2021 European Reading Challenge: REVIEW PAGE

The 2021 European Reading Challenge

REVIEW PAGE

 January 1, 2021 to January 31, 2022

THIS IS THE PAGE TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS.

IF YOU HAVE FINISHED, WRAP UP POSTS GO ON THIS PAGE.

TO SIGN UP, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE, HERE,

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE.

LINK YOUR REVIEWS HERE

Please put your name and/or the name of your blog or social media handle, the name of the book you reviewed, and the country of the book or author. For example: Gilion at Rose City Reader, My Brilliant Friend, Italy.

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LINKS

When you review a book for the 2021 European Reading Challenge, please add it to this list using the Linky widget above. Please link to your review post, NOT the main page of your blog or social media account.

You do not need a blog to participate. If you review books on Instagram, Facebook, goodreads, or some other platform that generates a URL, you can add link to the review in the Mr. Linky below the same as a link to a blog post. Please link to the review, not your profile page. If you have questions about how to find the URL for a social media review post, leave a comment to ask me or email me at gilion at dumasandvaughn dot com. 

REVIEWS

You do not have to review books to complete the European Reading Challenge. You can complete the challenge simply by reading one to five books (or more), each set in a different European country or written by an author from a different European country. But if you do review books, please link your reviews here so other people can find them.

Also, if you want to win the Jet Setter Prize, you have to review the books. Only books reviewed count for the prize. If you are competing for the prize, definitely link your reviews here. You can link all your reviews, but only one book per country counts towards the prize.

WRAP UP

If you complete the challenge, please link some kind of wrap up post on the wrap up page. That way, I know who finished the challenge. If you do not do a wrap up post separate from your sign up post -- you just update your original post -- that's fine! But please, please, please link to the updated post after you finish the challenge. It is too hard for me to count all your reviews to figure out if you finished the challenge or not. 

NOTE ABOUT DATES

There is overlap in January 2021 between the last month of the 2020 European Reading Challenge challenge and the first month of the 2021 challenge. If you participated both years, only count books read in January in one of the years, not both.

Book List: Books Read in 2020

I keep track of the books I read on LibraryThing. Every January, I post a list of the books I read the prior year. It's usually a few over 100. There have been a couple of years when I didn't get to 100, when work was crazy. There haven't been many years when I got over 110. 

Here's the list of the 109 books I read in 2020, in the order I read them. 2020 was such an insane year, it could have gone either way, reading-wise. I know some people read twice as many books as usual, some people read hardly any. I read the same.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

BOOKS READ IN 2020

• Circe by Madeline Miller 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged by Roger Scruton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Women's Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Egyptologists by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Live by Night by Denis Lehane (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics By Kevin D. Williamson 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Party Going by Henry Green 🌹🌹🌹

• My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Costa Book of the Year) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Cheri by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• The Last of Cheri by Colette 🌹🌹🌹 

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Gigi by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• Warlight by Michaele Ondaatje 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Vagabond by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• Calypso by Davis Sedaris 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Shackle by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child by Alex Prud'homme 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Outlyer and Ghazals by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Overstory by Richard Powers (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹

• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Women's Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Radical Kindness: The Life-Changing Power of Giving and Receiving by Angela Santomero 🌹🌹🌹

• Patrimony by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World by Lisa Birnbach 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Charlotte Moss Entertains by Charlotte Moss 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Hidden Falls by Kevin Meyers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (National Book Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn (Wodehouse Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Never Mind: Book One of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bad News: Book Two of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Classics Club) 🌹🌹

• Some Hope: Book Three of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Billy (the Kid) by Peter Meech 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mother's Milk: Book Four of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• At Last: The Final Patrick Melrose Novel by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹

• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (National Book Award) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Book of V by Anna Solomon 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train by Ina Caro 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Unmaking of a Mayor by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley 🌹🌹🌹

• The Likeness by Tana French 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Britain by the Book: A Curious Tour of Our Literary Landscape by Oliver Tearle 🌹🌹🌹

• The Guest List by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹

• Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Letters to Yesenin by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹

• Country Girl by Edna O'Brien 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand 🌹🌹🌹

• House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild (Wodehouse Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Style Evolution: How to Create Ageless Personal Style in Your 40s and Beyond by Kendall Farr 🌹🌹🌹

• The Invitation by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹

• The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman (Erica Jong List) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Classics Club) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Underground Railroad by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Nickel Boys by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Airborne: A Sentimental Journey by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Quartet in Autumn by Barba Pym 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The White Album by Joan Didion 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Prospero's Cell: A Guide To The Landscape And Manners of The Island Of Corfu by Lawrence Durrell 🌹🌹🌹

• The Stranger by Albert Camus (Classics Club) 🌹🌹1/2

• The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (Classics Club) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Murder Room by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov 🌹🌹🌹

• English House Style from the Archives of Country Life by John Goodall 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Writers & Lovers by Lily King 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby (Booker Prize) 🌹🌹🌹

• For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Room at the Top by John Braine (Burgess List) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Just Like You by Nick Hornby 🌹🌹🌹

• They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker 🌹🌹1/2

• The Hanging in the Hotel by Simon Brett 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment) by Donna Leon 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Jump the Gun by Zoe Burke🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days by James and Kay Salter 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

My rating system is my own and evolving. Whatever five stars might mean on amazon, goodreads, or Netflix, a five-star rating probably doesn't mean that here. In fact, I'm going to change this year and use roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My system is a mix of how a book appeals to me and how I would recommend it to other people. 

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Five roses for books I loved, or would recommend to anyone, or I think are worthy of classic "must read" status." Examples would be Lucky Jim (personal favorite), A Gentleman in Moscow (universal recommendation), and Great Expectations (must read). 

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Four roses for books I really enjoyed and/or would recommend to people who enjoy that type of book. Examples would be The Jewel in the Crown and In the Woods. Most mysteries get four roses from me because I like them a lot but would only recommend them to people who like mysteries. (A few really great mysteries get five roses from me.) Similarly, some of my favorite authors get four roses from me because I wouldn't recommend them to a general audience, like funny books by P.G. Wodehouse or food memoirs by M.F.K. Fisher. 

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe liked personally but wouldn't think of recommending. Examples would be Sexing the Cherry (lukewarm) and The Year of the French (liked personally but wouldn't inflict recommend).

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. The Neapolitan Quartet is an example, which proves how subjective my system is because lots of people loved those books. 

🌹 One rose if I really didn't like it. I don't know if I've ever rated a book this low. The Magus might be my only example and I read it before I started keeping my lists. 

I use half roses if a book falls between categories. I can't explain what that half rose might mean, it's just a feeling.

Here is a link to the star rating system I used for years. I include it because the stars I used in years past meant something different than these roses, so if you look at my lists from past years, the ratings won't mean quite the same thing.