Reading Challenge 2018: What Can We Read for #1 and #2?
This year for my last mid-week blog of each month I’m sharing updates on our 2018 Reading Challenge.
If you’re just tuning in and don’t know about the challenge, you can find out more right here. You can also join my Read Along With Emilie Richards Facebook Group, where we talk about books we’re reading and when applicable, how they fit. You’ll get lots of great ideas for “what can we read?” and there’s still plenty of time. This challenge will zip by quickly.
Note, too, that you can get a printable PDF of the list (titled Book Blowout 2018) and fill it out as you go along. I’ve already filled in six categories.
What can we read for different categories? Don’t be surprised if you find that the books you’re reading “just because” often fit into the list somewhere.
This week I asked some of the Read Along Facebook group to help me suggest books you might want to read for the first two categories:
- A book set on the water
- A novel that features a character with a disability
The first category created an interesting discussion. Did we mean the story actually had to be on the water–as in a boat? Or had we meant a book set in a house on or near the water?
The best answer? This challenge is for you. Nobody’s checking selections. So interpretation is up to each of us. That said, when this category was chosen, lake houses, beach side communities, and anything similar was meant to be a go. So either on the water, beside the water, a bit back from the water? It all works. Choose and enjoy.
Still wondering what you can read? Here are suggestions from the Read Along Group. Consult your library and if you prefer to buy? Please consider buying from your local bookstore, as well as online stores. Challenges don’t interest you? Get some reading suggestions below, just for your own pleasure.
Thanks to: Nita, Renee, Kathryn, Janet, Joni, Kim, Kathryn, Kay Tee and moi for these suggestions.
A Book Set On The Water:
- The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.
- The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
- The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate (which begins the Carolina Heirloom books set in the Outer Banks.
- The Moses Lake books, which take place in Texas, another possibility, also by Lisa Wingate.
- Ten Beach Road a series by Wendy Wax. (Trivia, trivia… Wendy and I graduated from the same high school, but not at the same time.)
- The Blackberry Island series by Susan Mallery.
- A Bridge Across the Ocean by Susan Meissmer,
- Beach Rental by Grace Greene,
- Becalmed by Normandie Fisher
- The Tears of Dark Water by Corban Addison
- The Denim Blue Sea and other books by Joanne Demaio.
- The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (Australia after WWII)
- Keeper of the Light and the two books that follow by Diane Chamberlain.
- Happiness Key, a three book series by Emilie Richards
A novel that features a character with a disability:
- Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline
- Me Before You by JoJo Moyes
- The Perfect Son by Barbara Claypole White
- The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White
- Phantom Waltz, Blue Skies and My Sunshine by Catherine Anderson
- The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- The Lightkeepers Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol (which could serve for both categories)
- Many novels by Jodi Picoult
And there you have it. Some books to get you started. What can we read? So many choices.
Tell us what you’re reading, and let us know how you’re doing on the challenge so far. Comment below and keep reading, challenge or not.
I am currently reread the Elizabeth George mysteries. Right now the book is A Place of Hiding that takes place on the island of Guersey in the English Channel. I am grateful for the list you have as I am always looking for authors I haven’t read. Your books are among the few authors that I buy and share and keep to reread.
Brenda, that is always music to an author’s ears. Thank you.
If you are looking for a Great Book that features a character with a disability, read Emilie Richard’s “The Parting Glass”. This book was written by Emilie some years ago, but it’s wonderful and takes place in Ireland.
I thought it might be interesting to go through all the books I’ve written and see which fit, but I didn’t get around to it. Thank you for the reminder, Coelle.
I loved “The Parting Glass”…just may go back and read it again…it’s been awhile.
Just finished White Houses by Amy Bloom– listed as Fiction but reads like an autobiography of Lorena Hickok and her love story with Eleanor Roosevelt. A fine read, and well researched!!!!
Emilie,
I have to tell you, you are my favorite author. Your books are the ones I read before falling asleep and during the night when I am awake. My greatest fear is thinking I have read all of them and there won’t be any new ones to read. I will branch out to other authors, but I want you to know, your books tough my heart and my soul.
Thank you so much for telling me, Paulette. On the good news book front I will have three books out this summer, June, July and August. Two of them were published before but have been substantially revised, and the third is the book that should have followed them, an original, to complete the series. I’m calling the series New Orleans Nights and I’ll be debuting covers soon. I hope some of the authors we listed in today’s blog will help you find new authors to love while you’re waiting.
I think The Promise Between Us should be in the disability list not the water list Emilie. I am thinking hard – I’ve read it, but not being from USA I am not sure where Raleigh NC is!!
I fixed it, Kathryn. Thanks for letting me know.
I’ve read 12 of my 125 challenge
For the list
I’ve read Character with disability- The Promise Between is & the Great alone
Travelogue- 13 Little blue envelopes & the last blue Envelope
Woman over 60 -Magnolia Nights
Different Century & Country-The Designer
Family saga- Calling me Home
Genre you never read- The Last Suppers
Local Author- small little Fires
Not bad 7 on list without even trying
Emilie, thanks for the great suggestions!
So far: Water, An Echo of Murder by Anne Perry–river police on the Thames River. Different time and setting, Death in St. Petersburg–Victorian times. I do not usually read a Noir novel by Ace Atkins. A memoir: The Fifth and Final Name by Rhonda Noonan Churchill. Just because: Service: a Navy SEAL at War. I have read 5 books on the list.
For a book set on the water, I am going to read the next beach house book by Mary Alice Monroe, which will come out the end of May – Beach House Reunion. The Beach House, mentioned above, will also be a Hallmark movie on April 28th, so that book could be someone’s read for a book set on the water and for a novel made into a movie – later in the year, of course. I read The Great Alone in February and loved it – it fits with the novel that features a character with a disability and for a family saga, consisting of a mom, dad, and daughter. It is set in the 70s. I loved it!