50 📚 by 50 🎂

My blogging friend Amy recently posted Read My Shelf: 50 x 50 Booklist. I thought this was a really fun idea and I’m 46-years-old so I have a shot at completing the challenge by March 2030.

I’m going to backlog 4 really good books I’ve read in the past few months. I’m also following a plan to read the Bible in a year so I’ll count the whole Bible as one book but I won’t count all the books in the Bible separately. I texted some bookish family/friends for recommendations to mix it up and try things I haven’t thought of or wouldn’t normally think to try on my own or sometimes people recommended something I was already going to put on my list anyways. I’ll try to read at least one suggestion from the family/friends who offer recommendations. Then I’ll fill up the rest of my list with books that I haven’t read on my personal bookshelves. No format snobbery in my version of the challenge, audiobooks, books on apps, and physical books all count. But each book must be by a different author and all the books must be books I haven’t reads before. If I don’t like a book by 50 pages into it, I’m allowed to swap it for something else. I’m asking each of my three children to recommend a book that they have read but that I haven’t read and my youngest son hasn’t thought of one yet. At this point, this is a working list and I will probably swap out some titles before I finish.

Nonfiction:

1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (recommended by my friend JG from WA) ✅
2. Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need To Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D., and Gabor Mate, M.D. (recommended by my dad and librarian/retired homeschool mama, Miss Wynne)
3. Atomic Habits by James Clear (recommended by my friend AH from NV)
4. Experiencing God by Henry and Richard Blackaby (recommended by my friend RM from CA)
5. The One Thing by Gary Keller (recommended by my friend GB from ID)
6. Hearing God 30 Different Ways by Larry Kreider (recommended by my friend AH from NV)
7. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (recommended by my friend LR’s husband, CR from CA)
8. Woven by Meredith Miller (recommended by my friend EG from CA)
9. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition (recommended by my dad)
10. Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven (recommended by my oldest son at age 16)
11. Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist (recommended by my friend MM from NV)
12. The Holy Bible
13. Stop In The Name Of God by Charlie Kirk ✅
14. Hard Is Not the Same Thing as Bad by Abbie Halberstadt ✅
15. Live No Lies by John Mark Comer
16. Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
17. The Boys In the Boat by Daniel James Brown; adapted for young readers by Gregory Mone
18. The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers by Gary Chapman
19. Habits of the Household by Justin Whitman Earley
20. Teaching In Your Tiara by Rebecca Frech
21. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong
22. Mama Bear Apologetics by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
23. The Story of Crazy Horse by Enid Lamonte Meadowcroft and illustrated by William Reusswig
24. Their Future Is Shining Bright: A Guide to Homeschooling in High School — and Equipping Your Child for Success and Fulfillment in Adulthood by Rachel Kovac

Fiction:

1. To Love A Beast by Karen Witemeyer (recommended by Amy of Hearthridge retelling-reimagining-reads-ive-enjoyed) ✅
2. The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas (this one is from Amy’s list hearthridgereflections)
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (recommended by my husband’s cousin MR)
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (recommended by my husband’s cousin MR and my friend LR from CA)
5. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross (recommended by my friend SG from NV)
6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling (recommended by my sister)
7. A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen (recommended by my daughter at age 13)
8. The Rainbow People by Lawrence Yep (my friend LR from CA recommend Yep as an author and I had this one sitting on my shelf)
9. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
10. Where Trees Touch the Sky by Karen Barnett
11. Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West by Marguerite Henry
12. Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson
13. The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes
14. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
15. Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson
16. The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
17. The Trouble With Heroes by Kate Messner
18. An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo
19. Something TBD by Charles Dickens
20. Something TBD by Mark Twain
21. Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
22. Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
23. Indian Captive by Lois Lenski
24. Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green
25. Brilliant by Roddy Doyle
26. The Golden Books Family Treasury of Poetry selected and with commentary by Louis Untermeyer, new introduction by Leonard S. Marcus, and illustrated by Joan Walsh Anglund

📚 Have you read any of the books on my list? Did you enjoy them?

📚 Have you done a 50 x 50 challenge or something similar?

📚 What one book do you think everyone should read?