2019 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Host: Amy @ Passages to the Past
Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2019

Guidelines:

• Choose your level.
• Read any sub-genre of historical fiction (Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, etc.)
• You don't need a blog to participate.
• There will be a monthly link for reviews.

Levels:

1. 20th Century Reader - 2 books
2. Victorian Reader - 5 books
3. Renaissance Reader - 10 books
4. Medieval - 15 books
5. Ancient History - 25 books
6. Prehistoric - 50+ books

My goal: "Victorian Reader" (5 books).

● See my original post about the challenge HERE. 
● See the challenge announcement/sign-up post HERE.
● See the pages for linking reviews: JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC .
● See the page for linking wrap-ups and recaps HERE.


MY READING LIST (books I've read, with links to reviews):

1. O Pioneers! Willa Cather (published 1913; set in late 19th/early 20th Centuries)
2. Mrs. Everything. Jennifer Weiner (published 2019; set primarily in mid-20th Century)
3. Lady in the Lake. Laura Lippman (published 2019; set in 1960s) 
4. Sorry for the Dead (Josephine Tey #8). Nicola Upson (published 2019; set between WWI and 1950s)
5. Old Baggage. Lissa Evans (published 2018/2019; set in 1920s)

POSSIBILITIES (some books I'd like to knock off my TBR pile):

• Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood 
• The Alienist. Caleb Carr 
• The Children's Book. A.S. Byatt 
• The Conjurer's Bird. Martin Davies 
• The Crystal Cave (Arthurian Saga #1). Mary Stewart 
• The English Patient. Michael Ondaatje 
• Flora. Gail Godwin 
• The Fountain Overflows. Rebecca West 
• A Gentleman in Moscow. Amor Towles 
• Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Susan Vreeland 
• The Glass Room. Simon Mawer 
• The House of the Spirits. Isabel Allende 
• I Am Madam X. Gioia Diliberto 
• The Last Painting of Sara de Vos. Dominic Smith
• Los Alamos. Joseph Kanon 
• Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper. Harriet Scott Chessman 
• A Mercy. Toni Morrison 
• The Mists of Avalon. Marion Zimmer Bradley 
• Number the Stars. Lois Lowry 
• Remarkable Creatures. Tracy Chevalier 
• Rules of Civility. Amor Towles 
• The Secret Keeper. Kate Morton 
• The Summer Before the War. Helen Simonson 
• The Virgin in the Garden. A.S. Byatt 
• When We Were Orphans. Kazuo Ishiguro 
• Wide Sargasso Sea. Jean Rhys 
• The Women in the Castle. Jessica Shattuck 

...

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2019

Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2019
Host: Bev @ My Reader's Block

Guidelines

• Sign-up anytime before November 1, 2019.
• Choose a level of participation. Once you choose, you're locked in for at least that many books. You can increase your level; all books counted for lower levels carry over towards the new level.
• Books must be owned by you prior to January 1, 2019. No library books.
• Books can be counted for other challenges.
• Reviews aren't required, and a blog isn't necessary.
• Rereads may count (see challenge announcement page for details).
• Audiobooks and E-books may count if they are yours and they are one of your primary sources of backlogged books.
• You may count any "currently reading" book that you begin prior to January 1– provided that you had 50% or more of the book left to finish in 2019.
• "Did Not Finish" books can be counted, under some circumstances (see challenge announcement page for details).
• You can submit a list in advance, or add your books as you read them.
• There will be a year-end check-in.
• There will be a GoodReads group for the challenge.
• There will be a challenge headquarters page which will offer links to monthly review pages, and the final wrap-up.

Challenge Levels:

1. Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
2. Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s
3. Mt. Vancouver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s
4. Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR piles/s
5. Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s
6. El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
7. Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s
8. Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s

✸ I'm signing up at the first level (Pike's Peak), so I'll be trying for at least 12 books from my TBR pile.

● See my original post about the challenge HERE.
● See my wrap-up post HERE.
● See the challenge announcement page HERE.
● See the challenge headquarters page HERE.
● See the review pages:

JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC.

● See the year-end check-in page HERE.


MY READING LIST (Books I've read, with links to reviews):

1. The Quiche of Death (Agatha Raisin #1). M.C. Beaton (1992) [Review linked 1/23/2019] 
2. The Vicious Vet (Agatha Raisin #2). M.C. Beaton (1993) 
3. The Potted Gardener (Agatha Raisin #3). M.C. Beaton (1994) 
4. The Walkers of Dembley (Agatha Raisin #4). M.C. Beaton (1995)
5. O Pioneers! Willa Cather (1913)
6. The Magic Bedknob. Mary Norton (1943)
7. The Uninvited. Dorothy Macardle (1942) 
8. The Appleton Case (Markham Sisters #1). Diana Xarissa (2015)
9. Who Goes There? John W. Campbell, Jr. (1938)

Books I'd Like to Read in 2019 (many of these have been on the shelves for a LONG time):

• Afternoon Men. Anthony Powell 
• American Eve. Paula Uruburu 
• The Art of Mending. Elizabeth Berg 
• The Bell. Iris Murdoch 
• The Bell Jar. Sylvia Plath 
• The Berlin Stories. Christopher Isherwood 
• The Black Prince. Iris Murdoch 
• Black Sun. Geoffrey Wolff 
• The Book of the Dead. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child 
• Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy L. Sayers 
• The Cabinet of Curiosities. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child 
• Cast, In Order of Disappearance (Charles Paris #1). Simon Brett 
• The Children's Book. A.S. Byatt 
• Cutwork (Needlecraft Mysteries #7). Monica Ferris 
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 
• The Enchanted April. Elizabeth von Arnim 
• The Europeans. Henry James 
• Family Album. Penelope Lively 
• The Fencing Master. Arturo Pérez-Reverte 
• Five Red Herrings. Dorothy L. Sayers 
• Flaubert's Parrot. Julian Barnes 
• Foundation. Isaac Asimov 
• Framed in Lace (Needlecraft Mysteries #2). Monica Ferris 
• The Ghost Writer. Philip Roth 
• The Glass Room. Simon Mawer 
• Hanging By a Thread (Needlecraft Mysteries #6). Monica Ferris
• The Haunted Bookshop. Christopher Morley 
• High Rising (Barsetshire #1). Angela Thirkell 
• How It All Began. Penelope Lively 
• Identity. Milan Kundera 
• Invitation to the Waltz. Rosamond Lehmann 
• Istanbul Passage. Joseph Kanon 
• Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte 
• July and August. Nancy Clark 
• Jumping the Queue. Mary Wesley 
• The Lake House. Kate Morton 
• Let the Devil Sleep (Dave Gurney #3). John Verdon 
• Los Alamos. Joseph Kanon 
• Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Eric Hodgins 
• Mrs. Malory and a Death in the Family. Hazel Holt
• Mrs. Malory and a Necessary End. Hazel Holt
• The Moonstone. Wilkie Collins 
• Murder At the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1). Agatha Christie 
• Murder Must Advertise. Dorothy L. Sayers 
• The Mystery of Lewis Carroll. Jenny Woolf 
• The Nine Tailors. Dorothy L. Sayers  
• Oracle Night. Paul Auster 
• The Pale Horse. Agatha Christie 
• Prater Violet. Christopher Isherwood 
• Prophecy. S.J. Parris 
• Providence. Anita Brookner 
• Relic. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child 
• The Road to Lichfield. Penelope Lively 
• The Secret Keeper. Kate Morton 
• The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (Inspector Morse, #3). Colin Dexter
• Silver on the Tree (The Dark Is Rising series, final book). Susan Cooper 
• The Sisters: The Lives and Times of the Fabulous Cushing Sisters. David Grafton 
• The Talented Mr. Ripley. Patricia Highsmith 
• The Takeover. Muriel Spark
• Time and Again. Clifford D. Simak 
• Two Serious Ladies. Jane Bowles 
• The Spoils of Poynton. Henry James 
• The Unicorn. Iris Murdoch 
• Unnatural Death. Dorothy L. Sayers 
• When the Music's Over (DCI Banks #23). Peter Robinson
• A Wreath of Roses. Elizabeth Taylor 
• The Year of Magical Thinking. Joan Didion 

2019 Calendar of Crime Challenge

Host: Bev @ My Reader's Block
Dates: 1 January - 31 December 2019

Guidelines (quoted from announcement page):

• Challenge runs from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. all books should be read during this time period. Sign up any time between now and November 1, 2019. 
• All books must be mysteries. Humor, romance, supernatural elements (etc.) are welcome, but the books must be mysteries/crime/detective novels first.
• Twelve books, one representing each month, are required for a completed challenge and to be eligible for the end-of-year prize drawing. Each month comes with several categories that may be selected to fulfill the month's reading. 
• To claim a book, it must fit one of the categories for the month you wish to fulfill. Unless otherwise specified, the category is fulfilled within the actual story. For instance, if you are claiming a book for December and you want to use "Christmas" as the category, then Christmas must figure in some way in the plot. Did someone poison the plum pudding? Did Great-Uncle Whozit invite all the family home for Christmas so he could tell them he plans to change his will? 
• The "wild card" book is exactly that. If July is your birth month, then for category #9, you may read any mystery book you want. It does not have to connect with July in any way — other than a July baby chose it. The other eleven months, you must do the alternate category #9 if you want to fulfill that slot. 
• For the category that says "Book title contains a word that starts with the letter A," the following do not count: "A" and "An."  
• Books may only count for one month and one category, but they may count for other challenges. If it could fulfill more than one category or month, then you are welcome to change the category/month at any time prior to the final wrap-up.
• Books do not have to be read during the month for which they qualify. So if you're feeling like a little "Christmas in July" (or May or...), then feel free to read your book for December whenever the mood strikes.
• A wrap-up post/comment/email will be requested that should include a calendar of books read and what category they fulfilled. [Example: January: The House of Sudden Sleep by John Hawk (original pub date January 1930)].
• All participants who complete the challenge will be eligible for an end-of-year prize drawing. There will also be a "My Calendar's Booked" prize for the challenger who fills their calendar with the most books, so challengers are encouraged to read more than one/all category/ies for each month. In case of a tie, there will be a prize drawing among the the folks who booked-up their year so fully.

Monthly Categories:

See my original post about the challenge HERE.
See the challenge announcement/sign-up page HERE.
See the challenge Headquarters page HERE.

MY  READING  LIST:

JANUARY:
• The Janus Stone (Ruth Galloway Mysteries #2). Elly Griffiths (Category #7: Title has word starting with "J") [See Review]

FEBRUARY:
• Murder Theory (The Naturalist #3). Andrew Mayne (Category #6: Original publication month)

MARCH:
•

APRIL:
• The Appleton Case (Markham Sisters #1). Diana Xarissa (Category #7: Title has word starting with "A")

MAY:
• The Man in the White Linen Suit (Stewart Hoag #11). David Handler (Category #7: Title has word starting with "M")

JUNE:
• Run Away. Harlan Coben (Category #9: Father figures prominently)

JULY:
• Lady in the Lake. Laura Lippman (Category #6: Original publication month)

AUGUST:
• Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet (Agatha Raisin #2). M.C. Beaton (Category #7: Title has word starting with "A"; would also fit Category 6: Original publication month)

SEPTEMBER:
• Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener (Agatha Raisin #3). M.C. Beaton (Category #9: Birth Month / Wild Card)

OCTOBER:
• We Were Killers Once (Brigid Quinn #4). Becky Masterman (Category #7: Title has word starting with "O")

NOVEMBER:
• Sorry for the Dead (Josephine Tey #8). Nicola Upson (Category #9: Family relationships play a major role)

DECEMBER:
• Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley (Agatha Raisin #4). M.C. Beaton (Category #7: Title has word starting with "D")