Last year’s challenge was amazing, so many of you joined in and followed right to the end, thank you all. This year, we wanted to try something different but we also wanted to keep the challenge inclusive. It’s not everyone who has the time to read more than one book a month, however, I know that many of you do. So this year you have 3 options, Easy, Hard and Super Reader.
EASY – ALPHABETICAL CHALLENGE
Read a book by an author whose name begins with A, Y, or Z. Here are just a few examples;
Chinua Achebe, Kathy Acker, Douglas Adams, Cecelia Ahern, W.B. Yeats, Nicola Yoon, Benjamin Zephaniah, Markus Zusak.
HARD – MONTHLY CATEGORY CHALLENGE
Read a Dystopian Novel – here are a few suggestions from Cwts Club Discussion Group
The Testaments – Margaret Atwood
More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
Station Eleven – Emily St John Mantel
One snowy night in Toronto famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage whilst performing the role of a lifetime. That same evening a deadly virus touches down in North America. The world will never be the same again. Twenty years later Kirsten, an actress in the Travelling Symphony, performs Shakespeare in the settlements that have grown up since the collapse. But then her newly hopeful world is threatened.
The Giver – Lois Lowry
It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders. Twelve-year old Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is selected as the Receiver of Memory, Jonas discovers that their community is not as perfect as it seems.
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sister’s place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.
Other suggestions include Handmaids Tale, Vox, The Grace Year, The Road, Ready Player One, The Passage, Never Let Me Go, The Power.
SUPER READER – READ HARDER CHALLENGE
Read a book by an author whose name begins with A, Y or Z (or all 3!) and read a dystopian novel.
Pick a book from our list, pop along to your local book shop or library or pick something that’s already in your TBR pile.
We hope you enjoy this year’s challenge. Don’t forget to share what you are reading in our Cwts Club Discussion Group.
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