2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi everyone!

Time to nominate books for July! The theme is Island.

~Please remember to state a connection to the theme when you nominate.

~Books we have read less than three years ago are not eligible. To see which books are not eligble, see this google sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

~ Each person can nominate 1 book.

~ Book must be available both as a physical copy and as an ebook.

~ Authors: Please do not nominate your own book.

~ Please do not nominate books that are part of a series, unless it is the first book.

~ You can second someone else's nomination, but that will count as your nomination.


This thread will be closed by May 25th, and we will choose ten books for the poll. If there are more than ten books nominated, we will choose "seconded" books first. If there is still a tie to get into the top ten, we'll go back to the Goodreads average rating to see which is highest.

I nominate Migrations as it is set on the island of Greenland.

I'd like to nominate The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia -
connection to the theme is this is a "reimagining of H.G Wells "The Island of Dr. Moreau"

I second Migrations!

I nominate Lord of the Flies as the action is set on a remote island.

I second "Migrations"

I nominate The Woman in the White Kimono set on the island of Japan

I nominate The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. It's set on an island and the motto the story explores is "No man is an island; Every book is a world."

I nominate the Sicilian Inheritance

M wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia -
connection to the theme is this is a "reimagining of H.G Wells "The Island of Dr. Moreau""

Second

I'd like to nominate The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman about a lightkeeper on an isolated island.

I would like to nominate Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. It is set on Hawaiʻi's fifth largest island, Molokaʻi is only 38 miles long and 10 miles across at its widest point and is home to the highest sea cliffs in the world.

The Goodreads synopsis:
This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story."

I'm seconding Lord of the Flies.

Susan wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman about a lightkeeper on an isolated island."

I'd like to second this one.

L Y N N wrote: "I would like to nominate Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. It is set on Hawaiʻi's fifth largest island, Molokaʻi is only 38 miles long and 10 miles across at its widest point and is home to the highest sea cliffs in the world."

I'll second .

I would like to nominate Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa

Summary: Inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, award-winning author Amanda Jayatissa turns her feverish, Gothic-tinged talents to late 19th century Sri Lanka where the daughter of a traditional demon-priest—relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself—tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village.

Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise.

Now someone—or something —is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself.

As she tries to clear her father’s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected to the night she was recovering from a strange illness, and woke up, scared and confused, to hear her mother’s frantic cries: No one can find out what happened .

Lush, otherworldly, and recalling horror classics like Carrie and The Exorcist , Island Witch is a deliciously creepy and darkly feminist tale about the horrors of moral panic, the violent space between girlhood and adulthood, and what happens when female rage is finally unleashed.


The connection is the title.

Circe Circe by Madeline Miller. Circe is banished to an island by Zeus.

Victoria wrote: "I nominate The Woman in the White Kimono set on the island of Japan"

I second this

I would like to nominate The Summer We Started Over by Nancy Thayer. Its set on Nantucket Island that follows two sisters reconnecting and pursuing their dreams on the island while navigating family challenges and new love.

I nominate Great Big Beautiful Life By Emily Henry

I would like to nominate the spellshop.by Sarah Beth Durst.

Alyssa wrote: "I would like to nominate the spellshop.by Sarah Beth Durst."
This was the group read in January 2025.

I would like to nominate The Island of Missing Trees. Here's a short description from amazon: "The war-torn love story set in 1970s Cyprus, shortlisted for the Women's Prize".

Closing nominations. I’m currently ill, but I will work on having the poll up as soon as I can. Might take me a day or two more.

Poll is up!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...