Welcome to the 2025 Historical Fiction Challenge - $100,000 Pyramid Edition!

(Cue theme song)

There are 6 categories to choose from.  Complete 4 out of 6 categories to collect $100,000 dollars in Monopoly money!

Challenge begins January 1. 2025 and end December 31, 2025

(Please don't judge my ugly pyramid LOL!  It just will not format correctly, but you get the idea!)

                                                                                        __________________

                                                                                                                        GIVE ME LIBERTY OR

                                                                                                                            GIVE ME DEATH!

                                                                                                                    _______________________      

                                                    ________________                          _________________

                                                       TROPING THROUGH                                             CONTINENTAL 

                                                                             THE TULIPS                                                             SHIFT

                                                                   ______________________                                 _______________________

                       _______________________                                             ________________________                              _____________________

                        MYSTERY                                                                                   BACK TO                                                          BOSOM 

                                SEVEN                                                                                       SCHOOL                                                         BUDDIES

                      _______________________                                              _________________________                           _______________________

1.  GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH! (These are books featuring these famous wars)

                  a) The Trojan War (1300BC-1200BC)

                  b) The Punic Wars  (264BC-146BC)

                  c) The Crusades  (1095-1291)

                  d) The War of the Roses (1455-1485)

                  e) The War of 1812  (1812-1815)

                  f) The Korean War  (1950-1953)

                  g) The Vietnam War  (1955-1975)

2.  TROPING THROUGH THE TULIPS (These are books featuring  famous tropes found in historical fiction)

                 a) Headless lady on cover

                 b) Dual timeline

                 c) Marriage of convenience

                 d) WWII lady with her back to us (they all seem to be WWII, at least...)

                 e) Rags to riches

                 f) Revenge

                 g) Royal scandal

3. CONTINENTAL SHIFT (These are books featuring a main character from each continent)

                a) MC from North America

                b) MC from South America

                c) MC from Africa

                d) MC from Asia

                e) MC from Europe

                f) MC from Australia

                g) MC either visited Antarctica OR read a second book from another continent  **

4. MYSTERY SEVEN (These are any seven books you wish to read)

                 a) ?????

                 b) ?????

                 c) ?????

                 d) ?????

                 e) ?????

                 f) ?????

                 g) ?????

5.  BACK TO SCHOOL (These are books featuring areas of history unfamiliar to you, or you wish to learn more about)

                  a) A specific person 

                  b) A religion

                  c) A war / revolution / conflict / incident

                  d) A royal / famous family

                  e) An indigenous culture

                  f) A scientific discovery

                 g) A country

6. BOSOM BUDDIES (These are books featuring friendship or duality, or books familiar to you)

                 a) The next book in a series

                 b) An author you've read before

                 c) A book turned into a move / tv show

                 d) A book featuring a detective duo  (ex: Sherlock & Watson)

                 e) A book recommended by a friend or librarian

                 f) A book written by 2 or more authors

                 g) A book featuring a society (religous, secret, fraternity. sorority, etc)

This is great, Carolyn! I am always amazed by your creativity in coming up with these challenges!  Thank you for the time and effort you put into these! 

You're welcome, Shelley! :)

I'm approaching the challenge a bit differently this year - at least I'm planning to.  Usually I pick books to read based on fulfilling challenge categories.  It's great because that way I pick up and read things I maybe normally wouldn't gravitate too (and get books of Mt. TBR that have been there for years), but it can also sometimes make me feel like I "have" to read something.  This year, at least at the start, I'm just going to read whatever I want and if it fits into a challenge category, great! If not, so be it.  The challenge will come in handy, though, as sometimes I just can't decide what to read.  Having the challenge categories helps me narrow it down.