2016 Reading Resolutions

January is not quite over yet, and we’ve already given up on all of our New Year’s resolutions. That’s right— it’s less than a month into 2016, and cooking at home, going to the gym more often, and waking up earlier seem like distant dreams. But never fear! Your friends at the Reading Group Center are here to help you with the one goal that really matters: reading more.

This year, we’re challenging you not just to read more, but to read better. Below you’ll find thirteen book categories (one for each month, plus a bonus for you overachievers) that we hope will open up your reading selections in unexpected ways. We’ve also included a few title suggestions to get you moving in the right direction. Browse the categories, choose your January challenge, and get reading!

P.S. Reading is better when it’s done together! We’ve created sharable badges for each of our reading challenges. Share them across your social media channels to encourage your friends to make 2016 their best year of reading too.

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Three Strong Women by Marie Ndiyae
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Download shareable badges and brag about your reading prowess!

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Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Property by Valerie Martin
Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
The Girls from Corona Del Mar by Rufi Thorpe

Download shareable badges and brag about your reading prowess!

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White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
Sula by Toni Morrison
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Download shareable badges and brag about your reading prowess!

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Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota
Smoke by Dan Vyleta

Download shareable badges and brag about your reading prowess!

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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Download shareable badges and brag about your reading prowess!

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Bark by Lorrie Moore
Dear Life by Alice Munro
Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny
You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
One More Thing by BJ Novak

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The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
Forrest Gump by Winston Groom
Tracks by Robyn Davidson
Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan
Atonement by Ian McEwan

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My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Rapture by Susan Minot
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
The Corsican Caper by Peter Mayle

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Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Private Life by Jane Smiley
A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy

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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
The Stand by Stephen King
The Circle by Dave Eggers

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Penelope by Rebecca Harrington
Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close
Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
Half Empty by David Rakoff
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
One Summer by Bill Bryson
Friends Like Us by Lauren Fox
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

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