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Reading Challenge A book that includes a map |
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Stone lands : a journey of darkness and light through Britain's ancient places
by Fiona Robertson
A few months after discovering that her beloved husband, Stephen, had incurable cancer, Fiona Robertson began to write this book. A long-time megalith enthusiast, she found the ancient stones resonated with her more profoundly than ever as she faced the prospect of losing him. Set upright thousands of years ago, the megaliths are symbols of endurance and survival, standing in contrast to our ephemeral human lives. Infused with folklore, legend and mystery, these standing stones enchant the landscape and bring magic to our modern world. This enthralling memoir is woven delicately around great grief but is ultimately about embracing life, joy and ancient wonder--a luminous reminder of what it means to exist on this earth.
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Land
by Maggie O'Farrell
The year is 1865. Tomás and his son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland--a country recently ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger. The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse.
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A walk in the park : the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
by Kevin Fedarko
The Grand Canyon is an American treasure, visited by more than 6 million people a year, many of whom are rendered speechless by its vast beauty, mystery, and complexity. Now, in A Walk in the Park, author Kevin Fedarko chronicles his year-long effort to find a 750-mile path along the length of the Grand Canyon, through a vertical wilderness suspended between the caprock along the rims of the abyss and the Colorado River, which flows along its bottom. Consisting of countless cliffs and steep drops, plus immense stretches with almost no access to water, and the fact that not a single trail links its eastern doorway to its western terminus, this jewel of national parks is so challenging that when Fedarko departed fewer people had completed the journey in one single hike than had walked on the moon. The intensity of the effort required him to break his trip into several legs, each of which held staggering dangers and unexpected discoveries.
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The god of the woods
by Liz Moore
When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn't just any camper: she's the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp--as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn't the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region. Barbara's older brother also went missing 16 years earlier, never to be found. How could this have happened yet again?
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The bone season
by Samantha Shannon
In the mid-21st century, major world cities are controlled by a formidable security force, and clairvoyant underworld cell member Paige commits acts of psychic treason before being captured by an otherworldly race that would make her a part of their supernatural army.
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Island at the edge of the world : the forgotten history of Easter Island
by Mike Pitts
A work of historical adventure and reclamation by British archeological scholar Mike Pitts--a book that rewrites the popular yet flawed history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and uses newly unearthed findings and documents to challenge the long-standing historical assumptions about the manmade ecological disaster that caused the island's collapse.
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Against breaking : on the power of poetry
by Ada Limón
Ada Limón--celebrated poet laureate and 2023 MacArthur fellow--takes us on an inspiring journey into a world where poetry is both a soothing balm for the soul and a spark for transformation. With her blend of accessible yet profound prose, Lim n delivers a powerful message: poetry has the ability to heal, connect, and remind us of our shared humanity. Limón's mission to make poetry approachable shines brightly in this slim but impactful book. As Limón writes with heartfelt clarity, If you need to remember what makes us human, tender, brave, flawed, and worthy of love, you need poetry.
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House of earth and blood
by Sarah J. Maas
Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. By day, she works for an antiquities dealer, selling barely legal magical artifacts, and by night, she parties with her friends, savoring every pleasure Lunathion--otherwise known as Crescent City--has to offer. But it all comes crumbling down when a ruthless murder shakes the very foundations of the city.
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The hobbit, or, there and back again
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
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Circe
by Madeline Miller
The novel follows Circe, the banished witch daughter of Helios, as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals.
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The book woman of Troublesome Creek
by Kim Michele Richardson
Kentucky: The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything--everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt's Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. Cussy's not only a book woman, however, she's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she's going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.
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Where the crawdads sing
by Delia Owens
For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild, unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved.
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The sea captain's wife : a true story of mutiny, love, and adventure at the bottom of the world
by Tilar J. Mazzeo
Summer, 1856. Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her husband, Joshua, were young and ambitious. As their ship, Neptune's Car, left New York Harbor and sailed down the jagged coast of South America, Joshua fell deathly ill. The treacherous first mate was agitating for mutiny. Mary Ann stepped into the breach, determined to save the ship, the crew, and their future, she faces down the deadly waters of Drake's Passage.
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All that she carried : the journey of Ashley's sack, a Black family keepsake
by Tiya Miles
In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother Rose gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this history on the bag--including Rose's message that 'It be filled with my Love always.' Historian Tiya Miles carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley. From Rose's last resourceful gift to her daughter, Miles then follows the paths their lives and the lives of so many like them took to write a unique, innovative history of the lived experience of slavery in the United States.
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Wild : from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State--and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise. But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
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Into the wild
by Jon Krakauer
The dramatic story of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarked on a solo journey into the wilds of Alaska and whose body was discovered four months later, explores the fascinating allure that the wilderness has for the American imagination.
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The stranger in the woods : the extraordinary story of the last true hermit
by Michael Finkel
In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even in winter, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store food and water to avoid freezing to death. Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a detailed account of the why and how of his secluded life--as well as the challenges he has faced returning to the world.
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The map of knowledge : a thousand-year history of how classical ideas were lost and found
by Violet Moller
After the Fall of Rome, when many of the great ideas of the ancient world were lost to the ravages of the Dark Ages, three crucial manuscripts passed hand to hand through seven Mediterranean cities and survived to fuel the revival of the Renaissance--an exciting debut history. The Map of Knowledge follows these three key texts--Euclid's Elements, Ptolemy's The Almagest, and Galen's writings on medicine--on a perilous journey driven by insatiable curiosity about the world.
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The pillagers' guide to Arctic pianos
by Kendra Langford Shaw
An exuberant, highly imaginative epic about a family that settles, against all odds, in the far reaches of the Arctic and the unexpected industry that keeps them afloat for generations. The Pillagers' Guide to Arctic Pianos travels through generations, backward to the Spahrs' homesteader origins and forward to their descendants, eccentrics and optimists all. In a voice as buoyant and vibrant as the characters themselves, Kendra Langford Shaw gives us an unforgettable and inventive ode to the abiding love of family and pull of home, even as the home we love becomes ever more challenging to inhabit.
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Nothing more of this land : community, power, and the search for Indigenous identity
by Joseph Lee
Before Martha's Vineyard was a vacation destination, it was home to the Wampanoag people. The island is increasingly unaffordable for tribal members, with nearly three-quarters now living off-island. Lee grapples with what this situation meant for his tribe, how the community can grow, and what it means to be Indigenous. From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world.
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Five broken blades
by Mai Corland
The king of Yusan must die. The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the god king Joon. He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined...or sold. And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness -- from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance. They can agree on murder. They can agree on treachery. But for these five killers -- each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal it's not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they'll have to find a way to trust each other...but only one can take the crown. Let the best liar win.
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The salt path
by Raynor Winn
After learning her husband Moth is terminally ill, Raynor Winn loses their home and livelihood. With little time left, they embark on a 630-mile walk along the South West Coast Path. Through challenges and encounters, their journey becomes a transformative, life-affirming adventure in nature.
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The space between our footsteps : poems and paintings from the Middle East
by Naomi Shihab Nye
In an unparalleled collection, honored anthologist Naomi Shihab Nye brings together the work of over 120 poets and artists from nineteen countries in the Middle East. In turn compelling, lyrical, tragic, and humorous, this rich anthology opens the door to the Middle East and beckons readers to explore our common ground. The poets and artists collected in this volume range from luminaries such as Adonis, Yehuda Amichai, Chaibia Tallal, Nazim Hikmet, and Naguib Mahfouz to those whose work has never been published before. With an ear to a rich history and a vision of hope for the future, this elegant book invites readers to experience a grand mosaic of cultures and traditions. It also features forty paintings reproduced in full color, an introduction, notes on the contributors, indexes, and a map.
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The fall of the Ottomans : the Great War in the Middle East
by Eugene Rogan
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world.
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The pillagers' guide to Arctic pianos
by Kendra Langford Shaw
An exuberant, highly imaginative epic about a family that settles, against all odds, in the far reaches of the Arctic and the unexpected industry that keeps them afloat for generations. The Pillagers' Guide to Arctic Pianos travels through generations, backward to the Spahrs' homesteader origins and forward to their descendants, eccentrics and optimists all. In a voice as buoyant and vibrant as the characters themselves, Kendra Langford Shaw gives us an unforgettable and inventive ode to the abiding love of family and pull of home, even as the home we love becomes ever more challenging to inhabit.
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