Every December I’m looking forward to the many new books that are being released in the following 12 month. I make lists, pick challenges, which I rarely stick to, but the making of lists is one of my favorite things to do next to reading. My book challenges, besides my GR tracking, are going to be few this year.
Next to tracking how man books I read, I really want to track how much I spend on books each month, that includes those nifty 99cent one-clicks I’m doing. This kind of tracking it just for me personally, to get an idea of how much I spend.
But the other thing I’m going to do this year is to challenge myself to read even more books outside of romance, like biographies, non-fiction, general fiction, and thrillers.
A friend said something a few weeks ago that really resonated with me, I don’t need a challenge to read books, I actually would need a challenge to be more social, which can be a real issue when I read 200+ books a year. What I need is a challenge that pushes me out of my comfort zone. I want to get to a point where only half of the books I read are romance, and the rest are from different genres. As I mentioned above, reading is no hardship for me, not even a challenge, and because reading romance is no challenge either, I’m making 2020 all about reading different genres, that’s all.
The books below are just the once I found by researching GR last night. That means, that this is just a small portion, and I’ll be adding more throughout the year. I’ll also update this post with my progress and links to reviews as I write them.
I’ll start with the books that have been on my tbr for longer, Books that have either been released in 2019 or are backlist books.
My Book Challenge for 2020 / or all the books I want to read this year
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (2019) ✔️ READ // 2 stars
Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius The Great, #1) by Adib Khorram (2018)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, #1) by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2012)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (2019)
Things in Jars by Jess Kidd (2019)
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (2019)
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (2019)
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (2018)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011)
Thirteen (Eddie Flynn, #4) by Steve Cavanagh (2018) ✔️ READ // 4 stars
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware (2019)
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark (2019)
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (2016) ✔️ READ // 4.5 stars
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 by Garrett M. Graff (2019)
Columbine by Dave Cullen (2009)
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham (2019)
American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan recommended by @crimesandcabernet
Know My Name by Chanel Miller (2019)
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey (2019)
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (2014)
Little Women Louisa May Alcott (1868)
The Quiet Game (Penn Cage #1) by Greg Iles (1999)
Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah (2019) recommended by @bewareofthereader
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum (2019)
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (2019)
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing (2019)
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019)
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (2018)
Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #17) by Agatha Christie (1937)
My Book Challenge for 2020 / or all the books I want to read this year
Books being released in 2020
Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16) by Jim Butcher
Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne
Anxious People: A Novel by Fredrik Backman
Malibu Burning by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Kind of Cursed by Stephanie Fournet – December 2019
More Than Maybe by Erin Hahn – May
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez – April
What You Wish For by Katherine Center – July
By the Book by Amanda Sellet – May
You Say It First by Katie Cotugno – June
The Love Scam by MaryJanice Davidson – August
The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton – May
The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler – May
A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram, #1) by Darynda Jones – April
Wild at Heart (Wild, #2) by K.A. Tucker – March
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman – April ✔️ DNF
Hideaway by Nora Roberts – May
Outsider (Kate Burkholder #12) by Linda Castillo – July
The Love Story of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey – February
Oona Out of Order: A Novel by Margarita Montimore – February
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix – April
The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey – April
Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson, #12) by Patricia Briggs – March ✔️ READ // 4 stars
Chaos Reigning (Consortium Rebellion, #3) by Jessie Mihalik – May
Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5) by Martha Wells – May
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, #2) by Hank Green – July
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune – March
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall – July
The Dilemma by B.A. Paris – June
Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier – April
Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel – March
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell – March
The Second Home by Christina Clancy – June
Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West – February
One of Us Is Next (One of Us Is Lying, #2) by Karen M. McManus – January
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel – February
It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood – April
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker – April
Temporary by Hilary Leichter – March
My Book Challenge for 2020 / or all the books I want to read this year
This is a great list, Corina! I have already read some of the books you have on your list from 2018 and 2019 and really enjoyed them all. I also have a similar goal to yours of trying to read genres outside my usual ones over the year. Hope 2020 is a great year for you!
Hope 2020 is great one for you too!!! I hope this is something that works out for me, because stretching myself to include books I might not read otherwise has been good to me so far. I’ve read books that I would have not picked up otherwise, and I enjoyed most of them a LOT.
I thought The Great Alone was really good. I am also excited for What You Wish For, Wild at Heart, Little Secrets, and One of Us Is Next.
I’m going to read Firefly Lane for a group read in February, wish me luck. And then maybe, I’ll read The Great Alone too, sometime this year hopefully, lol. We are getting some great books this year. Can’t wait to read them all.
Really? Have the Kleenex handy. So good!
I think its so great that you are doing this, and stretching yourself more. I usually try to read a nonfiction once or twice a month to do something different than just romance. I commend you for going up to 50%!!! I hope you find some great reads both romance and other genres as well.
I love switching up genres and it definitely has helped me from getting into a book slump last year, and I got to read and enjoy books I might not have read otherwise, so it’s a win-win for me. 😀
This is amazing Corina, it’s a real challenge. Really loving the list too, I have some of these books on my TBR and I think I might add a few of your picks to it. 🙂
Thank you! And I’m making progress, too. 😀 It’s nice to have them listed like this. A reminder and source for what to read next. Switching up genres has really helped me prevent a major book slump last year, and I got to read books I might not have picked up otherwise. So it’s a win-win for me. lol