A Year in Books: A Monthly Reading Challenge

This reading challenge/list was created a few years ago when I was very determined to read more diversely. Over the past few years though, it has become a very helpful guide when I was in a bit of reading slump, or when I just needed a palate cleanser.

The lists of books under each genre were chosen subjectively, based on what I thought I would like at the moment, so feel free to branch out to what you think suits you. Notes have been and will be added once I have read the book (without any spoiler, of course.)

Click to save and print the Monthly Reading Challenge!

January: Memoirs and Autobiographies

• “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover
• “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
• “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah
• “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi
  Warning: this book will give you an ugly cry.
  Dr. Kalanithi laid bare his personal struggles that followed his diagnosis – navigating his marriage, his career aspirations and his family life. H reflected on how patients are perceived by healthcare providers from the unique point of someone occupying both roles simultaneously. It was profound to see someone maintain such a clear head while being so deeply invested.
• “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man” by Paul Newman

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February: Classic Literature

• “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
• “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez
• “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
• “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith
• “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov
• “Buddenbrooks” by Thomas Mann

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March: Thrillers and Suspense

• “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier
• “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng
  A bit heavy topic-wise, but easy to read. A story about conflicts within a person and among the family.
• “The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler
• “Stranger” by Dean Koontz
• “American Tabloid” by James Ellroy
• “The Little Stranger” by Sarah Waters

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April: History

• “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X. Kendi
• “A World Lit Only by Fire” by William Manchester
• “How the South Won the Civil War” by Heather Cox Richardson
• “The Forgotten Soldier” by Guy Sajer
• “The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe” by Matthew Gabriele

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May: Mystery and Detective

• “The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” by Stuart Turton
  Tag: time loop, closed-circle mystery
  Surprisingly pleasant read. I actually don’t like time loop stories because they are just fatigue, but this one had enough variants in there that it was entertaining throughout. I love the setting that the main character was repeating the day from different people’s perspective, so the changes he was able to make while “reliving” were limited. What a brilliant job the author did!
• “The Chestnut Man” by Søren Sveistrup
  Long but engaging. There were always some new leads that would be proven misleading, but not too many misleading suspects.
• “The Mysterious Benedict Society” by Trenton Lee Stewart

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June: Literary Fiction

• “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
  Trigger Warning: child abuse.
  Not very impressed. Plot was pretentious and soap-drama like to me.
• “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles
• “The Paris Little Bookshop” by Nina George
• “The Stranger” by Albert Camus
• “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel

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July: Non-Fiction

• “A Book of Days” by Patti Smith
• “The Myth of Normal” by Gabor Maté
• “Power Failure” by William D Cohan
• “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson

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August: Science Fiction

• “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr
• “Circe” by Madeline Miller
• “Jade City” by Fonda Lee
• “Piranesi “by Susanna Clarke
• “The Paper Menagerie And Other Stories” by Ken Liu

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September: Poetry

Celebrate the lyrical beauty of verse and the power of language.

My own list here is in Chinese since I have not learned to appreciate it in English.

• 席慕蓉詩集
• 夜的大赦 曹馭博
• 松尾芭蕉

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October: Horror

• “It” by Stephen King
• “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson
• “The Exorcist” by William Peter Blatty
• “The Children on the Hill” by Jennifer McMahon
• “We Need to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver
• “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding

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November: Historical Fiction

• “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee
• “A Secret History of Witches” by Louisa Morgan
• “The Dictionary of Lost Words” by Pip Williams
• “Before We Were Yours” by Lisa Wingate
• “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara
• “The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World” by Malcolm Gaskill

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December: Fantasy

• “Fairy Tale” by Stephen King
• “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt
• “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches” by Sangu Mandanna
• “Wheel of Time Series” by Robert Jordan