LisaMorr reads some more in 2026

A late joiner - so many interesting posts here, I thought I would add my reading log.

I haven't done very well at reading a lot or maintaining my reading threads on LT for quite some time. I usually start out with an unachievable goal and then complicate that with too many things to track and a template for making my posts that requires too much work, which in the end has me getting behind in posting and then giving up. And/or I may also get into a reading funk, so then I disappear.

I do remember though that planning did help me to read more.

So, this year I decided to use the 52 Book Club 2026 Reading Challenge to organize my reading and help to pick my books. Within or in addition to, I'm also picking a Virago Modern Classics novel to read every month, choosing alphabetically by author.

So far, this has worked pretty well - I'm currently at 22 books read which has me pretty well on track for 52 books this year. The last time I read more than 50 books was ten years ago - hopefully I can keep it up.

January Reading

1. Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, 274 Pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 18 - Provokes strong emotion
2. Room by Emma Donoghue, 321 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 44 - Literary Device: Personification
3. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, 774 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 28 - From a series at least eight books long
4. The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice, 436 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 34 - Inspired by the top-grossing movie the year you were born (Cleopatra)
5. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, 499 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 24 - Uneven number of chapters
6. The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht, 173 pages ⭐️⭐️ 1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 41 - A guide to...

February Reading

7. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo, 553 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 51 - Includes a map
8. The Golden Ass by Apuleius, 256 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 1 - Set in an ancient civilization
1001 book
9. Pickups and Come-Ons by Knock Knock, 112 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 7 - Title starts with the letter 'P'
10. Eat This!: 365 Reasons to Stop Dieting by Mary McHugh, 240 pages ⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 40 - Author’s first and last name start with same letter
11. I'm Not Complaining by Ruth Adam, 346 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 8 - A three-syllable word in the title
Virago Modern Classics
12. The Official We Do Not Care Handbook Club by Melani Sanders, 199 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 52 - Published in 2026

March Reading

13. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, 440 pages ⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 27 - Two or more author, one pseudonym (James Frey and Dobie Hughes)
14. The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons edited by Bob Eckstein, 142 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 2, Kangaroo word on the cover (cartoon - art)
15. The Happy Foreigner by Enid Bagnold, 292 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 26, Title in a Serif Font
Virago Modern Classics

First Quarter Summary

15 books read - 29% of my goal of 52 books, so I'm ahead of target!

5057 pages read, 337 pages per book average

8 of 15 books read were by women

4/15 non-fiction

Favorites of the quarter:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Lethal White
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 - Room, The Happy Foreigner, The Redbreast

April Reading

16. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, 572 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 30, Author Related to Another Author
17. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, 264 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 31, Author related to author in prompt 30 (Charlotte Bronte)

May Reading

18. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo, 480 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 48, Related to the word Nemesis
19. The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield, 319 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 10, Spans a decade or more
Virago Modern Classics
20. The Sign by Raymond Khoury, 552 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 29, Set in the Arctic or Antarctic
21. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, 428 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 13, Bookface
1001
22. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, 386 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 38, Domestic Fiction

Yay, you started a thread! Loved browsing your list and the prompts. Fun way to choose books. I remember thinking The Golden Ass was a hoot when I read it back in college. I wonder what I would think now?

What a terrific selection of books you have been reading. Any favorites?

>1 LisaMorr: we all get reading slump so you are not alone personally im free bird reader tho i do keep track of rtt, hf, non fiction and see whats up but i envy your enthsiasm ill porbably follow your journey :)

>8 labfs39: Yes, it was a hoot!

And I'm liking the 52 Book Club prompts this year. Nothing too tough, but I'm sure I'll have to look a little harder as the year progresses to find books off my shelves that fit.

>9 dchaikin: Thanks - now that I'm caught up with my reading in this thread, I'll comment a little more on my reads in the moment.

I really liked Memoirs of a Geisha - it's been on my shelves for 9 years!!! For some reason I was always hesitant about it - I'm so glad that the reading challenge prompt of 'bookface' came up; I had never even heard of it, but it's where you can take the cover of a book and cover part of your body with it. So those lips on the cover are now mine, LOL!

And I'm really liking the Cormoran Strike series - I blazed through Lethal White in January; I need to pick up the next one soon.

I'm also glad to be reading Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series. A friend of mine gave me The Snowman and I read it back in 2014 - it was the seventh in the series, and I went right out and bought all of the preceding ones. I read the first book pretty quickly afterwards and it didn't grab me that much. I was also trying to read/re-read/complete so many big series back then, like The Wheel of Time, His Dark Materials, The Dresden Files, Pilgrimage, Kristin Lavransdatter, The Dark Tower, etc....

Anyway, I read the second one last year, and then the third and fourth this year, and they are just getting better and better. Also, a continuing storyline started in the third book and it's very compelling.

>10 cindydavid4: Thanks Cindy! I checked out your first thread and enjoyed it!

Did you go to the University of Arizona? I did - I do love the Arizona weather and the beautiful desert views!

I also like your format for reviews - I may steal that as I think it would help me focus a bit.

>12 LisaMorr: nice. Thanks for sharing. The Wheel of Time is the series that made me a reader. I was 17.

Memoirs of a Geisha - my read copy has been in the house in 2007. Almost 20 years waiting for me to open it up….

>14 dchaikin: Oh wow! I remember exactly where I picked up my paperback copy of The Eye of the World - I had flown from LA to Phoenix for a 2nd job interview and either I had forgotten to bring a book with me (not likely) or had finished the book I had brought with me. The interview was at a resort hotel where the company was having their annual meeting - I found The Wheel of Time in the resort shop. And many years and thousands of pages later, finally finished the series. Maybe someday I'll have the energy to do a re-read.

And, as far as Memoirs of a Geisha - I say do it! It's very readable!

I was in Colorado in the mountains for a Christmas break ski trip with my mom’s boyfriend and his son, who was older than me. They made sausage. I got sick. So while they skied i tried reading his son’s book. And suddenly i wasn’t in Colorado anymore. What an experience. I’ve opened that book again - Eye of the World - it’s so slow! I couldn’t read it. 20 pages and nothing happened 🙂 But i really enjoyed the series. I’m not in the right place for Geisha just now. She must wait. But someday…

>16 dchaikin: I love that!

And she'll wait...

What I'm reading now:

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith for the prompt 'set in a castle'; it's also one of the Virago Modern Classics.
The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier, a time travel VMC and I'm picking it for my VMC alphabetical by author challenge, and for the prompt 'started on the 26th of them month'.

What's on deck:
Villette by Charlotte Bronte for the prompt 'has a dust jacket' and it's a 1001 book.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman for the prompt 'day of the week in the title'.

I thinking about starting Les Misérables for 'a diacritical mark on the cover'.

Here are all the other prompts I have left with any ideas I've come up with so far; I'm trying to just read from my shelves, which should be possible.

Written without quotation marks - Severance by Ling Ma

Featuring a conspiracy - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, a 1001 book, something by Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol or Digital Fortress, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, The Rook by Daniel O'Malley, Artemis by Andy Weir, The City and the City by China Mieville, The Plot Against America by Philip Roth....and I seem to have a lot more of these on my shelves!

Title starts with the letter O - Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga, a 1001 book

Featuring a natural disaster - Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, Flood by Stephen Baxter, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant, Darkfall by Dean Koontz

Requires suspension of disbelief - The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, I Who Have Never Known Man by Jacqueline Harpman, What Might Have Been Alternate Wars, Alternate Americas edited by Benford and Greenberg. I could also read any Outlander book, but that probably means I need to go back and read the first one, which I don't think I'm up for....

A genre-defining read - hmmm, maybe One Hundred Years of Solitude for magical realism, Animal Farm for political satire or allegory, or Dracula for gothic horror

Character with a secret identity - maybe Ripley Under Ground, or The Bourne Identity or Eye of the Needle

Includes a character list - Wolf Hall, but I don't know if I'm ready for it this year, LOL. Just found out that a VMC, South Riding by Winifred Holtby has a character list - that could work well with my monthly VMC read.

This is getting to be a really long post, so I think I will save and continue in another post.

Part 2 of book prompts for this year:

(I'm really glad I posted all these and started thinking about what books I have that can meet these prompts)

Subtitle with a comma - have a lot to choose from! And really, I gotta read all of these....
Abyss: World on the Brink, The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House
Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times
The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA
Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America's Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920
First Photographs: People, Places, and Phenomena As Captured for the First Time by the Camera
Fun Facts About Cats: Inspiring Tales, Amazing Feats, Helpful Hints
The Habsburgs: Dynasty, Culture and Politics
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science
King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta
Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: a memoir of friendship, community, and the uncommon pleasure of a good book
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill
Secret Pittsburgh: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure
Set Phasers on Stun: And Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human Error
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45
This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future
Undaunted Courage - Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, And The Opening Of The American West
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963
Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
A Very Queer Family Indeed: Sex, Religion, and the Bensons in Victorian Britain
What It's Like to be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing--What Birds Are Doing, and Why
White King: Traitor, Murderer, Martyr
Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country

Deus Ex Machina - Medea and Other Plays, The Plot Against America

Author's bio mentions their dog - I think Dean Koontz' dog is mentioned in his bio, not sure about other authors off the top of my head; I saw a list that mentioned The Names, also Dan Brown's books - and I could read The Lost Symbol

A nosy neighbor character - The Girl on the Train, A Man Called Ove, The Man Who Dies Twice

Written in the 1800s - I should have a lot of 1001 books in this category, maybe Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations?

Spotted in a TV series or movie - well, there's 408 books from The Gilmore Girls, so that should have plenty of choices for me.

Part 3 of book prompts for the year (to be completed...):

Grumpy sunshine trope - Throne of Glass, A Man Called Ove

Includes a red herring - The Man Who Died Twice, The Silent Patient?

Publisher starting with the letter B - lots to choose from here; I have quite a few Dean Koontz books to read and they seem to be all published by Bantam or Berkley; Kindred is published by Beacon, Armada published by Ballantine, a really old book, from my dad I think - Space Merchants, published by Ballantine, Chicks in Chainmail published by Baen, The Fox, a 1001 book, published by Bantam, The Lowland published by Bloomsbury, A Thousand Splendid Suns published by Bloomsbury, also Spilt Milk, Black Coffee and High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic, and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, a 1001 book, published by Bozoi.

A standalone fantasy novel - Hobgoblin, Heartbeast, Fairy Tale, Violin, Dragonworld, A Secret History of Witches, The Stone Door, Practical Demonkeeping: A Comedy of Horrors, The Swordswoman, Agyar, Split Heirs, Vermilion

Award winning book from last year - The Names British Book Award Winner - Debut Fiction (I'm so happy I happen to have one 2025 book that won an award! I did not want to have to acquire a book just for this prompt.)

Includes a handwritten interior font - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, The Ministry of Time

A Goodreads recommendation - I will use an LT recommendation

Biographical fiction - this one and the next one may be tough if I only want to stay with books on my shelves....might have to pick one up for one or the other of these prompts
1. Queen Margot
2. A Brief History of Seven Killings
3. The Testament of Mary
4. My Lord John
5. Child of the Morning

Non-fiction about the character above - would need to find some non-fiction about
1. King Charles IX, Catherine de Medici, Marguerite de Valois
2. Bob Marley
3. Mary
4. King Henry IV and family
5. Hatshepsut

In the 800s of the Dewey Decimal System - this is like the free spot on a bingo card, LOL

>13 LisaMorr: yes i did, lived there 10 years getting my BA and MA spent lots of free time hiking in the differerent ranges.Id still be there if it wasnt for the reagan economy making it hard to get a job. ended up in SLC where my roomate lived. another great place for hiking.moved baack to phx. I still miss Tucson alot go there to visit old friends l love Bookmans, used to be 3 off them now i think there are just two and yeah the views, not sure who has the best sunrises and sets Phx or tucson both pretty grand eeither way tho tucson has better rainstorm

re reviews, steal away i got it from lisa!
so whats your connection with the grand pueblo?

These prompts remind me of the TIOLI monthly challenges in the 75 Books group. Have you ever participated in that? Basically every month the group comes up with 12-16ish challenges, much like the ones you are using, then we all list our books that we read in a wiki. Bonus points if more than one person reads the same book, "awards" given out for creative fulfillment of a challenge or for doing them all, etc. It's fun alternative to what you are doing. You can see this month's here.

>22 cindydavid4: I got my B.S. in chemical engineering from the U of A. Loved it there! My first job after college was in Phoenix, then I was transferred to SoCal. Tucson will always have a soft spot in my heart. I used to visit regularly at Christmas time and play golf; have kind of gotten out of the habit, but I need to visit again sometime.

>23 labfs39: Wow - there's a lot going on there! I think I need to read the FAQs to really understand how it all works. Looks like fun! Thank you for sharing the link!

>13 LisaMorr: yes i did, lived there 10 years getting my BA and MA spent lots of free time hiking in the differerent ranges.Id still be there if it wasnt for the reagan economy making it hard to get a job. ended up in SLC where my roomate lived. another great place for hiking.moved back to phx. for 35 years as a teacher of special needs preschoolers. I still miss Tucson alot go there to visit old friends l love Bookmans, used to be 3 off them now i think there are just two and yeah the views, not sure who has the best sunrises and sets Phx or tucson both pretty grand eeither way tho tucson has better rainstorm

re reviews, steal away i got it from lisa!
so whats your connection with the grand pueblo?

>23 labfs39: OK, I understand how the TIOLIs work now! Every month there about a dozen different challenges and you pick whichever ones interest you. I think that could be a neat way to pick books; I'll have to try that out as my book selection process.

June Reading Plans

Off on another trip tomorrow; it'll be a busy trip, but hopefully I'll get some reading in. I'll bringing these along:

The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier, a time travel VMC that I'm picking for my VMC alphabetical by author challenge, and for the prompt 'started on the 26th of them month'.
I Capture the Castle for the prompt 'set in a castle'; it's also one of the Virago Modern Classics.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte for the prompt 'has a dust jacket' and it's a 1001 book.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman for the prompt 'day of the week in the title'.
The Semi-Attached Couple, and the Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden, next in line for my alphabetical by author VMC challenge
Animal Farm - I'm pretty sure this will be a re-read for me, but it has been AGES....this would fit 'a genre-defining read' for political satire
The Silent Patient - supposedly includes a 'red herring'?
Severance - for 'written without quotation marks'

I was thinking about starting Les Misérables for 'a diacritical mark on the cover', but it's a big, heavy hardcover that I think I will leave at home.

>27 LisaMorr: Yes, that's about it. TIOLI is chill, but fun, as the name implies (Take It or Leave It). I often read what I read and try to slot them in after, but many people plan their month's reading based on the challenges. I've never managed to read a book for every challenge within a month, but I have managed a mini-sweep (all five challenges in a section).

Where are you off to? Safe travels

>29 labfs39: That would be a lot of books to read in a month! I'll have to look again to understand the mini-sweep. I have been enjoying using the 52 Book Club prompts to select my books this year - I could probably try what you do in terms of reading the books I have planned and then see what they fit. I also like the idea of having a blank slate and using the TIOLIs to browse my bookshelves and pick a book!

Thanks - we're flying to Venice today and will spend a few days in Trieste, including a side trip to Lake Bled in Slovenia, and then we're going on a 2-week cruise to visit some Adriatic and Mediterranean ports.

>30 LisaMorr: That sounds like a wonderful trip. Which trip company are you using? Having gone on my first group tour this year, I am curious as to others' experiences, if you don't mind sharing.

>31 labfs39: It was a great trip! We spent time on our own in Trieste - we booked a private tour through TripAdvisor to visit Lake Bled and Ljubljana, and our guide was excellent. Then we went on Cunard's ship the Queen Victoria starting from Trieste and stopping in Zadar and Dubrovnik, Croatia; Valletta, Malta; Palma, Mallorca, Spain; Barcelona; Toulon, France; Livorno, Italy; Valencia and Ibiza, Spain and finally disembarking in Barcelona.

We booked several excursions through the ship and did a few things on our own in ports with which we were more familiar. From the port of Zadar, we took a tour through the countryside and visited Sibenik and then had lunch at an old farmhouse; our tour guide was hilarious. In Dubrovnik we did a Game of Thrones walking tour which was good, except for the tour guide, LOL - we will go back and do it again and book a private tour. They canceled the tour we had booked for Malta (for low interest?); anyway, we just googled top attractions in Valletta and had a great time on our own, visiting the archaeology museum and also a privately-owned 16th century palace that had WW2 bomb shelters added. I didn't feel up to the tour in Mallorca (we had visited it previously), but my husband went and it was an OK overview of Palma with a nice lunch. We visited the Banksy Museum in Barcelona on our own and had a great lunch at a place we had been to before. At the port just outside of Toulon, we took a tour to Castellet, which was a wonderful medieval village on a hilltop - we could've spent more time there! - and then we went to a wine-tasting, which was excellent. From Livorno, we took a looong tour to Siena and San Gimignano and had a wine tasting and then an amazing pasta lunch; it was a very hot day, but worth it. In Valencia, we took a boat ride in the Albufera Lagoon, which was nice, and then had a delicious family-style paella lunch. We hadn't booked a shore excursion in Ibiza - nothing looked very interesting - and it was so hot, I ended up going back to the ship and read on the balcony, while Michael walked up to the old cathedral. We spent two more nights in Barcelona after disembarking and visited the Museu Picasso, which was great! A long, busy trip, but it was a good one!

>32 LisaMorr: It sounds amazing!

>33 labfs39: It wasn’t very relaxing, not very many sea days to read on the balcony, LOL. And I got a sinus infection in week 2. Cunard has an older clientele - I think I maybe only saw 2-3 kids on the whole ship (there are usually a few more than that onboard) and they don’t have a lot of the wow stuff that the big, new ships have. They have lectures in the daytime, lots of different music to listen to, decent shows/acts in the theater; we love the ballroom dancing in the evening. We think the food and service is very good.

23. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, 342 pages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2026 Reading Challenge Prompt 50, Set in a Castle

This was a delightful little book about a family come on very hard times living in a castle in England. It's narrated by the younger teenage daughter and is funny and sweet. I loved the eccentric cast of characters.