Julie's Journal : FCL Book Challenge List Suggestions

FCL recently put out our annual Book Challenge - a list of suggestions for categories of books to broaden your reading horizons.  It's a fun way to discover new authors, genres, and stories.  However, some of the categories can be difficult to fill, so I have a few suggestions.

For a book becoming a move in 2020 I'm planning to read The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting.  The movie Doolittle is coming out next week and it looks really well done.  I'm excited about seeing it!

Of course there are several other books being made into new movies this year.  The Outsiders by Stephen King, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn, and Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie all have new adaptations coming to the big screen soon.

For a book published in 2020, I'm excited about reading The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson releasing February 25th, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Susan Collins releasing May 19th.  The Splendid and the Vile is a "compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz", according to Amazon.  Larson's non-fiction titles are all very good and I'm always excited when he puts out something new. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel to the Hunger Games series.  All the information Amazon has on the book is that it begins on the morning of the reaping for the 10th Hunger Games.  I'm hopeful that the book will be just as good as the original trilogy.  Either of these titles could also complete the a book with a title that has more than 5 words category.

The category of a book by an author born the same year as you might be a little challenging.  I found a website that lists authors born in a certain year.  The link - found here - is set for my birth year, 1980, but you can toggle it up or down.  You'll have to scroll down a bit to find the list of authors, but you can click on each author's name to get a list of the books he/she has written.  It looks like I'll probably be reading a Young Adult book - maybe one by Ransom Riggs or Jenny Han.

A book more than 500 pages - I will be finishing Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1037 pages) this year for Tom Wilkinson's ongoing seminar.  Last year, for the same seminar, I read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (858 pages).  Stephen King's newest novel The Institute would also qualify for this category  at 576 pages. 

Somehow, in compiling the challenge list, I ended up putting an award winning book on it twice.  Fortunately, there are many different types of awards out there for books.  The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr are two recent Pulitzer Prize Winners.  The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is a Newberry winner that Christian recently read and said was very good.

For the category a graphic novel, the library has several to choose from.  I'm interested in Hey, Kiddo by Jarett Krosoczka. It is a memoir of the author's difficult childhood.  Graphic novels started out as mostly kids books, but we are gradually seeing more for adults.  This one is cataloged as a Youth book for ages about 12 - 15. 

I hope you enjoy the reading challenge and that it opens you up to books you might not have otherwise read.  If you need more suggestions just call or come by and I or one of the other staff members will try to figure out the perfect book for your category.