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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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...
The year of the flood : a novel
Atwood, Margaret 1939-
Paper Book
The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One...
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...
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
"When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated mountain village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes, we follow the story of the plague year, 1666, as her fellow villagers make an extraordinary choice. Convinced by a...
4:50 from Paddington : a Miss Marple mystery
Christie, Agatha 1890-1976
Paper Book
Elspeth McGillicuddy was not a woman usually given to hallucinations. But when she witnesses what appears to be a woman being strangled on a train and no-one else sees it, no-one reports it and no corpse is found she turns to her old friend Jane Marple to help solve the puzzle. Marple asks her...
All in one hour
Crummel, Susan Stevens.
Paper Book
In a rhythmic pattern similar to "The House That Jack Built," a mouse leads a wild chase through a town as the minutes tick by. From 6 o'clock a.m. to 7 o'clock a.m., various animals, a dogcatcher, a robber, and a policeman join the chase. Just before the hour is up, a slippery encounter with a...
The hours
Cunningham, Michael 1952-
Paper Book
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel becomes a motion picture starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, directed by Stephen Daldry from a screenplay by David Hare The Hours tells the story of three women: Virginia Woolf, beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway as...
All this time
Daughtry, Mikki
Paper Book
From the team behind #1 New York Times bestseller Five Feet Apart comes a gripping new romance that asks: Can you find true love after losing everything? Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on...
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
What does it mean to be fully alive? Magic blends with reality in a stunning coming-of-age novel about a girl, a grandfather, wanderlust, and reclaiming your roots. Things are only impossible if you stop to think about them. . . . While her friends are...
The island of the day before
Eco, Umberto.
Paper Book
In 1643 a castaway comes upon an abandoned ship anchored off a desert island. As he explores the vessel’s mysterious cargo, he revisits the events of his tempestuous youth-and limns his era’s obsession with science and navigation. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff...
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 * "[An] exquisitely crafted tale...Part epistolary romance, part mind-blowing science fiction adventure, this dazzling story unfolds bit by bit, revealing layers of meaning as it plays with cause...
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
Since it was first published in 1970, Time and Again has become a truly timeless cult classic with a vast and loyal following. This 25th anniversary edition, filled with its original unique period illustrations, is being published to coincide with its long-awaited sequel, From Time to Time. Time and...
Night over water
Follett, Ken
Paper Book
KEN FOLLETT'S INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER- September 1939. England is at war with Nazi Germany. In Southampton, the world's most luxurious airliner-the legendary Pan Am clipper-takes off for its final flight to neutral America. Aboard are the cream of society and the dregs of humanity, all fleeing the...
Cocktail hour under the tree of forgetfulness
Fuller, Alexandra 1969-
Paper Book
"Fuller brings Africa to life, both its natural splendor and the harsher realities of day-to-day existence, and sheds light on her parents in all their humanness--not a glaring sort of light, but the soft equatorial kind she so beautifully describes in this memoir." --Bookpage
Love in the time of cholera
Garca? Mr?quez, Gabriel
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * "A love story of astonishing power" (Newsweek), the acclaimed modern literary classic by the beloved Nobel Prize-winning author. In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry...
One hundred years of solitude
García Márquez, Gabriel 1927-2014
Paper Book
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history...
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
The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year "A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits."--The...
33 minutes
Hasak-Lowy, Todd
Paper Book
This school-based boy friendship story is "funny, fast-paced, and quite poignant" (R. J. Palacio, author of Wonder). Sam Lewis is going to get his butt kicked in exactly thirty-three minutes. He knows this because yesterday his former best friend Morgan Sturtz told him, to...
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...
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 1954-
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...
Two-minute drill
Lupica, Mike.
Paper Book
From #1 New York Times bestseller Mike Lupica! Chris Conlan is the coolest kid in sixth grade'the golden-armed quarterback of the football team and the boy all the others look up to. Scott Parry is the new kid, the boy with the huge brain, but with...
Here the whole time
Martins, Vitor
Paper Book
"I read this in one sitting, laughing out loud and cheering for Felipe to follow his heart. I love this book!" --Rainbow Rowell, New York Times bestselling author of Carry On and Wayward Son Felipe can't wait for winter break: Finally, he'll get some time away...
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...
The night circus
Morgenstern, Erin.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. * "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." --The Boston Globe The circus arrives...
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
A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair...
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 1970-
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, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness Finalist 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...
Leaving time
Picoult, Jodi
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner about a daughter's search for her mother, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers. Look for Jodi Picoult's new novel, By Any Other Name, available...
1848 : year of revolution
Rapport, Michael.
Paper Book
The dramatic story of the interconnected revolutions that shattered the old European order and transformed the continent "A fully nuanced portrait of a tumultuous year." --Wall Street Journal In 1848 a torrent of revolutions ripped...
Twenty-four seconds from now : a love story
Reynolds, Jason
Paper Book
A Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner A New York Times Bestseller Seven starred reviews! "Jason Reynolds has done it again!...Fresh from start to finish...This is what it could be, should be, if only we were all as lucky as Aria. Girls (and...
New York 2140
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson returns with a bold and brilliant vision of New York City in the next century. As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison...
Tenth of December : stories
Saunders, George 1958-
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 YEAR BY THE NEW YORK...
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
Sloan, Robin
Paper Book
A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life--mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of...
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...
Five years from now
Toon, Paige 1975-
Paper Book
Dragons of autumn twilight
Weis, Margaret.
Paper Book
This Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy adventure is the first installment in the beloved Dragonlance Chronicles, set in the magical world of Krynn. Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned to Krynn. But with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods-...
The time machine
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George) 1866-1946
Paper Book
Wells's genre-defining novel of time travel When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year a.d. 802,701, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment, and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he...
The age of innocence
Wharton, Edith 1862-1937
Paper Book
Edith Wharton's acclaimed novel of love, duty, and half-known truths in Gilded Age New York society, with a foreword by bestselling author Elif Batuman Dutiful Newland Archer, an eligible young man from New York high society, is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a...
Seven days in June : a novel
Williams, Tia 1975-
Paper Book
Two writers get a second chance at love in this romantic, sexy-as-hell New York Times bestselling novel. Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer. Shane Hall is a reclusive, award-winning novelist. When the two meet at a literary...
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