2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi everyone!

Time to nominate for October is Illusion.

~Please remember to state a connection to the theme when you nominate.

~Books we have read less than three years ago are not eligble. To see which books are not eligble, see this google sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

~ Each person can nominate 1 book.

~ Book must be available both as a physical copy and as an ebook.

~ Authors: Please do not nominate your own book.

~ Please do not nominate books that are part of a series, unless it is the first book.

~ You can second someone else's nomination, but that will count as your nomination.


This thread will be closed by August 26th, and we will choose ten books for the poll. If there are more than ten books nominated, we will choose "seconded" books first. If there is still a tie to get into the top ten, we'll go back to the Goodreads average rating to see which is highest.

I am nominating Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. In this book - thanks to the use of an unreliable narrator - you cannot be sure if what you are being told is the truth or an illusion.

Shutter Island by Denise Lehane - Because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems.

I will nominate the Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner.

I will nominate Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

Connection: Marco Polo describes the many cities that he passes through on his expeditions. Many of them are so fantastic they can only be illusions... or are they somehow real?

I second Gone Girl!

I second Invisible Cities

How about The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton? Nothing about their mother is what it seems.

How about The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton? How far would someone go to keep up illusions?

I will recommend The Ickabog by J. K. Rowling.
The connection to illusion being that it is a fairy tale. The idea a happily ever after from any angle of a story is in and of itself the illusion.

Linzie wrote: "Shutter Island by Denise Lehane - Because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems."

I second this!

Hillary wrote: "I will nominate the Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner."

Hi Hillary! Do you have a connection to the theme for this book? :)

I reccomend The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty
Connection is the context of Hypnosis, an illusion :) It's supposed to be a fun fast paced read.

I'm going to have to post early this month so this is the last day of nominating.

* Ended up being a hectic day yesterday. Closing now and posting poll later today.

Poll posted :)

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...