2017 European Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a huge fan of Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge. Over the years she’s encouraged us to read as many books as possible that are set in, or about different European countries or by different European authors. With one country per book and each book by a different author, over the course of the year participants find ourselves moving from book to book across Europe, like some post-modern armchair version of a Bella Époque grand tour of the Continent.

Last year was a bit of a down year for me since I read and reviewed only 13 books. At year’s end I vowed to do better and this year I’m happy to report I read and reviewed 18 books. Just like in past years, a variety of countries are represented, ranging from large counties like Russia and Germany, but also smaller ones like Latvia, Bosnia and even the micro-state of Vatican City. Looking back on the challenge, I read some quality books since three of those novels made my year-end best fiction list. One of those three novels, The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (United Kingdom) ended up being my favorite piece of fiction from 2017. As for nonfiction, Margaret MacMillan’s Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (France) and Anders Rydell’s The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe’s Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance (Sweden) both made my year-end best nonfiction list.

Like I said at the start, I’m a huge fan of this challenge and I encourage all you book bloggers out there in the blogosphere to sign up. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.