Books

I concentrated this challenge on non-mystery historical fiction as I had several mystery challenges going and many of the mystery series I read are historical fiction. So my goal for the year was Renaissance Reader: 10 books.

20th Century Reader – 2 books
Victorian Reader – 5 books
Renaissance Reader – 10 books
Medieval – 15 books
Ancient History – 25 books
Prehistoric – 50+ books

But I just hit Ancient History: 25 books, which is great & means lots of books cleaned off the shelves, so I’m calling the challenge for the year & feeling good. Here are the books I read for the challenge:

The Lost Queen (The Lost Queen Trilogy #1), Signe Pike
Lady Clementine, Marie Benedict
The Queen’s Gambit, Walter Tevis
Kim, Rudyard Kipling
The Other Windsor Girl: A Novel of Love, Royalty, Whiskey, & Cigarettes, Georgie Blalock
The Gown, Jennifer Robson
We Are Not Free, Traci Chee
The Final Storm (World War II: 1939-1945, #4), Jeff Shaara
The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah
Carnegie’s Maid, Marie Benedict
The Frozen Hours, Jeff Shaara
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
To Wake the Giant: A Novel of Pearl Harbor, Jeff Shaara
Under the Wide and Starry Sky, Nancy Horan
The Eagle’s Claw: A Novel of the Battle of Midway, Jeff Shaara
Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson
Finding Dorothy, Elizabeth Letts
Child of the River, Irma Joubert
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriott (#1)
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid
American Duchess: A Novel of Consuelo Vanderbilt, Karen Harper
American Princess: A Novel of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt, Stephanie Marie Thornton
The Vanished Days, Susanna Kearsley
Shadow of a Bull, Maia Wojciechowska

Since it’s the end of June, I managed this reading challenge in 26 weeks! Here are the categories & books I read for this very fun challenge. I only had to find a few titles, as most of them were read in the normal course of my reading.

1. Set in a school: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
2. Featuring the legal profession: The Mitford Trial (A Mitford Murders Mystery #4), Jessica Fellowes
3. A dual timeline: The Gown, Jennifer Robson
4. An author that is deceased: With the Old Breed, E.B. Sledge
5. Published by Penguin: What Angels Fear (Sebastian St. Cyr #1), C.S. Harris
6. A character with the same name as a male family member: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
7. An author with only 1 published book: Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
8. A book in the 900’s of the Dewey Decimal System: The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War, H.W. Brands
9. Set in a Mediterranean country: Above the Bay of Angels, Rhys Bowen
10. Related to the word “fire”: Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
11. Book with discussion questions inside: The Other Windsor Girl: A Novel of Love, Royalty, Whiskey, & Cigarettes, Georgie Blalock
12. Title starting with the letter “D”: Death Masks (The Dresden Files, #5), Jim Butcher
13. Includes an exotic animal: The Song of the Lion (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito #21), Anne Hillerman
14. Written by an author over 65 (when published): The Tamarack Murders (Sheriff Bo Tully #5), Patrick F. McManus
15. A book mentioned in another book: Kim, Rudyard Kipling
16. Set before the 17th Century: The Lost Queen, Signe Pike
17. A character “on the run”: The Huckleberry Murders (Sheriff Bo Tully #4), Patrick F. McManus
18. Author with a 9-letter last name: Louisiana’s Way Home, Kate DiCamillo
19. Book with a deckled edge: Uncommon Type, Tom Hanks
20. Made into a TV series: The Queen’s Gambit, Walter Tevis
21. Book by Kristin Hannah: The Four Winds
22. A family saga: When You Trap a Tiger, Tae Keller
23. An ending that surprises you: A False Mirror (Inspector Ian Rutledge #9), Charles Todd
24. A book you think they should read in schools: One Year in Coal Harbor, by Polly Horvath
25. A book with multiple character POV: The Stranger Diaries (Harbinder Kaur #1), Elly Griffiths
26. An author of color: New Kid, Jerry Craft
27. First chapter ends on an odd page number: The D.A. Calls it Murder, Erle Stanley Gardner
28. Includes a historical event you know little about: Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country, C.J. Box
29. Featuring the environment: The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, Kevin Fedarko
30. Watch out for dragons!: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
31. Shares a similar title to another book: Lord of the Wings (Meg Langslow #19), Donna Andrews
32. A selfish character: Half Moon Street (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt #20), Anne Perry
33. Featuring adoption: Pine Island Home, Polly Horvath
34. A book you’d rate 5 stars: Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
35. Set in a country that starts with the letter “S”: The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists (Detective Varg, #0.8), Alexander McCall Smith
36. A nameless narrator: The Tale Teller (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito #23), Anne Hillerman
37. An educational read: The Final Storm (World War II: 1939-1945, #4), Jeff Shaara
38. Recommended on BookBub: King of Scars (King of Scars #1), Leigh Bardugo
39. An alternate history novel: Pirate King (Mary Russell, #11), Laurie R. King
40. Found via #bookstagram: Storm Front (Dresden Files #1), Jim Butcher
41. An endorsement by a famous author on the cover: The Postscript Murders (Harbinder Kaur #2), Elly Griffiths
42. An epistolary: TBH, This Is So Awkward (TBH, #1), Lisa Greenwald
43. A character with a pet cat: The Woman in Blue (Ruth Galloway #8), Elly Griffiths
44. Includes a garden: The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
45. A coming of age novel: We Are Not Free, Traci Chee
46. Winner of the National Book Award-any year: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, Timothy Egan
47. A character with a disability: Fish in a Tree, Lynda Mullaly Hunt
48. A cover with woman who is facing away: Lady Clementine, Marie Benedict
49. A flavour in the title: The Peppermint Tea Chronicles (44 Scotland Street #13), Alexander McCall Smith
50. A shoe on the cover: The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday (Isabel Dalhousie #5), Alexander McCall Smith
51. Published in 2021: The Consequences of Fear (Maisie Dobbs #16), Jacqueline Winspear
52. Re-do one of the previous 51 categories from this 2021 challenge (A book you’d rate 5 stars): The Language of Bees (Mary Russell #9), Laurie R. King

• One/1 One Bad Apple (Orchard, #1), Sheila Connolly
• Doubled word To Have and Have Not, Ernest Hemingway
• Reference to outer space Fool Moon (Dresden Files #2), Jim Butcher
• Possessive noun Louisiana’s Way Home, Kate DiCamillo
• Botanical word The Huckleberry Murders (Sheriff Bo Tully #4), Patrick F. McManus
• Article of clothing The Gown, Jennifer Robson

Books read: 218
Pages read: 76,993
Of the books read:
Non-fiction: 31
New-to-me authors: 51
Continuing series books: 115
Re-reads: 27
Audio-books: 104
Various book club reads: 10
Challenges completed: 10 of 10
Ongoing tally of Newbery winners: 82 of 99

[Read more…] about 2020 Reading Statistics