The Annual Moody Reader Reading Challenge 2019

Last year, I participated in this challenge for the subjects of Mental Illness, Dystopia, Banned Books and LGBTQ+ since no challenges were offered for these. (I discovered this one for Dystopia way too late in the year and will see if it is offered for next year.)  This made me decide to create a Mental Health Challenge for next year.

For now, I will be signing up for the genres of LGBTQ+, Feminism, and Banned Books. If the Dystopia one does not get offered and if the Retellings one I did this year does not appear for next year, I will be adding those as well.

I was surprised at how successful I was with my challenge and managed to read 27 of my original 57 books. That is way more back listed books than I have ever read in a year, though it may not sound like a lot, its 50%! I also concluded that there are quite a few back listed books that I am no longer interested in (which is the case with at least 10 of those 57 books.) Thus I’ve become quite brutal in my Keep or Skip efforts to clean out my TBR for this year’s Moody Reader Reading Challenge.

The Goals for the Challenge…

#1 – Target backlisted books I am excited to read soon.

#2 – Sort them into genres that I will focus on during the year.

#3 – Mix it up so there will be all sorts of books to fit every mood!

#4 – Change the list if I learn about a different book that I want to read soon.

What are your reading goals? You may want to read all the retellings you’ve never gotten to or have a list of second books in series that you want to MAKE sure to get to. You may be a fantasy lover who wants to try more contemporaries… whatever your genre or however many genres you make a list for you can have a moody list ready to go when you’re in the mood for a GREAT book!

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My Genres for the Challenge:

LGBTQ+ Reading:

1. Nine Perfect Strangers--Liane Moriarty
2. The Gangster We Are All Looking For--Le Thi Diem Thuy
3. A Raisin in the Sun--Lorraine Hansberry
4. The Female Persuasion--Meg Wolitzer
5. White Houses--Amy Bloom
6. Stella By Starlight--Sharon M. Draper
7. The Holy Forest--Robin Blaser
8. Hard Love--Ellen Wittlinger
9. You Know Where to Find Me--Rachel Cohn
10. The Art of Losing--Lizzy Mason
11. Save the Date--Mary Kay Andrews
12. Blameless--Gail Carrier
13. On a Sunbeam--Tillie Walden
14. Unto Us a Son is Given--Donna Leon 
15. Rebel--Beverly Jenkins
16. Bloodrose--Andrea Cremer
17. She Wanted It All--Kathryn Casey
18. Sam & Ilsa's Last Hurrah--Rachel Cohn & David Leviathan
19. The Poet X--Elizabeth Acevedo
20. The Night Watch--Sarah Waters
21. The Backstagers, Volume 1--James Tynion IV
22. Bone Appetite--Carolyn Haines
23. The Backstagers, Volume 2--James Tynion IV
24. I Wish You All the Best--Mason Deaver
25. Lies We Tell Ourselves--Robin Talley
26. The Jane Austen Book Club--Karen Joy Fowler
27. This Book is Gay--James Dawson
28. These Are Not Sweet Girls--Marjorie Agosin (ed.)
29. Still Me--Jojo Moyes
30. Lady Midnight--Cassandra Clare 
31. A Blade So Black--L.L. McKinney
32. The Bone People--Keri Hulme
33. My Horizontal Life--Chelsea Handler
34. Lies My Girlfriend Told Me--Julie Anne Peters
35. Interview With the Vampire--Anne Rice
36. The Beauty That Remains--Ashley Woodfolk
37. Me--Elton John
38. Play It As It Lays--Joan Didion

Feminist Reading:

1. Wasted--Marya Hornbacher
2. Milk and Honey--Rupi Kaur
3. Nine Perfect Strangers--Liane Moriarty
4. A Raisin in the Sun--Lorraine Hansberry
5. The Female Persuasion--Meg Wolitzer
6. White Houses--Amy Bloom
7. Stella By Starlight--Sharon M. Draper
8. Speak--Laurie Halse Anderson
9. Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems
10. Hidden Figures--Margot Lee Chatterly
11. Radical Sanity--Elizabeth Wurtzel 
12. On a Sunbeam--Tillie Walden
13. Do This  For Me--Eliza Kennedy
14. The Joy Luck Club--Amy Tan
15. Rebel--Beverly Jenkins
16. Jo's Boys--Louisa May Alcott
17. Roses and Radicals--Susan Zimet
18. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo--Ntozake Shange
19. The Night Watch--Sarah Waters
20. Creatocracy--Elizabeth Wurtzel
21. Lies We Tell Ourselves--Robin Talley
22. Eat, Pray, Love--Elizabeth Gilbert
23. This Book is Gay--James Dawson
24. Americanized--Sara Saedi
25. These Are Not Sweet Girls--Marjorie Agosin (ed.)
26. A Blade So Black--L.L. McKinney
27. The Bone People--Keri Hulme
28. Ruth--Elizabeth Gaskell
29. Night Flying Woman--Igantia Booker
30. Becoming--Michelle Obama
31. Unaccustomed Earth--Jhumpa Lahiri
32. Play It As It Lays--Joan Didion
33. Beauty Queen--Sarah Mylnowski
34. Fruit of the Drunken Tree--Ingrid Rojas Contreras
35. City of Girls--Elizabeth Gilbert
36. The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down--Anne Fadiman

Banned Books:

1. A Raisin in the Sun--Lorraine Hansberry
2. Speak--Laurie Halse Anderson
3. Ulysses--James Joyce
4. Our Town--Thornton Wilder
5. That Was Then, This is Now--S.E. Hinton
6. ttyl--Lauren Miracle
7. Twilight--Stephenie Meyer (reread)
8. Interview With the Vampire--Anne Rice