There’s a lot of different reading challenges out there. Some are geared towards certain genres, others are a test to see how many books you can read in a certain time frame, and I’ve even seen some that were strictly to help those of us who have fallen behind on reading all the those ARC’s we get. I used to take part in challenges when I first started blogging and they are a great way to get your rear in gear if you are looking to kick your reading into high gear. I especially like the challenges where you dust off those books that have been sitting patiently on your shelf for a while. However, I haven’t taken part in challenge in a while… until now! My friend included me in her family’s summer reading challenge. You may have remembered last year I was asking for recommendations for a bingo challenge I was doing. Well, this year her family decided to go with a passport theme and I have got to tell you, I AM EXCITED!
I looked through the passport and filled in a handful of books that I currently have that could fall under the different categories, but there are a bunch that I’m drawing blanks on. So, I am hoping you guys can help me out and recommend some books to help me complete my passport for the summer.
- A book published before 1986.
- A book by an author from an African country or a book set somewhere on the continent.
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A book that is set in or was written by an author from South America. -
A book that is set in or was written by an author from Australia. - A book by a scientist or a nonfiction book that features science.
- A mystery novel.
- A book that has an award. (any award. I was even told it could be one given by a blog 😉 )
I prefer to read new adult, young adult, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and contemporary adult. Basically something with a little bit of romance in it. Obviously #5 is going to be a tough one for me since non-fiction isn’t my preferred genre of choice and science is like a foreign language to me. So I’m hoping there’s a scientist out there who wrote some romance or a shifter book for me to enjoy, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Published before 1986: Amityville? Something by Stephen King?
South America: Try Isabelle Allende’s books. She’s from Chile and her books are Magic Realism. Then there’s also Paolo Coelho, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (magic realism).
Autralia: Kate McCarthy, Fighting Redemption. Contemporary NA
Good luck!
Thanks! I know there are Australian authors out there that I’ve read but I cannot for the life of me remember who they are. 🙂
Good luck on the reading challenge! Sounds fun.
This sound like a lot of fun! Good luck. I will keep an eye out for books that fall in the categories needed.
#2 – Africa – The Raft by Fred Strydom is set there, but it a dystopian/sci-fi. It’s really good though!
Australian will be easy, so many good ones to choose from.
The science … anything by Stephen Hawking. 😀
Good luck! This sounds fun.
This sounds fun!!
#5 you could do a Mary Roach book, she writes non-fiction and some are science-ish. I’ve read two by her and enjoyed both. One was about what scientists and other fields do with cadavers that are donated to science. I think that one was called Stiff. The other was about sex (no cadavers in there, I promise lol). That one was Bonk.
I’ve never heard of her before. I don’t know how I’d feel about the cadavers one. That just creeps me out to no end, but then again, it could be an interesting read. Thanks for the recommendations. I will have to look them up on Goodreads. 🙂
Some of it was pretty interesting, some was icky! Mind you I read that back in high school (10~ years ago) so I have no clue what I’d think today if I read it lol!
This sounds like such a fun challenge, Kristin! Good luck with it! I’m going to have to think about some of them but for #5…try Death from the Skies by Philip Plait. He’s a astro-physicist and he’s hilarious. His books are about all the bad science in movies. 😀 Ooh, have you read The Hitchhiker’s Guide?? It was published in 1986…
Thanks, Brandee! Death from the Skies sounds interesting. I can deal with humor. LoL I think that’s my problem with sciency books… they are too stuffy for me and I get bored and start daydreaming while reading. I need something to keep me interesting and humor will do that. I will have to look it up on Goodreads. I have not read The Hitchhiker’s Guide but I’ve definitely heard of it. I don’t know if it would qualify since I need to read a book from before 1986. I’m sure they would let me slide though.