2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi everyone!

Time to nominate books for March! The theme is Universe.

~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 January 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 would like to nominate The Loneliest Girl in the Universe please - "universe" is in the title

I would like to suggest Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, please.

I'd like to nominate The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis.

Connection to 'universe' being this is a scifi about extraterestrial, also the film adaptation staring David Bowie who I have very much connected with songs like Life on Mars but he also famously covered Beatles' Across the Universe. :D

I'd like to nominate An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth with the connection being an astronaut and earth, which is in space, which is part of the universe!

I nominate Pathfinder. Because, although I only started reading it, there is already two scenes of a person traveling through the universe in search of a world to colonate...collonate? Colonize? Idk.......to build a population. Lol. XD

I would like to Second - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy


Because it starts off on earth and ends up elsewhere in the galaxy after aliens destroy our planet - very funny as well!!

Sorry Sally!!!

(Edited several times)

Girl, Woman, Other

I would like to nominate Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo'

I would like to nominate Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Namita wrote: "Girl, Woman, Other

I would like to nominate Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo'

"

Namita, could you please state a connection to the theme Universe?

Circe, by Madeline Miller

matilde wrote: "Circe, by Madeline Miller"

matilde, could you please state a connection to the theme Universe?

I'd like to nominate How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. From the Goodreads blurb:
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resiliency of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.

Ilona wrote: "I'd like to nominate How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. From the Goodreads blurb:
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar s..."
I second this one.

Ilona wrote: "I'd like to nominate How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. From the Goodreads blurb:
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar s..."

I second this one.

Ilona wrote: "I'd like to nominate How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. From the Goodreads blurb:
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar s..."

Third this one!

Ilona wrote: "I'd like to nominate How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. From the Goodreads blurb:
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar s..."

This. Yes, please :)

My nomination is Philip Pullman's 1st book in his Dark Materials Trilogy about alternate universes. The first novel, Northern Lights aka The Golden Compass, is a fantasy set in a parallel universe similar to ours with some quirks. The story follows Lyra along with her demon as she searches for her friend and Uncle & to understand the substance "dust". The Golden Compass by
Philip Pullman

I'd like to nominate Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a popular classic of the space opera genre

Overbooked ✎ wrote: "I'd like to nominate Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a popular classic of the space opera genre"

I won't change my vote since I've already read this - but yes! anyone who hasn't read it, definitely should. It's so good :)

Hanča wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis.

Connection to 'universe' being this is a scifi about extraterestrial, also the film adaptation staring David Bowie who..."

Second this. I've been wanting to read it forever.

By the way, Tevis wrote Queen's Gambit which was a successful Netflix series recently, and he also wrote The Hustler and The Color of Money both of which were filmed with Paul Newman.

Ohhhhh this sounds interesting 👀



Hanča wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis.

Connection to 'universe' being this is a scifi about extraterestrial, also the film adaptation staring David Bowie who..."

Jordan wrote: "My nomination is Philip Pullman's 1st book in his Dark Materials Trilogy about alternate universes. The first novel, Northern Lights aka The Golden Compass, is a fantasy set in a parallel universe ..."

Good one! This book is staring at me every day so I will second it!

Robynne wrote: "I would like to Second - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy


Because it starts off on earth and ends up elsewhere in the galaxy after alien..."

I will third this.

I would like to nominate Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. There are 2 tie-in to the Universe theme - the title of the book and the story.

The Sea of Tranquility is a dark spot located in the northern hemisphere of the Moon; and the Moon is part of the Universe.

It is a novel of "art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space"

Hello!

I'd like to suggest Salvation (Book 1) by Peter F. Hamilton

:)

Rachael wrote: "I would like to nominate The Loneliest Girl in the Universe please - "universe" is in the title"

I'll 2nd this one

I’d also like to nominate The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Idalis wrote: "Hello!

I'd like to suggest Salvation (Book 1) by Peter F. Hamilton

:)"

I second the highly rated space opera Salvation.

Closing nominations :)

Poll is up! :)

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