#Jax Stacks - February 2023
Welcome to the 2023 Jax Stacks Reading Challenge! This year we are going to give you suggestions for each* category in the challenge every month so that you always have a great library book waiting for you when you need it. Check our blog every month for a new round of ideas, and feel free to share your progress and recommendations on social media using #jaxstacks.
Jax Stacks Book Club
You can also share your reading in person with us at our monthly Jax Stacks Reading Challenge Book Club. Each month we will highlight and discuss one or two categories at the book club. Of course, you are welcome to share whatever books you’re reading with the group - as long as they count for the challenge.
This month, we will meet at the Highlands Library on Friday, February 24 at 1 p.m. to discuss “A book in a genre you don't usually read”.
Click here to register!
Monthly Book Recommendations
*Note: We can’t help you with “A book you’ve read and loved before”, but we’re happy to have you share them with us on social media!
*Second note: All of these recommendations can fit in the category “A book recommended by a library staff member”, and we encourage you to seek out your local branch staff or our personalized booklists for more recommendations!
A book written before 2000:
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs. He's also gifted with telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour.
A book in a genre you don't usually read:
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
The first in a 6-book contemporary romance series, The Wedding Date and its sequels are a great meet-cute for you and the romance genre.
A historical book set in Africa:
The Triumph of the Sun by Wilbur A. Smith
In the burning heat of the Sudanese sun, the city of Khartoum is under siege from the fearsome forces of the Mahdi, the charismatic leader of those who tire of the brutal Egyptian government. As rescue becomes increasingly unlikely, a group of Queen Victoria's loyal citizens must unite to prepare themselves against a nightmarish enemy, and for the savage battle to survive that must surely follow...
A book in translation:
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Translated by Nancy Forest-Flier (and originally published in Dutch)
Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's beds for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened, or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.
A book written by an author when they were under 30:
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
This story collection was published in 2007, when Russell was 26.
A book set in a place you want to visit:
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Envisioning a summer vacation in the humble Singapore home of a boy she hopes to marry, Chinese American Rachel Chu is unexpectedly introduced to a rich and scheming clan that strongly opposes their son's relationship with an American girl.
A book read by a Library book club in 2023:
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Selected for the Between the Covers Romance Readers Book Club at Brown Eastside Branch Library. Come talk about it on March 13 at 6:30 p.m. – register here!
A book by a 2023 Lit Chat author:
How to Keep a Husband for 10 Days by Jessica Hatch
Jessica Hatch is a local romance novelist and editor. She will be appearing live at the Southeast Library (and on Zoom) for a Lit Chat Interview on February 23 at 6:30 p.m. Register here to attend!
Hatch will also lead a Writer's Lab workshop on February 13 at 10:15 a.m. at West Branch Library for writers who want to get their completed manuscripts ready to send to publishers. Register here to attend!
A self-improvement, how-to or DIY book:
Intuitive Eating for Life by Jenna Hollenstein
Intuitive eating is a great way to get off the diet roller coaster, stay healthy, build confidence in your body, and take the guesswork out of mealtime. But if you're like many people, you may have trouble staying on track. Enter mindfulness!
In this step-by-step guide, you'll learn to practice intuitive eating using the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a classic Buddhist framework.
A book with a non-human protagonist:
The Art of Racing in the Rain Garth Stein
“A captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it.”
A book banned in the last 10 years:
Melissa (previously published as George) by Alex Gino
Reasons given (according to the American Library Association): “LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting ‘the values of our community.’”
A book by a Nobel Prize winner:
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Written by the winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
A book with illustrations:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands and break away from the life he was destined to live, he leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Based on the author's own experiences and coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney.
A book under 300 pages:
The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Told in a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous-Sandra Cisneros' masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery.
