2024 Reading Challenge discussion

As I did for 2014, I'm only going to use this thread to track challenges specific to this group, so as to avoid confusing myself.

This is a convenient tally list:

Yearly Challenges

The Listopia Challenge 2015: Read: 25/25 COMPLETED!

#readwomen2015: Read: 20/20 COMPLETED!


Quarterly Challenges

3rd & 4th Quarter: Goodreads Choice Awards Challenge : Read: 6/6 COMPLETED!

4th Quarter Challenge: Banned Books: Read: 3/3 COMPLETED!

The Listopia Challenge
Goal: I will be reading a total of 25 books chosen from the following 4 Listopia lists:


List 1: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
Goal: Read 5 more books. Read: 5/5

1. Neuromancer by William Gibson (01/11/25 - ***/3.5)
2. Kokoro by Sōseki Natsume (01/18/15 - ****)
3. The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (10/06/15, ****)
4. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (10/28/15, ****, re-read)
5. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (12/21/15, ****/maybe 4.5)

List 2: Non-Caucasian Protagonists in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and PR
Goal: Read 10 more books. Read: 11/11

1. Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (05/08/15 - ****)
2. Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany (05/18/15 - *****)
3. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act - Kieron Gillen (06/04/15, ***)
4. Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (06/30/15 - ****/4.5)
5. Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson (09/19/15, ***/3.5)
6. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman (03/20/2015 - ****)
7. Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman (finally finished 11/28/15, ***)
8. Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (07/31/15, ****)
9. The Seventh Day by Yu Hua (09/13/15, *****)
10. Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente (11/23/15, *****)
11. Rat Queens, Vol. 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth by Kurtis J. Wiebe (08/08/15, ****)

List 3: World's Greatest Novellas
Goal: Read 7 more books. Read: 6/6

1. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (02/24/15 - ****/3.5)
2. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster (01/29/15 - ****)
3. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (06/16/15 - ****)
4. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (06/05/15 - ****/4.5)
5. Gigi & The Cat by Colette (12/27/16, ***)
6. The Library Window by Margaret Oliphant (12/31/15, ***/3.5)

List 4: Kirkus Review's Best Fiction Books 2014
Goal: Read 3 more books. Read: 3/3

1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (04/04/15 - *****)
2. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (05/10/15 - ****)
3. The Hunting Gun by Yasushi Inoue (07/13/15 - *****)


Total read: 25/25

COMPLETE, at the last minute!

#readwomen2015
Goal: Read books by female authors who are new-to-me. My starting goal is 20 books.


1. The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (10/06/15, ****)
2. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher (11/03/15, ****)
3. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (08/08/15, ****)
4. Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, aka Begum Rokeya (01/06/15 - ***)
5. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (04/04/15 - *****)
6. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (05/10/15 - ****)
7. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman (03/20/2015 - ****)
8. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (01/07/15 - ****)
9. Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley (01/20/15 - *****)
10. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (06/16/15 - ****/4.5)
11. Queenpin by Megan Abbott (08/24/15, ****)
12. Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman (finally finished 11/28/15, ***)
13. Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson (09/19/15, ***/3.5)
14. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (09/23/15, ****/4.5)
15. What I Didn't See: Stories by Karen Joy Fowler (09/25/15, ****)
16. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki (12/02/15, ***)
17. Gigi and The Cat by Collette (12/27/16, ***)
18. Transformations by Anne Sexton (12/24/15, ****)
19. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (12/28/15, *****)
20. The Library Window by Margaret Oliphant (12/31/15, ***/3.5)


Read: 20/20

COMPLETE, at the last moment!

3rd & 4th Quarter: Goodreads Choice Awards Challenge
Goal: This challenge runs July 1 - December 31. Read books published in 2015. My starting goal is 6 books.



1. Rat Queens, Vol. 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Stjepan Šejić (08/08/15, ***** (4.5)) (graphic novel)
2. Get in Trouble by Kelly Link (09/02/15, ***/3.5) (collection/fantasy/horror)
3. The Seventh Day: A Novel by Yu Hua (09/03/15, *****) (translation/literary/fantasy)
4. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (09/23/15, ****/4.5) (YA/fantasy/myth)
5. Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz (10/19/15, ****)
6. Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman (finally finished 11/28/15, ***) (science fiction)


Read: 6/6


- 2015 releases read prior to July 1:
1. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman
2. The Just City by Jo Walton

4th Quarter Challenge: Banned Books
Goal: This challenge runs October 1 - December 31. Read books that have been banned, challenged, or censored. My goal is 3 books.

1. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (challenged and removed from school reading lists in New Jersey in 2011) (10/04/15, ***)
2. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (12/21/15, ****/4.5)
3. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki (12/02/15, ***)

Read: 3/3

Possible additions: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, The Color Purple by Alice Walker