Here at For Reading Addicts we wanted to create another reading challenge for ourselves and our followers, something a little different, something that perhaps takes us all out of our reading comfort zone and so we have decided that the For Reading Addicts reading challenge for 2017 will feature authors from around the world.
Each month we will select books written by authors who hail from a specific country and will then share that list on our Social Media pages and groups. We will then set up a discussion event for those who are taking part to chat about the books they read and to share their experiences of reading books from authors they may not ever have come across otherwise. We will also create a poll question asking for suggestions of authors for the next month’s country.
For our July challenge we asked our Cwts Book Club members for suggestions of authors from Canada. The list this vote produced was very long, these are the five books we have chosen, by the authors who received most votes, for our For Reading Addicts Reading Challenge 2017 July edition.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred’s nor that of the two men on which her future hangs. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful vision of the future gives full rein to Margaret Atwood’s irony, wit and astute perception.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
When red-headed orphan Anne Shirley arrives at Green Gables, she feels sure she’s found the home she has always longed for. Her new adoptive parents, the Cuthberts, are less certain – they had asked the orphanage for a boy. But before long, Anne’s irrepressible optimism and loving nature charms them. While her temper is unpredictable and her extravagant imagination makes her dreamily whimsical and prone to comic mishap, they come to love Anne as if she were their own child.
Still Life by Louise Penny
The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships. Gamache cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately kill well-loved artist Jane Neal, especially any of the residents of Three Pines – a place so free from crime it doesn’t even have its own police force.
Room by Emma Donoghue
Jack lives with his Ma in Room. Room has a single locked door and a skylight, and it measures ten feet by ten feet. Jack loves watching TV but he knows that nothing he sees on the screen is truly real – only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits there is a world outside.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan — and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.
We’ve chosen bestsellers by each of the authors this month, in the hope that if you are unable to read the book during July, if you’ve already read one or all of the choices, you will still be able to join in the discussion.
We hope our reading challenge for 2017 will introduce you to authors you’ve never heard of and writing styles you’ve not encountered previously. We have kept the challenge as simple as possible and hopefully, each month you will be able find at least one book that you will enjoy reading.
For Reading Addicts Reading Challenge 2024
For Reading Addicts Reading Challenge 2023 – Read a Rainbow – October