Open Books Challenge 2026: Set in America Between 1600-1800

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 "Set in America between 1600-1800, to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence."

Happy Reading!

Updated December 31, 2025
RPL Staff
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The indigo girl : a novel
Boyd, Natasha
Ebook
Alexander Hamilton
Chernow, Ron.
Paper Book
You've seen the show, you've sung the songs, now read the full story of America's most misunderstood founding father. 'I was swept up by the story. I thought it 'out-Dickens' Dickens in the unlikeliness of this man's rise from his humble beginnings in Nevis in the Caribbean, to changing,...
The fort
Cornwell, Bernard.
Paper Book
Summer 1779: a British force of fewer than 1,000 Scottish infantry were sent to build a garrison in the state of Maine. But Massachusetts was determined to expel the British, and they sent a fleet to 'captivate, kill and destroy' the enemy. Told from both sides of the battle, this story features...
Written in my own heart's blood : a novel
Gabaldon, Diana.
Paper Book
THE CAPTIVATING EIGHT NOVEL IN THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING OUTLANDER SERIES - NOW ON AMAZON PRIME! 'A series that will keep you turning the pages long into the night' Rebecca Yarros ***** 'Jamie & Claire fans should not be...
The vaster wilds
Groff, Lauren
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Exhilarating' GUARDIAN 'Her writing has a timeless quality' THE TIMES '[Has] a visionary quality' OBSERVER A profound and explosive novel about a spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive
The scarlet letter
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Paper Book
Boston, Massachusetts, 1642: Imprisoned for the crime of adultery, young wife Hester Prynne is condemned on her release to bear a public display of her shame - a scarlet letter 'A' stitched upon her dress. For the sake of her baby daughter Pearl, the product of her illicit liaison, she determines to...
Magic lessons
Hoffman, Alice
Paper Book
Where does the story of the Owens family begin? With a baby abandoned in a snowy field in the 1600s. Under the care of Hannah Owens, little Maria learns about the "Unnamed Arts." Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. When Maria is abandoned by...
The physick book of Deliverance Dane
Howe, Katherine.
Audiobook
While clearing out her grandmother's cottage, Connie Goodwin finds a parchment inscribed with the name Deliverance Dane. And so begins the hunt to uncover the woman behind the name, a hunt that takes her back to Salem in 1692 - and the infamous witch trials.
Hester : a novel
Lico Albanese, Laurie
Audiobook
North woods : a novel
Mason, Daniel
Paper Book
Scarlet widow
Masterton, Graham
Paper Book
They said the killings were the word of Satan. But Beatrice Scarlet, the apothecary's daughter, detects the hands of men... New Hampshire, 1756: The god-fearing farmers of Sutton are suffering divine punishment for unknown sins. Crops fail, cows die and fish are poisoned by their water. Six pigs,...
Mayflower : a story of courage, community, and war
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
Paper Book
Philbrick tells the story of the Pilgrim fathers who set sail on the Mayflower and the bloody battle they ultimately waged against the Native Americans. The author's history sets the stage for the later developments that would define the American nation and its west.
Barkskins : a novel
Proulx, Annie.
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017 NOW A MAJOR TELEVISION SERIES From Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking...

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