Challenge Complete: The Eclectic Reader

January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015

I first joined Book'd Out for the The Eclectic Reader Challenge for the 2014 round, but this is the fourth year for this comfort-zone challenging reader event. The goal is to push us out of that comfort zone by reading up to 12 books during the year from 12 different categories. I have now completed the twelve categories. See below for my full reading list.

1. Retellings (of fairytales, legends, or myths): Briar Rose by Jane Yolen [Sleeping Beauty] (9/14/15)
2. Set in a country that begins with "S" (Spain, Sweden, etc.): The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö [Sweden] (5/29/15)
3. PI Crime (featuring a private investigator): Call for Michael Shayne by Brett Halliday (4/22/15)
4. Published before you were born (1969 for me): The Golden Slipper & Other Problems for Violet Strange by Anna Katharine Green [1915] (1/26/15)
5. Contemporary Romance: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (11/4/15)
6. Fiction for Foodies: Death Dines Out by Theodora Du Bois [death by limes!] (9/30/15)
7. Microhistory (nonfiction): The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum (3/22/15)
8. Science Fiction (set in space): The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle (4/12/15)
9. Sports (fiction or nonfiction): The Lack of the Irish by Ralph McInerny [football] (7/11/15)
10. Featuring Diversity: Swing Low, Sweet Harriet by George Baxt [features first gay detective--Pharoah Love--who is also African American] (9/13/15)
11.  Epistolary Fiction: Some of Your Blood by Theodor Sturgeon (2/13/15)
12. Middle Grade/YA Adventure: The Giver by Lois Lowry (9/4/15)