Happy New Year, everyone!
2019 is as good as over and so begins the season of best-of-lists, wrapping up challenges and of course starting new ones. As an avid reader and a lover of lists, you can imagine how happy this makes me. It almost makes up for the cold weather and having to put on 50 layers of clothing every day.
I have already posted my favorite books of the year because I don’t think I’ll finish another book in 2019, so now it’s time to see how I did with all those challenges I set myself. Because the previous years weren’t so great reading-wise (and life-wise, to be honest. I lost both my grandmothers in 2017 and 2018 respectively, so books weren’t really on my mind for a long time), so I set myself very achievable goals and participated in only a few challenges. As the year went on and I stayed well ahead of my schedule, I threw in a couple of readathons which ended up pushing me even more ahead of schedule.
Goodreads Reading Challenge
I started out with a goal of 60 books. When I surpassed that in July, I upped it to 70, then 75. After that, I just decided to be happy with however many books I would end up reading, but of course a secret little voice in the back of my head kept whispering “100 is such a nice, round number”. And I did it! There were a few novelettes and graphic novels in there, but the bulk of my reading was novels (and some of them quite big ones).
I only read more pages in 2012 (34994 pages) but 2019 was filled with such fantastic books that I feel like it was actually my best reading year yet.
The Retellings Challenge
This wonderful challenge, hosted by Tracy at Cornerfolds played right into my hands. While I would have read many fairy tale retellings anyway, the reading prompts pushed me to pick up books out of my comfort zone, or older books that had been languishing on my TBR for way too long. It actually was a challenge to fill all the bingo squares and not all of my reads were great, but I am very happy with the result. I discovered new favorites (The Golem and the Jinni, The Scorpio Races), a new author I love (Joanna Ruth Meyer) and many other fantastic books that I probably wouldn’t have picked up otherwise.
Here’s what I read for this challenge. I’m so happy and a little bit proud that I managed to write a review for every single one of these books!
Beauty and the Beast: Brigid Kemmerer – A Curse so Dark and Lonely
Set in a foreign country: Leigh Bardugo – The Language of Thorns
Stand-alone book: Maggie Stiefvater – The Scorpio Races
Wonderland: Colleen Oakes – Queen of Hearts
Award-winning book: Helene Wecker – The Golem and the Jinni
One word title: Helen Oyeyemi – Gingerbread
Bronte or Austen: Ibi Zoboi – Pride
Native American myth: Rebecca Roanhorse – Trail of Lightning
2019 release: Joanna Ruth Meyer – Echo North
Egyptian myth: Kiersten White – The Chaos of Stars
Greek myth: Madeline Miller – Circe
Debut author: Melissa Bashardoust – Girls Made of Snow and Glass
Free Space: Lisa Goldstein – The Uncertain Places
Shakespeare: Lisa Mantchev – Eyes Like Stars
Asian myth: Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire
Indie book: Esther Dalseno – Drown
Russian folklore: Katherine Arden – The Winter of the Witch
Weapon on the cover: Steven Brust – The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
Norse myth: Joanne Harris – The Gospel of Loki
Peter Pan: Brianna R. Shrum – Never Never
Over 500 pages: Marion Zimmer Bradley – The Mists of Avalon
Set in space: Joan D. Vinge – The Snow Queen
Middle Eastern myth: S. A. Chakraborty – The City of Brass
Brothers Grimm: Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran – Snow, Glass, Apples
Written 10+ years ago: Nancy Springer – Fair peril
Ongoing challenges
I also ended up, quite by accident, reading some books from the various lists and awards I follow. These aren’t challenges with a time limit, but simply books I’d like to get to someday. However, as new releases tend to catch my eye and demand to be read right now, I often forget those older books. Not so this year! Whether it was because of the Retellings Challenge, the monthly book picks for the podcast Sword & Laser, or the Harry Potter themed readathons I participated in, I actually managed to catch up on some of those lists. If you’re interested in the entire lists, I have them in my blog menu, and if you want to see how many you’ve read, I highly recommend checking out Worlds Without End.
The Mythopoeic Award
- Lisa Goldstein – The Uncertain Places
- Helene Wecker – The Golem and the Jinni
- Madeline Miller – Circe
- Joanne M. Harris – The Gospel of Loki
- Nancy Springer – Fair Peril
- Marion Zimmer Bradley – The Mists of Avalon
- Lisa Mantchev – Eyes Like Stars
100 Must-Read Fantasy Books by Women
- Marion Zimmer Bradley – The Mists of Avalon
- Seanan McGuire – Rosemary and Rue
- Joan D. Vinge – The Snow Queen
- Megan Whalen Turner – The Thief
- Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen of Attolia
NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels
- Marion Zimmer Bradley – The Mists of Avalon
- Ray Bradbury – The Martian Chronicles
2019 Releases
While it’s not an official challenge, I always try to read a number of new publications because I want to have read enough new books to nominate my favorites for the Hugo Awards. I doubt I’ll ever manage to read all the books that interest me and are talked about in any given year, but I did quite okay this year.
Here are all the 2019 publications I actually read during 2019. I expect to read quite a few more in January and especially once the shortlists for the Nebula and Hugo Awards are out. But I also believe I won’t have that many books to catch up on this time. I picked many books that were buzzed about – some of them I loved to bits, others puzzled me completely as to why everyone seems to love them except me – but I’m pretty sure I know which books have a shot at being nominated for awards.
2019 publications I want to get to ASAP
Whether or not these end up on an award shortlist, I want to read them desperately. And if I’m quick and lucky, I’ll get to them before the nomination period for the Hugo Awards is over. Who knows, maybe my very favorite book of 2019 is among them?
- Marlon James – Black Leopard, Red Wolf
- Paul Krueger – Steel Crow Saga
- Charlie Jane Anders – The City in the Middle of the Night
- Maggie Stiefvater – Call Down the Hawk (currently reading)
- T. Kingfisher – The Twisted Ones
- Brandon Sanderson – Starsight
Overall, I am more than happy with my 2019 reading challenges. I didn’t expect to get a blackout on the Retellings Challenge bingo card and I am even happier to have picked up some older books. And I still managed to read more new publications than ever before… apparently I did something right this year, finding the perfect balance between old and new, challenge books and mood reads. I can’t say that I used any kind of system but I hope that whatever motivated me so much in 2019 will still work its magic in 2020.
SFF Book Reviews 