2024 Reading Challenge

I was thinking it might be time to resurrect this blog and fill it with some things I love.  Reading is a big one so let's start by putting out my list of books for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge for 2024.  Some of the prompts were quite difficult for me to find books to fill the slots but I think I've done ok.  Really hoping I will be able to meet this challenge.  Last year I did a 26 book challenge based loosely on the 2023 52 Week Reading Challenge and I finished that one up just a few days ago.  I didn't have to push myself too incredibly hard on that one but doubling it might be a huge challenge but I'm willing to give it a try.  Here's the plan:

1. Locked-room mystery - And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
2. Bibliosmia: a smelly book - The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales - Jon Scieszka
3. More than 40 chapters - The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lowercase letters on the spine - The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
5. Magical realism - Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt
6. Women in STEM - Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
7. At least four different POV - The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time #1) - Robert Jordan
8. Features the ocean - Gift From The Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
9. Character-driven novel - The Masterpiece - Francine Rivers
10. Told in non-chronological order - People We Meet On Vacation - Emily Henry
11. Starting with the letter K - Kingdom of Girica - Melody Kriese
12. Starting with the letter L - Lights Out (Kate Green Book 1) - Elise Hart Hipness
13. An academic thriller - A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness
14. A grieving character - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling
15. Part of a duology - All the Stars and Teeth - Adalyn Grace
16. An omniscient narrator - The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
17. Nominated for the Booker Prize - The Testaments (The Handmaid’s Tale #2) - Margaret Atwood
18. An apostrophe in the title - Charlotte’s Web - EB White
19. A buddy read - Contact - Carl Sagan (read week of March 10th with Colleen Boucher)
20. A revenge story - The Princess Bride - William Goldman
21. Written by a ghostwriter  - Sam Walton: Made in America - John Huey and Sam Walton
22. A plot similar to another book - Jane Steele - Lyndsay Faye
23. The other book with the similar plot - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
24. A cover without people on it - The Village Healer’s Book of Cures - Jennifer S Roberts
25. An author “everyone” has read except you - Sackett’s Land (The Sacketts #1) Louis L’Amour
26. Hybrid genre - The Light on Farallon Island - Jen Wheeler
27. By a neurodivergent author - Furiously Happy - Jenny Lawson
28. A yellow spine - Don’t Forget to Write - Sara Goodman Confino
29. Published in a Year of the Dragon - Matilda - Roald Dahl
30. Picked without reading the blurb - Wonder (Wonder #1) - RJ Palacio
31. Includes a personal phobia - Breathless - Amy McCulloch
32. Time frame spans a week or less - I’ll Stop the World - Lauren Thoman
33. An abrupt ending - A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle
34. Set in a landlocked country - Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
35. Title matches lyrics from a song - Still Waters - Viveca Sten
36. Has futuristic technology - The Host - Stephenie Meyer
37. Palindrome on the cover - The Bitten - Anna Wolfe
38. Published by Hachette - The Innocent (Will Robie #1) - David Baldacci
39. Non-fiction recommended by a friend - The $64 Tomato - William Alexander
40. Set during a holiday you don’t celebrate - The Last Words We Said - Leah Scheier
41. A sticker on the cover - This Present Darkness - Frank E. Peretti
42. Author debut in second half of 2024 - Strange Folk - Alli Dyer (expected publication 08/06/2024)
43. About finding identity - Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology - Leah Remini 
44. Includes a wedding - The Gown - Jennifer Robson
45. Chapter headings have dates - All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
46. Featuring indigenous culture - Firekeeper’s Daughter - Angeline Bully
47. Self-insert by an author - The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1) - Lemony Snicket
48. The word “secret” in the title - The Secrets of Lost Stones - Melissa Payne
49. Set in a city starting with the letter M - Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote
50. A musical instrument on the cover - Run, Rose, Run - Dolly Parton & James Patterson
51. Related to the word “wild” - Sing, Wild Bird, Sing - Jacqueline O’Mahony - KINDLE
52. Published in 2024 - Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time - Angela Brown (publication 01/01/2024)

I went through and looked up almost all these books on Audible to see how long it will take (approximately) to read each one.  My plan is to start with the longest one first and then work through them by length.  So...my first book is The Eye of the World.  This is one that my son has been talking about for years and he even asked me to go to our amazing used bookstore here to see if they had all the books in the series.  I think I was able to find all but one or two for him.  Not sure if he's read them all yet but when I told him my first book of the year his response was, "good luck with the long journey!"  I only plan to read this first one this year but maybe if I get time I'll move on to the others.  

I've also been trying to read through all the Meghan Ciana Doige books and I've got quite a few more of those to go and she's working on new books all the time!  There's just so much good stuff to read and not enough hours in the day!!  If anyone stumbles across this blog post and is doing a challenge like this, leave me a comment - I'd love to hear what you are doing.