Marshall-Lyon County Library discussion

Join us for the 8th Annual MLCL Reading Challenge. As usual, there are 25 prompts, with 5 focused on Fiction, 5 focused on Nonfiction and 15 that can be either Fiction or Nonfiction.

For an introduction to the Challenge, check out the blog post: https://marshalllyonlibrary.org/2025-...

You can find the list of 25 prompts here: https://marshalllyonlibrary.org/reade...

If you are interested after checking out the Challenge, please respond to this topic and join us for a year of reading!

You know I’m definitely in!

Welcome, Nicole!

I've been waiting for this list!! Definitely in!!

Welcome, Sara! Glad to have you joining us!!

I'm in!! As I scan the prompts I see I have several books in mind that are on my to read list.

I’m in! I’m hoping this helps me get through my TBR pile as well as get me out of my reading slump!

I’m so excited for this! Am currently working on a list of books from each country I hope to visit later this year.

Definitely in!
And bonus: the book I finished this morning (James by Percival Everett) and the book I started this afternoon (The Cartographer by Peng Shepard) fit the first two prompts!
2025 is going to be a great year for reading!

I am in, too!

Welcome Laura, Dawnella, Sarah, Barbra and Maria! We are glad to have you join us!! You have all warmed my reading heart ~ I hope each year that the prompts will help lessen TBRs (especially mine) as well as anyone who has struggled recently either finding the right book to read or just reading in general (the reason I started doing the year-long challenge). Here's to a wonderful reading January!

I chose a fiction for the prompt an "Epistolary book (primarily letters, diaries, texts, blog posts etc.)" The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. Excellent read! I haven't rated a book 5 stars in Goodreads for a long time.
I also just started Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty for the prompt "set on a continent that begins with the letter A" as it is based in Australia. Really good so far, I can see why it was made into an HBO series, although I don't have HBO to watch it.

I loved Guernsey Literary...! Highly recommend it. I enjoyed the Netflix movie, too. I'm going to read nonfiction for epistolary, recommended by my mom: 84, Charring Cross Road(c 1970) about a letter-based relationship between two booksellers, one in NY and the other in England. I'm really looking forward to it!

I would love to hear how 84 Charring Cross Road is, I have heard of the play, didn’t look into it enough to know it was a book and has a film adaptation. Interesting.

I'll post when I finish. It may be a few weeks before I can start it, though. A few others are on deck first. :-)

Can't wait to get started!

Welcome, Linda ~ glad you are joining us!

Michele wrote: "I'll post when I finish. It may be a few weeks before I can start it, though. A few others are on deck first. :-)"

I read 84, Charring Cross Road today and found it utterly charming. It lays out a building relationship between a New York writer and the staff of a British bookshop, Marks & Co. over 20 years. It was surprisingly funny and a little sad at the end. It is very short (around 100 pages), so a very easy read if epistolary books are not your cup of tea. I highly recommend it!

I'm in! I can't wait to take on this challenge in 2025!

Welcome, Card! We are happy to have you join us!

Finished Big Little Lies for the Continent that starts with A. It was a great story line and kept you engaged. Read way faster than I expected. I hear the TV series is really good but I doubt I will watch it, a little too Desperate Housewives_ish for me. I have also finished Finding Me a memior by Viola Davis. Very well written and I listened to the audiobook read by the author...I could just listen to her forever. My most recent finish was Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail. I was going to put this one in memoir but then I found the one previously mentioned. I will put it in the Set in a National Park category. Although it wasn't entirely in a National Park, Cheryl Strayed's trek went through several states, many natural landmark areas and National Parks. What a story! I personally hiked 4 days on the Superior Trail with my sister and son and to think of doing something like that alone, without GPS, hiking through snow where you can't find the trail, AND not knowing for sure if you will find water where needed. Wow!

It has been a while since an update, how are you doing with your list? I have been plugging away slow but steady.

Some books to note was for folk or fairy tale prompt I read The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, what a lovely book! It just screamed Broadway musical to me, and sure enough it is in the making.

I have also finished Ordinary Grace for the set in a state or country that begins with M. William Kent Krueger is a MN author and this title was based in a fictional town along the MN river, it was a wonderful read.

The best book in the 8 or so I have finished since the last update was Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival by Laura Hillenbrand for the history of an event or place prompt. Fantastic! I have not watched the movie of that yet.

Happy reading all!

I absolutely loved The Goose Girl, as well as many others by Shannon Hale! I've always appreciated a good fairy tale retelling. I read Once Upon a Crime by PJ Brackston for that prompt where Gretel (of Hansel & Gretel fame) becomes a detective.

My favorites so far are The Last Bookshop in London (name of a city in the title); Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (unlikely friendship); The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians (about books); and The Inheritance Games (either published in 2020 or involves a puzzle, game or challenge).

Overall, I'm doing pretty well ~ I have 6-7 left to read and still have a couple I need to find a book for the prompt.