BOOKLIST QUEEN 2021 READING CHALLENGE [current challenge]

This year’s Reading Women challenge list didn’t excite me (and included too many middle-grade and YA categories), so I’m going with the Booklist Queen challenge this year! There are more categories, but most should be easy to fill with books I have on hand.

1. A Productivity Book
 2. Book Becoming Movie in 2021
 3. Goodreads Winner in 2020
 4. Biography
 5. About a Pressing Social Issue
 6. A Book About Books
 7. Set in the 1920s
 8. An Author Who Uses Initials
 9. Poetry
 10. A 2020 Bestseller
 11. Recommended by a Colleague
 12. With a Number in the Title: Talking from 9 to 5 by Deborah Tannen
 13. Bottom of Your To-Read List
 14. Reread a Favorite Book
 15. Own Voices Story
 16. Published in the 1800s
 17. Local Author
 18. Longer Than 400 Pages
 19. A Book Turned Into a TV Series 
 20. A Book That Makes You Think
 21. A WWII Story
 22. A Highly Anticipated Book
 23. Eye-Catching Cover
 24. A Summer Read
 25. Coming of Age Story
 26. Bestselling Memoir
 27. Book Club Favorite
 28. A Book About Friendship
 29. An Audiobook
 30. Set in Australia
 31. By a Nobel Prize winner
 32. About an Immigrant
 33. Time Travel Novel
 34. An Author You Love
 35. Childhood Favorite
 36. Classic Read in High School
 37. Borrowed from the Library
 38. Nonfiction New York Times Bestseller: Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
 39. From an Indie Publisher
 40. Fantasy
 41. A Sequel
 42. Recommended by a Librarian
 43. Psychological Thriller
 44. Oprah Winfrey Book Club Pick
 45. A Book About Technology
 46. Title with Three Words
 47. Debut Novel of Famous Author
 48. Genre You Don’t Usually Read
 49. A Book Everyone Is Talking About
 50. You Own But Haven’t Read
 51. Borrowed from a Friend
 52. A 2021 New Release

READING WOMEN CHALLENGE 2020 [past challenge]

Reading Women hosts an annual challenge to encourage readers to “take back half the shelf” for women authors and to read more diverse authors, and I participated in the 2020 challenge. Visit Reading Women’s challenge page for more information. Here is a list of the categories with the books I plan to read or have already read (bold text):

• A book by an author from the Caribbean or India: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
• A book translated from an Asian language: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
• A book about the environment: Buzz Sting Bite: Why We Need Insects by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
• A picture book written/illustrated by a BIPOC author: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
• A winner of the Stella Prize or the Women’s Prize for Fiction: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• A nonfiction title by a woman historian: The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell
• A book featuring Afrofuturism or Africanfuturism: Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor
• An anthology (bonus points if the editor is a woman): There’s a Woman in the Pulpit, Martha Spong, ed.
• A book inspired by folklore: The King Must Die by Mary Renault
• A book about a woman artist: Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke
• Read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation: P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
• A book about a woman who inspires you: Becoming by Michelle Obama
• A book by an Arab woman
• A Book Set in Japan or by a Japanese Author: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
• A biography: Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff
• A book featuring a woman with a disability: How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall
• A book over 500 pages
• A book under 100 pages
• A book that’s frequently recommended to you
• A feel-good or happy book: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
• A Book about food: The Spice Necklace by Ann Vanderhoof
• A book by either a favorite or a new-to-you publisher: A Noel Killing by M.L. Longworth* (Penguin, favorite)
• A book by an LGBTQ+ author: The King Must Die by Mary Renault
• A book from the 2019 Reading Women Award Shortlists or Honorable Mentions: The Yellow House by Sarah Broome
• BONUS: a book by Toni Morrison
• BONUS: a book by Isabel Allende: My Invented Country

DEWEY DECIMAL CHALLENGE

My lifetime challenge is reading a book for every Dewey Decimal section in use. I’ve read over 300 of the 900-something sections; too much to list here. If you’re curious, check out my list on LibraryThing.