2017 Reading Challenge
As well as the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge, I embarked on this year, in which I read about fifty-five books, I also did another reading challenge in another group. Since last year, we have gathered on Facebook, with a list of at least twenty categories, sometimes more, to fill with at least one book per category. Our rules are fairly relaxed – we can use the same book for multiple categories or read multiple books for one category. Below is this year’s challenge and the books I read, mostly review books, and I challenged myself to read a different book for each category, which I achieved. I managed to read three books for the award winner’s category – a category the group decided was open to any book award. The books I read covered multiple awards in Australia and America.
One book that I scraped into the category by a year was Gumnut Babies by May Gibbs – published in 1916, and many of the other books would have fit multiple categories. For a fantasy book and a book by a female author, I could have filled each of those five times at least, if not more. A banned book – I had many options to choose from. Some categories had to be stretched a little, or were fairly open so could be stretched, such as a book that takes place in a forest – The History of Wolves has parts that take place in a forest, so it seemed to fit that category. Others were more straightforward: a book based on a fairy tale – Frogkisser is based on multiple fairy tale tropes, and turns them on their heads. This felt like a good one for this category. Each year the challenge has been different and I haven’t been stumped by a category so badly I haven’t been able to fill it yet. It will always depend on the category and whether I can find a book, so let’s see what 2018’s challenge brings. As always I will aim to fill each category at least once, twice if I can.
Here’s to the next challenge!
Below is my list from the 2017 challenge with linked reviews so you can peruse them for your own reading challenges in 2018 and beyond.
2017 Reading Challenge
A collection of short stories: Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan
A Young Adult novel: The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles
A Book with a colour in the title: The Green Mill Murders by Kerry Greenwood, Black Cats and Butlers by Janine Beacham
A book that is more than 100 years old: Gum Nut Babies by May Gibbs
A Book you picked because of the cover: Frostblood by Elly Blake
A book based on a fairy tale: Frogkisser! By Garth Nix
A book that takes place in a forest: The History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund
A National Book Award Winner: Three read for this category
Award: National Book Award 2016 and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017
Book: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
 
Award #2: The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award 2017
Book: The Lost Pages by Marija Peričić
 
Awards #3 ABIA Book of the Year 2013, ABIA Literary Fiction of the Year 2013, Bookseller’s Choice Award, The Indie Book of the Year 2013
Book: The Light Between Oceans by ML Steadman
A romance that takes place during travel: New York Nights by C.J. Duggan
A book under 200 pages: Billy Sing: A Novel by Ouyang Yu
A book over 400 pages:Â A Waltz for Matilda by Jackie French
 
A banned book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
A non-fiction book about nature: The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony with Grahame Spence
A fantasy novel: Draekora by Lynette Noni
A book by a person of colour: Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
A book by a female writer: Caraval by Stephanie Garber
A book of poetry: We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan
A book set in Asia: The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star by Vaseem Khan
A book about immigrants: Under the Same Sky by Mojgan Shamsalipoor, and Milad Jafari with James Knight
A book about an historical event: The Blue Cat by Ursula Dubosarsky (World War Two), The Last Hours by Minette Walters (The Black Death)
A book with a child narrator: The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan
A book translated from another language: Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada
A book that has been adapted into a film (Bonus: watch the film and compare): The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman
One of two challenges completed for 2017. I also completed the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge, which will be covered in a separate post, as will an overall wrap of my reading, and a post that will hopefully combine both challenges, sans the book lists.
Buy the books I read in this challenge here:
Reading can benefit children and adults: in children, reading has been shown to help them form an identity, and set them up for success in the future, and in adults, it can help to reduce stress by 68%, more than listening to music, going for a walk or having a cup of tea.
To participate in The Australian Reading hour register
A Letter From Italy opens with Rebecca bidding a fond farewell to her husband Jack before he departs on a journalistic assignment, leaving her in Italy, where she must wait for him to return, whilst working on her journalistic career, and finding stories that will see her departure from the Women’s Pages of the newspaper she works for to the serious, hard hitting journalism that at the time, was seen as the domain of the male journalist, as was the role of war correspondent, reporting on all aspects of the war, whereas Rebecca was encouraged to report on what affected the home front and women, rather than the battles and bombings that destroyed lives. Using her knowledge of the area and a kind hearted American photographer with Italian heritage, Sandro to help her, Rebecca starts writing stories that matter, and sends them to the newspapers, whilst hoping her husband is still alive, and showing the male journalists that she can cope. Her feminist views come out when young Italian girls are surprised at how many rights she has as a woman, that she can vote – and that she doesn’t need to do what her husband says.
Since 2015, one of my favourite series has had illustrated editions released for each book, and this year not only marks the twentieth anniversary, already discussed in a previous post, but a
new addition to the already released illustrated editions:
illustrated editions, Jim Kay has illustrated the story, and brought iconic aspects of the novel, such as the Knight Bus, seen here on the cover, to life. This hardback edition will have a ribbon marker, head and tail bands, illustrated end papers, and has over 115 colour images. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite of the series, and I can’t wait to see the illustrations to accompany the Dementors and the Boggart scenes.
Title: Bone Gap