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 published or about the year you were born
- 1975 - The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
- 1976 - A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
- 1977 - Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
- 1978 - A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
- 1979 - The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
- 1980 - Under the Magnolias by T.I. Lowe
- 1981 - The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
- 1982 - Swing Time by Zadie Smith
- 1983 - Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- 1984 - The Address by Fiona Davis
- 1985 - The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
February: A book with the name of a city in the title
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- Dubliners by James Joyce
- The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
- The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
- Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
- Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
- The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
March: A book about someone with a marginalized identity
- James by Percival Everett
- Coming Home by Brittney Griner
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
- There, There by Tommy Orange
- We Will Be Jaguars by Nemonte Nenquimo
- Frighten the Horses by Oliver Radclyffe
- The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland
- Maame by Jessica George
- Our Migrant Souls by Hector Tobar
April: A book about books, bookstores, or libraries
- That Librarian by Amanda Jones
- The Library Book by Susan Orlean
- Hidden Libraries by DC Helmuth
- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
- Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
- The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
- The Bookshop by Evan Friss
- The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
- Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
May: A book with a first sentence of eight words or less
- The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
- Paradise by Toni Morrison
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
June: A book that spans multiple generations
- The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier
- These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
- The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford
- The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
- The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
July: A book you were drawn to by its cover
- Knife by Salman Rushdie
- Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
- The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
- Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
- Playground by Richard Powers
- River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- Soil by Camille T. Dungy
August: A book with a protagonist who is a teenager or senior citizen
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
- Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
- An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman
- The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
September: A book told in non-chronological order
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- If I Stay by Gayle Forman
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
- That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
- People You Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
- Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
October: A book published by a Massachusetts press
- The Other Pandemic by Lynn Curlee
- The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin
- When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance by Joan Baez
- A Gardener at the End of the World by Margot Anne Kelley
- Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
- Hardly Harmless Drudgery by Bryan A. Garner
- The Charterhouse of Padma by Padma Viswanathan
- Ike’s Road Trip by Brian Black
- The End of Respectability by Anthony Walton
- Andaluz by Fiona Dunlop
November: A cookbook or book about food
- Taste by Stanley Tucci
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- Delicious by Ruth Reichl
- Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
- Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
- Salt, Acid, Fat, Heat by Samin Nosrat
- Relish by Lucy Knisley
- You Gotta Eat by Margaret Eby
- Black Food by Bryant Terry
December: Another book by an author you’ve already read
- Long Bright River by Liz Moore
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The Innovators by Walter Isaacson
- The Black Church by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
- Voileta by Isabel Allende
- The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
- The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
- Grant by Ron Chernow
- Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
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.