Challenge Yourshelf - Community Recommendations

Looking for your next great read? Our community challenged their shelves this summer, and explored a world of Wild Wonder through new and exciting genres. Now, we're sharing some of the top recommendations!

Updated August 26, 2025
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A better world : a novel
Langan, Sarah.
Paper Book
One of NPR's Best Books of 2024 For fans of Nightbitch and While No One Is Watching, comes "one of the best books this year, or any year" (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World)--a disturbing dystopian thrillfest about a woman moving...
Prophet song
Lynch, Paul
Paper Book
There there
Orange, Tommy
Paper Book
Here is a voice we have never heard--a voice full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with stunning urgency and force. Here is a story of several people, each of whom has private reasons for travelling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and...
Empty spaces
Abel, Jordan
Paper Book
Winner of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction * Shortlisted for the 2024 Amazon First Novel Award From the acclaimed, boundary-breaking author of NISHGA comes a hypnotic and mystifying exploration of land and legacy. Reimagining...
Winter counts
Weiden, David Heska Wanbli
Paper Book
ANTHONY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL THRILLER AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL "Winter Counts is a marvel. It's a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth."  --Tommy Orange,...
Never whistle at night : an Indigenous dark fiction anthology
Hawk Shane.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection that dares to ask the question: "Are you ready to be un-settled?" Featuring stories by: Norris Black * Amber Blaeser-Wardzala * Phoenix Boudreau * Cherie Dimaline * Carson Faust * Kelli Jo Ford...
The god of the woods
Moore, Liz
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES "BEST THRILLER" and "BEST CRIME NOVEL" OF THE YEAR PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR "Extraordinary . . ....
Dinner for Vampires : Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!)
Lenz, Bethany Joy.
Paper Book
An "incredible" (Alex Cooper, Call Her Daddy), "riveting" (People) New York Times bestselling memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free. In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and...
Friends, lovers, and the big terrible thing : a memoir
Perry, Matthew
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The BELOVED STAR OF FRIENDS takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this "CANDID, DARKLY FUNNY...POIGNANT" memoir (The New York Times) ...
Walking Disaster : My Life Through Heaven and Hell
Whibley, Deryck.
Paper Book
This candid memoir of music, fame, endurance, "true triumphs, and challenges" (Matt Pinfield, DJ and TV host) from Deryck Whibley, lead singer of Sum 41, follows his rise from a punk kid to an international star. From his earliest days growing up in Canada, Deryck Whibley loved...
The third Gilmore Girl : a memoir
Bishop, Kelly.
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Goodreads Choice Awards Winner "Come for the Gilmore Girls anecdotes, stay for the revealing truths about what it takes to build a lifelong career in and out of Hollywood" (The A.V. Club) in this candid memoir from...
Outdoor kids in an inside world : getting your family out of the house and radically engaged with nature
Rinella, Steven.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "An imperative call to action" (Nick Offerman) to get children off their screens and into nature, with tips for bonding activities that teach the importance of outside time and build tough, curious, competent kids--from the host of the Netflix...
Where the falcon flies : a 3,400 kilometre odyssey from my doorstep to the Arctic
Shoalts, Adam
Paper Book
Looking out his porch window one spring morning, Adam Shoalts spotted a majestic peregrine falcon flying across the neighbouring fields near Lake Erie. Falcons migrate annually from southernmost Canada on the Great Lakes to remote arctic mountains. Grabbing his backpack and canoe, Shoalts resolved...
An anthology of exquisite birds
Hoare, Ben.
Paper Book
Soar through the sky with best-selling author Ben Hoare and discover some of the most exquisite birds on our planet. The seventh book in the bestselling Children's Anthologies series, An Anthology of Exquisite Birds explores some of the most impressive birds on our planet. ...
North of normal A memoir of my wilderness childhood, my unusual family, and how i survived both
Person, Cea Sunrise.
Ebook
In the late 1960s, riding the crest of the counterculture movement, Cea's family left a comfortable existence in California to live off the land in northern Alberta. But unlike most commune dwellers of the time, the Persons weren't trying to build a new society--they wanted to escape civilization...
The great alone
Hannah, Kristin.
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Instant Bestseller In Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in...
One Golden Summer
Fortune, Carley.
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER A radiant, new escape to the lake from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune I never anticipated Charlie Florek. Good things happen at the lake. That's what Alice's grandmother says, and it's true....
Greenlights
McConaughey, Matthew
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * 6 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE! Discover the life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of readers through the Academy Award-winning actor's unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater...

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