MA Center for the Book Reading Challenge

How to Participate
- Sign up on the Massachusetts Center for the Book website.
- Choose and read a book that fits the monthly challenge.
- Log in and tell us about the book!
That's it!
Need some reading suggestions? Check out this list! Each title brings you to the book in our catalog.
January: A book about or set in winter
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman
- The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
- The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
- The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
- How to Winter by Kari Leibowitz, PhD.
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
- Never Lie by Freida McFadden
- In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
- Wintering by Katherine May
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
February: A book outside your usual genres or spin the genre wheel on our site: massbook.org/genre-wheel
- Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray
- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- The Last Tiger by Julia Riew and Brad Riew
- Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
- A Truce that is Not Peace by Miriam Toews
- Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
- Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
- Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi
- The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
- Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
March: A book featuring an unlikely friendship
- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar
- The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro
- House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
April: A short story or essay collection
- Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
- What is Not Your is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Grand Union by Zadie Smith
- We are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
- Tenth of December by George Saunders
- Table for Two by Amor Towles
- Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
- Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat
- First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami
May: A book set in Massachusetts
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Things you Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
- The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin
- Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand
- Sandwich by Catherine Newman
- That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
- Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
- The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki
June: A book with a sympathetic villain
- Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
- Carrie by Stephen King
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
- All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody
- Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
- Wicked by Gregory Maguire
- Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- Nimona by ND Stevenson
- Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
July: A book found at a Little Free Library, tag sale, or used bookstore
August: A book that could be considered taboo
- The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Critical Race Theory by Kimberle Crenshaw
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- One Hundred years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
- Maus by Art Spiegelman
- Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
September: A book about a journey
- Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
- Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
- Wild by Cheryl Strayed
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
- The Odyssey by Homer
- Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
October: A mystery, thriller, or ghost story
- God of the Woods by Liz Moore
- Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
- Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia
- The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
- Tell No One by Harlan Coben
- The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
November: An adult classic you’ve never read
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
December: A book that connects to your heritage or cultural identity
- The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
- Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
- Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
More information
- Dedicated readers will be invited to a year-end celebration hosted by Mass Center for the Book.
- If you read a book in each of the 12 months, you will be entered in a drawing to win 1 of 2 totes filled with books.
Have questions? View Massachusetts Center for the Book's FAQ.
