2019 Reading Challenge – The Award Winner Challenge

It’s that time of year again! The reading challenges are being set for the year ahead, and one of my favourites to join in with is run by the lovely Paul over at The Book Vipers over at GoodReads, who always sets amazing challenges to get you reading a wide variety of books over the next 12 months.

And 2019 is a corker!  The challenge this year is to read books that have won the  book prizes and made the short and longlists over the years.  You can choose to read from 1 to 21 of the categories below – it’s up to you!!

So my head is already hurting trying to work out which books to pick for each topic.  I’ve made a preliminary list of books I already have that will fit with topics, alongside ones I plan to get from the library, although I am sure my list may change over the year! And I’m still struggling for a few topics so if you have any recommendations that you think I need to read then please let me know as I’d love to hear them!!  I need help!!!!

Fiction Prize Winner – Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
Non-Fiction Winner – H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Poetry Prize Winner – Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
Crime (fiction or non fiction winner) – 
History (fiction or non fiction winner) –
Debut Prize Winner – The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley
Female Prize Winner – The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
Any Shortlisted Book – The Clocks in this House by Xan Brooks
Any Shortlisted Book – Sing, Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Natural History Prize Winner – The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Stephen Brusatte
Children’s/YA Winner – The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan
Any Shortlisted Book – Elmet by Fiona Mozley
Any BAME Longlist Book – The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Any Shortlisted Book – The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
Memoir/Autobio Winner – 
Translated Fiction/Non Fiction Winner –
Any Longlisted Book -Science Fiction or Non winnerA Nobel Prize Winners Book – Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Any Longlisted Book -Travel Fiction or non Prize Winner – 

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Should make for some interesting reading ahead!!

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Top 5 Tuesday – Science Fiction!

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Shanah at BionicBookWorm, to explore a wide range of topics in the bookish world! 

And this week the topic is your Top 5 Science Fiction Reads!  I’ve definitely increased the number of sci-fi books picked up recently as I used to be quite scared of them thinking they’d be too ‘out there’ or over my head! But there’s such a wide variety of science fiction explored now in books that it has lured me over to the dark side!!

Here’s my favourites off the top of my head!

The Long Way to  a small angry planet by Becky Chambers

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Station Eleven by Emily St.John Mandel

Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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My top 15 books of 2016….

Wow! What a year!!  So many great releases and so many fabulous reads! So it hasn’t made making this list any easier!! Might have been easier to list the books I didn’t enjoy this year!! Now there’s a list that could be fun to share!! 😉

My GoodReads challenge has gone very well this year and I seem to have read (they wouldn’t get it wrong would they?!) 200 books this year!!! Eek!! Maybe I need to get out more lol!!  Have to say that a fair few of these were e-books of the Chick Lit variety that I find a lot quicker to read so that could explain why the total was so high this year!   But with all those books read, is my TBR dwindling??!! NO!!! of course not!! Don’t be silly!! I still refuse to count up how many physical books I have on various shelves as I think it is just easier not to know!  But I have plenty of reading material to see me through 2017, and I may have asked Santa Claus for one or two more! That’s if he thinks I’ve been good enough!

Anyway enough rambling! I have whittled down the 200 to my Top 15 reads of the year of books that have stayed with me in some way or another, but if you’d like to look at all the books I’ve read this year you can if you click here GoodReads 2016 Challenge !  So I will now add a picture of the books I’ve chosen and the GoodReads links to their reviews!!  Also been a great year for gorgeous covers too so high praise to all the cover designers out there too!  Oooh, and these are in no particular order either…….

EVERYTHING LOVE IS by CLAIRE KING        GoodReads review

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley      GoodReads review

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry     GoodReads review

The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis     GoodReads review

The Muse by Jessie Burton    GoodReads review

Behind Closed Doors by B.A.Paris    GoodReads review

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Mary Rothschild    GoodReads review

The Museum of You by Carys Bray    GoodReads review

The Reader on the 6.27  by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent    GoodReads review

A Boy made of Blocks by Keith Stuart     GoodReads review

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon   GoodReads review

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab     GoodReads review

Pax by Sara Pennypacker   GoodReads review

Ghostbird by Carol Lovekin   GoodReads review

The One in a Million Boy by Monica Wood   GoodReads review

Phew!! Made it!! If only I could keep going!!  I have loved reading this year as there’ve been so many top quality books in all different genres, and that’s why I’ve mixed my list up a little to include a little bit of everything!  Just a shame I couldn’t include more on my list!  Have you read any of these books? Would love to know if you have enjoyed as many books as I have this year!

Let’s hope 2017 is just as rewarding on the reading front!!

Happy Reading!!!