Just A Second: Reading Challenge

Showing posts with label Reading Challenge. Show all posts

Monday, June 30

June Bookshelf Review

Like a crazy person, I opted to start on the 52 Book Club's Connections Reading Challenge, which takes the place of a summer mini-challenge this year. The entire challenge is twenty-one books, which CLEARLY I won't finish during the summer, but will just plod along through it for the fun of seeing how many I can do. And for my own entertainment, I may continue until I do finish, even if that takes me into next year. For me, reading challenges are to push me to read more and to read books outside of my most favorite genres, and not for comparison or competition with others. Anyway, true to form, I've no sooner started on the Connections and then realize that I'll not be able to start the third book of the challenge until I've finished a couple of review books. :shrug: That's the way it goes!

June's Books Completed and Reviewed

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn - Spy thriller meets murder mystery as four women, all retired professional assassins, realize that the firm they worked for is trying to kill them. They combine their skills and resources to protect each other, and naturally, to kill the would-be killers before they become victims. (When I posted the May Bookshelf Review, this review hadn't posted. You can find it HERE.)

The Blind Scribe by Connilyn Cossette - Shalem's curiosity about languages and about a mysterious stranger gets him into trouble, but it turns out the stranger is a scribe and willing to trade knowledge with Shalem. (Read my review HERE)

Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery - Jane's life in Toronto is not a happy one, really, but it's all she's ever known . . . until her father has her come spend a summer with him on Prince Edward Island. A lovely novel about growing up and family bonds. (Read my review HERE)

During June I started reading:

Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber - Well, I finally started on this next one in the Verity Kent series (I'm getting behind in it!) and am just getting introduced to the mystery to be solved, but I have a couple of review books and a library book that have to take priority, so this may have to be on hold for a little bit. Such a pity, because I love this character!

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jónasson - With very few clues to start with, detective Helgi is tasked with finding out what happened to a popular crime author who has vanished. There are alternating timelines, including one in which an unnamed character is interviewing that author. I'm very curious to see how it all will get tied together, and I'm just beginning to see some possible connections.

The Highland Heist by Pepper Basham - Fourth in the Freddie & Grace Mystery series, this one starts with Frederick and Grace arriving at Grace's childhood home, only to discover that the estate has been sold, her father has deceived her about his financial situation, and that her mother has left an inheritance to Grace and her sister. But claiming it may be a real challenge!

Where My Books Took Me in June . . . Here's where I've traveled through the pages during the month, along with One Word to sum up the ones I finished.

Killers of a Certain Age begins on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, moves to New Orleans, then to the UK, and then to Paris. Plus flashback scenes in the USA, UK, and Zanzibar.

One Word: Ruthless

The Blind Scribe is set in ancient Israel.

One Word: Learning

Jane of Lantern Hill takes place in Toronto and Prince Edward Island, Canada.

One Word: Belonging

Murder Most Fair has started in Great Britain.

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer is set in Iceland.

The Highland Heist begins in the USA, but looks like it will move to Scotland.

Coming Up in July!

10 Marchfield Square by Nicola Whyte - Just picked up from the library and I doubt I'll be able to renew it, due to demand, so this is definitely the next one I'll start.

Before Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Brittany Fichter - Sorry, Beauty! Bumped again!

Village Books by Craig McLay

Believe it or not, I also have no less than three new books recently purchased that I need to put into rotation as well. I really need to find more time to read!

On my blogs recently . . .

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:

What I'm Reading - June 17, 2025

Connections Reading Challenge Kickoff

And on A Fresh Cup of Coffee:

Scripture and a Snapshot posts

Everyday Images posts

Hodgepodge and other Q&A Link-up posts

Share Four Somethings - June 2025

WOTY and Goals - June Journal

WQ - Patriotism

Tell Us About . . . Blooming: Wherever You're Planted

WQ - Summer Fun

10 on the 10th - Photo Edition

Currently . . . June 6, 2025

WOTY and Goals - Spring Summary

This post will be linked at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life.

©2008-2025 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Wednesday, June 11

Connections Reading Challenge Kickoff

The 52 Book Club's summer mini-challenge is the Connections Challenge. Instead of a list of prompts that can be done in any order, the idea of this challenge is that each book is connected in some way to the one before it so it must be done in order. There are twenty-one links in the connection chain and clearly it will take me longer than the summer if I want to complete the list, so I'll just keep plugging away it until it's complete, at least until the end of 2025.

1. Pick any book. I decided I might as well start with the first book I completed during what would be considered the summer and go from there! Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn was my choice. (Read my review HERE)

2. The title of this book must share a word with the previous book's title. This feels like the easy way out, but of the books I had just started, Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery does share the word "of" in the titles. And since this entire challenge is based on connections, I wanted to start out with a connections that I felt confident I could make, so I had an eye on how the next pick is connected to this one . . . I'll need to pick a book set in the country that this author is from. I think I'll be able to do that.

I won't write a whole new Connections Challenge post for every link in the chain, but I thought I should do a kick-off post at least, and will add links every now and again.

Sunday, January 5

2025 Reading Challenges

It's the beginning of a new year, which must mean it's time to set some reading goals and join some reading challenges. I enjoy reading challenges, even if I don't have a realistic expectation of completing everything in the challenge. That's been my experience with The 52 Book Club. I don't read fifty books in a year any more, but after a couple of years taking part in the club's challenge, it's still a worthwhile endeavor for me because it motivates me and helps me choose what to read. Often it gets me outside of my usual reading box and introduces me to titles, authors, or genres that I might not have considered otherwise.

So I will be doing The 52 Book Club Challenge for 2025, and my personal goal is to get about halfway through it.

Find out more about the 2025 Reading Challenge HERE, and check out the 2025 Reading Challenge Guide too.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2025

They've added a Read It, Watch It challenge as well, and I'm not sure I'll be able to complete that but it looks like fun.

I've been a member of the What The Dickens Book Club on Facebook for a few years too, but haven't participated in quite some time. To be honest, the posts in the group have tended to get lost in my newsfeed so I wasn't sure what they were reading, and was either unable to join in the scheduled discussion parties or didn't find the dates until too late. I planned ahead a little better this time and grabbed the info about the books and discussion dates. Again, I probably won't participate in all of the discussions, but I'm happy to see the books chosen include some shorter and easier reads, and are a mix of books I've already read and would be happy to revisit, and classics that I haven't read and probably should.

I also joined a Facebook book club group with members of the chorus I sing in, and they've shared other reading challenges, so maybe that group will help me stay motivated as well.

Updated to add . . . Since I consistently gravitate towards historical fiction anyway, I'm also going to participate in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025 hosted by The Intrepid Reader and Baker. I love that it's such a simple challenge. Just link up my historical fiction reviews each month. I think I'll do the Renaissance Reader level, which is ten historical fiction books over the year.

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For my personal interest, I will continue keeping track of the titles I read in an "Alphabet Soup" challenge, to see how many letters of the alphabet I can represent. From time to time I have done Friday Fun posts, but it's been quite awhile since I've done them regularly - I do them sporadically at best! Friday Fun posts include some combination of First Line Fridays, hosted by Reading is My SuperPower; Book Beginnings on Fridays, hosted by Rose City Reader; the Friday 56, currently hosted by Anne at My Head Full of Books; and the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The problem is that I just don't have the time to get these done on a regular basis or to visit the other participants, and it bothers me to join a link-up and not spread the comment love to others.

I do try to be consistent with writing bookshelf summaries, and depending on how the posting dates line up, I share with Book Date, at the BookWorms Monthly link-up, at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life, and What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World.

While I don't have as much time to devote to reading as I'd like, I still love a good book, and I like talking about good books. My book totals may not be very high, but I'll keep doing a little blogging about books here and there. Something to look forward to in retirement might be more book and blog time!

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Happy Reading!

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Friday, January 3

2024 Reading Challenges Wrap-up

Back in the waning days of 2023, when I decided on my reading challenges for 2024, I had hoped I would find more time and motivation for reading. Well, I was taken a little by surprise when I was able to shift from part-time to full-time hours at my job starting in January, and I realized that would affect how much time and energy I'd have for a lot of things. Reading included. There were some ebbs and flows over the year, and I wound up with about the same number of books read as in 2023. It's tempting to be disappointed when I see others reading 60 or 70 or 100 books in a year, but after all, it's not a competition. Or so I tell myself! This is just a season in my life in which 20ish books per year is what I have time for, and as long as I'm enjoying what I read, it's a win.

So here's how I did this past year. First, a DNF challenge . . . The 2024 European Reading Challenge is hosted by Rose City Reader, and the goal is to read books set in Europe or by European authors, and to 'visit' as many European countries as possible. Quite a few of my books were set in the United Kingdom, but other than that I had only one other European setting and that was Italy (The Juliet Code by Pepper Basham). So I'm not going to do this challenge in 2025, and won't link this wrap-up post either. I do like keeping track of the locations my books are set in, but at present this is a challenge that isn't suiting my reading habits.

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Although I knew it was highly unlikely that I'd complete it, I did work on the 52 Book Club's 2024 Challenge. These kinds of challenges are fun for me, and worthwhile even if I don't complete them, because it encourages me to read titles, authors, and even genres I might not otherwise consider. Find out more about the 2024 Reading Challenge HERE.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2024

1. Hardy Haul at Hardy Hall - PJ Fitzsimmons (locked-room mystery)

3. Blood of Adam - Rachel S. Neal (more than 40 chapters)

4. Voice of the Ancient - Connilyn Cossette (lowercase letters on the spine)

7. Sisters of Fortune - Anna Lee Huber (at least four different points of view)

8. The Juliet Code - Pepper Basham (features the ocean)

9. Once Upon A Prince - Rachel Hauck (a character-driven novel)

10. The Vanishing at Castle Moreau - Jaime Jo Wright (told in non-chronological order)

11. The Kamogawa Food Detectives - Hisashi Kashiwai (title starting with the letter K)

12. The Lady of Bolton Hill - Elizabeth Camden (title starting with the letter L)

14. Ticker - Lisa Mantchev (a grieving character)

15. Harvest of Rubies - Tessa Afshar (part of a duology)

24. Find Momo Across Europe - Andrew Knapp (a cover without people on it)

25. The Sentence Is Death - Anthony Horowitz (an author "everyone" besides me has read)

30. The Matrimonial Advertisment - Mimi Matthews (picked without reading the blurb)

32. A Christmas Charade - Karla Hocker (time frame of a week or less)

37. A Fatal Illusion - Anna Lee Huber (palindrome on the cover)

**39. Good Energy - Casey Means (non-fiction recommended by a friend)

43. The Crumbs off Heaven's Table - D.M. Griffin (about finding identity)

44. Silencing the Siren - Denise L. Barela (includes a wedding)

47. The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz (author self-insert)

I counted one book in the challenge that I haven't finished, so I've ticked off twenty of the 52 prompts. I read a few books I'd had on my Kindle for ages and I'd nearly forgotten about, and I picked a couple books based on other blogger's mentions, and found a couple of new-to-me authors I enjoyed. So I didn't complete the challenge, didn't even get to the halfway point, but I'm still happy with my result. And this IS a challenge I'll do in 2025, and do my best to get my number up at least a little bit.

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This post will be linked at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life.

Tuesday, January 2

2024 Reading Challenges

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

Somehow I continue to take on reading challenges and add books to my wishlist and TBR stack, even as I frequently bemoan the fact that I have trouble finding the time or the motivation to read like I used to. In fact, I'm quite intimidated and amazed by the bloggers I see who read two or three or five times as many books as I do! But it's all about getting enjoyment out of reading, and challenging myself to try new authors and genres as well. Here are the challenges I'm going to have some fun with in 2024.

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The first year I did The 52 Book Club challenge, I started partway through the year so I didn't really expect to finish. Last year I made my second run with the Challenge, and thought if I could read about two-thirds of the books I'd be happy. I came pretty close to that goal. My total number of books read has been averaging around thirty for the past few years, so once again I'm just going to have fun and do my best and see how many I can check off the list. And if it's not all 52 I'm perfectly fine with that. Find out more about the 2024 Reading Challenge HERE, and check out the 2024 Reading Challenge Guide too.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2024

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Once again, I'll be participating in one of the challenges hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. Just one this year - the 2024 European Reading Challenge - and this will serve as my anchor post.

For this challenge, participants will be reading books either set in Europe or by European authors. Last year my goal was the Four Star (Honeymooner) level participation, but I wound up visiting seven different countries. This year I'll set my sights on the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) level, which is five books set in five different European countries, or by authors from five different countries. I usually read a lot of books set in England, so it's getting to the other countries that presents the challenge to me.

From Rose City Reader:

THE GIST: The idea is to read books set in European countries or books by European authors. The books can be of any genre - fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, whatever. You can participate at different levels, but each book must represent a different country - either written by an author from a different country or set in a different country, no two books from the same country. It's supposed to be a tour!

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I will continue keeping track of the titles I read in an "Alphabet Soup" challenge, to see how many letters of the alphabet I can represent. From time to time I do Friday Fun posts, but I can no longer keep up with those every week! Friday Fun posts include some combination of First Line Fridays, hosted by Reading is My SuperPower; Book Beginnings on Fridays, hosted by Rose City Reader; the Friday 56, currently hosted by Anne at My Head Full of Books; and the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. I like the idea of the Top Ten Tuesday link-up hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, but if I manage to participate in that, it will only be once in awhile. In fact, there are lots of link-ups and challenges that really interest me and I wish I could participate in, but it's unrealistic to think I can do them all. I keep my options open to jump in here and there.

I do try to be consistent with writing bookshelf summaries, shared with Book Date and at the BookWorms Monthly link-up, and What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World.

For someone who is finding less time for reading, and who has struggled through some lengthy reading slumps lately, that looks like an awful lot! But the bottom line is that I do love a good book, and I like talking about good books, so even though my book totals are not very high, I hope to keep doing a little blogging about books here and there. And maybe someday when I retire I'll pick up the pace!

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Happy Reading!

©2008-2024 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Friday, December 29

2023 Reading Challenges Wrap-Up

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

In recent years, I've been reading fewer total books each year for various reasons. I hoped that I would be able to get my totals up in 2022, but there's no way I could have foreseen all the interruptions to "normal" I would experience over the year, and how that would impact my time and interest in reading. So although I didn't reach my goals, I made progress, and I will be doing the 2023 version of these challenges as well. Watch for that post coming up soon!

I worked on two specific challenges hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader:

2023 European Reading Challenge! For this challenge, participants will be reading books either set in Europe or by European authors. I was aiming for the Four Star (Honeymooner) level participation, so my goal was to read four books set in four different European countries, or by authors from four different countries. I'm pleased that I was able to visit seven countries!

From Rose City Reader:

Obedient Unto Death - Liisa Eyerly (Turkey)
What I Would Tell You - Liz Tolsma (Greece)
The Letter from Briarton Park - Sarah E. Ladd (Great Britain)
Women Talking - Miriam Toews (Russia)
A Man With One of Those Faces - Caimh McDonnell (Ireland)
Reykjavík: A Crime Story - Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Iceland)
The Starlet Spy - Rachel Scott McDaniel (Sweden)

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The TBR 23 in '23 Challenge is meant to encourage us to read the books already on our shelves (including eReader shelves) and maybe make room for more! I wasn't sure how I'd do on this challenge, since I really limited how many books I brought with me when we moved at the end of 2022. I did bring my Kindle with me, and there are a lot of pre-2023 book there, but I wasn't confident I'd actually read many of them. Certainly not 23 of them! I ended up reading five books for this challenge, and given my current situation, I don't think it would be practical for me to do the 2024 version of it!

From Rose City Reader:

"TBR" counts as any book that was on your shelf prior to January 1, 2023. "Shelf" includes your ebook reader and audiobooks you own, but it doesn't include library books. This is a TBR challenge, so the goal is to read the books you own to make room for more books.

Obedient Unto Death - Liisa Eyerly
The Wendy - Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown
The Friendly Persuasion - Jessamyn West
Fair As a Star - Mimi Matthews
A Perilous Perspective - Anna Lee Huber

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This is the second year I've worked on the 52 Book Club's Challenge. I didn't think it likely I could read 52 books for the 52 Book Club's 2023 Reading Challenge, but I hoped to get around two thirds of it completed. Find out more about the 2023 Reading Challenge HERE.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2023

I completed 31 of the challenge prompts, which is very nearly two-thirds so I think I met my goal, and I also completed eight of the mini-challenges along the way.

1. If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) - Betty White (a book with a subtitle)

2. Bridges - Linda Griffin (featuring an inheritance)

5. It Happened In Ohio - Carol Cartaino (title starts with the letter I)

6. Composition As Conversation - Heather M. Hoover (under 200 pages)

7. The Cairo Curse - Pepper Basham (a city or country name in the title)

9. What I Would Tell You - Liz Tolsma (a book with a dedication)

11. The Wendy - Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown (a book about secrets)

14. Women Talking - Miriam Toews (a survival story)

20. When Tomorrow Came - Hannah Linder (about siblings)

22. Fair As a Star - Mimi Matthews (a body-positive message)

23. A Perilous Perspective - Anna Lee Huber (an alliterative title)

24. Reykjavík: A Crime Story - Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Nordic Noir)

25. The Starlet Spy - Rachel Scott McDaniel (a fashionable character)

26. The Letter from Briarton Park - Sarah E. Ladd (has an epilogue)

28. The Friendly Persuasion - Jessamyn West (includes a funeral)

29. The Keys to Gramercy Park - Candice Sue Patterson (sends me down a rabbit hole*)

31. In Spotlight and Shadow - Rachel Scott McDaniel (set in a workplace)

34. Man of Shadow & Mist - Michelle Griep (features mythology)

35. Obedient Unto Death - Liisa Eyerly (a book I meant to read last year)

36. Beneath a Peaceful Moon - Debby Lee (chapters have cliffhangers)

37. Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt (written in present tense)

38. Restoring Christmas (part of A Louisiana Christmas to Remember) - (enemies-to-lovers plot)

39. Rebecca - Shannon McNear (final book in a series)

40. Shirley, I Jest! - Cindy Williams (written by a comedian)

41. If Only (part of Kingdom of Love) - Tracie Peterson (a character who is a refugee)

42. Garden of the Midnights - Hannah Linder (time in the title)

44. A Louisiana Christmas to Remember - novella collection (contemporary setting)

47. A Man With One of Those Faces - Caimh McDonnell (set in the city of Dublin)

50. A Kingdom Divided and Alas, My Love (part of Kingdom of Love) - Tracie Peterson (related to the word "murder")

51. After the Boxes Are Unpacked - Susan Miller (doesn't fit any of the other prompts)

52. In the Shelter of Hollythorne House - Sarah E. Ladd (published in 2023)

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This Wrap-up Post will be linked at the 2023 European Reading Challenge Wrap-up Page at Rose City Reader; and at the TBR 23 in '23 Challenge Wrap-Up Page at Rose City Reader.

©2008-2023 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Thursday, January 5

2023 Reading Challenges

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

I may be setting myself up for failure by taking on several reading challenges this year, and setting higher reading goals than I've managed the last couple of years. But if the goal is simply to read more, then even if I don't complete everything on the challenge, I haven't really lost, have I? At any rate, I consider it all for fun and to push me out of my comfort zone a little bit too. So here are the challenges I'm attempting in 2023.

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Last year I started The 52 Book Club challenge partway through the year so I knew I'd never complete all the prompts. Then the last quarter of the year presented some life challenges to me that got in the way of reading. I'm going to try again this year and see how many of the prompts I can do - realistically, I'm pretty sure I won't do all, since I've been reading only about 30 or so books in a year. Find out more about the 2023 Reading Challenge HERE.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2023

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Last year I also joined a couple of challenges hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader, and I will do the 2023 edition of those as well. They are combined in this anchor post.

First is the 2023 European Reading Challenge! For this challenge, participants will be reading books either set in Europe or by European authors. Once again, I will try the Four Star (Honeymooner) level participation. My goal will be to read four books set in four different European countries, or by authors from four different countries. Last year I listed only three books that fit this challenge, but they did cover four different countries.

From Rose City Reader:

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The TBR 23 in '23 Challenge is meant to encourage us to read the books already on our shelves (including eReader shelves) and maybe make room for more! I did have a lot of books on shelves, in boxes, and in the library of my Kindle that I hadn't read when I started this challenge last year. Many of them I was quite willing to pass on to others, but I didn't feel right about doing that without even trying to read them! So I thought I would read before I purged. I didn't get very far, to be honest. This year, I'm less confident about the challenge, because I did purge my shelves drastically when we moved, and of the books I kept, a lot of them are stored at the old house. However, I have largely ignored the many books on my Kindle over the past few years, so this will encourage me to actually read those. And hopefully I'll find books there that will help me meet the other reading challenges as well.

From Rose City Reader:

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I will continue keeping track of the titles I read in an "Alphabet Soup" challenge, to see how many letters of the alphabet I can represent. I will also try to participate weekly in what I call my Friday Fun posts. These include First Line Fridays, hosted by Reading is My SuperPower; Book Beginnings on Fridays, hosted by Rose City Reader; the Friday 56, hosted by Freda's Voice; and the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. I'll also continue occasional bookshelf summaries, shared with Book Date and at the BookWorms Monthly link-up.

Happy Reading!

This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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Monday, June 30

Wednesday, June 11

Sunday, January 5

Friday, January 3

Tuesday, January 2

Friday, December 29

Thursday, January 5