Best Books of 2023 and a reading challenge for 2024

Happy New Year! Although only three of my four short stories that were picked up for publication are out so far, I’m looking forward to sharing more of my work with the world in 2024. But enough about me. The main point of this post is that, in 2023, I read some wonderful books I’d like to share.

In 2023, I read a total of 113 novels. As in most years, I read the most in July (19) thanks to being off work. (Taking an e-reader on a solo trip also helped.) But I read at least a few books every month and here are some of my top titles, as well as a reading challenge to keep you motivated!

January

Challenge: Read a fun update of a classic

My pick: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting, by Sophie Irwin

This was the book I recommended to the most people this year. Using Jane Austen’s Persuasion as a springboard, Irwin’s book was a joy from start to finish. Hilarious and heartfelt, this story featured a lovable heroine figuring out how to follow her dreams and the swoon-worthy male lead who encourages her at every turn. Historically accurate? Maybe not, but I had a ball.

Bonus rec: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting, by Sophie Irwin

Although I read this one second, it was written before A Lady’s Guide to Scandal. I’ve read and seen numerous takes on Pride & Prejudice; this one felt completely fresh and fun. Starring a young woman desperate to land a wealthy husband in order to save her family and the Lord she blackmails to help her, I adored this one.

February

Challenge: Read an award-winning book

My pick: A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

A Hugo Award Winner in 2022, this novella (and its sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy) are small and gorgeous. The setting is a utopian take of the future, a world where the robots gained sentience only to wander into the wild and the more sustainable society that developed in their wake. I tried this one after a librarian recommended it to me and, although I found the first 50 pages pretty slow, I understood why it won the award as soon as the monk met the wild-built robot. It was a beautiful meditation on culture, religion, purpose, our relationship to the world, and what it means to be alive. Especially if you don’t have much time, this short book is one that will stay with you long after you’ve read the final page.

March

Challenge: Give a nonfiction book a try

My Pick: The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester

Although every nonfiction story I’ve read has seen me sharing strange facts with everyone I know for weeks afterward (looking at you Gulp by Mary Roach and Gory Details by Erika Englehaupt), this one takes the cake for being the most off-the-wall insane. Which is…unexpected given that it’s about the creation of a dictionary. But it turns out one of the most prolific contributors to the fledgling dictionary was a man institutionalized after he murdered someone during a schizophrenic episode. The story only got stranger from there.

April

Challenge: Read a book that combines two genres

My Pick: Station Eternity, by Mar Lafferty

One of the more inventive science fiction books I’ve read recently and a murder mystery to boot, this book was intriguing. Mallory leaves Earth behind in a desperate attempt to get away from the murders that seem to happen everywhere she goes and winds up on a space station full of aliens with symbiotic relationships. Then more humans show up and it’s only a matter of time before people start to die….

May

Challenge: Read a short-story collection

My pick: The Tangleroot Palace, by Marjorie Liu

Considering I’ve been writing mostly short fiction in the last few years, I don’t read much of it. So, I decided to change that by picking up this collection. Although the short story I found the most thought-provoking this year was actually the take on Rumplestiltskin in Jane Yolen’s How to Fracture a Fairytale collection, I found this collection the most consistently strong throughout. “Sympathy for the Bones” was a particular standout.

June

Challenge: Read a classic with a fantasy twist

My pick: Claws and Contrivances, by Stephanie Burgis

I really enjoyed this one. Like Jane Austen with dragons, it had shades of Sense & Sensibility and Northanger Abbey in particular. Featuring a lead who tries to manage everyone around her, her lovable cast of eccentric relatives, and a bemused dragon scholar roped into an engagement against his will, this one was heaps of fun.

July

Challenge: Read a historical fiction novel

My pick: Sinners of Starlight City, by Anika Scott

Set during the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, this story about the mafia and magic follows several characters with family on both sides of the color line. Our main heroine (Rosa) is a young performer hell-bent on revenge against the man who murdered her family back in Italy. We also get to know her cousin who is desperately trying to get her baby back and begs for Rosa’s help as well as the mafia enforcer tasked with returning the cousin to her family. The setting was beautifully rendered and Scott did a great job maintaining tension while illuminating various historical events in the U.S. and Italy I didn’t know very well.

August

Challenge: Pick a book based on its cover

My pick: Charming, by Jane Linwood

What if the “Prince Charming” in all the fairytales was actually the same guy? That’s the fun premise behind this story. Whenever Charming waltzes in to save the fair maiden, he ends up stealing half their treasury and splitting before the wedding. But the women he’s conned have joined forces and they’re more formidable than he ever imagined. This one was funny and I loved Linwood’s take on the various princesses.

September

Challenge: Read a book about getting the band back together

My pick: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Chakraborty’s latest, about a formidable pirate who has to reassemble her old crew in order to find a kidnapped young woman and a legendary magical item, was a fun romp. I loved Amina and her crew–especially the wily poisoner–and enjoyed the blending of myth and adventure. While I didn’t totally enjoy the framing device of an interview, the characters and action more than made up for it.

October

Challenge: Read the first of a series

My pick: Book of Night by Holly Black

In a version of our world with magical shadows, Book of Night featured a self-destructive lead getting entangled in a deadly hunt for a missing book. I didn’t realize this one was the first in a series, so the cliffhanger came as a bit of a surprise. I’m looking forward to the next one.

November

Challenge: Read a book about friendship

My pick: Silenced, Ann Claycomb

I read this in one sitting. A story about women left living with fairytale curses after being abused by the same powerful man, this was as disturbing as it was absorbing. As the women come together to figure out how to break their curses and keep him from hurting anyone else, this story felt both timely and timeless. The fairytale pieces were worked into this in an interesting way. Violence against women is a key feature of this one, though, so be forewarned.

December

Challenge: Read a holiday-themed story

My Pick: The Wake-Up Call, Beth O’Leary

The central premise is two front desk managers working at a struggling hotel compete to try to find the owners of missing rings. Ever since last year’s Christmas party, they’ve been doing their level best to make one another miserable, but as “the ring thing” heats up, they have several surprises in store. This one was absolutely adorable and had several lines I read out loud to my family because I thought they were so funny I had to share them.

Well, there you have it! Those are some of my favorite books that I read this year. I’m looking forward to all of the wonderful stories 2024 has in store.

I wish you a year filled with wonderful books 🙂

Reading challenge 2023 (and best books of 2022)

Like any year, 2022 had good and bad moments; one of my best ones happened near the end as one of my short stories was published: https://humourmemag.co.uk/issues/issue-10-christmas-special/ (Page 71).

As we “turn the page” to 2023, I wanted to share a reading challenge and some of the best books I read over the past 12 months.

In 2022, I read 103 books. I read the least in February (5 books) and the most in December (14 books).

Reading challenge and my picks from 2022

Challenge: Read a book featuring found family

My pick: Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher

This was my favorite book of the year. A fairytale style tale, it was laugh-out-loud funny. The story features a magical road trip, fairy godmothers, a reluctant princess, a dust witch with a demon chicken, an evil prince, a cursed knight, and a bone dog. I loved this one and I hope you will too.

Challenge: Read a book you’ve heard of for years, but have never read

My pick: Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

I’ve always liked Diana Wynne Jones (her Chronicles of Chrestomanci series was a childhood favorite of mine). Despite that, I had never before picked up what is arguably her most famous work thanks to the anime adaptation. While many of the beats are familiar from fairytales, I enjoyed the heroine and the other magical characters tied to the castle.

Challenge: Read a book that’s getting an adaptation

My pick: Pachinko, Min Jin Lee

This came to me via a “blind date with a book” from a local library. While not one I’d have likely picked up on my own, I was glad to read it before the excellent adaptation came out in 2022. The sprawling epic tracks a woman’s family over several generations during Japan’s occupation of Korea. Named after a popular arcade style game that features rather heavily throughout the story, this one was moving and introduced me to a time I knew very little about.

Challenge: Read a new book by an author you love

My pick: The Bodyguard, Katherine Center

Katherine Center’s latest was a lot of fun. Featuring an unassuming bodyguard tasked with protecting a Hollywood heartthrob at his family’s ranch, this one was simultaneously hilarious and heartfelt. The love story at the center was sweet and I appreciated that the female lead was the bodyguard.

Challenge: Read a story set in a place you’ve visited, but during another time in history

My pick: The Monsters We Defy, Leslye Penelope

Set in D.C. during the 1920s in an affluent black community, this story features a prickly heroine, a heist, people with magical gifts that have serious downsides, spirits with their own agendas, and a swoon-worthy male lead. The author clearly did a lot of research to get the historical details for this. It was an entertaining, educational romp through a fascinating city and time. I loved the characters too.

Challenge: Read a book featuring time travel

My pick: This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub

I found this one at the library. One of the most moving books I read this year, it’s about a woman with a dying father who finds a way to relive her 16th birthday again and again, giving her a second chance to spend time with her dad as well as see how her life would change if she makes different choices on that birthday.

Challenge: Read a book about changing your life

My pick: The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie, Rachel Linden

In a similar vein to This Time Tomorrow, Linden’s story is about a woman who gets three magical lemon drops from her great-aunt that let her spend a day in a version of her life based on one major change: her mom still being alive, if she’d started the restaurant she’d dreamed of, or if she’d married her first love. This one was a sweet reminder that every choice has its drawbacks and that it’s not too late to make a change.

Challenge: Read a book to help you change your life

My pick: Atomic Habits, James Clear

While I don’t read many nonfiction books, this felt like an important read. It’s all about creating good habits and how to make them stick. One of the pieces of advice I liked best from the book was “never skip twice.”

Challenge: Read a story with an unusual magic system

My pick: A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske

Although I read several LGBTQ+ romances this year, this was the only male-male romance I’ve ever read. (It’s explicit, so be forewarned.) The magic system in this was interesting–based on cat’s cradle–and the characters were fully realized. I liked how the leads thought about each other and they had a sweet connection. The mystery in this was also fun.

Challenge: Read something based on mythology/ folktales from another culture

My pick: The Stardust Thief, Chelsea Abdullah

Similar in many ways to a book series I loved (The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty), this story is also based on Middle Eastern mythology and uses the Arabian Nights tales as a springboard. Set in a place where djinn are hunted for their blood and relics, our leads are a young woman who sells djinn relics alongside her djinn bodyguard, a prince (the son of a Scheherazade-like figure), and another woman who is one of “The Stardust Thief’s” forty thieves. I especially liked the connection between the young woman and her bodyguard; I’m curious to see how this story unfolds in the next novel.

Challenge: Choose a book based on the title

My pick: Payback’s A Witch, Lana Harper

Another of my favorite books of the year, I chose this one entirely because of the wordplay in the title. Set in a town with four magical families, this one follows around a reluctant witch who joins up with two other young women during a magical contest in order to take down the guy who hurt all of them. Featuring a love story between two of the women, this one was sweet and funny.

Challenge: Read a book about books

My pick: Book Lovers, Emily Henry

This one had a fun premise–the female lead is basically the big-city girlfriend that gets ditched in Hallmark movies. As a fan of silly Hallmark movies, I was sold. The leads, who both work in the literary field, are fun and the story was sweet. This one was also laugh-out-loud funny.

By the numbers– authors I read more than once

7 by Robert Jordan (I read the first 7 of the Wheel of Time series)

4 each by Christina Lauren, Jenny Colgan, and Hester Browne

3 by Jennifer Crusie

2 each by Sophie Kinsella, Greta Kelly, India Holton, A.J. Hackwith, and Naomi Novik

With whatever you choose to read in the year ahead, I hope it’s wonderful! As for me in the year ahead, I’m looking forward to finding new stories in the library and continuing to work on getting more of my own stories published. Wishing you a great 2023 🙂

Best books from 2021 (& a reading challenge for 2022)

It’s that time of year again, when we say goodbye to the last twelve months and get ready to “turn the page” to something new. As we welcome 2022, I wanted to look back over what I read in the past year and challenge myself for the year to come.

After all, the last few years have been tough. I know I’m not the only one who resonated with the line in The Witcher where Geralt says “I’ve lived through a whole dark age and three supposed end of days.”

A post like this has become a bit of a tradition over the last few years: 2020, 2019, and 2018, so feel free to check those out for additional recommendations.

In 2021, I read 95 books. February, fittingly, had the smallest number (5) and I read the most in July (11) when I was off work. My most frequent monthly number was 7.

January

Challenge: Read a book by an author you’ve never read before

If I Never Met You, by Mhairi McFarlane

A silver lining of the pandemic was how the local library enhanced its online presence by offering recommendations in their catalogue. That’s how I came across Mhairi McFarlane’s book. It ended up being a heartfelt and funny read about two people who never intended to fall in love. In the first part of the year, I spent a lot of time re-reading some of my childhood favorites, so this was one of the few that was new to me.

February

Challenge: Read a book that reimagines a classic

Unmarriageable, by Soniah Kamal

Kamal’s book takes Jane Austen’s classic story of Pride & Prejudice and sets it in (near) modern Pakistan. The switch breathes new life into a story that’s been reimagined time and again. The character conflicts feel appropriate and its fun to see how the familiar beats play out. Even if it’s a little confusing that this is a universe where P&P exists, Kamal’s book offered an interesting look into a culture I was fairly unfamiliar with outside of the news.

March

Challenge: Read a book set somewhere you’ve visited

Paris is Always a Good Idea, by Jenn McKinley

Especially when you have to stay where you are, reading can be a great escape. Reading about a place you’ve been also helps bring up your own (hopefully positive) memories. This book about a woman traveling to find the young men she fell in love with years ago during her first trip to Europe ended up being a moving examination about happiness, grief, and giving ourselves permission to start again.

April

Challenge: Read an author’s debut novel

Would Like to Meet, Rachel Winters

Okay, technically, I read this category a lot, since I love to read new books from the library and rarely look anything up about them. A young woman has to enact scenes from rom-coms to convince a famous (and rude) screenwriter they’re plausible so he’ll actually write one. This was funny and sweet; I laughed out loud at some of the bits in the coffee shop when the single father and his daughter the lead meets are playing “bad lip reading.”

May

Challenge: Finish reading a series

Take a Hint, Dani Brown and Act Your Age, Eve Brown, by Talia Hibbert

Okay, technically, I only read (Get a Hint, Dani Brown) in May, but I read the last two of this series this year. These novels follow the Brown sisters, who we were introduced to in Get a Life, Chloe Brown, which I read in 2020. They continue to be sweet and funny while each one highlights different conditions (be it fibromyalgia, PTSD, or autism) with tenderness and understanding. They’re also sexually explicit, so be forewarned.

June

Challenge: Read a book that came out this year

The Secret Bridesmaid, by Katy Birchall

First published in May 2021, I found this in the new book section of the library (always a fun place to check). A woman is hired to be a bridesmaid for an absolutely awful It-girl and shenanigans ensue. A good book for wedding season, this one felt like a fun British rom-com, which you may have already guessed I’m a sucker for given the fact this is the fourth British author I’ve highlighted in this list.

July

Challenge: Read a book that’s been turned into a show

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

It took some time to get this one and Crooked Kingdom from the library. After reading up on the Shadow & Bone show–I’m thorough when I get into something–I decided to skip the titular book series and focus on Bardugo’s stronger duology featuring secondary characters in the show. These YA heist books were very funny and featured complex and enjoyable characters. They also have the most dramatic pages I’ve ever seen: the first book was edged in red and the second was edged in black.

August

Challenge: Read a nonfiction book

The Intelligence Trap, by David Robson

Since I’ve already highlighted my absolute favorite book of the year in its own post, I wanted to talk about something else. Robson’s book examined how we define intelligence, how we learn, and what we can do to avoid making foolish mistakes. It was a nice one to read before starting a new year teaching, but is one I think we’d all benefit from reading. (Other nonfiction books I enjoyed this year, aside from the gorgeous Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, included Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach and World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.)

September

Challenge: Read a book set in another culture

Last Tang Standing, by Lauren Ho

Set in Singapore and Malaysia, this book was all about family expectations and personal choices as it follows a young-ish woman from a wealthy family who is still unmarried. I enjoyed this one. It feels a bit like a more personal (in that we aren’t focused on quite so many characters) and less heightened version of the Crazy Rich Asians series.

October

Challenge: Read a story featuring LGBTQ characters

It Had to be You, Georgia Clark

While I don’t usually read books set in New York–maybe it’s because I’m Californian, but I’ve never harbored any dreams about living in NYC–I made an exception. This one was a heart-warming story about a woman running a wedding planning business who loses her husband and then finds out he left half the business to his much younger girlfriend. While the two main leads undergo plenty of self-discovery along the way, one of them also learns she’s into women. This one features POV from an older gay couple as well and includes a wedding planned for a trans-woman seeking acceptance from her father. I liked this one a lot. Whether you’re part of the community or not, it’s good to read outside of the hetero-normative box.

November

Challenge: Read a classic novel you’ve never read before

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

While a childhood best friend loved the 2002 film so much that we watched it several times together, and which I recently learned featured an incredibly young Henry Cavill, I’d never read this book by Dumas. There’s a reason his works have endured: this complicated revenge story is still very fun to read. (Admittedly, the bits with the Greek slave girl the titular count essentially groomed and his male slave are disturbing and a particularly odd choice from an author whose own grandmother was an African slave in what is now Haiti.) Still, those creepy parts aside, this is a fascinating story and one of the few classics I’ve actually enjoyed. “Wait and Hope” is also a good message to take into the new year.

December

Challenge: Read a book about starting over

I loved this book by Australian author Claire Christian. Featuring a lead who is openly bisexual and struggling with grief, this is a wonderful read about figuring out what is important and choosing to take a risk. It also brought up a beautiful poem I’d never read before: Starlings, by Mary Oliver. Of the lines in that, these are the ones I’ll carry into the new year: “I am thinking now of grief, and of getting past it” and “I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.”

What were some of your favorite books this year? What do you hope to read in the coming year? I’m personally most excited for Sarah Addison Allen’s new book and for all the stories I have yet to discover.

With whatever you read, I wish you a wonderful year full of stories and all the people, food, and places you love.

Best books from the year 2020 (and reading challenge: 2021)

I’ve written one of these the last few years in 2019  & 2018. The year 2020, of course, was one for the books. (Pardon the pun.) 

In 2020, I read 105 books, with a high of 15 in July and a low of 5 in February. While I’ve already written posts about a few I enjoyed, like books by black authors and a nonfiction book I loved, I wanted to write the “year in review” list as well.

Challenge: read a book in a format you usually don’t/ a book that’s still being written

Wilde Life, by Pascalle Lepas

A friend (hi Nina!) told me about this online graphic novel that’s been going since 2014. It’s a beautiful blend of Native American folklore and horror, set in Oklahoma. I really enjoyed this and I keep checking back as new panels are added a few times a week.

Challenge: read a book set where you live

One to Watch, by Kate Stayman-London

A book about a plus-sized influencer living in L.A. who is cast in a Bachelorette-style show. While I don’t usually like books set in SoCal, I loved this book. It had surprising depth, was laugh-out-loud funny in places, and featured more LGBTQIA representation than I’d have expected (including asexuality, which was a very welcome addition).

Challenge: read a classic book

Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler

I read this book in one sitting as I was waiting for my car to get a recall item replaced. It’s about a woman who starts mysteriously jumping back in time to her ancestors’ plantation, meeting both her slaveholding and enslaved ancestors. The story was seriously unsettling, but beautiful too. I totally understand why Octavia E. Butler is so revered and I thought it was cool that she’s from the Pasadena area.

Challenge: read the end of a series

The Kingdom of Copper & The Empire of Gold, by S.A. Chakraborty

I read the first one of the trilogy (The City of Brass) in 2019 and was able to read the final two in 2020. These books, about a young woman in Egypt with special healing powers who is introduced to a magical and dangerous world full of djinns and other legendary beings. These are intricately plotted, feature plenty of twists, and full of multidimensional characters. I really enjoyed the last part of the trilogy.

Challenge: read a book about an activity you’ve never done

Happiness for Beginners, by Katherine Center

I love to hike, but I have never gone backpacking. This beautiful book is about a woman who signs up for an intense backcountry backpacking trip and all that she finds out along the way. Mostly, this is a story about starting over, which is a central theme to many books that I’ve loved. Katherine Center is wonderful; I also really enjoyed What You Wish For, which came out in July 2020.

Challenge: read a biography

Lucrezia Borgia, by Sarah Bradford

This book was fascinating. I picked it up after binging The Borgias on Netflix during the early part of lockdown. Bradford did a phenomenal amount of research to explain the, usually misunderstood, life of a powerful young woman who was part of a ruthless and powerful family (her father was the pope and her brother inspired quite a bit of Machiavelli’s The Prince). Honestly, the true story was much more interesting than the sensationalized (poisoning, incest, etc.) stuff in the show.

Challenge: Read a memoir

H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

This book was a moving exploration of grief as Macdonald mourned her father while training a goshawk. She also worked in quite a bit about the story behind a book on goshawks she’d read and the life of its author, T.H. White (famous for writing The Once and Future King about King Arthur). It was very interesting and its treatment of grief and isolation felt fitting for the year 2020.

Challenge: read a book you always wanted to and never got around to before

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin is an author I’ve always heard about and have rarely ever read, for all that she’s a legend in the Fantasy genre. Her first Earthsea book is about a wizard named Ged and the adventures he has as he grows up and comes into his full power. It’s a quick read and an interesting one, although I would have enjoyed seeing some more female characters.

Challenge: read a book of poetry

Milk & Honey, Rupi Kaur

This is one of those books I’ve heard about for years. There were some beautiful turns of phrase in here and I read this in one sitting.

Challenge: read a book with a lead who has a medical condition

Get a life, Chloe Brown, by Talia Hibbert

The titular Chloe Brown has fibromyalgia (which my sister does too) and that made this resonate in a different way for me. Chloe Brown decides to seize the day after an accident, realizing that she’s played it safe ever since her condition developed and her fiance left. There was a lot of sex in this book, so be forewarned. I found the characters really likeable though, especially Chloe’s family (her grandma is fabulous).

Challenge: read a book that makes you laugh

Wraith Squadron, Aaron Allston

Okay, I’ve written about this series before…twice. I’ve loved it since childhood and read it every few years, especially whenever I’m in need of comfort. I last read the nine x-wing novels around the time my grandpa died in 2017. Wraith Squadron and the other three books written by Allston are hilarious. They’re all about a squadron of washouts with special insurgency skills (including a cyborg doctor, an unstable sniper, a former child star, a demolitions expert, a barely-force-sensitive ranger, and a genius-level Gamorrean). These are endlessly quotable.

Challenge: read a satirical novel

Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett

Pratchett was the author I read most this year, by a lot. (I read 22 of his, 21 of the Discworld novels and 1 of his collected short fiction.) Feet of Clay is one of my favorites–I love the books featuring Vimes and the Watch–and has some lines that I always remember. “Words in the heart cannot be taken,” is a line that sticks with me. This is also the first book featuring Cheri Littlebottom, the first openly female dwarf.

Challenge: read a book set around the holidays

One Day in December, Josie Silver

A book about friendship, love, and missed connections, I really enjoyed this. It was sweet and would make for a cute mini-series. (Netflix, if you could get on that, I’d appreciate it.)

By the Numbers–authors I read more than once

22 by Terry Pratchett

5 each by Michael Stackpole and Mary Balogh

4 each by Katherine Center and Aaron Allston

3 each by Jenny Colgan and Sophie Kinsella

2 by Hester Browne, Julia Quinn, Susanna Kearsley, Octavia E. Butler, S.A. Chakraborty, and Jennifer Crusie

What to read in 2021

As I wrap up my last semester in graduate school, I look forward to reading more books this year. I’ll continue to challenge myself to read books by authors who are different from me, books in genres I don’t usually pick up, nonfiction stories, ones that are recommended to me, and new stories by authors I love in addition to familiar books that I like to read again and again. I’m also going to keep working towards the day my own stories will be in print. 🙂

What do you hope to read this year?

Reading challenge 2020

What a year. In 2019, I finished a complete year of graduate school and started my third year of teaching high school science. I also read…a lot.

For me, reading has always been a constant and a comfort. I visit the library almost every time I visit my parents to pick up a fresh pile of books. Reading is one of the major ways I like to unwind after a stressful day, even if I’ve had to grade papers and read numerous scientific articles for graduate school that evening. (All of this reading is probably why I’ve become so nearsighted the last few years.)

In my journal, each month I write a list of the books I’ve read. I tallied it up this morning.

In 2019, I read 109 books. I read the most books in July (17)–when work was out for the summer–and the least in May (4). I read series/ multiple books by 15+ authors.

While I wrote a post about a reading challenge before, I think the best lists are the ones we make ourselves.

January 

Challenge: Take a chance on an author you’ve never read before

Best new book of the month: How to Walk Away, Katherine Center

While I re-read numerous books in January, this bestseller from 2018 caught my eye. It’s about a woman who loses the use of her legs, among other things, after a plane crash. It made me cry and I finished it feeling surprisingly uplifted and inspired.

February 

Challenge: Read a book in an unusual style

Best new book of the month: Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

This was the first book I’ve read that’s had money in it. (A previous reader had $10 tucked inside a folded note sharing that it was his favorite book.)

The premise of this 2001 story is an island (Nollop) named after the creator of the sentence “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs” (a sentence with all the letters of the alphabet). When letters start falling off of the statue with the sentence on it, their use is outlawed. People who use the letters are whipped, put in stocks, or banished from the island. Each letter that falls also disappears from the novel itself, which is told via letters written by the main character (Ella Minnow Pea). It was a fascinating, thought-provoking book that made me think of words in a different way.

March

Challenge: Read a recent release by an author you love

Best new book of the month: I Owe You One, Sophie Kinsella

Sophie Kinsella has been one of my favorite authors since a friend gave me some of the Shopaholic novels in high school. I usually devour these books in one sitting. (Weirdly, I’m less a fan of the ones she writes under her real name, Madeleine Wickham.) This one was sweet; Fixie and Sebastian meet in a cafe and start exchanging IOUs, causing their lives to change for the better. While it’s not one of my absolute favorites, it was sweet and fun to read.

April

Challenge: Try a genre you don’t normally read

Best new book of the month: Fierce Fairytales, Nikita Gill

I looked for this book after realizing how many of her quotes I loved on Tumblr. While I almost never read poetry, my favorite parts of this collection were the fairytale-esque empowering poems. This was beautiful and something I sorely needed at that time of the year.

Favorite quote: “Out there may be monsters, my dear./ But in you still lives the dragon/ you should always believe in.” (From ‘Once upon a Time II’) I also loved the entirety of “Four Spells to Keep Inside Your Mouth,” which is all about how to maintain healthy boundaries.

May

Challenge: Finish reading a book series

Best new book of the month: Queen of Babble (series), Meg Cabot

This was one of three series I read by Meg Cabot this year. This set is similar to the Little Lady Agency novels by Hester Browne. I also read the Heather Wells series and the Insatiable series by Cabot later in the year.

June

Challenge: Read a book that’s been turned into a movie/TV show

Best new book of the month: Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

While I read new books in June (including one I’ve seen for years, The Man Who Ate the 747), my favorite read of the month was Good Omens. I picked it up again after seeing the mini-series on Amazon. I’ve read it at least three times and always love it. While Crowley and Aziraphrale don’t have as big of a role in the book as they do in the series–it’s more Adam’s story in the book–I thought the series fleshed out their relationship into a great love story.

July

Challenge: Pick up a new book you’ve wanted to read for a while

Best new book of the month: The Flatshare, Beth O’Leary

I first ran across this one in an airport bookshop in England. I was excited to see it at the library near my parents in California. It had a quirky premise–two people start sharing a flat/ bed without meeting because one is there at night and one is there during the day, so they communicate through post-it notes. It was very sweet and the love story was adorable. Since I was dealing with a gaslighting landlord for the first part of the year, reading this one was also healing. (Tiffy, the female lead, deals with a psychologically abusive ex-boyfriend in the book.)

August

Challenge: Read a book set in a different time period

Best new book of the month: The Poldark novels, Winston Graham

I became obsessed with Poldark on PBS this summer and tracked down the first handful of novels in the library. They’re set in Cornwall after the American War of Independence  and go through the early part of the 1800s. It does include a lot of politics and mining from that time period, although the relationships between the characters are the part that kept me going. I don’t read many books by male authors, but I enjoyed reading this set.

September

Challenge: Read a book about starting over

Best new book of the month: The Bookshop on the Shore, Jenny Colgan

In some ways, this one is a love letter to reading. It is also reminiscent of The Sound of Music. It’s primarily set in Scotland and features characters from The Bookshop on the Corner in minor roles. The main character’s son has selective mutism, which provided some interesting emotional depth. This one was ultimately hopeful.

October

Challenge: Read a book set in a culture different from your own

Best new book of the month: The Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo

I picked this one up because of its gorgeous cover. Set in Malaysia in the 1930s, it weaves in multiple narratives and a semi-frightening dreamworld with myths of men turning into tigers in Southeast Asia. I loved it and was genuinely worried for the main characters Ji Lin and Ren.

November

Challenge: Read a book you’ve passed over before

Best new book of the month: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See

This one was one that lingered. It’s set in China when foot-binding was mandatory for a good marriage (the narrative spans most of the narrator’s life from shortly before when her feet were first bound as a young child in the mid 1800s through her elderly years). I spent a lot of time looking things up about foot-binding.

December

Challenge: Read a book set somewhere you’d like to visit

Best new book of the month: The Rome Affair, Karen Swan

December wasn’t a month where I read many books I loved. This one was interesting. It featured a dual-narrative looking at the life and loves of an American heiress who meets the other narrator (a British tour guide and former barrister) when the heiress is an elderly woman living in a villa in Rome. The twists were a little too outlandish for me–the one that was telegraphed early ended up being a double-twist–but it was fun thinking about Rome. I hope to go to Italy at some point during the next decade.

Honorable Mention

The City of Brass, S.A. Chakraborty

I read this one in October. It’s a fantasy novel based on middle eastern folklore, with djinns and other magical entities throughout. This was one with an interesting twist at the end; I’m not usually surprised by endings, but I was left curious about where this series is going next. I loved this one.

So there you have it, 13 books from 2019.

Next year, I hope to read more good books as I’m trying to finish my graduate degree. I’ll challenge myself to try books by new authors, in new settings, and featuring cultures different from my own. I’ll also definitely re-read some of my favorites as well. It’s always good to have a comfort item that isn’t also fattening!

In 2020, what do you want to read?