Summer Challenge 2026: Recommended By An Author You Admire

Looking for help completing your Summer Challenge Bingo Card? Here are some books recommended by well-known authors.

Updated June 27, 2026
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Greater Victoria Public Library Greater Victoria Public Library
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Summer Challenge 2026: Recommended By An Author You Admire

Looking for help completing your Summer Challenge Bingo Card? Here are some books recommended by well-known authors.

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Kin
Jones, Tayari
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR  OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A magnificent new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage--Tayari Jones has written an unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit...

Recommeded by Anne Patchett.

John of John
Stuart, Douglas
Paper Book
The stunning new novel from the Booker Prize-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo. Oprah's Book Club Book of the Month.'John of John has the emotional range and sense of sympathy of his earlier books, but this book is special, it...

Recommeded by Anne Patchett.

Words without music : a memoir
Glass, Philip
Paper Book
The long-awaited memoir by "the most prolific and popular of all contemporary composers" (New York Times). A world-renowned composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores, Philip Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical...

Recommended by George Saunders.

My brilliant friend. Book one, childhood, adolescence
Ferrante, Elena.
Paper Book
#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times-bestselling "enduring masterpiece" about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic). Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the...

Recommended by Esi Edugyan.

In praise of blood : the crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
Rever, Judi
Paper Book
A FINALIST FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE: A stunning work of investigative reporting by a Canadian journalist who has risked her own life to bring us a deeply disturbing history of the Rwandan genocide that takes the true measure of Rwandan head of state Paul Kagame. ...

Recommended by Esi Edugyan.

What a happy family
Dave, Saumya
Paper Book
Natasha Joshi quit her day job so she could pursue her passion: comedy. But stage fright and a series of rejections send her into a downward spiral. Suhani Joshi is the sister who always followed the rules. But when her ex-boyfriend is hired at her hospital, dark secrets threaten to surface. Their...

Recommended by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Such a fun age : a novel
Reid, Kiley
Paper Book
A Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post * Chicago Tribune * NPR * Vogue * Elle * Real Simple * InStyle * Good Housekeeping * Parade * Slate...

Recommended by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The only good Indians : a novel
Jones, Stephen Graham
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a "masterpiece" (Locus Magazine) of a novel about revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition. This is a remarkable horror story that "will give you nightmares-...

Recommended by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Empire of wild : a novel
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
"Deftly written, gripping and informative. Empire of Wild is a rip-roaring read!"--Margaret Atwood, From Instagram "Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive--all the while telling a...

Recommended by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Sula
Morrison, Toni.
Paper Book
Nominated for the National Book Award, this rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines-from their growing up in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation. The one, Nel Wright, chooses to remain in the...

Recommended by John Green.

Bunny
Awad, Mona
Paper Book
THE TIKTOK SENSATION, NOW REISSUED AS A BEAUTIFUL SPECIAL EDITION FEATURING BUNNY SPRAYED EDGES Meet BUNNY: the darkly funny, spellbinding trip of a novel that EVERYONE is talking about 'No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled. O Bunny...

Recommended by Margaret Atwood.

The history of a difficult child
Sibhat, Mihret
Paper Book
"An endearing coming-of-age story. . . . Sharp and witty. . . . A wily and operatic novel. . . . Propulsive." --The Washington Post "The History of a Difficult Child is an extraordinary novel." --Maaza Mengiste, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Shadow King...

Recommended by Rebecca Yarros.

The adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi : a novel
Chakraborty, S. A.
Paper Book
"A thrilling, transportative adventure that is everything promised--Chakraborty's storytelling is fantasy at its best." -- R.F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and The Poppy War "An exhilarating, propulsive adventure, stitched from the threads of real history, Amina's...

Recommended by Rebecca Yarros.

Yellowface : a novel
Kuang, R. F.
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK "Hard to put down, harder to forget." -- Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences... Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who...

Recommended by Rebecca Yarros.

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...

Recommended by R.F. Kuang.

Piranesi
Clarke, Susanna
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality. Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its...

Recommended by R.F. Kuang.

Exhalation
Chiang, Ted
Paper Book
A New York Times BestsellerIn these nine provocative and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity's oldest questions along with new quandaries. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and...

Recommended by R.F. Kuang.

Georgie, all along
Clayborn, Kate
Paper Book
"Perfect for Emily Henry fans. [This] is the love story that proves you can go home again...It's so rich and wonderful." - Julia Quinn on The TODAY Show "A sweet novel that reminds you going back is sometimes the best path forward . . . and that planning is never as rewarding as...

Recommended by Ali Hazelwood.

The lost ticket
Sampson, Freya
Paper Book
One of Amazon's Best Books of September! Strangers on a London bus unite to help an elderly man find his missed love connection in the heartwarming new novel from the acclaimed author of The Last Chance Library. When Libby Nicholls arrives in London,...

Recommended by Ali Hazelwood.

South of the border, west of the sun
Murakami, Haruki
Paper Book
A moving, thoughtful story of long-lost love and second chances Growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to...

Recommended by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Mr Wilder and me
Coe, Jonathan
Paper Book
The dazzling new novel from the bestselling author of Middle England A young woman named Calista meets the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder in the sweltering summer of 1976. She knows nothing about him or his work, but this chance encounter will change her life for good. But...

Recommended by Kazuo Ishiguro.

A manual for cleaning women : selected stories
Berlin, Lucia
Paper Book
One of The New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Global bestseller. A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley,...

Recommended by Colson Whitehead.

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