Take the 2024 WINTER READING CHALLENGE For Adults

Library/Bookstore Setting

• The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
• How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
• The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
• The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• What You Are Looking For is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama

Historical Fiction Outside the U.S.

• The African Samurai by Craig Shreve
• A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng
• The Hacienda by Isabel Canas
• The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch
• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

Audio Narrated by the Author

• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah
• Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile
• H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
• Quietly Hostile: Essays by Samantha Irby
• Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman

Author of Different Race/Religion than Your Own

• Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
• Evil Eye by Etaf Rum
• Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
• How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
• Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong
• Much Ado about Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
• The Vibrant Years by Sonali Dev

Made into Movie/TV Show

• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
• American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
• The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
• Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Nimona by ND Stevenson
• Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
• Wool by Hugh Howey

Neurodivergent Character

• Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
• Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
• Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
• The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
• Diana: My Graphic Obsession by Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth
• Glitterland by Alexis Hall
• Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
• Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
• The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White
• Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese

Outside Your Comfort Zone

• Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott
• Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
• Bunny by Mona Awad
• A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
• Out There Screaming: an Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca 

Book Published in 2023

• Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
• The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl
• Everybody’s Favorite: Tales from the World’s Worst Perfectionist by Lillian Stone
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith
• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
• Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
• Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

Western Setting

• Chenneville by Paulette Jiles
• Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom
• How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
• The Last Ranger by Peter Heller
• The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000 Mile Horseback Journey into the Old West by Will Grant
• Lone Women by Victor Lavalle
• Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens
• The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook
• Outlawed by Anna North
• West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Published Before You Were Born

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• The World According to Garp by John Irving

Suspense

• All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
• The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
• The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
• Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor
• Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison by Ben Macintyre
• Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado
• River of the Gods: Sir Richard Burton, John Speke, Sidi Mubarak Bombay and the Epic Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard
• The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan I. Koerner
• Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
• Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Rom-Com

• The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas
• Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring
• Exes and O’s by Amy Lea
• Love and Other Flight Delays by Denise Williams
• Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson
• Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond
• Ramon and Julieta by Alana Quintana Albertson
• When in Rome by Sarah Adams
• You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
• Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

LGBTQ+ Character

• Bellies by Nicola Dinan
• The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro
• The Fiancee Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur
• Homebodies by Tembe Denton Hurst
• Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
• The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
• Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page
• Roaming by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki
• Tomorrow Will be Different: Love, Loss and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride

Featuring Music

• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• Enter the Blue by Dave Chisholm
• Every Good Boy Does Fine: A Love Story, In Music Lessons by Jeremy Denk
• The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
• Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
• The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
• The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
• Schrader’s Chord by Scott Leeds
• Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith
• We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

School Setting

• The Deal by Elle Kennedy
• I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
• In These Hallowed Halls: a Dark Academia Anthology edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane
• Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Speech Team by Tim Murphy
• They Never Learn by Layne Fargo
• True Biz by Sara Novic
• The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
• Vladimir by Julia May Jonas