Read Around North America Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in North America.
Best books from North America (2024)
2001.
All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva EN
Country: North America / 
United States of America
United States of America
Description:
“One of the best collections I’ve ever read. Every single story is a standout.”—Roxane Gay WINNER OF THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Refinery29 • BookRiot “Fuses science, myth, and imagination into a dark and gorgeous series of questions about our current predicaments.”—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See A dystopian tale about genetically modified septuplets who are struck by a mysterious illness; a love story about a man bewitched by a mermaid; a stirring imagining of the lives of Nigerian schoolgirls ... continue
2002.
Native Son by Richard Wright EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Discover Richard Wright's brutal and gripping masterpiece. 'The most important and celebrated novel of Negro life to have appeared in America' James Baldwin Gripping and furious, Native Son follows Bigger Thomas, a young black man who is trapped in a life of poverty in the slums of Chicago. Unwittingly involved in a wealthy woman's death, he is hunted relentlessly, baited by prejudiced officials, charged with murder and driven to acknowledge a strange pride in his crime. Native Son shocked readers on its first publication in 1940 and went on to make Richard Wright the first bestselling black w... continue
2003.
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A New York lawyer, dominated by a demanding Jewish mother, plays out a sexual revenge in fact and fantasy.
2004.
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the ... continue
2005.
The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
'A romance of the last 500,000 years' from the Pulitzer prize winning author of THE COLOR PURPLE. A visionary cast of characters weave together their past and present in a brilliantly intricate tapestry of tales.It is the story of the dispossessed and displaced, of peoples whose history is ancient and whose future is yet to come. Here we meet Lissie, a woman of many pasts; Arveyda the great guitarist and his Latin American wife who has had to flee her homeland; Suwelo, the history teacher, and his former wife Fanny who has fallen in love with spirits. Hovering tantalisingly above their stories... continue
2006.
2007.
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Every year, Ceyala “Lala” Reyes' family—aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, and Lala's six older brothers—packs up three cars and, in a wild ride, drive from Chicago to the Little Grandfather and Awful Grandmother's house in Mexico City for the summer. From the celebrated bestselling author of The House on Mango Street and winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Struggling to find a voice above the boom of her brothers and to understand her place on this side of the bo... continue
2008.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A #1 New York Times bestseller by Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a brilliantly crafted novel of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love Kim Edwards’s stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964 in Lexington, Kentucky, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Car... continue
2009.
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Madeleine Hanna breaks out of her straight-and-narrow mold when she falls in love with charismatic loner Leonard Bankhead, while at the same time an old friend of hers resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is his destiny.
2010.
Fresh Complaint by Jeffrey Eugenides EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
The first collection of short fiction from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides