The Blogging April A to Z Challenge has now ended. As 2023 is my eighth year of participating in this challenge, I’ve become quite used to April being a very busy month. For me, the key to completing the challenge successfully is planning and organisation. My theme this year was book reviews, so there were books to read, and reviews to write. I read all books that were reviewed. Some, in the past couple of years, but most of them in more recent months. I love the planning and choosing of books, according to a letter of the alphabet. This often has me choosing books that I wouldn’t usually read, just to be able to write a review on a particular letter. This often brings up some lovely surprises.

This year, because I knew I would be time poor, I was quite organised, and this meant that I was able to read and comment on more blogs than I ever have in previous years. I’ve given a bit of thought to the 2023 challenge and have come up a few things that I am happy about and a few challenges that I had.

What I Am Happy About

By the time 2022 had become 2023, I had written a plan of the books that I was going to review, and still needed to read.

On the day that the challenge website opened, I had written rough drafts for most posts.

Almost all posts were written, and ready to be published before the challenge started.

I visited many great blogs on a huge variety of topics and themes during the challenge.

There were many comments made on my blog, with some of those comments being made by bloggers other than book bloggers.

I loved that bloggers often commented about their favourite books.

A relationship has developed with a few bloggers that I hope will continue into the future.

Challenge

A few posts that were not completed by the start of the challenge, were left until the last minute. Those posts were for W X Y Z. Because of this procrastination, the final week was quite hectic, which is what I was trying to avoid. This was the only challenge that I had with the AtoZ this year.

Fun Facts

5 star books: Two
4 star books: Thirteen
4.5 star books: Four
3.5 star books: Six
3 star books: one book

Australian authors: Ten books
Female authors: Fifteen books
Male authors: Eleven books

My favourite book was the very last book reviewed, Zambesi by Tony Park.

Challenge Future

All being well in my life, I will be back for A to Z in 2024. I have decided that next year I will participate in the challenge on my family history blog,Tracking Down The Family. I don’t need to spend all year trying to come up with a theme for 2024, as I am fairly certain that I have settled on one.

Links to my A to Z Posts

A: Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

B: Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah

C: Crows Nest by Nikki Motram

D: A Distant Hope by Ellin Carsta

E: Elevation by Stephen King

F: Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover

G: The Games by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan

H: A History of the World in 21 Women by Jenni Murray

I: Immortality-a-love-story-by-dana-schwartz

J: Just An Ordinary Family by Fiona Lowe

K: Kin: A Real Person’s History Of Our Nation by Nick Brodie

L: Lawson by Grantlee Kieza

M:The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

N: Nightwork by Nora Roberts

O: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

P: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Q: The Queen’s Colonial by Peter Watt

R: The Resemblance by Lauren Nossett

S: The Smuggler’s Wife Series by Deborah Challinor

T: Tell No One by Harlan Coben

U: Unsolved by James Patterson and David Ellis

V: Verity by Colleen Hoover

W: Wellmania by Brigid Delaney

X: X by Sue Grafton

Y: Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan

Z: Zambesi by Tony Park

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