My Reading Challenge – so far

Since completing my own novel, I’ve been doing pretty well on catching up on my reading of those by others in these past few months. Honestly, it’s been like drinking cool, tasty water from a spring.  (We used to have one here in my hometown and that is sorely missed! And yes, I digress… ) Well, since concentrating exclusively on my own work, I’d so missed the experience taking in other stories. My Reading Challenge bar on Goodreads was so low that I’m almost at the mark for the year already. Right now, I’m reading The Mothers by Brit Bennett. Thankfully I’d already put it on hold at my library, so I was able to pick it up the day after news hit that Kerry Washington had bought the movie rights for it! So far, pretty good.

My guilty pleasure read last week was Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it enough to get the sequel, Breathless, that came out a couple of months ago. Historical romance set in the Old West after the Civil War featuring black characters. Very interesting… and her historical referencing is very educational, but never at all does it take away from her story. Thankfully.

The strong legal thriller set in the 1990s, Pleasantville by Attica Locke, started out rather slow for me, but once I got going, I – Lord, I hate this cliché sometimes: “I couldn’t put it down”, but I couldn’t… I’ll post my review soon.

After that, I enjoyed the quick romp through the classic highbrow and hilarious play, “The Importance of Being Ernest” by Oscar Wilde. It was almost like reading a script between my two favorite doctors, Frasier and Niles Crane.

Last month, I read the absolutely stunning and fantastic historical novel, The Book of Harlan by Bernice McFadden. That is a story that is still with me and will so long remain. Review also coming soon.

Finally, finally, finally – read There Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. One of many classics that’s been on my shelf for ages screaming at me to pick up. After going through the regret of waiting so long to read it, there’s nothing left but awe from the experience. And yes… my in-depth thoughts are coming soon in a later post.

Well, next on my list (after Breathless) is The Red Car by Marcy Dermasky. After that, I plan to get to Elaine Brown’s memoir, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story – well before the end of April. I keep gravating right now to my fiction so much, I know it’s the reason the, really, unreasonable delay.

Are you in the Goodreads challenge this year? How’s your progress so far?