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
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