Category: 2016 Book Challenge

2016 Library Challenge: A Book A Friend Recommended

A Monster Calls

This coming Sunday is National Friendship Day, and I figured the best way to celebrate was by highlighting the library challenge of reading a book a friend recommended. One of my dear friends, Whitney, told me a few weeks ago that I really needed to read Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls. She also warned me that it deserved an honorary mention for books that will make you cry.  I’m so glad she suggested this book to me because it’s a wonderful read. (Thanks again for the great recommendation, Whitney!)

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Discussion Thread: A Book With A Love Triangle

Love-Triangle

One of the challenges for this month is a book with a love triangle. I had contemplated doing book recommendations for this one, but most of the books I found to recommend were ones that people were likely to have either already read or at least be familiar with.

Instead, I decided to revive the “Discussion Thread” idea from when we covered Outlander.

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2016 Library Challenge: A Memoir

Are you a fan of memoirs? They’re one of the categories on the reading challenge we’re doing this year, and one thing I’ve noticed from working in the library is people tend to either really enjoy reading them or they don’t. Personally, I like a good memoir, but I must confess, it’s not usually something I think to pick up on my own. I shared my own book for this challenge last week, but in researching selections for this post, I also found a wide range of memoirs that, hopefully, will appeal to readers who enjoy the genre and read widely in it and those who don’t. If you’re interested in learning more about any of the books mentioned below, please follow the link to our online catalog.

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2016 Library Challenge: A Trilogy

Have you been looking for a new series lately? I don’t know about you, but I’ve always enjoyed reading a good trilogy. There’s something so appealing about finishing a book you really enjoyed and knowing that you still get to spend more time with the characters in subsequent adventures but also knowing that you’re not indefinitely tied to reading an unknown number of books because there is a definitive end in sight.

To that end, below is a listing of trilogies, both old and new, that you might enjoy reading. Don’t forget you can always learn more about any of the books mentioned on our online library catalog!

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2016 Library Challenge: A Book with Nonhuman Characters

One of the library challenges is to read a book with nonhuman characters. So, when I was planning the sequence of posting stuff related to the challenge, I decided to schedule that one to coincide as closely as possible to World UFO Day–which was this past Saturday. (Yes, it’s a thing.)  Of course, that naturally lends itself to discussions of books with aliens in it, but I wanted a broader focus for this post. Therefore, below you’ll find a wide range of books with nonhuman characters, ranging from aliens to fantasy creatures to animals. As always, remember to check out our online catalog if you want to learn more about any of the featured books.

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2016 Library Challenge: A Book at the Bottom of Your To-Read List

I’m going to veer away from my usual routine here, so please humor me.

When I had to pick a book from the bottom of my to-read list, I wasn’t quite sure where to even start. I mean, my to-read list on Goodreads currently has 128 books on it, and that’s not even counting the books I want to read but haven’t added.

I ended up deciding to read Agatha Christie’s 1920 debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I love Agatha Christie mysteries–the twisting and, at times, convoluted plots; the witty characters; the atmosphere. I’ve read roughly 40 of her books over the years, but I realized that I’d never read much of her early work, including her very first book. So, I read The Mysterious Affair at Styles and also 4 of her 5 next books–The Murder on the Links, The Man in the Brown Suit, Poirot Investigates, and The Secret at Chimneys–within a couple of weeks.

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2016 Library Challenge: A Book You Were Supposed to Read for School

books

One of the challenges for this year is reading a book you were supposed to read for school but didn’t.

I must confess, this one gave me a lot of trouble. It’s not that I always did my required reading for school. I really tried to, but I would be lying if I claimed that I read every single thing assigned to me. My apologies to any of my former teachers who are reading this blog post.

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2016 Library Challenge: A Book You Never Finished

unfinished book

Are you someone who always finishes a book when you start it? Or are you prone to stopping midway through and never finishing?

Depending on which category of reader you fall into, you may or may not have a hard time finding a book to meet this requirement.

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2016 Library Challenge: A Book You Can Read Quickly

As summer rolls around, we all, maybe, hopefully, have a little more time for reading. But if you’re looking for a quick read to enjoy between all of your summer plans–or if you need one to fulfill the library challenge requirement–consider reading one of the following books, all of which are well under 200 pages long and, in most cases, are barely 130 pages in length.)

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2016 Library Challenge: An Author with Your Initials (S. E. Hinton)

The Outsiders

The author with your initials challenge took me an embarrassing amount of time to find a book for. None of the authors with my initials seemed particularly interesting to me, until a few weeks ago when Mynette told me I really needed to read S. E. Hinton’s classic coming-of-age story, The Outsiders. In addition to being intrigued by her recommendation, I also realized that Hinton shares my first and middle initials. In the weeks since then, the book has come up a couple of times with other people, and whenever I would admit to never having read it, the response was always a confused “You’ve never read The Outsiders?”

Having finally read The Outsiders, I now understand everyone’s reaction. I’m actually  embarrassed that I hadn’t read it before.

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