2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 10/20

Culture
1. Food (cultivating, cooking, eating, cookbooks, etc.):
A bakery in Georgia (USA) with yummy recipes and magic all around: Bewitched, Bothered, and Biscotti✔

Update Message #8: 7/20

Ritual: Magic Lessons Good read for all the little rituals that these healers, well, actually witches, did to help the other women in their community.

@oshizu I like the idea of multi-tasking instead of cheating :-)

Update to msg #4
@LIbrary Queen, please raise my challenge goal to 20 books. :)

Culture
✔️2. Shelter (Architecture, housing): The Door
A Hungarian fiction about a writer and her eccentric housekeeper.
This housekeeper forbid anyone to enter her home, entertaining visitors on her front porch. Without spoiling the plot, I'll say that the book depicts many meanings of the word "shelter." (#wit)

Storytelling
✔️8. Did You Hear About the Time When Gramps...? Read a book which includes a story, an account of an event, or family anecdote that is shared by two or more generations. The Grace of Kings
In this fantasy novel, Mata loves hearing from his Uncle Phin how his grandfather, the mighty warrior Dazu Zyndu, acquired his legendary sword.

Progress: 7/20

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 12/20
Storytelling
2. Look Who's Talking. Read a book with multiple narrators.
✔The Testaments

Culture
9. Customs and traditions
A peculiar Halloween party in England with some murders in between: Hallowe'en Party ✔

Hey, I would like to join with 2 books, please and thankyou :)

Welcome Lisa!

I raised your goal oshizu. :)

Carmen, you are killing it. :O

Great job everyone!

Update Message #8: 8/20

Read Ties That Tether for the multiple narrator prompt, as it is a romance with two narrators. It's a fairly good romance, with special considerations of how much of one's culture does one lose when one blends one's life with someone of another culture. I'd say 3.5-4 stars :-)

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 13/20

Culture
3. Dress (fashion; weaving, dyeing, and other apparel-related crafts)
Fashion in the 1930's (England): The Fashion in Shrouds✔

Update to Message #7

8/10 books read

Storytelling
√ 3. Who Can You Trust? Read a book with an unreliable narrator - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
√ 9. Here's What Happened. Read a fiction or non-fiction about a historical event - The Lost Queen...the beginning of a trilogy about Languoreth, twin sister of the man who inspired the legend of Merlin. I have always loved books about Arthur and Merlin...

Culture
√ 8. Spiritual faith or religion - Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever...The book I chose for my 2020 Personal Journey (I am reading one uplifting/spiritual book per month this year) and this book about Fred Rogers was certainly uplifting and a balm to the soul!

Update Message #8: 9/20

Read The Birchbark House and enjoyed the detailed descriptions of clothing and moccasin making, so I used this for my applied arts prompt under culture.

Update to msg #4

8. Spiritual faith or religion: Dead Man's Ransom This is a historical mystery with the sleuthing performed by Brother Cadfael, who is a herbalist and Benedictine monk.

Progress: 8/20

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 15/20

Storytelling
7. Schezerazade Sez... Read an orally-transmitted tale in the form of a book, retelling, or adaptation or a story that mentions that kind of tale.
Native American tales: Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back✔

Culture
2. Shelter (Architecture, housing):
Ancestral home: A Golden Age Mystery by Patricia Wentworth around the ancestral home of the Pilgrim family: Pilgrim's Rest✔

Update message #8: 10/20

Read Assassination Vacation for the "I've Been Framed" prompt because Vowell uses her own experiences in traveling to various historical sites related to presidential assassinations as a frame for telling the stories of these men and those who killed them.

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 16/20

Culture
8. Spiritual faith or religion:
✔Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santera to Obeah and Espiritismo

Update to Message #8 11/20:

Schezerazade Sez... Read an orally-transmitted tale in the form of a book, retelling, or adaptation or a story that mentions that kind of tale. 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake

Decided on this one because it is an oral history

Update Message #8: 13/20


5. Craftastic. Read a non-fiction or fiction that highlights the craft of storytelling, writing, or historiography. Afterlife

This one was beautiful!!

10. Here's What Really Happened. Read a second book that describes the same event from a different perspective. Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope

Probably my favorite nonfiction this year. Plan to read another book on either slavery, policing, or race in the church for prompt nine to pair with prompt ten.

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 17/20

Storytelling
✔1. I've Been Framed! Read a book with a "story within a story" which is framed by its main narrative. Un mar sin estrellas

Update to msg 4

9. Here's What Happened. Read a fiction or non-fiction about a historical event. The Mirror & the Light

Book 3 in Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell trilogy coincides the years of King Henry VIII's reign during and shortly after his marriage to Jane Seymour, as seen through the eyes (well, technically, the narration) of Thomas Cromwell.
For prompt 10, therefore, I'll be reading Jane Seymour's biography.

Progress: 9/20

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 18/20

Culture
9. Customs and traditions
✔Death in Malta (Culture, traditions, architecture and lifestyle in Malta)

Sorry I hadn't updated for a few days! I've been away from my computer.

Update to Message #6
I signed up for 10, currently, 13/10 with 1 in progress, might continue doing some more

Good job Melissa!

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 19/20

Storytelling
8. Did You Hear About the Time When Gramps...? Read a book which includes a story, an account of an event, or family anecdote that is shared by two or more generations.
✔The Ghost Bride

Update to msg 4

9. Customs and traditions: Ship of Magic
In this fantasy, a group of settlers migrated together to the Curse Shores around the same time four generations ago, but eventually established two separate settlements: one in Bingtown and the other on the Rain Wild River.
Over the years, the Bingtown Traders and Rain Wild Traders have continued to consider each other kin, defining their relationship of friendship and trade through strictly-observed traditions and vows.
Suuuuuch a fantastic book!

Progress: 10/20

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 20/25
Library, I've increased my goal 😉!

Culture
6. Language
✔Reading The Ceiling (Krio/Aku language - The Gambia)
The book is written in English but includes a lot of expressions in the Krio/Aku language spoken by the Gambian Creole people

Great job Carmen!!

Update msg 5: 10/10 - Complete ✔️

Thanks for leading, Library 👍

Update to message #19

Progress: 5/10

Storytelling #1: 1. I've Been Framed! Read a book with a "story within a story" which is framed by its main narrative - Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia

While telling the story of how Polynesia was discovered/settled this book also tells the story about how this mystery has been researched (primarily by westerners until recent history). The book started a bit slow but I was surprised by how compelling I found it. There is a bit of everything for social science fans - history, geography, linguistics, archaeology, anthropology.

Culture #3: Dress (fashion; weaving, dyeing, and other apparel-related crafts) -The Pillow Book

This diary from approximately 1002 gives a look at Japanese court culture during the Heian period. Among many cultural elements described, there is a good deal of information about clothing and its importance in court life. The details of life at the time may seem far removed but Shonagon's commentary as a lady in waiting are witty and timeless.

Great Job Mie!! :D

I'd like to join and try for 20

Update Message #8: 15/20

1. Food (cultivating, cooking, eating, cookbooks, etc.) The Constant Rabbit (British, as compared to bunnies)

4. Do You Have Time for a Story? Read a book featuring a storyteller as one of its main characters. Spoiler Alert

Welcome Jennifer!

Good progress Rebecca!

Message 10 Updated

20/20-COMPLETED

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 21/25

Culture
7. Ritual:
I, Claudius (Rituals, superstitions, prophecies, etc in the Roman Empire)✔

Message 21
Progress: 6/8

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 22/25

Culture
6. Language
✔The Story of My Life (Deaf Sign Language, Braille, despite being blind and deaf, Helen Keller was able to learn English, French, German, Latin and Greek.)

Great job Sarah!

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 23/25

Culture
3. Dress (fashion; weaving, dyeing, and other apparel-related crafts)
✔Spinning, weaving and knitting (Colorado): Knit One, Kill Two

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 24/25

Storytelling
❎6. Where Does the Time Go? Read a book that leaps around to different time periods.
✔Doomsday Book (2054-1348)

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 25/30
I've increased my goal again 😉!

Storytelling
❎9. Customs and traditions
✔On the Night of the Seventh Moon (Norse mythology)

Dang! Go Carmen!

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 26/30

Storytelling
1. Food (cultivating, cooking, eating, cookbooks, etc.):
✔Singaporean cook: Aunty Lee's Delights

Update Message #8: 17/20

Update Message #8: 18/20

9. Here's What Happened. Read a fiction or non-fiction about a historical event. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Good history. Many things I haven't considered.

Update to msg 4

2. Look Who's Talking. Read a book with multiple narrators.
✔️Outer space: Network Effect
The book is predominantly narrated by the protagonist Security Bot, but is also narrated by two other charaacters: a killer software virus and a second SecBot.

6. Where Does the Time Go? Read a book that leaps around to different time periods.
✔️England: Things in Jars
This historical mystery mainly takes place in the 1860s but occasionally slips back 20+ years to past events in the protagonist Bridie's childhood.

Progress: 12/20

Update to Message #8: 19/20

3. Who Can You Trust? Read a book with an unreliable narrator. Haunted Histories: Creepy Castles, Dark Dungeons, and Powerful Palaces

The narrator intentionally posits himself as unreliable and "creepy," even though the book is nothing of the sort. I read it with my 13-year-old, and we were both disappointed.

Update msg 4

6. Language:
Canada/Japan; ✔️A Tale for the Time Being

This wonderful book engaged language on many levels: a young Japanese middle-grade student who returns to Japan with a stronger knowledge of English than Japanese, sprinklings of Japanese sentences/phrases translated into English (I found this mildly annoying, tbh), posthumous letters written by her grand-uncle in Japanese, and his secret diary written in French.
The story's protagonist sought the help of others to translate the latter two texts.

Progress: 13/20

Update to message : #9

PROGRESS: 28/30

Culture
1. Food (cultivating, cooking, eating, cookbooks, etc.):
✔Agriculture (Botswana): When Rain Clouds Gather
6. Language
✔African Tales: Folklore of the Central African Republic (Translated into English from the Mandjia and Banda through the Sango language as told by village storytellers, preserving original expressions./Central African Republic)

Update to message #8: 20/20

4. Fine Arts What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era (USA)

This is a book about books, and specifically about non-fiction books published during Trump's presidency. The author is the non-fiction book critic at the Washington Post, and he loosely categorizes these works into categories of thought during this era.

I'm bending the definition of fine arts a little here because the works examined don't all fall under the categories of creative writing, but some do.

Update to msg 4

📜5. Craftastic. Read a non-fiction or fiction that highlights the craft of storytelling, writing, or historiography.
✔️Cloud Atlas

This 11-chapter book is narrated by five different protagonists, highlight different means of telling their stories, including a notary's travelogue, a musical composer's letters, a reporter's account of her pursuit of social integrity and a major scoop, and a fabricant's interview with a archivist, a rural boy on a Hawaii-esque island describing village life to a visiting Other.

Progress: 14/20