Challenge Corner discussion

This challenge is designed to encourage you to expand your reading habits by picking up titles by new and different authors. This only means that you have never read another book by the author, they don't have to be new authors.

Specify a number of new authors you want to try and start tracking your progress on this thread. Also chat among the rest of the participants. You may even get some ideas for books and authors to try out!

I guess I'll do this since a lot of the books I plan to read this year are from authors I haven't read before. :)

So I'll just say that I want to read ten new authors and start tracking them here.

1) Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time)
2) Gavriel Savit (Anna and the Swallow Man)
3) Tudor Robins (The Island Trilogy)
4) Franny Billingsley (Chime)
5) Anthony Doerr (All the Light We Cannot See)
6) Linda Dobinson (Rainbows and Roses)
7) Brenda Ueland (If You Want to Write)
8) Ruta Sepetys (Out of the Easy)
9) Pierce Brown (Red Rising)
10) Grace Crandall (Ashes)

Goal of 10 new authors completed on July 4th, 2016. Let's see how many more I get this year. :)

11) Dora Ilieva (Faces)
12) Nicola Yoon (Everything, Everything)
13) Brandon Mull (Fablehaven)
14) Rachel Caine (Ink and Bone)
15) Liz Keel (Enlightenment)
16) Nikitha Hingad (Philia and Sophia)
17) Soman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil)
18) Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You)
19) Robert Beatty (Serafina and the Black Cloak)
20) S J Kincaid (The Diabolic)
21) Susan Dennard (Truthwitch)
22) Apostolos Doxiadis (Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture)
23) Peter Gardos (Fever at Dawn)
24) Tina Bettison (100 Ways for a Horse to Train Its Owner)
25) Sara Ella (Unblemished)
26) Lauren St John (The One Dollar Horse)
27) John Brant (The Boy Who Runs)
28) Stephanie Scott (Alterations)
29) Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls)
30) Katherine Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale)

1. Melissa A. Craven - The Awakening
2. Renee Ahdieh - The Wrath and the Dawn
3. David B. Patterson - Quintessence
4. Rachel Caine - Ink and Bone
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

I'll try five

1.Joe Abercrombie The Blade Itself
2.
3.
4.
5.

I'm going for a high number.

1. Francesca Haig The Fire Sermon
2. Sally Green Half Bad
3. Hans Christian Anderson The Little Match Girl
4. Amy McNulty Nobody's Goddess
5. Sabaa Tahir An Ember in the Ashes
6. Lauren DeStefano The Seeds of Wither
7. Sarah J. Maas The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
8. Mary E. Pearson The Adoration of Jenna Fox
9. Satoru Kannagi Only the Ring Finger Knows
10. Lee Young-Hee You're So Cool, Volume 1
11. Kathryn Purdie Burning Glass
12. Jane O'Connor Fancy Nancy: Fanciest Doll in the Universe
13. Margery Williams The Velveteen Rabbit
14. Patricia McCormick Sold
15. Kate Quinn Mistress of Rome
16. Kristen Ashley Wildest Dreams
17. Ilona Andrews Magic Bites
18. George Trombley Japanese From Zero! 1: Proven Methods to Learn Japanese with integrated Workbook and Online Support
Reed Bullen Korean From Zero! 1: Proven Methods to Learn Korean with integrated Workbook, MP3 Audio download, and Online Support
20. Park So Hee Goong: Palace Story Vol.1
21. Mi-Kyung Yun Bride of the Water God, Volume 1
22. Rae Carson The Shattered Mountain
23. Jenna Black Glimmerglass (First time reading this author as a writer for YA)
24. Melissa Grey The Girl at Midnight
25. Brodi Ashton Everneath
26. Carrie Vaughn Voices of Dragons
27. Kiyo Fujiwara Wild Ones, Vol. 1
28. Zoë Marriott Shadows on the Moon
29. Gordon Andrews Curran POV Collection
30. Megumi Hazuki お嬢様はお嫁様。 1 Ojousama Wa Oyomesama 1
31. Aya Kanno Otomen, Vol. 1





James Frey Descendant
Colleen Houck Tiger's Promise
Mercedes Lackey Arrows of the Queen
Megan McCafferty Bumped
Robin McKinley Deerskin
Danielle Paige No Place Like Oz
Frances de Pontes Peebles The Seamstress
Victoria Schwab This Savage Song
Pierce Brown Red Rising

Wow! 25 is a lot! Good luck.

Courtney wrote: "Wow! 25 is a lot! Good luck."

Thanks. I already read some books this year by new authors so I'm going to add them to my list in a second. ^-^

I'm a 1/5 done already! :)

That's awesome! Good job.

Jackie wrote: "That's awesome! Good job."

Thanks. It's harder than I thought since I'm not counting any author that I can remember reading from ever. Even from childhood. :/

So that limits me to no re-read and only new debut authors for the most part.

I might have been a bit ambitious with 25. :/

Well, it doesn't hurt to change it!

Courtney wrote: "Well, it doesn't hurt to change it!"

I think I'll keep it for now. If I haven't got at least half done by the end of August I'll change it. :/

You're doing pretty well so far, so I think you can get there. Just toss in a new author here and there and you'll get there in no time.

Courtney wrote: "You're doing pretty well so far, so I think you can get there. Just toss in a new author here and there and you'll get there in no time."

My biggest problem is that I don't always remember if I've read an author before or not. So I'm not adding in some that I have doubts about. Otherwise I might be finished by now. :(

I mostly add in new authors since I know I haven't read them before.

Yes, that can be hard. I have to be careful about that myself.

Courtney wrote: "Yes, that can be hard. I have to be careful about that myself."

It's made me really think/remember! I've had to go back almost a decade to remember if I've read the author or not. lol. I read a lot of manga about 10 years ago when I first got into it so I have to keep going back and thinking 'Have I read her/him before?'! lol.

There are some books I'll pick up and read not realizing I've read them before for that reason! It was so long ago. I'll be halfway through a book and realize I've read it before!

Courtney wrote: "There are some books I'll pick up and read not realizing I've read them before for that reason! It was so long ago. I'll be halfway through a book and realize I've read it before!"

Same! There are some authors I immediately recognize but others are really hard to remember since it's been so long. :/

This is a really good challenge if you want to read more new authors and that's kind of what I'm doing. There are lots of new authors that I want to try so I'm mostly focusing on those. ^-^

I read a lot of new authors just from reviewing and such. There are also some I want to pick up this year, so I'm sure I'll surpass my goal since I'm already at 6 of 10.

Courtney wrote: "I read a lot of new authors just from reviewing and such. There are also some I want to pick up this year, so I'm sure I'll surpass my goal since I'm already at 6 of 10."

I haven't really gotten in to the whole reviewing part of reading yet. I have a learning disability that makes it hard for me to understand books so I have difficulty reviewing them. I'm slowly improving but it's still difficult to write reviews. :/

Ah, that would make it difficult. There are loads of books and authors you can read even without reviewing though!

Courtney wrote: "Ah, that would make it difficult. There are loads of books and authors you can read even without reviewing though!"

I'm slowly finding those. I'm sticking to more popular new author books for now. Although I do want to try reading some of the less popular ones. It's just hard to find copies of those books. >.>

Well we're trying to partner with indie authors for our ebook prizes, so you might win one in a challenge!

Also, feel free to sign up for review books we have in the group. The authors aren't looking for anything crazy fancy out of a review usually, just a few thoughts. Most of them aren't even picky about a time frame. :)

Courtney wrote: "Well we're trying to partner with indie authors for our ebook prizes, so you might win one in a challenge!

Also, feel free to sign up for review books we have in the group. The authors aren't loo..."

I might try that some time later on. I have a pretty full plate for April so I might try in May. ^-^

Awesome. Whenever you see one you're interested in, just let me know. :)

Courtney wrote: "Awesome. Whenever you see one you're interested in, just let me know. :)"


KK. Will do. ^-^

I changed my goal from five to ten as I've already read four new authors.:)

Jackie wrote: "I changed my goal from five to ten as I've already read four new authors.:)"

GJ Jackie! :)

Awesome, Jackie! I think I'm up to date on this one. I'll have to check tomorrow.

Thanks guys.:)

16 New (to ME) Authors in 2016 (starting 4-24-2016)

1 The Haters Jesse Andrews
2 A Study in Charlotte Brittany Cavallaro
3 Anna and the Swallow Man Gavriel Savit
4 Breakout Kevin Emerson
5 Burn Baby Burn Meg Medina
6 It's All Your Fault Paul Rudnick
7 Kill the Boy Band Goldy Moldavsky
8 Kissing Ted Callahan Amy Spalding
9 Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir Margarita Engle 5-1-16
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Great number, Lisa! 16 for the year 2016?

Courtney wrote: "Great number, Lisa! 16 for the year 2016?"

Seemed like a fun way to do this challenge. :)

Courtney wrote: "I guess I'll do this since a lot of the books I plan to read this year are from authors I haven't read before. :)

So I'll just say that I want to read ten new authors and start tracking them here...."

I just got ANNA AND THE SWALLOW MAN at my library convention. I am looking forward to reading it. :)

Hope you enjoy it! It was interesting, but I didn't love it as much as I hoped.

I've gotten to 8 now! :D

See, you can get it!

I'm somewhat optimistic I might get to 13 by the end of the month. :)

Nice. Hope you're able to!

10! Woohoo! :D

Good job☺️

Only three more to go before I hit my goal of ten! I think I'll get that done this month, actually. :)

Nice job☺️

Thanks!

Courtney wrote: "Only three more to go before I hit my goal of ten! I think I'll get that done this month, actually. :)"

Woohoo! GJ! :D

Thanks, Bookbuyer!

Courtney wrote: "Thanks, Bookbuyer!"

^-^

Gonna back date to the beginning of the year - should be easy with all the Indie writers I've been reading.
1. A Shadow In The Moonlight By Joshua Blum
2. Threads Of A Web By Marie Krepps
3. Revenants : The Odyssey Home By Scott Kauffman
4. Ivy's Tangle By PD Kalnay
5. The Perks of Being A Wallflower By Stephen Chbosky
6. Unreal By Paul Jennings
7. Quintessence By David B Patterson
8. The Fault In Our Stars By John Green
9. Bridge To Terabithia By Katherine Paterson
10. The Reflections Of Queen Snow White By David Meredith
11. A Fire Upon The Deep By Vernor Vinge
12. Someone Like Him By Ann Herrick
13. Dead And Buryd By Chele Cooke
14. Just Pretending By Dana Burkey
15. The Dragon Hunter And The Mage By VR Cardoso
16. Diary Of A Wimpy Kid By Jeff Kinney
17. Secret Of True Love By The Duke Of Quails
18. Feersum Endjinn By Ian M Banks
19. Enlightenment By Liz Keel
20. Memory Of Miracles By Beth Durkee
21. Trina Bell's Humming Summer By Silke Stein
22. Ashes By Grace Crandall
23. Fairyland By Paul McAuley
24. Stay The Distance By Mara Dabrishus
25. Blink By CB Stone
26. Merciless Memories By Eden Rowan
27. The Boy With Words By CE Wilson
28. Lost By Donnielle Tyner
29. The DUFF By Kody Keplinger
30. The Virgin Of The Wind Rose By Glen Craney
31. Deadpool : Paws By Stefan Petrucha
32. The Boy In The Dress By David Walliams
33. How I Live Now By Meg Rosoff
34. Skulduggery Pleasant By Derek Landy
35. The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James
36. Through The Dragon's Eye By Christine & Christopher Russell
37. The Girl On The Train By Paula Hawkins
38. Swastika Night By Murray Constantine
39. The Little House In The Big Woods By Laura Ingalls Wilder
40. Initiated To Kill By Sharlene Almond
41. Beyond The Deepwoods By Paul Stewart
42. City Of Bones By Cassandra Clare
43. Me And Earl And The Dying Girl By Jesse Andrews
44. The Rescuers By Margey Sharp
45. The Shaman's Secret By Natasha Narayan
46. A Wrinkle In Time By Madeleine L'Engle
47. The True Meaning Of Smekday By Adam Rex
48. Redwall By Brian Jacques

Edward, I wouldn't be surprised if most of what you've read this year was from new authors!