I are reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel :)

Lindy and I will be reading The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark.

Craig wrote: "Lianne and I will be reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I'm very excited as it's been a while since I read Kafka on the Shore and I've been looking forward to reading another Murakami."

That's a good one! I hope you guys like it.

Jessica wrote: "Fatma and I are going to read The Book Thief. Thanks Kara for organizing!"

Change of plans, Fatma and I will read
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Ooh! One of my favorites, Jessica. Hope you two enjoy it!

And Craig & Lianne: I <3 Murakami.

Sara wrote: "Kai wrote: "Jenny*BookGyrlfromMO* wrote: "My TBR Buddy Sara and I have decided to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Neither of us have read it and am looking forward to the discussion bot..."

You can definitely do it in 2 weeks depending on many variables. I'm not a particularly fast reader, but I had about 2 hours every day to read on my commute.
My husband got upset with me because I finished it on our flight from Austin to Dallas (about 30 minutes) on our way to vacation, and he got stuck with it in his backpack the whole 2 weeks.

Jessica wrote: "Change of plans, Fatma and I will read
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

I love that book! Have fun reading it!

We're close to March and just about ready to go. Has anyone not heard from their twins yet? If so, I'm ready to do some reconfiguration.

Let me know!

Heather wrote: "Jodi and I will be reading Gone by Michael Grant."

I am about half way through the book now. I am enjoying it. I wasn't too sure when a few things happened but I do like it. It is a quick and easy read. I do see the "Lord of the Flies" reference you made.

Jenny*BookGyrlfromMO* wrote: "My TBR Buddy Sara and I have decided to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Neither of us have read it and am looking forward to the discussion both here and between us. Happy reading every..."

I read this many years ago and I remembered taht I loved it. I hope you like it too.

Jodi wrote: "Heather wrote: "Jodi and I will be reading Gone by Michael Grant."

I am about half way through the book now. I am enjoying it. I wasn't too sure when a few things happened but I do like it. It is ..."

I am on Chapter 21 and there have been some points I have not been overly thrilled with too, but I am still enjoying it nonetheless. I love Astrid, I think she is an amazing character.

Jodi wrote: "Jenny*BookGyrlfromMO* wrote: "My TBR Buddy Sara and I have decided to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Neither of us have read it and am looking forward to the discussion both here and b..."

I'm 80% done with Infinite Jest by now and, oh my gosh, am I in love with it! I almost don't want to do the last 20% because I'm going to be sad when it's over.

Only a few pages and I am finished

After 3 weeks (and a handful of other books) I finally finished up Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Unfortunately my twin had a kindle accident and wasn't able to participate after the first week but I'm so glad I picked up this book because it completely blew my mind in no way any other fictional book has done before.

It was depressing, the timeline as confusing as it could be and there was 350+ end notes that needed to be read as you go, but despite all that it was also imaginative, beautiful, thought provoking and honest. 5 stars and then some.

Last night i finished Mary Higgins Clark's The Shadow of your Smile

Lindy, I have a goal set to have it finished by Tuesday. :)

nice, since i have no family, dont' work and rarely gt out, I read a lot mroe than most

Now that we're wrapping up on March, what did everyone think of their books?

Clark, Carol Higgins The Shadow of Your Smile Ashley picked, I love Clark actually all 3 of the clarks, and this book was very goodm rated 4.5 starsd

Still working on our book, Lindy, but I agree with you. I'm really liking it and right now it is a solid 4 star book for me. :)

Kathryn and I read The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. Having read a number of Grisham's fiction books this was a dissapointment and somewhat confusing. It was an interesting read having said that but not an easy one to follow. Grisham is definitely better suited to the writing of fiction.

I agreed with Zara that non-fiction writing is not John Grisham's strength. I imagine he came across the story for The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town somehow (maybe through doing research for a novel), was intrigued and decided the world needed to know about it - but I don't think he was the author to write it. It felt too disjointed - seemingly relevant pieces of the story petered out into nothing while Grisham's writing got bogged down with incidents that didn't seem to be important.

The story was certainly compelling, however, overall, I felt the book lacked direction. Possibly this could have been corrected with a good editor who could tighten up the story and tie in the loose ends. 2 stars from me.

Kathryn wrote: "I agreed with Zara that non-fiction writing is not John Grisham's strength. I imagine he came across the story for The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town somehow (maybe through doi..."

I gave it 1 star. It was a pity that it was so disappointing. I'm hoping to correct that this month by reading one of his fiction ones A Time to Kill as part of a read for another group. Hopefully it works. LOL