2025 Reading Challenge discussion

It Was a Nominee
Duration October 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016

Ever wonder what happens to our nominees that don't make it to our group reads? Well, we save them and make a quarterly challenge out of them! For this challenge you will pick the number of books you would like to read from this years group nominees (we will add November and December's when we have them), and let us know. The list will be available in message 2 of this thread.

Janine is the leader for this challenge.

Nominees

January's them was Extremes
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story'
The Road
The Snow Child
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Infidel
Challenger Deep
Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster

February's theme was History
The Nightingale
To Kill a Mockingbird
Schindler's List
The History of Love
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival

March's theme was Courage
The Shining
Reading Lolita in Tehran
The Last Lecture
When Breath Becomes Air
The Brothers Lionheart
Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope
The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival

April's theme was Spring Cleaning
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Jurassic Park
Reasons to Stay Alive
The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
The Art of Happiness
I Was Here
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

May's theme was Celebrations
The Joy Luck Club
Geek Love
Circus Mirandus
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
The Only Pirate at the Party
Breakthrough: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle
Daddy-Long-Legs
An Evil Cradling

June's theme was Pride
To Kill a Mockingbird
Ella Enchanted
Persuasion
Dumplin'
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
This is Where I Leave You
Collective Mind
Britt-Marie Was Here
The World Unseen

July's theme was Leaders
The BFG
The Man in the High Castle
The Master and Margarita
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Alexander Hamilton
Fatherland
The Grace of Kings
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
The Last Lion 1: Visions of Glory 1874-1932

August's them was Friendship
Never Let Me Go
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The Invention of Wings
The Alchemist
My Brilliant Friend
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
A Little Life
My Family and Other AnimalsThe One-in-a-Million Boy

September's theme was Reflections
Orphan Train
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Tuesdays with Morrie
Island of a Thousand Mirrors
The God of Small Things
Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Autism
Gift from the Sea
Silver Wattle
Hole in My Life

October's theme was Scare
Dracula
Room
Cat's Cradle
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
You
Pet Sematary
Night
Rot & Ruin
Books of Blood: Volume One

November's Theme was Family
A Man Called Ove
My Sister's Keeper
Angela's Ashes
Homegoing
The Bonesetter's Daughter
A Spool of Blue Thread
America's First Daughter
My Family and Other Animals
An Untamed Land

Will be continued for December...

Put me down for 7 please!

1. The Girl With Seven Names (14/10/16)
2. Infidel (19/10/16)
3. Alexander Hamilton (28/10/16)
4. The Grace of Kings (10/12/16)
5. Persuasion (31/10/16)
6. The BFG (2/10/16)
7. A Man Called Ove (30/10/16)

7/7

Other books I've read and would recommend:

The Road
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
The Nightingale
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Joy Luck Club
NeuroTribes
Daddy-Long-Legs
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The BFG
Never Let Me Go
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
A Little Life
The God of Small Things
Room
Angela's Ashes

Put me down for three. I'll decide which books I read from this list as I go. Very excited!

(0/3)

Please put me down for 4. I think I will start with The Shining.

1) The Shining from March
2) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from April
3) Daddy-Long-Legs from May
4) Letters From Father Christmas from December

I'll try for 2 this quarter.

1. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
2. The Happiness Project - or another.

***COMPLETE***

✔ 1. Persuasion by Jane Austen ★★☆☆☆
✔ 2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling ★★★★★
✔ 3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ★★★☆☆
✔ 4. Dracula by Bram Stoker ★★★☆☆
✔ 5. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut ★★★☆☆

5/5

I'll start with an aim of 4. Hopefully more, but I may end up focusing on other challenges I haven't completed near the end of the year!

Happy to lead this one too, if you're still after a leader.

Read: 4/4
- The Man in the High Castle
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
- This is Where I Leave You
- The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

Options:
- Schindler's List
- Orphan Train
- A Man Called Ove
- I Was Here
- Britt-Marie Was Here

Please put me down for 11 :) I have previously purchased four of these and have not read them yet, decided to buy another one (I have a serious book problem), and was able to find the other six on Overdrive with a short/no wait.

✔ 1) The Narrow Road to the Deep North
✔ 2) The Nightingale
✔ 3) The Last Lecture
✔ 4) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
✔ 5) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
✔ 6) NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
✔ 7) The Only Pirate at the Party
✔ 8) Ella Enchanted
✔ 9) Alexander Hamilton
✔ 10) Never Let Me Go
✔ 11) A Little Life

11/11 - COMPLETED!

Janine wrote: "I'll start with an aim of 4. Hopefully more, but I may end up focusing on other challenges I haven't completed near the end of the year!

Happy to lead this one too, if you're still after a leader...."

Janine, we would love to have you lead this challenge! Thanks!

Mary Pat wrote: Janine, we would love to have you lead this challenge! Thanks!

Great!

Participants:
Amanda - 0/1
Anna - 5/5
Claire - 0/3
Dany - 0/3
Erika - 0/2
Jackie - 3/3
Janine - 4/4
Jessica - 11/11
Karina - 0/6
Karoline 0/3
KellI - 4/4
Lindsay - 4/4
Mindy - 3/3
Monica - 1/7
Paul - 7/7
Q - 0/5
Sam F - 0/2
Smriti - 0/5
Taylor R - 0/1
Vernice - 1/5

Last updated: up to message 79

I would like to join and put me down for 3.

When Breath Becomes Air
A Spool of Blue Thread
Fatherland
This is Where I Leave You

I would like to Join for 7.

1.The Nightingale Completed 10/30
2.Dumplin'
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Well this is fun! I'll read 3:

1. Never Let Me Go -- finished Oct 4.
2. My Brilliant Friend -- finished Oct 23.
3. Dumplin' -- finished Dec 29.

Welcome everyone! I'm looking forward to seeing what you all think of these nominees :)

Reading Lolita in Tehran is the only one I have on here.

I am thinking I can find some of the others at the library.

So put me down for 3 for now. Thanks!

I ordered books for one of the other challenges so trying to save some money for this one! :)

IT WAS A NOMINEE:
Duration October 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016

[0 of 3]

1.Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi
2. Room - Emma Donoghue
3. Dracula - Bram Stoker

Welcome Karoline

Put me in for 5.

I'm just going to sign up for 2 for this one for now, please :)

1.
2.
3.

I would like to join for 6

Finished Never Let Me Go from message 14. Is this how I report my completions?

Thanks,
Mindy

I would like to join for 5 but I'm listing down books that I are possible options below:

1 - Dumplin'
2 - A Little Life
3 - The History of Love
4 - The Last Lecture
5 - When Breath Becomes Air
6 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
7 - I Was Here
8 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
9 - Reading Lolita in Tehran
10 - Island of a Thousand Mirrors
11 - The World Unseen
12 - The Master and Margarita
13 - The Autobiography of Malcom X
14 - The Invention of Wings
15 - Britt-Marie Was Here

Mindy wrote: "Finished Never Let Me Go from message 14. Is this how I report my completions?

Thanks,
Mindy"

Yep, just post whenever you finish a book or want to update your goal. Congrats on finishing your first book for the challenge. Did you enjoy Never Let Me Go?

Thanks, Janine. LOVED it. I've been looking for group discussions of it but no luck yet.

Updated message 3 with The BFG

1/3

Mindy wrote: "Thanks, Janine. LOVED it. I've been looking for group discussions of it but no luck yet."

So pleased to hear that. I read it a while ago but really loved it too, it took me by surprise and was much more than I was expecting!

Update to message #7.

✔ 1. Persuasion by Jane Austen ★★☆☆☆

1/5

Paul wrote: "Updated message 3 with The BFG

1/3"

woohoo! I'm so glad you read this. :) I nominated this book, and read it immediately during July lol. I was just too excited not to read it. :)

Put me down for just 1. :)

I'll (try) to read Pet Sematary.

Taylor R wrote: "Paul wrote: "Updated message 3 with The BFG

1/3"

woohoo! I'm so glad you read this. :) I nominated this book, and read it immediately during July lol. I was just too excited not to read it. :)"

Aw, thank you Taylor! :) Have to admit I first read it years ago - years and years ago. Along with what I'd say was most of the rest of Roald Dahl's work - I basically grew up with the man. Pulled it out again though because it just felt right, and while it was only *nearly* as good as I'd remembered, it was still worth it, and strangely potent in brand new ways. :D What did you think of it actually? :)

Also on that note, updated message 3 with The Girl With Seven Names

2/3

Updated to here :) well done to everyone who's read their first book for the challenge already!

I would like to join for 1.

It Was a Nominee
Duration October 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen

0/1

Updated message 3 with Infidel. Put me down for 5 now please!

3/5

I'll jump in on this challenge too! Looking to complete 3:

1. The Nightingale (just finished for book club!)

2. The Last Lecture (completed)

3. Orphan Train (completed)

3/3 completed

Great job finishing your original goal, Paul! And welcome Jackie. Did you enjoy The Nightingale?

Updated message 14. Now 2/3 finished. :-)

Anyone looking to add more books to their list, or to join the challenge, we now have new books that count. The nominees for November that weren't chosen!

A Man Called Ove
My Sister's Keeper
Angela's Ashes
Homegoing
The Bonesetter's Daughter
A Spool of Blue Thread
America's First Daughter
My Family and Other Animals
An Untamed Land

Paul wrote: "Taylor R wrote: "Paul wrote: "Updated message 3 with The BFG

1/3"

woohoo! I'm so glad you read this. :) I nominated this book, and read it immediately during July lol. I was just too excited not ..."

I feel my inner child innocence while reading this book! I was hooked onto every word, smiled with every illustration. It has to be my most favorite Dahl book so far. I've only read about 5 of his books, but yeah. :D The BFG is definitely my favorite.

Updated message 43. I'm 2/5 now. :-)

Updated message 3 with Alexander Hamilton

4/5

EDIT: That's so great to hear, Taylor. :)

Update msg 5

from March

Mindy wrote: "Updated message 43. I'm 2/5 now. :-)"

Hey Mindy, I think you meant to post this on the other quarterly challenge thread, so I haven't updated here. Let me know if that's wrong!

Good job Paul and Lindsay!

How did you find Alexander Hamilton, Paul?

Oops apparently! Thanks Janine.

Janine wrote: "Mindy wrote: "Updated message 43. I'm 2/5 now. :-)"

Hey Mindy, I think you meant to post this on the other quarterly challenge thread, so I haven't updated here. Let me know if that's wrong!

Good..."

Thank you Janine! :)

Alexander Hamilton was fine stuff really, very fine! Meticulously researched, full of nuance and insight, incredibly well-paced after an admittedly slow enough start (like it's 860 pages long but it could easily have been even longer, and honestly should have, because sometimes it does feel like it hops around a bit and lurches to conclusions and things happen which I wasn't sure were *that* justified, either before or afterwards), fun, funny, insightful - ok, it does get bogged down in ~words~ and old-timey late 18th century talky style a lot sometimes which can make it be a bit of a drag, but for the most part Chernow really gets what he's doing, it really seems like he wanted to appeal to everyone, serious history types and newcomers alike, and he basically nailed it. Heck, I'd say my biggest problem with it is that all I really had coming into this is the Hamilton cast recording so part of the time I was thinking like "Lin-Manuel Miranda, no, why did you have to understandably remove some nuance and take certain things out and change things around to fit this entire thing into a two and a half hour musical?!?!1" ^^ and then at other times I was even a little impatient wanting to get to the things that I remembered despite that the other parts were interesting too! So by that standard it's a huge success. :D

But no, in short, it's very good, easily one of the best biographies I've read in a long while (maybe the best? I'm not too sure to be honest), indispensable to the Hamiltrash among us (the musical really is in serious debt to the book, it's pretty awesome and also kinda not sometimes?), so don't worry too much about the length because after a while you'll just stop feeling it, and don't do that thing with shots where you throw them away! Definitely don't do that if you can avoid it. :D

Updated message 3 with A Man Called Ove. Could you also increase my goal to seven please?

5/7

Updated message 13 1/7

I'd like to join this Challenge with 5 books please:

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ✔

Options:
Never Let Me Go, Britt-Marie Was Here, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Orphan Train, The Invention of Wings, A Man Called Ove, Homegoing, A Spool of Blue Thread

Updated message 3 with Persuasion

6/7

You're storming through, Paul! Thanks for your thoughts on Alexander Hamilton. I've been considering it but was a bit intimidated by the length of it, especially as a non-American. Glad to hear you got really into it!

Good job Monica on your first book, and welcome Vernice!