Upcoming Reading Challenges: Novellas in November and Nonfiction November

Two reading challenges for the month of November: Ready, Set, Go!

 I spent a little time today on the library catalog lining up possible reads for November in preparation for the two challenges for the coming month.

1. Novellas in November:

Hosted by Bookish Beck and Cathy@746Books

For the purposes of this challenge books under 200 pages qualify, even nonfiction titles which are under that page count.

The read-along book:  

Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Qudan, 197 pages 

Other books I may read:

1. Terrestrial by Rivera Garza, 160 pages

2. A Mercy by Morrison, 167 pages

3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson, 111 pages

4. On Community by Plett (Nonfiction), 170 pages

2. Nonfiction November:

Hosted by Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

Weekly topics are:

Week 1 November 2-8 - My Year in Nonfiction - Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? 

Hosted by Heather at Based on a True Story.

Week 2 November 9-15 - Nonfiction Journeys - This week choose a book that reflects a journey for its author or for the reader or both.  This can be a physical journey,  an emotional, psychological or spiritual journey or a combination of these.   Any nonfiction title that leaves its author/protagonist and/or reader in a different place at the end from the start point is good for this challenge.   

Hosted by Frances at volatilerune.blog   

Week 3 November 16-22 - Nonfiction Pairings - This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or maybe it’s just two books you feel have a link, whatever they might be. You can be as creative as you like!

Hosted by Liz at librofulltime.wordpress.com

Week 4 November 23-29 - What I've Added to my TBR - It's a month of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones made it into your TBR? Be sure to link up to the original blogger who posted about that book.

Hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz 

Books I'm considering for the month:

1. Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom by Felix

2. Your Presence is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza by Yazbek, translated from Arabic by Price

3. The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by Levithan and Duckel

4. Trash: A Garbageman's Story by Pare-Poupart

As per usual, I will try to double up on other challenges I'm trying to finish up for the year which include the Goodreads Fall Challenge and the National Book Award Challenge.

-Anne

Summer's End: How I did on my reading challenges

How Did I do on All my Summer Challenges?

20 Books of Summer is one of the longest-running events in the book blogosphere and is so low-pressure, a perfect reading challenge for summer months. Here are the details. The #20BOS26 challenge runs from Monday June 1st to Monday August 31st. It is hosted by AnnaBookBel

I read 31 books this summer, exceeding my goal.

Some of my favorites (in no particular order):

1. The Stranger / Camus.

2. Angel Down / Kraus

3. The Astral Library / Quinn

4. Kin / Jones

5. This Land is Your Land / Gage

6. Land  / O'Farrell

7. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny / Desai 

8. Whistler / Patchett

9. Enormous Wings / Frankel

10. Year of Wonders / Burton-Hill

Sue Jackson of Book by Book hosts a Big Book Summer Reading Challenge.

The Details: Anything 400 pages or more qualifies as a big book.
The challenge runs from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.

I read 5 big books this summer and made a good stab at one other (3/4th of way through)

The books are:

1.  Land  / O'Farrell (400 pages)

2. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny / Desai  (671 pages)

3. Year of Wonders / Burton-Hill  (416 pages)

4. The Warmth of Other Suns / Wilkerson (640 pages)

5. Austerlitz / Sebald  (415 pages)

GOODREADS SUMMER CHALLENGE

I finished all eleven summer challenges for Goodreads with time to spare.

3rd quarter (Summer, July thru September 14th)

• Page-Turner -- Read two books during challenge period (July 5)
• Speed Reader -- Read three books during challenge period (July 8)
• Book Boss -- Read five books during challenge (July 10)
• Community 90s Picks -- Brokeback Mountain by E. Annie Proulx (July 10)
• Challenge Favs -- The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (August 4)
• Chart Toppers -- Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett (July 3)
• Staff Shelves -- Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel (July 8)
• Worlds Away -- Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett (July 3)
• Fact or Fiction -- Land by Maggie O'Farrell (August 4)
• Literally Summer - Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe (August 10)
• Summer Encore - Land by Maggie O'Farrell (August 4)

FAMILY SUMMER LICENSE PLATE GAME

Not a bookish challenge. Every summer my family attempts to find all fifty states' license plates. We do this from Memorial Day to Labor Day, end of May to beginning of September.

This year we saw our last plate, Mississippi, as we were driving past Mt. Hood on the road to Central Oregon. It was the the last week in July. Woot. Woot. We hardly ever find all fifty of the plates but our trip in the early summer to Yellowstone was a big help in finding them.

-Anne

Paris in July Challenge - Finale

Host Emma@Words and Peace

Books /Livres

Children's Books (my level)

Je Suis Une Grenouille! by Mo Willems

My husband and I read this with our grandson, age five. He was very patient with our poor French and when we needed to look up what words meant. Sweet! It is about a pig pretending (faire semblant) to be a frog. The English version is titled: I'm a Frog!

La Porte A4 by Naomi Shihab Nye

This is Naomi Shihab Nye's poem: "Gate 4-A", about a time she had to translate, in her broken Arabic, for a woman who was worried when it was announced the flight was delayed. The woman was in distress because she thought the flight was canceled. I've read the poem before but enjoyed it in French (and a bit of Arabic) this time. There is no English version of this children's book.  

Theme: A community can be formed around cookies and stories. 

"Tout n'est pas perdu." (All is not lost.)

Petit Bonheur by Yue Zhang

Yue Zhang is a young Chinese author and illustrator. This book about what happens on the eve of Chinese New Year is a sweet little story about magic and helping others. It is not published in English.

Madeleine by Ludwig Bemelmans

Originally published in 1939 this has been a favorite children's book my whole life, but the first time reading it in French. After a little research I learned the book was originally written in English, not French, as I assumed. Unfortunately google translate, which I had to turn to occasionally, took all the poetry out of it so I was forced to find a person on YouTube who read the English version to remind myself of the lovely cadence of the prose. Ah! Parfait! (One other interesting difference, the English version is spelled Madeline.)

Food

Zucchini and Bacon Quiche / Courgettes et Bacon Quiche

My garden runneth over with zucchini so tonight we feast on quiche filled with zucchini and bacon. My husband helped me make this dish. I had an appointment so after I made the crust and helped mix up the eggs and milk, he sauteed the vegetables and compiled everything. It has been a long time since we've made quiche and it was delicious and a wonderful ending to another a successful 'Paris in July.'

-Anne

Spring Goodreads Challenge Complete

Today I completed the Goodreads Spring Quarterly Challenge by finishing my selection for Pride Picks, Kin by Tayari Jones. It is the second quarter in a row where I've completed the challenge and this time with three days to spare. Woot woot.

The specific books I read for this challenge were:

2nd Quarter (Spring, April thru June)

• Page-Turner -- Read two books during challenge period (April 3)
• Speed Reader -- Read three books during challenge period (April 3)
• Book Boss -- Read five books during challenge (April 15)
• Community Picks -- Heartwood by Amity Gaige (April 23)
• Trending Books -- What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (May 11)
• Marathon Reader -- Moby Dick by Herman Melville (May 6)
• Editor's Picks -- Heartwood by Amity Gaige (April 23)
• Books on Books -- What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (May 11)
• AAPI Heritage -- Things In Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li (May 2)
• Summer Reading -- Animal Farm by George Orwell (May 28)
• Escapist Reads -- This Land is Your Land by Beverly Gage (June 6)
• Pride Picks -- Kin by Tayari Jones (June 27)

You'll notice I doubled up on a few books in two different categories. That is totally legit. Goodreads gives participants lots of options of books in the different groups (usually between 75-125 choices) and sometimes the same book shows up on two lists. Bonus! Knock off two lists with one book!

In case you are wondering how you can join in to the summer challenge which starts on July 1st, here is how you find the challenge page: 

1. Go to your Goodreads home page.
2. On the left hand side of the page is a column, underneath CURRENTLY READING should be 2026 READING CHALLENGE. Click on the words "View Challenge."
3. On the CHALLENGE DETAILS page underneath the graph of how many books you've read so far this year is how many achievements you've collected. Click on the words "All achievements in this challenge."
4. Scroll to the bottom of the next page which is the 2026 Reading challenge bookmarks. Click on the words "More challenges."
5. Now you will see the words SPRING CHALLENGE (if you are looking in June) or SUMMER CHALLENGE (if you are looking in July). Click on the words "Challenge details."
6. Finally you have arrived at the book marks which explain the specific challenges. Click on any bookmark and the details of that category will be explained and the allowed books will be listed if you click on the words "Browse Books." All twelve don't open up instantly. For example, Pride Picks category didn't open until June 1st this quarter. Some books you will have three months to read and others you may only have one month to read. 
7. Once you earn a bookmark it will change from black and white to a colored picture. So fun.

Give it a try. Decide if you want to try the Goodread Challenge this summer or not.

BTW--Be my friend on Goodreads. Find me and friend me. You find me by searching my name: Anne Bennett . For confirmation you found me, my website is linked to Goodreads: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com  / How can I find you? 

-Anne

Paris in July -- Getting ready for my "trip" to France via books, food, sports, and language.

Emma at Words and Peace

It is almost July and time for the virtual trip to France.

Here are a few things I hope to do this coming month related to France:

Food:

• Make a batch of chou à la crème (cream puffs). I adore them and yet have only made them once in my life. I've already asked my daughter to join me in this project.
• Ratatouille is a food I'm not even sure I've ever tried but it certainly sounds like something I would like, but I might like these even better: Pommes Dauphinoise creamy sliced potatoes in a special cheesy sauce. Which should I make? Perhaps both?

Books:

• I will just be finishing up Madame Bovary by Flaubert as the month begins. Perfect timing.
• I want to read The Stranger by Camus. I saw the movie earlier this year and think I need to reread the book since the first time through I read it in French. Ahem. I didn't get a lot out of it.
• A few others I have my eyes on:
• Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin
• Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Carlier
• The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani

Sports:

• Watch some (all?) Tour du France. I enjoyed it a lot last year.
• Watch France in World Cup, if they make it out of the preliminary set.

Music:

• Reactivate my two French music sets on Spotify and listen away!

-Anne

Summer Reading Challenges

20 Books of Summer is one of the longest-running events in the book blogosphere and is so low-pressure, a perfect reading challenge for summer months. Here are the details.

• The #20BOS26 challenge runs from Monday June 1st to Monday August 31st
• It is hosted byAnnabel at AnnaBookBel
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR. (If you think you’ll only manage 5, that’s fine too.)
• Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick just at whim from your TBR.
• If you do pick a list, you can change it at any time – swap books in/out.
• Don’t get panicked at not reaching your target, it’s not really a challenge as such.
• Just enjoy a summer of great reading and make a bit of space on your shelves!
• Don’t forget to add your posts to the monthly linkys. The final one will stay open till for a week into September to catch the last reviews.

Here are some books I am hoping to conquer by summer's end, but since the past is prologue, my summer reading won't go completely to plan...

1. The Stranger / Camus.

2. Angel Down / Kraus

3. The Astral Library / Quinn

4. Animal Farm / Orwell

5. A Far-Flung Life / Stedman

6. Kin / Jones

7. Parable of the Sower / Butler

8. Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter / Fawcett

9. Call Me Ishmaelle /  Guo  *448 pages

10. This Land is Your Land / Gage

11. Madame Bovary / Flaubert

12. Dungeon Crawler Carl / Dinniman *450 pages

13. The Warmth of Other Suns / Wilkerson *640 pages

14. The Man Who Could Move Clouds / Contreras

15. The Seven Sisters / Riley *460 pages

16. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay / Ferrante *418 pages

17. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie / Spark

18. Book Club #1 August Choice TBA

19. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny / Desai *670 pages

20. Goodreads June Challenge Choice TBA

Sue Jackson of Book by Book hosts a Big Book Summer Reading Challenge.

Here's a little about the challenge.

The idea behind this reading challenge is simple: Use the ease of summer to tackle a Big Book (400+ pages) or two or ... however many you want! You set your own goals. And if it is the start of winter where you live, then it's your Big Book Winter Challenge. Everyone is welcome to participate.

The Details:
Hey, it's summer, so we'll keep this low-key and easy!
Anything 400 pages or more qualifies as a big book.
The challenge runs from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend (May 22 this year) through Labor Day (September 7 this year).

Choose one or two or however many big books you want as your goal. Wait, did you get that? You only need to read 1 book with 400+ pages this summer to participate! (though you are welcome to read more, if you want).
No sign-ups are necessary! All readers are welcome to participate.

Books I think I might tackle this summer which are longer than 400 pages are marked with * on the above list. 

-Anne

How I Did on My Yearly Reading Challenges

So how did I do on all my 2025 reading challenges?  

Here is my end of the year report:

As in the past, most of my 2025 reading goals and challenges are of my own making. Most of the challenges center around award books and that means there is a limited number of books I expect myself to read for each and sometimes there is crossover between them also. I also joined seasonal reading challenges. It was an exceptional reading year for me.

I.

Read: One book

Completed 4/1/2025: The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
⭐

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II.

Read at least four books in this category

I read the winner, James by Percival Everett, last year.

1. The Optimist's Daughter by Welty (completed 1/22/2025)

2. The Magnificent Ambersons by Tarkington (Completed 5/18/2025)

3. Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (Completed August 1, 2025)

⭐

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III.

Read minimum of two books. Winners announced in November.

1. I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken (Poetry longlist)

2. The Teacher of Nomad Land: a WWII Story by Daniel Nayeri (Young People's Literature)

3. One Day, Everyone Will Have always Been Against This by El Akkad

⭐

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IV.

Read two books from 2025 list.

1. Tell Me Everything by Strout

2. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden 

⭐

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V.

Read one book. Winner announced Nov. 10, 2025

Audition by Katie Kitamura (finalist)

⭐

___________________________________________

VI.

Read three books

1. Brownstone by Teer

2. The Road Home by Rex Ogle

3. The Deep Dark by Molly Know Ostertag

⭐

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VII.

Read 108+ books
Participate in Two Seasonal Reading Challenges

1st quarter update: 33 books read; all five 2024 leftovers completed.

2nd quarter update: 37 books read. Total for year so far: 70.

3rd quarter update: 48 books read. Total so far: 118

4th quarter update: 44 books read. Total for the year: 162

September-December Seasonal Challenges -- All complete.

⭐

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VII.

Write reviews for all the book club choices. 23 in all.

Complete!

⭐

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VIII.

Read five classics, minimum.

1. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

2. The Optimist's Daughter by Welty

3. David Copperfield by Dickens

4. The Magnificent Ambersons by Tarkington

5. Sense and Sensibility by Austen

6. Go Tell It On the Mountain by Baldwin

7. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

8. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

9. Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson

10. Grimms' Fairy Tales

11. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

12. Hamlet by Shakespeare

13. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

14. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

15. Persuasion by Jane Austen

16. Passing by Nella Larsen

17. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

⭐

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IX.

Only five states/territories left to complete this challenge.

1. 2. 3. US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands: The Not-Quite States of America by Mack

4. Puerto Rico: When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir by Santiago

5. South Dakota: Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

⭐

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X.

🠋

A. 2025 Big Book Summer -- Goal to read four:

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 453 pages

2. Watchmen by Alan Moore, 416 pages

3. The Antidote by Karen Russell, 432 pages

4. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, 468 pages

5. The Briar Club by Kate Quinn, 432 pages

6. Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, 540 pages

7. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, 402 pages

8. The Deep Dark by Molly Know Osterman, 480 pages

⭐

*********************

B. 20 Books of Summer 2025 Reading Challenge

I read: 48 books

⭐

****************************

C. Novellas in November- Goal to read twenty novellas throughout the year:

1. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, 180 pages

2. The Most by Jessica Anthony, 144 pages

3. Passing by Nella Larsen, 141 pages

4. Three Days in June by Anne Tyler, 165 pages

5. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, 161 pages

6. The Hearing Test by Eliza Barry Callahan, 162 pages

7. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico, 157 pages

8. The Vegetarian by Han Kang, 188 pages

9. Candide by Voltaire, 144 pages

10. So Long, and Thanks for the Fish by Douglas Adams, 167 pages

11. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, 152 pages

12. How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Cruz, 195 pages

13. A Study in Scarlet by Conan Doyle, 123 pages

14. What Does It Feel Like by Sophie Kinsella, 133 pages

15. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, 165 pages

16. Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser, 192 pages

17. Audition by Katie Kitamura, 197 pages

18. Convenience Store Woman by Sataka Murata, 163 pages

19. The Teacher of Nomad Land: a WWII Story by Daniel Nayeri, 192 pages

20. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 64 pages

⭐

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54 Genres Challenge

I also did a personal challenge to read a book which represented all 54 of the genres listed on Storygraph. I did it, but it was tough. Some of the genres are just not that interesting to me, like economics or computers.  I will never do this one again, Here is the graphic! Get out your magnifying glass.

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It was a good reading year and I met all my challenges!

-Anne

-Anne

Paris in July 2025 -- Reviews, food, music, and more

Paris in July 2025 is hosted by Emma@WordandPeace.

This is my first year participating. Unlike other reading challenges, this challenge asks participants to not only read books set in France, but to eat French food, watch French movies, practice speaking French, anything French. So here is what I've done for the challenge so far this month....

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Coq au Vin

1. Don and I spent the better part of a day on July 7th making Coq au Vin (Chicken in Wine), a first for both of us. It was so delicious we both just about died and went to heaven. It was worth the labor that went into creating this dish. It is possibly the best meal we've ever fixed. We got the recipe from NYT Cooking. We subscribe to their recipes. I hope you can open it. If you can but don't have a subscription, print it immediately. Next time you won't be so lucky.

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2025 Paris in July Playlist

2. While the chicken was simmering, I sat down and made a "Paris in July 2025" playlist on Spotify. Here is a link so you too can listen to music sung in French or played by French musicians, too. My husband commented on how sexy the music, while he was slurping down his meal. 😚 (I just fixed the link to the playlist. Try again.)

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Soufflé au chocolat mi-amer (Bittersweet Chocolate Soufflé)

3. Our second night of Coq au Vin I decided to make another recipe, Soufflé au chocolat mi-amer. As I was readying the ingredients, "mise en place," my husband was preparing the vegetables for dinner. He was slicing the zucchini with a mandolin cutter when, distracted, he sliced the top of his two fingers. Dinner plans were instantly changed as we scampered to the emergency room to staunch the bleeding and make sure he was okay. He is. Next night, we tried again. This time my daughter and I were able to mix up the souffle and get it in the oven while the Coq au Vin was reheating and the vegetables were stir-fried with no fingers or blood. An odd aspect of the recipe is that it called for placing the souffle pan directly onto the bottom of the oven, not on a rack. Wanna guess what happened? You guessed it. The bottom burned. Sigh. All that work for a burned souffle. Next time, I will just put in on the bottom rack. Others said it was good, I thought it wasn't worth the effort. I admit it does LOOK good, though.

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4. Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley -- a murder mystery. When Jess gets to Paris to stay with her half-brother, he is missing. She eventually sneaks into his apartment to wait for him. When he doesn't show up, Jess starts to snoop around. She notices odd things -- a broken St. Christopher necklace, a blood stain on a cat, and a floor board bleached a different color than the rest. As days go by Jess becomes more and more sure her brother is dead and everyone in the apartment -- the owner, the nice guy, the alcoholic, the socialite, the young girls, and the concierge -- all are suspects. But where can Jess go for help? She's tried the police, but that didn't seem to do much good. And now everyone is warning her to leave or else...what?

The Paris Apartment isn't the type of book I usually read but I found it to be a compelling, fast-moving plot and I was interested to figure out who dunnit. As a book for Paris in July, it had just enough about Paris culture and the use of French words to make it feel very French. I discovered that quite a few of the French words were actually swear words when I translated them. So now I've expanded my French vocabulary, ha!

My rating: 4 stars. E-book.

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5. Movie: Widow Clicquot -- After scrolling though our options on Netflix, my husband and I settled on watching a movie set in the Champagne Region of France, about the woman Widow Clicquot, who, through her own will and determination, successfully figured out how to bottle champagne. Her practices, which she started fine-tuning during the reign of Napoleon, are still largely used today. The movie, was conducted in an almost dreamlike quality with lots of flashbacks to her earlier life with a mentally-ill husband. It was well-done and interesting but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who loves a lot of action.

My rating: 4 stars.

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6.  My husband has been teasing me about everything I do these days that has even a hint of French to it... For example I bought a jar of apricot fruit spread made by Bonne Maman, a French company whose claim to fame is they only use natural ingredients in their jams. I do love their apricot spread but I wouldn't think of blogging about it.  Tee-hee!

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Where will the second half of the month take me?  I've order two middle grade books in French from the library. Will I be able to read them? It has been so long since my 5 years of French classes in college and high school. I hope to make a Strawberry Rhubarb Galette. And I do hope to watch a few more movies. Any recommendations?

-Anne