This month’s clues for the Adult Reading Challenge are:
Humorous: Read
any book that “tickles your funny
bone”.
Poetry and or Play:
Read any book of poetry or a play. Please note the book needs to be a book of
poetry or the actual play, not a criticism or discussion of the work.
Prize Winner:
Read any book that won a major prize
for literature. There are hundreds of prizes awarded each year for literature.
Just make sure the one you choose is for the book and not for an author. Some
links to get you started: this website
will give you both Pulitzer nominees (which don’t count) and each year’s winner
in some categories going back to 1917; click here to find past
winners of the Man Booker Award; at this
site you can see who won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Mystery genre;
past winners of the Spur Award given for Westerns is listed here; a list of winners for Science Fiction and
Fantasy are at this site; click
here to link to covers for the winners of the National Book Award from 1950
to 2014 and click on the cover to learn more about each book; and click here to get a list of
winners for romance each year.
April Author:
Read any book written by an author born in the month of April. To name a few:
Barbara Kingsolver, Eudora Welty, Paul Theroux, Vince Flynn, and William
Shakespeare.
And the two clues you really want to know about:
Magical Realism:
Read any book that contains magical realism. The definition we will use for the
challenge follows: “Magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction
in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to
access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are explained
like normal occurrences that are presented in a straightforward manner which
allows the “real” and the “fantastic” to be accepted in the same stream of
thought.” While most people immediately think of Hispanic authors for this
genre, there are several American authors who have embraced the style as well. To
start, look for books by authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Sarah
Addison Allen, and Alice Hoffman.
Jewish: Read any
book that contains a Jewish character or is about the Jewish experience. From ancient times to the founding of Israel,
there is a lot of history tied to the Jewish experience. This means there are
many non-fiction and biographies that work for this category and of course
there is also a long list of fiction titles.
After April 5th, you can check the Suggested
Reading Notebook in the Reference Department for suggestions on what to read
for any of these clues.
