2018 Reading Challenge

Hey y'all! So everyone I know knows how much I love to read. I mean, it's pretty obvious. I literally always have my nose stuck in a book or I'm carrying one around in my purse. So this year, in addition to the individual challenge I've set for myself on Goodreads (click here to follow me on Goodreads if you want to keep up with what I'm currently reading), I've also decided to do the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge! If you want to sign up to do the MMD reading challenge with me, a link can be found here. I love Modern Mrs. Darcy, she's definitely one of my favorite book bloggers, so I was really excited to join this challenge. (You also get the super cute graphic pictured above if you sign up). I still have holes for a few of the categories, so if you all have any good suggestions, let me know! MMD has 12 categories this year, one per month, but if you've missed a month or two and still want to join, there's plenty of time!

1. A Classic You've Been Meaning To Read
For this category, I chose Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I've seen this movie a dozen times, what Southern girl hasn't? But I've never actually read the book that inspired the movie. Even though there is some very obvious bias and glossing over of sensitive issues in this book, as one of ten most well read works in the world, I feel like this is a book everyone should read at some point. I actually really enjoyed reading GWTW, and picked up the two sequels authorized by Margaret Mitchell's estate, but I haven't read them yet.

2. A Book Recommended By Someone With Great Taste
So, the person I used as someone with great taste was obviously my mom. She's an English lit teacher, so I mean honestly, it would have looked really bad if I used anyone else. She's been on me to read A Gentleman in Moscow  by Amor Towles since last summer, so I figured now would be a great time to add it to my TBR list. It took me a few chapters to get into this book, but once I got a few pages in, I was hooked. It was so good! I loved the unique plot of the book, and the way it was written really reminded me of an adult Series of Unfortunate Events. I enjoyed this book so much that I'm looking forward to reading the author's other novel, Rules of Civility. 

3. A Book In Translation
There were so many options for this category that it took me a while to narrow it down. I finally chose The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for this category. I'm really excited to read this, the description reminded me of a cross between Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I'll let you all know how it goes when I finish it!

4. A Book Nominated For An Award In 2018
These nominations aren't out yet, but if you all see any good suggestions before I get around to it, let me know :)

5. A Book Of Poetry, A Play, Or An Essay Collection
I chose A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams for this category. I actually ended up reading this in a day, once I started it I couldn't put it down. I wanted to talk to someone so badly about my thoughts on it after I finished it, but no one else around me had read it! Someone please let me know if you've read this because I have so many theories and questions after finishing it. I still have some super mixed feelings as it relates to this book, I just really don't know what to think.

6. A Book You Can Read In A Day
Funny story, I originally had a different book picked out for this category, but Reese Witherspoon's book club chose The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo as their February book of the month pick, and I borrowed it because I liked the description on Instagram. Y'all, I didn't even mean to read this book in one day but I picked it up and legitimately couldn't put it down. I read the whole thing on Valentine's Day, and it was so. good. I was so engrossed in this story, I literally cannot say enough good things about this book, just go read it. I'm curious to hear other people's opinions on the ending as well...

7. A Book More Than 500 Pages
I chose The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for this category, because I was actually starting to pack my books up for the move, and realized it had been sitting on my TBR shelf for a really long time. When I picked this up, I was a little bit skeptical at first just based on the back of the book description, but I was hooked pretty quickly. I think I ended up finishing the whole book in less than a week.

8. A Book By A Favorite Author
I have so many favorite authors that it was really hard for me to narrow it down for this category, but I finally decided on Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett and The Council of 12 by Oliver Potzsch. So, The Council of 12 doesn't actually come out until May, but I love love love the Hangman's Daughter series, and I am so excited that he's written another book! Also, don't even get me started on my love for Ken Follett.  Pillars of the Earth is in my top 5 favorite books of all time, but I've only read his two trilogies, so I'm excited to try one of his stand alone novels centered around WWII.

9. A Book Recommended By A Librarian or Indie Bookseller
I think I'm probably going to use The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck for this category. I picked this up at my local bookstore, Union Ave Books, and while I didn't talk to anyone in the store about this, it was on their bestseller shelf, so I'm pretty sure it counts, right?

10. A Banned Book
I actually have had a super hard time with this category, because when I google banned book lists, I've read almost all of them! After staring at banned book lists for literally weeks, I decided to settle on The Color Purple by Alice Walker. I know that Oprah made this into a movie, which I've actually never seen, but I'd never actually read a description of the plot until recently.

11. A Memoir, Biography, or Book of Creative Non-Fiction
This category was a serious no brainer for me. I picked up Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow a few years ago when I had first started listening to Hamilton on repeat, and its been on my bookshelf ever since. I had a plan to read it, Thomas Jefferson's biography by Jon Meacham, and Valiant Ambition all this year, so I was so excited to see that I could double dip and use Alexander Hamilton for one of the categories! As a huge history nerd, I am so pumped for this category, and am probably going to read two or three books this year that fit this description.

12. A Book By An Author of A Different Race, Ethnicity, or Religion Than Your Own
For this category I chose Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. It's one of those books that I've been seeing everywhere for like the past year, and every time, I've been intrigued by it, but I've been in the middle of another series when I saw it and decided I'd pick it up next time (I'm looking at you George R.R. Martin and Diana Gabaldon). This is another book that I started and finished within a few days. It is so incredibly good. I love that each story is told from a different relative's perspective. I actually read this back to back with Poisonwood Bible, so I went on a little bit of a "books set in Africa" kick, but it was so good. I loved her writing style and the way she really weaved the story in and out. This is a book that literally everyone needs to read at some point. I have no doubt in my mind it's going to show up on future AP exams and summer reading lists.

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