Tag reading challenge

The book cover shows the silhouette of a person running, with illustrated hills, river, and scrub around them. The book cover is superimposed over an actual stretch of empty highway through wilderness.

Savor Summer Reading

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A blue banner says "Adult Reading Challenge" and has an image of the booklet "Reading is for Everyone" at the right side.

by Cherise T.

Opinions on the best summer reading selections abound. Some readers look forward to extended spans of time to sink into those longer books. Anticipating many hours reading epic novels or multi-volumed biographies, they embrace the joy of following multiple characters or complex historical chronologies uninterrupted. On the opposite side of the spectrum are readers who want their vacation books to be as light as warm-weather clothing or as intoxicating as a margarita. Nothing too serious, please; they want stress-free romance, memoir, and mystery.

The HCLS year-round Adult Reading Challenge journal speaks to everyone. Any time of year, every genre, you can pick a challenge category to enjoy. There are book recommendations, but selections from your “to-be-read” pile are perfect too. All genres are welcome, creating the ideal opportunity to try something new, be it poetry, self-help, science fiction, fantasy, graphic novel, or thriller, to names a few.

A woman dressed in a bright yellow dress walks while reading through a grand lobby with well-lit doors and windows behind her.

This summer, explore the new 2024-2025 challenges and journal prompts. For example, if Read a Book Set in a Library appeals, check out the historical fiction of The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis (which I reviewed). Parallel stories unspool of a New York public librarian in 1993 and her grandmother, the wife of the NYPL superintendent, in 1913, as both women aspire to grow professionally and personally. As a delightful added twist, the 1913 family lives in the library.

If magical fiction sounds just right, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig imagines a library where every book offers the protagonist a different life. Would she have been more fulfilled as a sports star, a musician, or a parent? For a nonfiction page-turner, pick up Susan Orlean’s The Library Book about the devastating 1986 Los Angeles Central Library fire. The arson investigation reads like a good mystery, and librarian interviews delve into the current role of libraries in society.

To participate in the Adult Summer Reading Adventure, complete any three of the challenges or read three books by August 31, 2024. Topics include Explore the American West; Visit a Galaxy Far, Far Away; Get Lost in a Translation; and Reimagined Reading. Finishers receive a completion prize and entry into grand prize drawings.

The book cover shows the silhouette of a person running, with illustrated hills, river, and scrub around them. The book cover is superimposed over an actual stretch of empty highway through wilderness.

World Adventures Summer Book Discussions: Spirit Run by Noé Álvarez
Adults. Register.
This summer, read and discuss books that celebrate journeys of discovery around the world. In June, we discuss Spirit Run: A 6000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez.
Mon, Jun 17; 7 – 8 pm | Elkridge Branch


The book cover, in pastel shades of green, yellow, lavender, and pink, shows an older woman in a black cloche hat and yellow top in the upper right-hand corner, standing in front of an apartment building, and a younger woman in jeans and a flowing white top with a bag over her shoulder, walking a dog on a farm in the lower left-hand corner.

The Switch

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The book cover, in pastel shades of green, yellow, lavender, and pink, shows an older woman in a black cloche hat and yellow top in the upper right-hand corner, standing in front of an apartment building, and a younger woman in jeans and a flowing white top with a bag over her shoulder, walking a dog on a farm in the lower left-hand corner.

By Eliana H.

This is the third year I’ve participated in The Ridiculous Reading Challenge, an activity co-organized by some good friends of mine in which they combine the annual reading challenges set by several publications into one spreadsheet full of categories to inspire participants to stretch our reading habits. For 2021, there are 117 different categories. Wish me luck in managing a unique book for each of them!

When one of the friends who runs the Ridiculous Reading Challenge mentioned enjoying The Switch, by Beth O’Leary, I was excited to note that it took place at least partly in Yorkshire. With family and friends living there, as well as it being a beautiful place, I knew it would be a perfect fit for the category of “a book set somewhere you’d like to visit in 2021.” Yorkshire is definitely the top of my list for where I want to visit when it’s safe for my family to do so. What I didn’t know when my friend shared the book was how much I would love the story.

The Switch tells the tale of two Eileen Cottons – a grandmother and her granddaughter, who goes by Leena – both feeling a bit stuck in their lives. They’ve struggled since the loss of Carla, Leena’s sister and Eileen’s other granddaughter. After a panic attack at work, Leena is given a mandatory two-month vacation from her job as a business consultant. At loose ends about what to do with that time when she should be finding her way back to herself, she ends up suggesting that she and her grandmother swap lives for two months. Eileen makes her way down to London for the adventure she didn’t get the chance to have in her youth, and Leena heads north to Yorkshire to slow down and take over the responsibilities Eileen has in her small village. Neither woman has quite the experience she expected, but both learn quite a lot about themselves and the people around them during their sojourns. With a cast of lively supporting characters, it is a joy to follow Eileen and Leena on their journeys. The book made me chuckle and choke up in turn, and I’m so glad to have read it. I hope you will be too.

The Switch is also available from HCLS as an eBook from Libby/OverDrive. Beth O’Leary is also the author of The Flatshare and The Road Trip (available from Libby/OverDrive as an eBook and eAudiobook).

Eliana is a Children’s Instructor and Research Specialist at HCLS Elkridge Branch. She loves reading, even if she’s slow at it, and especially enjoys helping people find books that make them light up. She also loves being outside and spending time with friends and family (when it’s safe).