My 2023 Reading Challenges: What I Still Need to Read

At about the halfway point in the year, I’m taking stock of where I am with my 2023 challenges.

For the TBR Pile Challenge and Backlist Reader Challenge,  I need to read 12 of 14 books, and so far I’ve read 5 on the list, so I have a ways to go. I’m currently reading Edith Eger’s The Choice, that would put me at halfway. Here’s what I still need to read:

1. The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eger (2017) (Hungary/Poland)
2. The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (2015) (Scotland)
3. Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi (2020) (Nigeria)
4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1878) (Russia)
5. Hum If You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais (2017) (South Africa)
6. All Clear by Connie Willis (2010) (England)
7. Human Acts by Kang Han (2014) (South Korea)
8. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (2010) (Sierra Leone)
9. Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moavani (2019) (Syria)

I’ve also got a ways to go on the Gaia/Nature Reading Challenge. I need to read at least 10 books with nature or environment themes, fiction or nonfiction. Here’s what I’ve read so far. I’d love some suggestions here.

1. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
2. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
3. Pod by Laline Paull
4. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Reading Nonfiction, hosted by Book’d Out, asks you to read at least one nonfiction book in each of twelve categories. I’ve read books in six categories, but I still need books in the categories of history, crime & punishment, social media, sport, relationships, and the arts.

The 52 Book Club has 52 book prompts. I’ve met 36 prompts so far, but this is the kind of challenge that gets much harder as the year goes on. Here’s what I still need to read:

1. Title starting with the letter “G” (Guest House for Young Widows or Gentleman of Moscow)
2. Takes place during the roaring twenties (The Monsters We Defy)
3. High Fantasy
4. Published posthumously (Savor by Fatima Ali)
5. A second-hand book (I’ve got plenty of those)
6. Nordic Noir
7. A fashionable character
8. Newbery Medal Winner (I’m thinking about Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry)
9. An author with a same name as you (maybe something by Deborah Levy or Florida Woman by Deb Rogers)
10. A banned book (I’d like to reread either Beloved or Catcher in the Rye)
11. Chapters have cliffhangers
12. Written by a comedian (Laurie Notaro’s Excuse Me While I Disappear)
13. Time in the title (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow)
14. A book “everyone” has read (this one should be easy enough)
15. Set in the city of Dublin (maybe the next Tana French, A Secret Place)
16. A book by Octavia E. Butler (maybe Dawn)

That’s my challenge update. I’d love suggestions for good nature reads and anything that meets the nonfiction prompts I still need to cover.