I participated in seven reading challenges this year and completed most of them successfully so far, at the time of writing in November. One that I completed successfully was the Modern Mrs Darcy Challenge. For this challenge, I was lucky to be able to use many review books, or books I was reading at the time, and had some cross over with other challenges such as my book bingo challenges, the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge, and one or two others. Some didn’t, however. This was another challenge with fairly open categories, but specific enough to make me wonder if I would complete it. I loved that my prize winning or award nominated challenges for the most part this have not been prescriptive (apart from one category in the Nerd Daily Challenge that I am still working on), so it has given me so much more scope to include and champion Australian authors, especially during COVID, while our arts industry has been decimated and not given much support.
Of all categories here, the book published in the decade I was born was the toughest – the 80s book lists I found didn’t inspire me, and with libraries closed, this made it harder to find a way to read something that I didn’t really want to keep. However, I stumbled upon a booklist of Emily Rodda’s books, and found Pigs Might Fly – published in 1986 – PERFECT! That was the final piece in this puzzle, as the others were all easily found in my piles at home.
I’ll have a look again next year to see what this challenge offers when the time comes to decide if I will do reading challenges next year.
THE MODERN MRS. DARCY
2020 Reading Challenge
a book published the decade you were born: Pigs Might Fly by Emily Rodda
a debut novel: The Soldier’s Curse by Meg and Tom Keneally (Monsarrat Series Book One)
a book recommended by a source you trust: Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales – Amanda Barrett
a book by a local author: Pippa’s Island: Puppy Pandemonium by Belinda Murrell
a book outside your (genre) comfort zone: The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim – literary fiction
a book in translation: The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting
a re-read: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (Ravenclaw Edition)
a classic you didn’t read in school: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
three books by the same author:
1. Friday Barnes: Girl Detective by R.A. Spratt
2. Friday Barnes: Under Suspicion by R.A. Spratt
3. Friday Barnes: Big Trouble by R.A. Spratt
The Book Muse 
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