Category: Online Reading Challenge

Online Reading Challenge – August

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1990s. Our main title for August is Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in a hyper-masculine world. They are caught between two of Glasgow’s housing estates, where young working-class men divide themselves along sectarian lines, and fight territorial battles for the sake of reputation.

They should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all, and yet as they begin to fall in love, they dream of escape, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him . . . – Grove Press/Picador

Looking for some other books set in the 1990s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – July Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in the 1980s that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman. This is the first book in the Call Me by Your Name series.

Every summer, Elio’s father, a college professor, hosts a young academic. This visiting scholar’s only requirement is to help the professor for an hour each day and then they are free to use the rest of the time however they please. They live in the house, interact with the family, write, roam the area, and visit neighbors for dinner.

The guest this mid-1980s summer is 24-year-old Oliver, a philosophy teacher at Columbia University. Oliver is fiercely intelligent, but what surprises all those who meet him is his charm. The community and family immediately love him – preparing special food, taking him on trips, blanketing him with attention. The one holdout: Elio, the professor’s seventeen-year-old son. His reason: he is utterly infatuated with Oliver.

Elio wants Oliver for himself. He wants Oliver to see him, to understand him, to stay the night with him, to love him. Yet, Elio is fearful. He’s scared of town gossip, but most of all, he’s afraid of losing Oliver’s attention and acceptance. Elio isn’t shy about expressing his feelings, longings, and passions to himself, but saying them out loud to Oliver is terrifying. Elio has spent his life being minimalized by his parents and those around him. He may be intelligent, but as the only child and the youngest person at the dinner table where riveting and stimulating conversations take place amongst brilliant guests every night, he spirals into an obsessive loneliness. When Oliver shows up and shines his attention onto Elio, he explodes with want and need. Elio wants to completely open up to Oliver, but is afraid of losing that one person who actually listens to what he has to say. Crossing that line will change both of their lives forever, whether it’s positive or negative depends on Elio and Oliver alone.

Here are my thoughts: I had a love-hate relationship with Elio throughout this entire book. Elio is obsessive, pouring over and over every little interaction or object. Once Oliver arrives, his obsessive thoughts find a new target. Elio is desperate to be understood by Oliver, which led me to worry about how he would react if/when their relationship ended. Oliver and Elio’s relationship was painful to watch. It was slow at the start, terrifying while it’s happening, and devastating when it ended, a confusion similar to what it’s like to be a teenager in your first romantic relationship. The end of the book gives some closure. After Oliver left, I was finally able to see Oliver as a confused coward, not the perfect being that Elio made him out to be throughout the book. Seeing how their relationship progressed as adults helped me like Elio and Oliver a bit more, providing some reasons for their behaviors as young men. All in all, an interesting, frustrating, and confusing read.

Series list

  1. Call Me by Your Name (2007)
  2. Find Me (2019)

Next month, we are traveling to the 1990s.

Online Reading Challenge – July

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1980s. Our main title for July is Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks’ duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman’s frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable. – Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Looking for some other books set in the 1980s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – June Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in the 1970s that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I had already read our main title, Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina, previously for a different book club, so I decided to read Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau.

Mary Jane is beyond ready to have a summer job. It’s 1970s Baltimore and her parents are strict. She spends her time cooking meals with her mother, attending church and singing in the church choir, and listening to records from the Broadway Show Tunes of the Month club to which her family subscribes. Her parents have decided that she can work as a nanny for the local doctor. She will spend her summer looking after their daughter – her mother says it’s respectable, which means a lot coming from her.

The moment Mary Jane steps foot inside the house, she knows her mother would be scandalized. The house may look respectable on the outside, but the inside is a mess. Clutter spills over every surface, stickers adorn the walls, and food is a free-for-all. The doctor isn’t even a traditional doctor – he’s a psychiatrist whose only patient for the entire summer is a famous rock star attempting to dry out from his addictions. Her mother would be scandalized and to be honest, Mary Jane is shocked as well.

Mary Jane spends her summer being exposed to ideas, music, books, and culture that her parents would not approve of. She brings order, a consistent food schedule, clean clothes, and so much else to the house while they expand her worldview. The closer the end of the summer gets, the more Mary Jane realizes that there is more to her world than the life her parents have carved out for her. Her future is wider than she ever thought possible.

Set in 1970s Baltimore, Jessica Anya Blau has created a riveting coming-of-age story highlighting a fourteen-year-old girl’s summer stuck between her strict family and the progressive family she nannies for. This book gave me strong Daisy Jones and the Six vibes. It was adorable, funny, and gently heart-breaking to watch Mary Jane grow over the summer. Her journey outside her parents’ strict house was liberating. Readers get to see Mary Jane grow more confident throughout the summer as she is exposed to things she never knew existed before.

What did you read, watch, or listen to that was set in the 1970s? Did you enjoy it?

Next month, we are traveling to the 1980s.

Online Reading Challenge – June

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1970s. Our Main title for June is Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Nora Lopez is seventeen during the infamous New York summer of 1977, when the city is besieged by arson, a massive blackout, and a serial killer named Son of Sam who shoots young women on the streets. Nora’s family life isn’t going so well either: her bullying brother, Hector, is growing more threatening by the day, her mother is helpless and falling behind on the rent, and her father calls only on holidays. All Nora wants is to turn eighteen and be on her own. And while there is a cute new guy who started working with her at the deli, is dating even worth the risk when the killer likes picking off couples who stay out too late? Award-winning author Meg Medina transports us to a time when New York seemed balanced on a knife-edge, with tempers and temperatures running high, to share the story of a young woman who discovers that the greatest dangers are often closer than we like to admit — and the hardest to accept. – Candlewick

Looking for other books set in the 1970s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from.

Online Reading Challenge – May

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1950s & 1960s. Our Main title for May is Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.

But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day. – Dutton Books for Young Readers

Looking for some other books set in the 1950s or 1960s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – April Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in the 1940s that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I had previously read The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman, our main title, for a book club a couple years ago, so decided to give it a re-read. Overall, I enjoyed this book – it read like narrative nonfiction.

Quick overview: The Real Lolita covers the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner by Frank LaSalle, a man pretending to be an FBI agent. In addition to that traumatic event, Weinman also discusses Vladimir Nabokov’s writing and publication of Lolita, which he published seven years after Sally’s abduction. These two concurrent narratives are presented elegantly, factually, and with an incredible amount of researched detail. Readers learn about Sally and all the people in her circle, at the same time as they learn about Nabokov and all the people in his circle. It’s an interesting juxtaposition. Seeing how Sally’s story may be mirrored in Lolita was compelling. I enjoyed the crossovers between the two worlds and have more questions than answers.

I am *almost* done with this title and still plan on finishing. Even though this is a re-read, I am still finding content that I didn’t remember from my initial read. This title admittedly covers multiple decades starting in the 1940s and then heading into the 1950s, but the main events happened in the 1940s. Those key events influenced later events, books, movies, etc. greatly. As a librarian and as someone researching their family’s history, I resonated a lot with the author’s frustration at not being able to find primary source material. The Real Lolita has been an engaging narrative nonfiction read so far and I can’t wait to finish this again. I haven’t read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and honestly can’t say if I want to after reading this title. I’m torn. What are your thoughts?

Next month, we are traveling to the 1950s & 1960s.

Online Reading Challenge – April

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1940s. Our Main title for April is The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet, very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.

Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner’s full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing Lolita.

Sally Horner’s story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic. – Ecco/Harper Luxe

Looking for some other books set in the 1940s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – March Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in the 1920s & 1930s that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. This is the author’s debut novel published in 2012.

Needing a change, Jack and Mabel move to Alaska in 1920. It’s a rough life, full of long days, loneliness, and despair. The move pushes the two further apart as Jack works long hours on the farm and Mabel is left alone in their cabin. Wanting some normalcy during the season’s first snowfall, the two craft a child out of snow, both adding bits of themselves to their creation. The next morning, they are shocked to see that their snow child has been destroyed with a trail of tiny footprints leading into the forest. They glimpse a young, blond-haired girl flitting through the trees, wearing the hat and mittens that they decorated their snow child with. The girl named Faina inserts herself more and more into Jack and Mabel’s life, becoming part of their family. She never seems to truly belong with them though, instead preferring the snow and woods and life beyond their homestead. She has survived alone all these years, but that doesn’t stop Jack and Mabel from worrying. The more comfortable the three become with each other, the more they realize just how much they don’t know about Faina. Alaska may be beautiful, but the land holds violence right alongside that beauty. Their peace could shatter at any moment, something they would be wise to remember.

I procrastinated starting this book and honestly, I’m not sure why. It was such an easy, beautiful read. The Snow Child is a love story to Alaska and to the people living there. It’s full of immense joy and devastating sorrow. Eowyn Ivey is a master storyteller, weaving magic and realism together in such a way that at times I couldn’t tell the difference between the two. I felt like I was in Alaska with Mabel and Jack, struggling alongside them as they worked to get their homestead functioning and sustainable. The winters were breathtakingly cold and sparkling while the summers were sticky, clouded with mosquitoes, and full of their desperate attempts to prepare enough for the coming winter. The mountains towered over all with lush trees and wildlife running through, full of danger and promise. Ivey doesn’t shy away from showing the cruelness of Alaska and the hardness of life for people who choose to live there. It’s important not to forget the pockets of beauty that can be found though. All in all, this was a magical read full of wonder – one I’m glad I chose to read for this month’s challenge.

Next month, we are traveling to the 1940s.

Online Reading Challenge – March

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1920s & 1930s. Our Main title for March is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

In this magical debut, a couple’s lives are changed forever by the arrival of a little girl, wild and secretive, on their snowy doorstep.

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart — he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone — but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them. – Back Bay Books

Looking for some other books set in the 1920s & 1930s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!