Open Books Challenge 2026: With Time or a Unit of Time in the Title

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

These are some ideas that fit the 2026 category "With time or a unit of time in the title."

Happy Reading!

Updated December 31, 2025
Rochester Public Library RPL Staff
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Open Books Challenge 2026: With Time or a Unit of Time in the Title

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

These are some ideas that fit the 2026 category "With time or a unit of time in the title."

Happy Reading!

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Black Sunday : a novel
Abraham, Tola Rotimi
Paper Book
This fiercely original debut novel follows four Nigerian siblings over the course of two decades as they search for agency, love, and meaning in a society rife with hypocrisy. ". . . lush, sharp, and shot through with hope!" --Well-Read Black Girl I...
A spoonful of time
Ahn, Flora
Paper Book
A School Library Journal Best Middle Grade Book of 2023 When You Reach Me meets Love Sugar Magic in this unforgettable middle grade novel where time travel, family recipes, and family secrets collide. Maya's grandmother, Halmunee, may be losing...
One minute
Ahn, Somin
Paper Book
In one minute, you can blink your eyes twenty times, hug your dog, plant seeds, say good-bye, watch the rain, or even save a life. So much can occur in this sliver of time--one minute can feel like a singular experience. This poignant picture book is at once an introduction to time for young readers...
The year of the flood
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, the preservation of all species, the tending of the Earth, and the cultivation of bees and organic crops on flat rooftops - has long predicted the Waterless Flood. Now it has occured,...
The 6:20 man
Baldacci, David
Paper Book
A cryptic murder pulls a former soldier turned financial analyst deep into the corruption and menace that prowl beneath the opulent world of finance, in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller from David Baldacci. Every day without fail, Travis Devine...
The eleventh hour : a curious mystery
Base, Graeme
Paper Book
When Horace the elephant turns eleven, he celebrates instyle by inviting his exotic friends to a splendid costume party. But a mystery is afoot, for in the midst of the games, music, and revelry, someone has eaten the birthday feast. The rhyming text and lavish, detailed illustrations each provide...
Night of miracles
Berg, Elizabeth
Paper Book
The feel-good book of the year: a delightful novel of friendship, community, and the way small acts of kindness can change your life, by the bestselling author of The Story of Arthur Truluv   Lucille Howard is getting on in years, but she stays busy. Thanks to the...
Hour of the witch : a novel
Bohjalian, Chris
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the acclaimed author of The Flight Attendant: "Historical fiction at its best.... The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying" (Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of the...
Year of wonders : a novel of the plague
Brooks, Geraldine
Paper Book
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'March' and 'People of the Book'. A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village. In 1666, plague swept through London,...
Costumes for time travellers
Capetta, A. R.
Paper Book
4.50 from Paddington
Christie, Agatha
Paper Book
2001 : a space odyssey
Clarke, Arthur C.
Paper Book
Written when landing on the moon was still a dream, and made into one of the most influential films of all time, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY remains a classic work of science fiction more than fifty years after its original publication. The discovery of a black monolith on the moon...
The hours
Cunningham, Michael
Paper Book
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that became a motion picture starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, directed by Stephen Daldry from a screenplay by David Hare. In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his...
All this time
Daughtry, Mikki
Paper Book
From the authors behind Five Feet Apart, a #1 New York Times bestseller and hit movie, comes a gripping new romance, perfect for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Fault in Our Stars   Can you find true love after...
The year of magical thinking
Didion, Joan.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * A landmark work about grief, love, and survival from one of America's most iconic writers One of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century * One of The Guardian's 100 Best Books of the...
Hour of the bees
Eagar, Lindsay
Paper Book
"Eagar seamlessly blends a twelve-year-old girl's summer of change with a hefty dose of magical realism in this accomplished debut." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) While her friends are spending their summers having pool parties and sleepovers,...
The time garden
Eager, Edward.
Paper Book
Time and again, the children fromKnight's Castlehave longed for another magic adventure. But you can't find magic just anywhere. It doesn't just grow likegrass. It requires the right place and the right time--      Orthyme, as the...
The island of the day before : translated from the Italian by William Weaver
Eco, Umberto
Paper Book
Set in the 17th century, Eco's third novel tells the story of Roberto, a young nobleman. He survives war, the Bastille and shipwreck, and meets a variety of fantastical people, animals and machines as he voyages to a Pacific island straddling the date meridian.
The worst hard time : the untold story of those who survived the great American dust bowl
Egan, Timothy.
Paper Book
This National Book Award-winning story, a tour de force of historical reportage, rescues an iconic chapter of American history--the Dust Bowl that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression--from the shadows. Following a dozen families and their...
This is how you lose the time war
El-Mohtar, Amal
Paper Book
HUGO AWARD WINNER: BEST NOVELLA NEBULA AND LOCUS AWARDS WINNER: BEST NOVELLA ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters--and fall in love...
A wrinkle in time
L'Engle, Madeleine.
Paper Book
As seen on Stranger Things, discover the ground-breaking, bestselling science fiction and fantasy classic that has delighted readers for over 60 years! NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER * TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF ALL TIME * NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM...
Time and again
Finney, Jack.
Paper Book
Si Morley is bored with his job as a commercial illustrator and his social life doesn't seem to be going anywhere. So, when he is approached by an affable ex-football star and told that he is just what the government is looking for to take part in a top-secret programme, he doesn't hesitate for too...
Night over water
Follett, Ken.
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ken Follett takes to the skies in this classic novel of international suspense. Set in the early days of World War II, Night over Water captures the daring and desperation of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances--in prose as...
Cocktail hour under the tree of forgetfulness
Fuller, Alexandra
Paper Book
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year  In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and to her unforgettable family, whom readers first met in Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. At...
Love in the time of cholera
García Márquez, Gabriel
Paper Book
Set in a country on the Caribbean coast of South America, this is a story about a woman and two men and their entwined lives. From the author of the legendary One Hundred Years of Solitude.
One hundred years of solitude
García Márquez, Gabriel
Paper Book
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been one of the literary giants of the past century; his body of work is an undisputed cultural landmark and a touchstone for countless readers and writers alike. One Hundred Years of Solitude is a true classic, a timelessly fascinating and intricately...
One minute out
Greaney, Mark
Paper Book
Is it ever the wrong time to do the right thing? That's the question the Gray Man faces in the latest explosive novel from New York Times bestselling author Mark Greaney. While on a mission to Croatia, Court Gentry uncovers a human trafficking operation. The trail leads...
Time and time again
Greenfield, Chatham
Paper Book
A Stonewall Honor Book A Reese Witherspoon Book Club LitUp Pick In this debut YA speculative romance perfect for fans of Rachael Lippincott, two queer, disabled, Jewish teens find themselves stuck in a time loop--and falling love. Phoebe...
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Haddon, Mark.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A modern classic--both poignant and funny--about a boy with autism who sets out to solve the murder of a neighbor's dog and discovers unexpected truths about himself and the world. "Disorienting and reorienting the reader to devastating effect.......
The midnight library
Haig, Matt
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestsellerA GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had...
Time out
Hayes, Sean
Paper Book
Heartstopper meets Friday Night Lights in this "seamless, engrossing" (Publishers Weekly) coming-of-age story about a teen hometown hero who must find out who he is outside of basketball when his coming out as gay costs him his popularity and place on the team.
Beautiful day : a novel
Hilderbrand, Elin.
Paper Book
A summer wedding stirs up trouble on both sides of the family in this beloved bestseller from "the queen of the summer novel" (People). The Carmichaels and the Grahams have gathered on Nantucket for a happy occasion: a wedding that will unite their two families. Plans...
12 seconds of silence : how a team of inventors, tinkerers, and spies took down a Nazi superweapon
Holmes, Jamie
Paper Book
The riveting story of the American scientists, tinkerers, and nerds who solved one of the biggest puzzles of World War II--and developed one of the most powerful weapons of the war   12 Seconds of Silence is the remarkable, lost story of how a ragtag group ...
November 9
Hoover, Colleen
Paper Book
A gripping tale of love, secrets, and betrayal perfect "for fans of Gillian Flynn" (Library Journal, starred review) from the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of Regretting You, Verity, and It Ends with Us. When Fallon meets Ben, an...
The Remains of the Day
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Paper Book
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER * From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is "an intricate and dazzling novel" (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England.   This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly...
Towers of midnight
Jordan, Robert
Paper Book
The Wheel of Time is now an original series on Prime Video, starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine! With Robert Jordan's untimely passing in 2007, Brandon Sanderson, the New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn novels and the Stormlight Archive, was...
11/22/63
King, Stephen
Paper Book
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King's heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination--a thousand page tour de force. Following...
One Tuesday morning
Kingsbury, Karen.
Paper Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury comes One Tuesday Morning, a heartrending, faith-anchored tale of memory, heroism, and second chances set against the tragedy of 9/11. When Jake Bryan, a devoted New York City firefighter, awakens after the collapse of the Twin...
Here the whole time
Martins, Vitor
Paper Book
'I loved it so much, I read it all in one day. It's so adorable.' Alice Oseman author of Heartstopper 'I love this book!' Rainbow Rowell '... a tender, funny, absolutely heart-holding novel about a boy who is forced to share his room with his lifelong...
Wrong place wrong time : a novel
McAllister, Gillian
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK "It's perfection, every word, every moment. A masterpiece . . . One of the best books I've ever read." --Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author New York Times bestselling author Gillian McAllister has created a...
For all time
Miles, Shanna
Paper Book
A Parade Magazine Best Young Adult Book of 2021 "A romance for the ages...one perfect little novel." --Stacey Lee, award-winning author of The Downstairs Girl The Sun Is Also a Star meets Outlander in this "unforgettable and...
The end of the wasp season
Mina, Denise
Paper Book
When a notorious millionaire banker hangs himself, his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of selfishness is widespread, and the carnage most acute among those he ought to be protecting: his family. Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is...
A long time gone
Moehling, Joshua
Paper Book
USA Today Bestseller "A big thriller with an even bigger heart!" -- Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author "Equal parts compelling mystery and riveting family drama...I'd follow its hero, Deputy Ben Packard, anywhere." -- Jess Lourey, Edgar-nominated author of...
The night circus : a novel
Morgenstern, Erin
Paper Book
THE TIKTOK SENSATION Discover the million-copy bestselling fantasy read. The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Against the grey sky the towering tents are striped black and white. A sign...
The distant hours : a novel
Morton, Kate
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of Homecoming comes a haunting tale of long-buried secrets and the twists of fate that can alter lives forever. This enthralling romantic thriller pays homage to the classics of gothic fiction, spinning a rich and intricate...
The time traveler's wife
Niffenegger, Audrey.
Paper Book
Clare and Henry met when Clare was just six and Henry thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true. The Time Traveler's Wife is the international bestselling novel of a time-altering love. Henry is a...
1984
Orwell, George
Paper Book
Written 75 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever... This 75th Anniversary Edition includes: *...
The Thursday Murder Club
Osman, Richard
Paper Book
Now a Netflix Film The first installment in the beloved and New York Times bestselling series from Richard Osman, also author of We Solve Murders Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first...
A tale for the time being
Ozeki, Ruth
Paper Book
A brilliant, unforgettable novel from bestselling author Ruth Ozeki--shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award "A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be."
Leaving time : a novel
Picoult, Jodi
Paper Book
For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has thought about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe that her mother would abandon a young child, Jenna searches for her online and in the pages of her old journals. A scientist who studied grief...
1848 - year of revolution
Rapport, Michael.
Paper Book
This title traces the roots of the mid-nineteenth century revolutions, describes how these explosions of violence spread across Europe, and explains how their effects are still with us today.
The midnight hour
Read, Benjamin
Paper Book
  The first spellbinding adventure in Benjamin Read and Laura Trinder's magical Midnight Hourseries! 'A fantastic magical adventure featuring a cast of Ghibli-esque characters, a feisty heroine and a hedgehog. I loved it.'M.G. LEONARD, author of BEETLE BOY 'Fans...
Twenty-four seconds from now
Reynolds, Jason
Paper Book
A brand-new novel from Carnegie winning, global sensation, Jason Reynolds - over 9 million books sold worldwide!
New York 2140
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Paper Book
The waters rose, submerging New York City.But the residents adapted and it remained the bustling, vibrant metropolis it had always been. Though changed forever.Every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island.Through the eyes of the varied inhabitants of one building Kim Stanley Robinson...
The violet hour : great writers at the end
Roiphe, Katie
Paper Book
Tenth of December : stories
Saunders, George
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND BUZZFEED * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE...
One day in December : a novel
Silver, Josie
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Get ready to be swept up in a whirlwind romance. It absolutely charmed me."--Reese Witherspoon (A Reese's Book Club Pick) "The perfect book to get lost in . . . Josie Silver's characters sneak their way into your heart and stay."--Jill Santopolo...
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore : a novel
Sloan, Robin
Paper Book
The New York Times Bestseller A Winner of the Alex Award, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle The Great...
Saturday night at the Lakeside Supper Club
Stradal, J. Ryan
Paper Book
"Stradal serves up another saga of food and family, hurt and healing, pitched between cliff-hanger moments. . . that make the pages fly." --People From the New York Times bestselling author J. Ryan Stradal, a story of a couple from two very different restaurant families...
Meet me at blue hour
Suk, Sarah
Paper Book
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Past Lives in this gripping, emotional story of two childhood friends navigating the fallout of one erasing their memory of the other, from acclaimed author Sarah Suk. Seventeen-year-old Yena Bae is spending the...
Time to roll
Sumner, Jamie
Paper Book
In the eagerly anticipated sequel to Jamie Sumner's acclaimed and beloved middle grade novel Roll with It, Ellie finds her own way to shine. Ellie is so not the pageant type. They're Coralee's thing, and Ellie is happy to let her talented friend shine in the...
The daughter of time
Tey, Josephine
Paper Book
Named One of the Best Mysteries of All Time by The New York Times and Time Acclaimed author Josephine Tey recreates one of history's most famous--and vicious--crimes in her classic bestselling novel, a must-read for connoisseurs of fiction, now with a new...
Year of the rabbit
Tian
Paper Book
One family's quest to survive the devastation of the Khmer Rouge "Striking and moving... The comics form allows readers [to] understand through chronological progression and a close view how horror can become the stuff of the everyday."--The New York Times
Five years from now
Toon, Paige
Paper Book
If morning ever comes
Tyler, Anne.
Paper Book
Ben Joe is the only boy in a family of six sisters, Mama and Gram. He is studying for a law degree in New York when he hears his eldest sister Joanne has left her husband and returned home with her baby girl. Out of a mixture of homesickness and duty Ben Joe returns to the...
Zero hour
Walden, Mark
Paper Book
Overlord is reborn, and has developed the chilling ability to move from body to body, erasing the host's personality and ultimately killing them, forcing him to hop from victim to victim. He must find Otto, the only host designed to contain him, and for that he needs the location of H.I.V.E. He also...
The time machine
Wells, H. G.
Paper Book
When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700--and everything has changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings-...
The age of innocence
Wharton, Edith
Paper Book
Set in old New York, this novel details the thwarted romance between Newland Archer, a young dandy, and the beautiful, unconventional divorceee Countess Ellen Olenska. The cast of characters includes Newland's docile - and calculating - fiancee, May Welland and the lordly Mrs Manson Mingott.
Seven days in June
Williams, Tia
Paper Book
A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A sexy, modern love story to start the summer off right' REESE WITHERSPOON'A smart, sexy testament to Black joy ... I absolutely loved it' JODI PICOULTSeven days to fall in love, fifteen years...
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