2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi everyone!

It's time to nominate books for August, the theme is Travels.

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

~Books we have read less than three years ago are not eligible. To see which books are not eligible, see this google sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

~ Each person can nominate 1 book.

~ Books 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 June 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'll be nominating The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. This memoir tells the story of Raynor and her terminally ill husband, who travel by foot the 630 miles from Somerset to Dorset with barely any money and bringing only the most essential things.

I nominate Black Cake, which takes us on a journey from the caribbean islands to the UK, US and Italy as they explore family secrets, survival, food, traditions and how one might use travel as a vehicle to turn life's lemons into lemonade.

The Map of Salt and Stars I suggest this as it involves a journey returning from New York to Syria as well as maps being a major theme.

I nominate One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle, which is about a young women who travels to Italy after her mother passes. I think it would be a great fit to the theme.

To quote author Gabrielle Zevin: "A particular pleasure of One Italian Summer is the way it evokes both the sensual details and the experience of travel—the way jet lag can feel like a dream state; the fullness that follows a great Italian meal; the quick intimacies one makes while on a trip; the way vacation time feels different, maybe even beyond the laws of quantum physics; the power of travel to heal, and the possibility that the traveler might reinvent herself."

Hi! I want to nominate The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I think it would be an excellent fit for the theme and also it has "travel" in the title.

From the author that brought us The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, I would like to nominate Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. We will experience travel on earth, travel in orbit around the earth, travel away from the earth, and time travel; all in one epic novel.

Patricia wrote: "Hi! I want to nominate The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I think it would be an excellent fit for the theme and also it has "travel" in the title."

Seconding this! I love this book.

I would like to Second one Italian Summer!

I have been meaning to read The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton every summer for at least five years now. I'm not sure even why it's a summer book in my head. Maybe the lovely lavender cover on my copy. Stretching it here, but it's a travel back in time and for me as a Norwegian also place so that's my normination.

Poll is up! https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...