Challenge Yourshelf - Community Recommendations

Looking for your next great read? Our community challenged their shelves this summer, and explored a world of Wild Wonder through new and exciting genres. Now, we're sharing some of the top recommendations!

Updated August 26, 2025
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A better world : a novel
Langan, Sarah.
Paper Book
One of NPR's Best Books of 2024 For fans of Nightbitch and While No One Is Watching, comes "one of the best books this year, or any year" (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World)--a disturbing dystopian thrillfest about a woman moving...
The impossible resurrection of grief
Cade, Octavia
Paper Book
In a dying world, Grief has a life of its own. With the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of species comes the Grief: an unstoppable melancholia that ends in suicide. When Ruby's friend, mourning the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, succumbs to the Grief, the letters she leaves behind...
Prophet song
Lynch, Paul
Paper Book
There there
Orange, Tommy
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A wondrous and shattering award-winning novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. A contemporary classic, this...
Winter counts : a novel
Weiden, David Heska Wanbli
Paper Book
ANTHONY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL THRILLER AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL "Winter Counts is a marvel. It's a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth."  --Tommy Orange,...
Never whistle at night : an indigenous dark fiction anthology
Hawk, Shane
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST EDITED ANTHOLOGY . BRAM STOKER AWARD NOMINEE FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN AN ANTHOLOGY . LOCUS AWARD FINALIST A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection that dares to ask the question- "Are you ready to be un...
The god of the woods
Moore, Liz
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES "BEST THRILLER" and "BEST CRIME NOVEL" OF THE YEAR PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR "Extraordinary . . ....
Birding with Benefits A Novel
Dubb, Sarah T.
Ebook
The inspiration behind the Hallmark Channel movie Adventures in Love and Birding. A divorcee embarks on her "year of yes" and crosses paths with a shy but sensitive birdwatcher who changes her life in this charming rom-com that is perfect for fans of Christina Lauren...
Friends, lovers, and the big terrible thing : a memoir
Perry, Matthew
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The BELOVED STAR OF FRIENDS takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this "CANDID, DARKLY FUNNY...POIGNANT" memoir (The New York Times) ...
The third Gilmore Girl : a memoir
Bishop, Kelly.
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Goodreads Choice Awards Winner "Come for the Gilmore Girls anecdotes, stay for the revealing truths about what it takes to build a lifelong career in and out of Hollywood" (The A.V. Club) in this candid memoir from...
Outdoor kids in an inside world : getting your family out of the house and radically engaged with nature
Rinella, Steven.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . "An imperative call to action" (Nick Offerman)to get children off their screens and into nature, with tips for bonding activities that teach the importance of outside timeand build tough, curious, competent kids-from thehost of the Netflix series and podcast...
The ends of the world : volcanic apocalypses, lethal oceans and our quest to understand Earth's past mass extinctions
Brannen, Peter
Paper Book
'A book about one apocalypse - much less five - could have been a daunting read, were it not for the wit, lyricism, and clarity that Peter Brannen brings to every page.' Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes Apocalypse, now? Death by fire, ice, poison gas, suffocation, asteroid....
North of normal : a memoir of my wilderness childhood, my unusual family, and how I survived both
Person, Cea Sunrise
Paper Book
Sex, drugs, and . . . bug stew? In the vein of The Glass Castle and Wild, Cea Sunrise Person's compelling memoir of a childhood spent with her dysfunctional counter-culture family in the Canadian wilderness--a searing story of physical, emotional, and psychological survival. In the late...
The great alone
Hannah, Kristin.
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Instant Bestseller In Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in...
One Golden Summer
Fortune, Carley.
Paper Book
She captured him once on film. This time, he might just capture her heart... From the New York Times #1 bestselling author of Every Summer After, comes an unforgettable summer romance! 'Funny and sexy, this promises to be the escapist...
Greenlights
McConaughey, Matthew
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * 6 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE! Discover the life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of readers through the Academy Award-winning actor's unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater...

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