2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Happy June, everyone!
We hope you are all doing well and are enjoying the weather! Whether you can sit outside the sun, or curl up on a cold and rainy afternoon, it’s the perfect weather to read!

Tips from the Mods
We love how many of you are participating in the Buddy Reads! Did you sign up for so many that it is hard to keep track? Check out the Buddy Read spreadsheet for the latest information on planned reads. We also highly recommend keeping track in your own member corner or personal challenge thread, so you don’t miss out on all the fun!

Group Read
Every month, our group votes on and reads a book together. You don't have to read the book, but we would love it if you did!
Our June theme is Weather and our group read for this month is Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak nominated by Sean. This epic tale about the effects of the Russian Revolution takes place in winter and has a beautiful snowy cover! Feel free to join the discussion or post your review of the book!
You can also vote for our July book with the theme of Space as well as nominate a book for August with the theme Music!

Challenges
Have you already signed up for one or more of our yearly challenges? No matter what kinds of books you enjoy, you’re sure to discover a challenge or two to suit your reading preferences. They also offer the perfect opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and try some new-to-you genres or authors!

Our second pair of quarterly challenges entered their last month, but there is still plenty of time to join the fun! Based on our quarterly theme of Inspiration & Escape, Pinspiration encourages you “pin” books on inspirational boards. This challenge was created and is led by Regina. The second challenge, Creativiy Island Escape, inspired and led by Carmen, will have you forget your worries by escaping into some great, creative reads!

We also offer two new monthly challenges for the monthly theme of Weather! Choose books to read for up to 10 musical weather prompts in Singing in the Rain, created and led by Regina. Our second challenge, Whethering and Weathering the Storm, offers the opportunity to make up your own weather-related prompts! This challenge is led by Kelly.

Do you have a great idea for a future monthly or quarterly challenge for 2020? Please let us know! Most of our quarterly and monthly challenges grow out of our members’ suggestions. We love hearing your creative ideas.

TBR Twins
Share a book with an online friend while knocking off a read from your TBR list!
You can sign up for July TBR Twins here, and we'll pair you with someone to read a book with next month. If you’ve signed up for June, your twins are posted here. Please reach out to your twin and choose a book to read together!

Buddy Reads
Let’s read some books together! Buddy reads are a great way to read and discuss a book together with fellow group members. This month we will have a total of 32 Buddy Reads!
We are starting or continuing the following stand-alone books:
Daisy Jones & The Six, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The House of the Spirits, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, The Institute, No Exit, Norse Mythology, Pachinko, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Pride and Prejudice, Station Eleven, The Tale of Genji, and The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

We will also start or continue reading the following series:
Anne of Green Gables #5: Anne’s House of Dreams, Bird Box #1, Borne #1.5: The Strange Bird: A Borne Story, Crescent City #1: House of Earth and Blood, Cursebreakers #1: A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Discworld #9: Eric, Divergent #1, Harry Potter #6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, His Dark Materials #1: The Golden Compass, The Hunger Games #1, The Licanius Trilogy #3: The Light of All That Falls, The Lunar Chronicles #1: Cinder, The Martian #1, Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #2: Hollow City, Mistborn #3: The Hero of Ages, The Passage #1, Six of Crows #2: Crooked Kingdom, A Song of Ice and Fire #2: A Clash of Kings, and Stormlight Archive #2: Words of Radiance.

If you would like to join any, please follow the link and let your buddies know you will be joining the read!

Would you like to suggest a future Buddy Read or join an existing one? You can sign up on our current Buddy Reads - Sign Up thread.

Finally, welcome to all of our new members! We can't wait to get to know you. Please stop in and introduce yourself or say hello to our new members!


Happy Reading, everyone!

Kara, Winter, Ilona, Kristin, Rachael, Blagica, Megan, oshizu, SarahKat, and Trisha

Doctor Zhivago is certainly a good choice for the Weather topic. About three seasons change during a single train ride in one part of it :)