Time is Short But So Are These Books
Do you need a last-minute book recommendation so you can complete the 2025 Jax Stacks Reading Challenge? Library staff have put together a list of "short reads" (most of them under 200 pages) so you can confidently cross the finish line by December 31.
There are still a few prizes left to claim, if you're looking some Jax Stacks-branded swag. Even if you're not interested in a prize, complete the challenge for your own gratification or so that your favorite library branch gets bragging rights for having the most completed bookmarks submitted! Let us know if you've read at least 12 books (and which of the 16 categories you picked) by emailing a photo of your completed bookmark or your booklist to jplprograms@coj.net.
For a complete rundown of the rules, visit jaxlibrary.org/jaxstacks.
Short Book Recommendations (By Category)
Reminder: Each book only counts once (for one category), so choose wisely!
A Book by a 2025 Lit Chat Author
How to Talk to Your Succulent, by Zoe Perisco (Junior Lit Chat)
“With a touch of magic, this debut middle-grade graphic novel explores loneliness, mental health and empathy.” This 223-page book could be used for “A book written for children” or “A graphic novel, either fiction or nonfiction.”
A Book by a 2025 Lit Chat Author
Hard Reboot, by Django Wexler
“Hard Reboot features giant mech arena battles and intergalactic diplomacy. When did academia get to be so complicated?” This 149-page sci-fi novella is also available as an e-book and e-audiobook on Hoopla.
A Book Read by a Library Book Club in 2025
The Mistletoe Murder: and Others Stories, by P.D. James
Four short stories told by the Queen of Crime, all set during the Christmas season and holiday. 176 pages in print, also available as an e-book and three-hour e-audiobook on Libby. This novella is being read by San Marco’s Novel Pursuits Book Club or would count as "A mystery set outside the U.S.!"
A Book Read by a Library Book Club in 2025
Blacksad, by Juan Díaz Canales
“Private investigator John Blacksad is up to his feline ears in mystery and intrigue, digging up the backstories behind murders, child abductions, and nuclear secrets during the 1950s Red Scare in the United States.” This 176-page graphic novel was read by the Willow Branch Comic Club Graphic Novel Book Club in June, counts for the “Graphic Novel” category, and is available on Hoopla as an e-book.
A Book Published Before 2000
The Stranger, by Albert Camus
“Caught in the grip of forces he does not understand, a quiet, ordinary clerk in Algiers commits a murder.” This 117-page book covers themes of existentialism and absurdism. Also available on Hoopla as an e-book or e-audiobook.
A Book Published Before 2000
Mr Cadmus, by Peter Ackroyd
"Long-hidden secrets and long-held grudges threaten to surface, drawing all into a vortex of subterfuge, theft, violence, mayhem, and murder in the idyllic English village of Little Camborn." 186 pages in print or on Libby, also available on Hoopla as a five-hour 32-minute e-audiobook.
First Book in a Series
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire
“Magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced... they change a person. All the children at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children understand all too well.” This 173-page novella is also available as an e-book or four-hour and 44-minute e-audiobook on Libby.
First Book in a Series
The Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo
“A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side.” A political drama in a fantasy world, this 121-page novella is also available on Libby as a two-hour and 25-minute e-audiobook on Hoopla.
Anthology or Book with Two or More Authors
Voices That Count : a Comics Anthology, by Women
“'Voices That Count" gives women a space to recount their struggles and triumphs. Filled with slice of life tales about the emotional and physical tolls placed on women just trying to get through each day.” This 137-page graphic novel is also available as an e-book on Hoopla and (alternatively) counts for “A graphic novel.”
A Retelling of Another Book or Story
A Spindle Splintered, by Alix Harrow
"A bite-sized reimagined Sleeping Beauty with a satisfying combination of heart and teeth." Subversive, modern, and only 128 pages! Available on Hoopla as an audiobook with a three-hour and 20-minute runtime.
An Epistolary Book or Diary Format
The Wright Sister, by Patty Dann
“The Wright Brothers are world-renowned pioneers of flight. Known to far fewer people was their whip-smart and well-educated sister Katharine, a suffragette and early feminist." Meet her in through diary pages and letters in this 207-page historical fiction novel. Listen to the book in six hours through Hoopla.
An Epistolary Book or Diary Format
The Christmas Guest, by Peter Swanson
“A spectacularly spine-chilling novella in which an American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall.” This novella is a mix of diary entries and straight prose, telling a dark Christmas story in just 112 pages. Read the e-book or listen to the two-hour 48-minute audiobook on Libby. Also counts for “Mystery set outside the U.S.!”
A Graphic Novel, Either Fiction or Nonfiction
Dune: The Graphic Novel. Book 1, by Frank Herbert. Illustrated by Raúl Allén
“Dune is a powerful, fantastical tale that takes an unprecedented look into our universe and it is transformed by the graphic novel format.” 162 pages in print, this book alternatively counts for “First book in a series.”
A Graphic Novel, Either Fiction or Nonfiction
The 12 Labors of Hercules: A Graphic Retelling, by B. A Hoena
“To fulfill his quest and erase a sorrowful past, the half-man, half-god Hercules was ordered to complete 12 difficult labors. Follow his adventure in this graphic novel format.” 32 pages in print and alternatively counts for a “Retelling of another book or story.”
A Graphic Novel, Either Fiction or Nonfiction
Our Stories Carried Us Here. Vol. 1, Belonging in America and Mexico (Nuestras Historias Nos Llevaron Aquí. Vol. 1, Pertenecer a América y México), by Daniel Zúñiga González
“A graphic novel that explores what it means to belong in Mexico and in America, and doing what it takes to survive and thrive.” Told in English and Spanish, 32 pages. Alternatively counts for “Non-fiction book about a minority group or person.”
A Book Featuring a Neurodivergent Character
Planet Earth is Blue, by Nicole Panteleakos
“Autistic and nearly nonverbal, twelve-year-old Nova is happy in her new foster home and school, but eagerly anticipates the 1986 Challenger launch, for which her sister, Bridget, promised to return.” This book is 232 pages in print and as an e-book, or five hours and 32 minutes as e-audiobook available on Libby. Alternatively, this book fits “A book written for children.”
A Book Featuring a Neurodivergent Character
All Systems Red, by Martha Wells
“All Systems Red is the story of a robot-human hybrid indentured security unit that hacked its governor module. All it wants is to be left alone to watch media.” 152 pages in print or three hours and 17 minutes as an e-audiobook through Hoopla. A dramatized e-audiobook is also available through Hoopla that runs 2.5 hours. Alternatively, you could use this for “First book in a series.”
A Mystery Set Outside the U.S.
The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D., by Nicholas Meyer
“January 1905: Holmes and Watson are summoned by Holmes' brother Mycroft to undertake a clandestine investigation after an agent of the British Secret Service was found floating in the Thames.” This 238-page book is also available as an e-book or as an eight-hour e-audiobook on Libby.
Mystery Set Outside the U.S.
Ghostwriter, by Rayco Pulido Rodríguez
“Barcelona, 1943. As a scriptwriter for a popular radio advice column, Laia's life seems perfectly ordered, with a devoted husband and a baby on the way. But when Laia's husband goes missing - her world begins to come apart.” This 86-page mystery could instead count for “A graphic novel.”
A Mystery Set Outside the U.S.
The Moment Before Drowning, by James Brydon
“December 1959: A furious anticolonial war rages in Algeria. Captain Jacques le Garrec, a former detective and French Resistance hero, returns to France in disgrace. Traumatized after two years of working in the army intelligence services, he's now accused of a brutal crime.” This 239-page book is also available as an e-book through Libby and Hoopla.
A Nonfiction Book About a Minority Group or Person
Crazy as Hell: The Best Little Guide to Black History, by Hoke Smith Glover III and V. Efua Prince
“The notables of this book are the runaways and the rebels, the badass and funky, the activists and the inmates-but are they crazy as hell, or do they simply defy the expectations designated for being Black in America?” 168 pages in print, or four hours and 25 minutes as an e-audiobook on Hoopla.
A Nonfiction Book about a Minority Group or Person
To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
“A moving and unflinchingly personal meditation on the literary forms of otherness, delivered in 6 essays that were originally delivered as the Norton lectures.” 126 pages, or five hours and 20 minutes as an e-audiobook on Hoopla.
A Book about Music
How to Write One Song, by Jeff Tweedy
"A thoughtful book about creativity, taking the reader through the process of writing one song.” 158 pages in print. Also available on Libby as an e-book and three-hour e-audiobook.
A Book about Music
Malcolm Kid and the Perfect Song, by Austin Paramore
“When Malcolm stumbles across the LK-2000--a strange keyboard cursed with the soul of an old jazz musician, he learns that the only way to free this musician's soul is by performing the perfect song.” This 188-page book is also available as an e-book on Hoopla! Alternatively, it would count for “A graphic novel” or “A book written for children.”
A Book with a Heist
Full Speed to a Crash Landing, by Beth Revis
“A sarcastic space scavenger finds herself on a classified mission with a handsome government agent, where they navigate romantic tension and uncover secrets.” 181 fast-paced pages, or four hours and five minutes as an e-audiobook on Hoopla. Also fits “First book in a series.”
A Book with a Heist
Averee, by Stephanie Phillips
“A world where social rank rules and your status sets your inevitable course in life - all controlled by an app! When her rank suddenly tanks, Averee partners up with her low-ranked best friend to raid the app's corporate HQ to set things right.” Just 136 pages, this book could instead be used for “A graphic novel” or “A book written for children.”
A Book Written for Children
The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
Gen is an arrogant, stubborn young thief who claims that he can steal anything—and whose mouth often gets him into trouble. After being arrested for stealing the King’s ring, he is forced to earn his freedom by stealing from the gods. Written for teens and 219 pages in print. Available on Hoopla as an e-book and seven-hour 14-minute e-audiobook. This book could instead be used for “Published before 2000," “Book with a heist," or “First in a series.”
A Book Written for Children
Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
“In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.” This meaningful read is only 137 pages and is also available as an e-book and two-hour 45-minute e-audiobook through Libby.
