My 2017 Reading Goal

Photo Credit: changinghands.com

This past year, I rediscovered the joys found between the pages of a good book.  I'm not sure when, why, or how I lost that joy.  I've always considered myself a reader, but somewhere on the road from high school to college, then from full-time work to full-time motherhood, and now smack-dab in the midst of homeschooling two middle schoolers and a sophomore in high school, I stopped reading for fun. It seems there are always "better" things to do...wiser choices for how I spend my time. Shouldn't I be connecting with my children, planning school, preparing a meal, cleaning something, talking with my hubby, serving in some way, or doing the laundry?  Oh vey...laundry!  Just when I get that clothes hamper empty, I turn around and it's full again.  Ah...but I digress.

Somewhere along the way, I obviously picked up the belief that I dare not take the time to read.  That all changed in 2016.  I set out to read 50 books last year.  I didn't quite hit the target.  I made it to 42 (list is below).  But, compared to the 20+ previous years - let's just say this is a big huge improvement!

What made the difference?  I started reading every night.  I turn on my bedside lamp, crawl in bed, and read.  Sometimes it's only a paragraph...other nights it's several chapters.  I also tacked on some morning reading time...sometimes it goes along with my daily quiet time, sometimes it doesn't.  I've started taking a book with me...amazing how many pages you can read while waiting for your children's dental cleanings, or for the homeschool PE class to end.  At the end of the year, a friend introduced me to the Hoopla app.  Thank you, Wendy!  I'm already 1/3 of the way through my first audiobook of the year.  I highly recommend this option, it's been great for our 8-12 hour trips to visit family.  Each of these made a tremendous difference in the amount of reading I squeezed into the year!  Maybe one of these will help you, too!

In 2017, I'm once again aiming for a target of 50 books.  But, I am trying something a bit different... hoping it will pull me into new genres and introduce me to new authors and new ideas.  I scoured online challenges for ideas (Modern Mrs. Darcy, and Pop Sugar, and  a Google search for "reading challenge").  Then, I spent some serious time perusing Goodreads.com, Amazon, and my local library's website to find books to fit the categories.  There are so. many. good. books. out. there.

So...this is my list.  I hope you'll cheer me on...and even more, I hope you'll be inspired to join me, and find great joy in the pages of a book (or ten, or 50)!  As I finish a book, I will mark it with COMPLETE and the date I finished...mostly as my way of keeping track of things...and as a way to keep myself accountable to actually read all 50 books!

Tracy's 2017 Reading Challenge

Photo Credit:  sensorialdaily.files.wordpress.com

1. COMPLETE (01.15.17): A book with an eccentric character: A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
2. COMPLETE (01.15.17): A book by an author you love: Small Great Things - Jodi Piccoult
3. A book recommended by a librarian: The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Overdrive Audio Book)
4. A book that’s been on your “TBR” (To Be Read) list too long: Unbroken - Laura  Hillenbrand (Overdrive Audio Book)
5. COMPLETE (01.15.17): A book of letters: 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
6. An audiobook: The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving - Jonathan Evison (Hoopla Audio Book)
7. COMPLETE (04.18.17): A book by a person of color: Kindred - Octavia Butler
8. A book with one of the four seasons in the title: Winter House - Carol O'Connor (Hoopla Audio Book)
9. A book that is a story within a story: A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness
10. COMPLETE (11.15.17): A book with multiple authors: The Royal We -Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan
11. COMPLETE (12.25.17): An espionage thriller: Rules of Deception - Christopher Reich
12. COMPLETE (01.13.17): A book with a cat on the cover: Simon’s Cat in Kitten Chaos - Simon Tofield
13. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym: Middlemarch - George Eliott (Mary Ann Evans) (Hoopla Audio Book) OR Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (Currer Bell) (Hoopla Audio Book) OR Blaze - Stephen King (Richard Bachman)
14. A bestseller from a genre you don’t usually read: The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
15. A book by or about a person with a disability: Piece of Mind: A Novel - Michelle Adelman
16. A book involving time travel: All Our Yesterdays - Cristin Terrill OR The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (Hoopla Audio Book)
17. A book published in 2017: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth - Lindsey Lee Johnson
18. A book that spans centuries: People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
19. A book about food: A Place at the Table - Susan Rebecca White OR Chocolat - Joann Harris OR The Hundred Foot Journey - Richard Morais
20. A book from a non-human perspective: The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
21. A book from a genre/subgenre you’ve never heard of (Have you heard of steampunk?  Please tell me I'm not the only one who hadn't!): 14 - Peter Clines OR Cinder - Marissa Meyer OR Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld OR The Affinity Bridge - George Mann
22. COMPLETE (02.27.17) A book with a color in the title: A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler
23. A book set in the wilderness: Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
24. COMPLETE (01.14.17): A book you loved as a child: Angel Unaware - Dale Evans Rogers
25. A book by an author from a country you’ve never visited: An Unnecessary Woman - Rabih Alameddine
26. COMPLETE (01.17.17): A book with a title that is a character’s name: The Storied Life of AJ Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin
27. A novel set during wartime: The Zookeeper’s Wife - Diane Ackerman (Hoopla audio book)
28. A book with an unreliable narrator: We Were Liars - E. Lockhart OR The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell
29. COMPLETE (05.22.17): A book with pictures: Created To Be His Helpmeet - Debi Pearl
30. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - Ernest Gaines
31. A book with an alliterated title: Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt OR The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald - Hoopla Audio Book)
32. A book set in two different time periods: 11/22/63 - Stephen King
33. A book with a month or day of the week in the title: Monday, Monday - Elizabeth Crook
34. COMPLETE (02.13.17): A book set in a hotel: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford
35. COMPLETE (06.17.17): A book written by someone you admire: The Magnolia Story - Chip & Joanna Gaines
36. A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017: A Dog’s Purpose - Bruce Cameron
37. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas (New Year's Day): Rules of Civility - Amor Towles (Overdrive Audio Book)
38. The first book in a series you haven’t read before: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith OR At Home in Mitford - Jan Karon (Overdrive Audio Book)
39. A 2016 bestseller: Two by Two - Nicholas Sparks (Overdrive Audio Book)
40. A book with a family member term in the title: Sister - Rosamund Lupton
41. A book that takes place over a character’s life span: A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving OR The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out A Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson
42. A book about a refugee or immigrant: Little Bee - Chris Cleave
43. A book originally published in the year you were born (1968): Below Stairs - Margaret Powell
44. COMPLETE (01.19.17) A book you got from a used book sale/store: Unglued - Lysa TerKeurst
45. COMPLETE (01.29.17) A book that’s mentioned in another book: Pride and Predjudice - Jane Austen (Hoopla audio book)
46. COMPLETE (12.12.17) A book about a difficult topic: Powerful & Free: Confronting the Glass Ceiling for Women in the Church - Danny Silk
47. COMPLETE (03.29.17) A book about books: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
48. A book with a one word title: Night - Elie Wiesel (Overdrive Audio Book)
49. A book you've started but never finished: One Thousand Gifts - Anne Voskamp
50. A book with less than 200 pages: Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
51. COMPLETE (05.20.17): The Murder House - James Patterson
52. COMPLETE (12.27.17): How to Find Love in a Book Shop - Veronica Henry

Photo Credit:  sensorialdaily.files.wordpress.com

Books read in 2016: 

If you're looking for reading inspiration / ideas...the books with an asterisk were favorites and ones I'd highly recommend.  

1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo
2. Present Over Perfect* - Shauna Niequist
3. Parenting is Heart Work* - Scott Turansky & Joann Miller
4. Give Your Child the World - Jamie Martin
5. The Generosity Bet* - William High
6. What’s So Amazing About Grace* - Phillip Yancey
7. Crazy Love* - Francis Chan
8. Graceful - Emily Freeman
9. River Road - Carol Goodman
10. After Her - Joyce Maynard
11. Frozen Stiff - Mary Logue
12. The Dollhouse* - Fiona Davis
13. Before Green Gables* - Budge Wilson
14. The Bookshop on the Corner* - Jenny Colgan
15. The Undoing of Saint Silvanus* - Beth Moore
16. First Frost - Sarah Addison Allen
17. Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
18. One Summer - David Baldacci
19. The Peach Keeper* - Sarah Addison Allen
20. The Girl Who Chased the  Moon - Sarah Addison Allen
21. Invisible - Carla Buckley
22. The Deepest Secret - Carla Buckley
23. The Good, Goodbye* - Carla Buckley
24. Dust - Patricia Cornwell
25. The Thirteenth Tale* - Diane Setterfield
26. Justice For Sara - Erica Spindler
27. Think Twice - Lisa Scottoline
28. The First Wife - Erica Spindler
29. Don’t Go* - Lisa Scottoline
30. Call the Midwife* - Jennifer Worth
31. Shadows of the Workhouse - Jennifer Worth
32. Nineteen Minutes* - Jodi Piccoult
33. Watch Me Die - Erica Spindler
34. Last Known Victim* - Erica Spindler
35. Then Sings My Soul* - Amy Sorrells
36. All the Light We Cannot See* - Anthony Doerr - THIS WAS MY FAVORITE!!!!!!
37. What Alice Forgot* - Lianne Moriarty
38. House Rules* - Jodi Piccoult
39. Her Daughter’s Dream* - Francine Rivers
40. As Sure As the Dawn* - Francine Rivers
41. Life for a Life - Frank Muir
42. Girl on a Train - A. J. Waines