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ARCHIVE 2020 > Martha's 2020 80-Book Reading Challenge

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message 1: by Martha (last edited Mar 30, 2020 11:53PM) (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments First Quarter

January:
Broken Places & Outer Spaces Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa Tracks by Louise Erdrich America for Americans A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern We Have Always Been Here A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib Utopia for Realists How We Can Build the Ideal World by Rutger Bregman This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger Four Souls by Louise Erdrich Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang

I read 12 books in January.

February:
The Cruelest Month (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #3) by Louise Penny A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #4) by Louise Penny A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende The Street by Ann Petry There There by Tommy Orange The Resisters by Gish Jen The Affairs of the Falcóns by Melissa Rivero Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry Nature's Best Hope A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy

I read 12 books in February.

March:
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich


message 2: by Martha (last edited Jun 30, 2020 09:36PM) (new)


message 3: by Martha (last edited Sep 30, 2020 06:49PM) (new)


message 4: by Martha (last edited Dec 29, 2020 12:53PM) (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments Fourth Quarter

October:
Home (Binti, #2) by Nnedi Okorafor The Night Masquerade (Binti, #3) by Nnedi Okorafor When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel The Switch by Beth O'Leary Piranesi by Susanna Clarke The Forgotten Kingdom (The Lost Queen Trilogy, #2) by Signe Pike


November:
The Power Worshippers Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart Anxious People by Fredrik Backman Diary of a Tokyo Teen A Japanese-American Girl Draws Her Way Across the Land of Trendy Fashion, High-Tech Toilets and Maid Cafes by Christine Mari Inzer Please, Puppy, Please by Spike Lee Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter Don't Overthink It Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life by Anne Bogel The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

December:
Things in Jars by Jess Kidd Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow The Body Keeps the Score Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel A. van der Kolk Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann The Duke and I The Epilogue II (Bridgertons, #1.5) by Julia Quinn Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson


message 5: by oshizu (new)

oshizu | 5762 comments Wow, I see that you've exceeded your 2019 goal of 60 books by 30 books! How impressive!

Happy reading to you in 2020 and a very merry holiday season to you and your family.


message 6: by Martha (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments oshizu wrote: "Wow, I see that you've exceeded your 2019 goal of 60 books by 30 books! How impressive!

Happy reading to you in 2020 and a very merry holiday season to you and your family."


Thank you!


message 7: by Martha (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments I read 7 books in March, fewer than January and February, but I was surprised I got through that many considering the coronavirus news and being "safe at home." My favorite two books for March were The Miniaturist and The Night Watchman.

Our library shut down and they asked us to keep our books until they could open again. With that in mind, for once in my life I'll probably be able to read every book I checked out before Stay at Home started. Second quarter reading should be a productive time for me as long as coronavirus anxiety doesn't get to me. Stay well, everyone!


message 8: by Martha (last edited Apr 30, 2020 10:23PM) (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments For a shorter month, April seemed to last an eternity. I read 9 books and one of those was over 800 pages. I loved Map of Salt and Stars and She Weeps Each Time You're Born. Both books were haunting and are still with me days later. The Splendid and The Vile was my favorite nonfiction and was perfect to read this month. It was a good reminder of what it is like to have good leadership during a world crisis.


message 9: by Martha (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments For the second quarter of the year I read 34 books. Reading was my primary way of coping with social distancing. I've already summarized April. May and June favorites were Mornings with Rosemary, The Summer Before the War, The Absolutist, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, The Lost Queen, The House in the Cerulean Sea, Redhead By the Side of the Road, Tell Me Three Things, and State of Wonder. I appreciated nonfiction books The Color of Compromise and Democracy in Chains but I'm finding my attention span for nonfiction isn't very good. I do talk about both books a lot though when I talk to anyone about what I recently read.


message 10: by Martha (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments I've completed 80 books for this challenge and plan to keep going. July was a very productive month for me with 16 books added to the challenge. I predict August will be productive as well. I hadn't intended to read 100 books this year but it looks like I will surpass that number by the end of December. Maybe it's time to read some extra long books or finish up all my challenges in time to finish the year at a leisurely pace.


message 11: by oshizu (new)

oshizu | 5762 comments Congratulations, Martha, on reaching your goal for the Groodreads Reading Challenge so early in the year!
And you've been reading such great books, too, it seems. Did you enjoy Redhead by the Side of the Road? I recently read that it's been longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction.

Are you planning to raise your goal to 101 books or higher, or will you remain at 80? If you do raise your Goodreads goal, you can message me and I'll move this entire thread of yours to the "101 to 200" Personal Challenges folder. No pressure to do so, though. :D

Happy reading.


message 12: by Martha (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments Thanks! I did enjoy Redhead by the Side of the Road, Oshizu. It was an enjoyable and short character-driven book. Anne Tyler's characters are so quirky but they feel like real people to me.

I'm not going to raise my Goodreads goal to any specific number, but expect I'll read more than 20 books in the next few months and will likely surpass 100. I'll message you to move me once I surpass that number.


message 13: by Martha (new)

Martha (marthag503) | 323 comments I've read my 100th book and probably will read more. I think I'll stay in this folder though because there are only two months left in the year.


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