2017 New Authors Reading Challenge

Host: Literary Escapism

Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2017

Click here for rules and sign-ups.

For some reason, I didn't participate in the 2016 edition of this challenge, but I'm in for 2017. Hoping to discover at least 15-20 new authors. During the year, I'll be tracking my progress and keeping all my lists over on my challenge blog (HERE).

Challenge Wrap-Up: 2015 New Authors Reading Challenge

The 2015 New Authors Reading Challenge was hosted by Literary Escapism. I wanted to read at least 15 new authors, and actually doubled that goal. Didn't get them all reviewed, but here's the list:

1. Michael Phillip Cash: The After House 
2. Glenn Cooper: The Resurrection Maker 
3. Jonas Karlsson: The Room 
4. Erika Swyler: The Book of Speculation 
5. Charles Todd: A Fine Summer's Day (Inspector Rutledge #17)
6. Elizabeth Hand: Wylding Hall 
7. Damien Boyd: As the Crow Flies (DI Nick Dixon #1)
8. Becky Masterman: Fear the Darkness (Brigid Quinn Thriller #2) 
9. Alan Hunter: Gently Does It (Inspector George Gently #1)
10. Martha Ockley: A Saintly Killing (Faith Morgan #3) 
11. Brian Harvey: Beethoven's Tenth (Frank Ryan #1)
12. S.K. Tremayne: The Ice Twins 
13. Jonathan Aycliffe: The Silence of Ghosts 
14. Pierre Boileau (and Thomas Narcejac): Vertigo 
15. Blake Crouch: Pines (Wayward Pines #1) 
16. Kate DiCamillo: The Tale of Despereaux 
17. Paul Tremblay: A Head Full of Ghosts
18. Sascha Arango: The Truth and Other Lies 
19. Anne Perry: The Angel Court Affair (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt #30) 
20. Rebecca Stead: Goodbye Stranger 
21. Jill Morrow: Newport: A Novel 
22. Elizabeth Edmondson: A Man of Some Repute (A Very English Mystery #1)
23. Lauren Owen: The Quick  
24. David Mitchell: Slade House 
25. Jennifer McMahon: The Night Sister 
26. Kaylie Jones: The Anger Meridian 
27. Haruki Murakami: South of the Border, West of the Sun 
28. Elizabeth Berg: What We Keep 
29. Marty Wingate: Between a Rock and a Hard Place 
30. Jean-Pierre Alaux (and Noël Balen): Backstabbing in Beaujolais 

Many thanks to the challenge host -- this is always one of my favorite challenges.

New Authors Challenge 2015

New Authors Challenge 2015

Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2015
Hosted by: Literary Escapism

This is always one of my favorite reading challenges, and I'm so happy to see it back for another year. The idea is to read books by authors who are new to you, not necessarily authors who are being published for the first time (although I suppose that's OK, too).

See the challenge announcement page for more info and to sign up. I'll be aiming to find at least 15 new authors, but of course hope to do a little better than that. I read more than 25 new authors in 2014, but didn't do so well with reviewing. Hope to improve in that area for 2015. During the year, I'll be tracking my progress over on my challenge blog -- and here too, if I can remember.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Challenge Wrap-Up: 2014 New Author Reading Challenge

2014 New Author Reading Challenge

Hosted by: Literary Escapism
Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2014

I committed to reading 15 new-to-me authors this year, and actually did a little better than that. Here's what I read:

1. Coup de Grâce. Marguerite Yourcenar 
2. Fog Magic. Julia L. Sauer 
3. The Universe Versus Alex Woods. Gavin Extence 
4. Tens Lords A-Leaping. C.C. Benison 
5. While Beauty Slept. Elizabeth Blackwell 
6. The Thief of Always. Clive Barker 
7. The Innocent Sleep. Karen Perry 
8. The Bookman's Tale. Charlie Lovett 
9. Love Story, with Murders. Harry Bingham 
10. Midnight in Europe. Alan Furst 
11. The Antiquarian. Gustavo Faverón Patriau
12. The Quilter's Apprentice. Jennifer Chiaverini
13. The Good Suicides. Antonio Hill
14. Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster. Terrance Dicks
15. The Colors of Space. Marion Zimmer Bradley
16. The Weight of Blood. Laura McHugh 
17. The Transcriptionist. Amy Rowland 
18. Island Girls. Nancy Thayer 
19. The Two Hotel Francforts. David Leavitt
20. The Celtic Dagger. Jill Paterson
21. The Dirty Book Murder. Thomas Shawver 
22. Murder at the Painted Lady. Barbara Warren 
23. Bliss House. Laura Benedict 
24. The Days of Anna Madrigal. Armistead Maupin
25. The Family Under the Bridge. Natalie Savage Carlson

This has always been one of my favorite challenges. Thanks so much to Literary Escapism for hosting.

New Author Reading Challenge 2014

I really am trying to be a little more selective about signing up for reading challenges in 2014, after doing so badly with my 2013 crop.  But the New Author Challenge (hosted by Jackie over at Literary Escapism) is one of my favorites.  For some reason, I forgot to sign up this year.  Not making that mistake again.  I'll be committing to fifteen new authors, but hope to do a little better than that.  Since I don't know who those authors will be yet, I won't be making an advance list, but during the year I'll be tracking my progress on my challenge blog (HERE), and here too (if I can remember):

1. Marguerite Yourcenar: Coup de Grâce
2. Julia L. Sauer: Fog Magic
3. Gavin Extence: The Universe Versus Alex Woods
4. C.C. Benison: Ten Lords A-Leaping 
5. 
   

New Author Challenge 2012

Hosted by: Jackie at Literary Escapism
Dates: 1 January to 31 December, 2012

I've participated in the New Author Challenge for two years now, and it's always one of my favorite reading challenges. Love finding new writers, and this really encourages the hunt.

See all the guidelines on the announcement/sign-up page here. Once again, I'm committing to 15 new authors, but hope to do a little better than that. Also will really try very hard to do a better job of posting reviews this time around (no, really -- I promise). And I'll be tracking my progress through the year on my challenge blog here.

More Challenge Wrap-Ups

Well, I was sort of dilly-dallying around, hoping I might do a little more catching up on review-writing. But now that there's only a week to go in 2011, I think it's just as well to admit defeat in that area, and get on with challenge wrap-ups. That way, I can devote my whole attention to all those new challenges on the horizon for 2012! And to save time, I'm not going to do individual wrap-up posts this year -- so here goes:


The 2011 2nds Challenge was hosted by Katy at A few More Pages. I signed up at the "Just a Spoonful" level, and read three books:

1. A Shilling for Candles. Josephine Tey
2. Shut Your Eyes Tight. John Verdon
3. Malice in Miniature. Jeanne M. Dams

Didn't manage to get reviews written for any of these, but I enjoyed them all and will be reading more books by these authors in the future. I want to thank Katy for hosting this one, and I'm thinking seriously about signing up for the 2012 2nds Challenge, too.


The 2011 New Authors Reading Challenge was hosted by Jackie at Literary Escapism. I committed to reading 15 new-to-me authors, and I actually did a little better than that. Here's my list of authors/books, with links to reviews (if any):

1. Andrew Taylor: The Anatomy of Ghosts
2. Peter Robinson: Bad Boy
   
3. Joyce Dennys: Henrietta Sees It Through
   
4. Paul Elwork: The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead
   
5. Elizabeth Stuckey-French: The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady
   
6. Mary Cunningham: Cynthia's Attic: The Missing Locket
   
7. Jennifer Egan: A Visit from the Goon Squad
   
8. Jim Stinson: Tassy Morgan's Bluff
   
9. Rebecca Hunt: Mr. Chartwell
   
10. Joan Lindsay: Picnic at Hanging Rock
    
11. William Boyd: Nat Tate
    
12. Michael Robertson: The Brothers of Baker Street
13. James Patterson: Along Came a Spider
    
14. Conor Fitzgerald: The Fatal Touch
    
15. Kate Mosse: The Winter Ghosts
16. Miles Franklin: My Brilliant Career
    
17. John Harwood: The Seance
18. Paul Scott: Staying On
    
19. Melanie Benjamin: Alice I Have Been
    
20. Philip Eade: Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II
    

This was one of my favorite challenges, and I'm really grateful to Jackie for hosting. I definitely intend to sign up for the 2012 edition, and promise to try to do a better job of keeping up with reviews.

Challenge Wrap-Up: New Authors Challenge 2010

The New Authors Challenge is definitely one of my favorite challenges. In fact, I've already signed up for the 2011 edition. Hosted by Jackie of Literary Escapism, it's a really great way to introduce yourself to authors you've never read before, and even genres you've never explored.

When I signed up I said I'd commit to reading fifteen new authors, but I had a feeling I'd do a lot better than that. And I was right: I actually read thirty-three books by authors I'd never read before. As usual, I didn't do quite as well with the reviewing as I did with the reading. Hope to do better with that next year. But for now, here's my list of books read, with links to existing reviews:

The Anthologist. Nicholson Baker
The Raphael Affair. Iain Pears
Venom. Joan Brady
Quattrocento. James McKean
People of the Book. Geraldine Brooks
The Brontes Went to Woolworths. Rachel Ferguson
Heresy. S.J. Parris
Before the Throne. Naguib Mahfouz
The Swimming Pool. Holly LeCraw
An American Type. Henry Roth
A River in the Sky. Elizabeth Peters
Live To Tell. Lisa Gardner
Tinkers. Paul Harding
The Last Child. John Hart
The Hypnotist. M.J. Rose
The Forgotten Garden. Kate Morton
The Spider Bites. Medora Sale
The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Cathleen Schine
The Good Psychologist. Noam Shpancer
Damaged. Alex Kava
The Egypt Game. Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Alan Bradley
Think of a Number. John Verdon
All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost. Lan Samantha Chang
The Convent. Panos Karnezis
The Inheritance. Simon Tolkien
The House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons
Book of Shadows. Alexandra Sokoloff
After Claude. Iris Owens
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden. Helen Grant
Juliet. Anne Fortier
The Weird Sisters. Eleanor Brown
The Thirty-Nine Steps. John Buchan

Challenges for 2011, Part 2

I should not be doing this. I'm really, truly trying to limit the number of reading challenges I'm signing up for in 2011. I've got myself involved in eight already, and that's definitely enough. But I've found two more that I really just can't resist, so here come numbers nine and ten:

New Authors Challenge 2011

1 January - 31 December 2011
Read a set number of books by authors who are new to you.
Three Levels: 15, 25, or 50 new authors
Host: Jackie of Literary Escapism
See the announcement/sign-up page here.
✸ The 2010 version of this challenge was one of my favorites from this past year. I signed up to read fifteen new authors, and ended up doing much better than that. It was lots of fun and hardly any work - which I love. Even so, I'm playing it safe again this year and committing to fifteen new authors.

Young Readers Challenge 2011

January - December 2011
Read twelve children's books. These will be books from the "easy reading" or "junior/juvenile" sections of the library.
Host: Becky of Becky's Book Reviews
See the announcement/sign-up page here.
✸ Becky's Book Reviews hosts this challenge annually. I tried it a couple of years ago, and didn't do very well with it. But I love reading kiddie lit, and didn't read any this past year. So maybe I can get a little nudge from the 2011 challenge.

So that's that. There are actually a couple more really tempting challenges out there calling my name, but for the moment I'm trying to exercise some restraint. For the moment. Tomorrow is another day, of course. Anyway, during the year I'll be updating my progress with these two, and all the others, on my challenge blog, here.

New Authors Challenge 2010

Well, I was going to give this one a miss because I figured there was no way I would ever be able to read enough new authors in one year to complete the challenge. But after looking at my reading list for this year, I realized that at least twenty or more of the works I read in 2009 were written by new-to-me authors.

So I'm signing up for the New Authors Challenge. It runs through 2010 and it's being hosted by Jackie at Literary Escapism. The idea behind the challenge is pretty simple (which I love, of course) – just commit to reading 15, 25, or 50 authors you've never read before. Think I'll play it safe and just go for 15 to start. After January 1st, I'll be updating my progress on my challenge blog.