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
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Kin : A Novel
Jones, Tayari.
Paper Book
THE SPELLBINDING NEW NOVEL FROM THE WOMEN'S PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE * 'This is Tayari Jones's very best work.' ANN PATCHETT, author of Tom Lake ...

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.'This book is special' - Colm Tóibín'Passionate, liberating, and gorgeous' - Min Jin Lee 'Brilliant and rare' - Ann Patchett'A...

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).

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.

Such a fun age : a novel
Reid, Kiley
Paper Book
**GET READY FOR COME AND GET IT - THE EXPLOSIVE NEW NOVEL FROM KILEY REID, AVAILABLE NOW** _______________ 'Essential. This year's hit debut' Guardian 'A biting tale of race and class' Sunday Times

Recommended by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The only good Indians : a novel
Jones, Stephen Graham
Paper Book
Ricky, Gabe, Lewis and Cassidy are men bound to their heritage, bound by society, and trapped in the endless expanses of the landscape. Now, ten years after a fateful elk hunt, which remains a closely guarded secret between them, these men - and their children - must face a ferocious spirit that is...

Recommended by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Empire of wild
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book

Recommended by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Sula
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
'Extravagantly beautiful... Enormously, achingly alive... A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter' New York Times As young girls, Nel and Sula shared each other's secrets and dreams in the poor black mid-West of their...

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
'Extraordinary' Maaza Mengiste 'Exhilarating' Elif Batuman Selam is the youngest child in a large turbulent family. Even before she is born, her omniscience animates life in a Small Town in 1980s southwestern Ethiopia. Selam and her father listen to the radio...

Recommended by Rebecca Yarros.

The adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi : a novel
Chakraborty, S. A.
Paper Book
Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, launches a new trilogy of magic and mayhem with this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artefacts and ancient mysteries, and one woman's quest to seize a final chance at glory... A pirate of infamy and...

Recommended by Rebecca Yarros.

Yellowface : a novel
Kuang, R. F.
Paper Book
The Number One Global Sensation *Foyle's Fiction Book of the Year* *Amazon Book of the Year* *Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year* *Fiction Book of the Year 2024 - British Book Awards* 'Addictive' Grazia 'Hugely entertaining' Observer<...

Recommended by Rebecca Yarros.

The remains of the day
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House. In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks...

Recommended by R.F. Kuang.

Piranesi
Clarke, Susanna
Paper Book
Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction A SUNDAY TIMES & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The spectacular new novel from the bestselling author of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL, 'one of our greatest living authors' NEW YORK...

Recommended by R.F. Kuang.

Exhalation
Chiang, Ted
Paper Book
'Lean, relentless, and incandescent.' Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. In 'The Merchant and the...

Recommended by R.F. Kuang.

The lost ticket
Sampson, Freya
Paper Book

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
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 while Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself - struggling to raise...

Recommended by Kazuo Ishiguro.


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