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My English-professor friend Hannah has been hosting a summer reading challenge for the last couple of years, and I’m determined to finish it this year. This summer’s challenge is to read one book from each of five categories between June 2 and September 2. I’m roughly 1 1/3 books in so far, so I think I might actually get it done this time.

Here’s the challenge:

A book from this century

Hannah suggested we choose from this goodreads list of the best books from this century. My friend Emily has been suggesting “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer for a good long while, and she swore that it wasn’t as flighty as the title made it sound. And she was right! It was the first book I read for this summer’s challenge, and I enjoyed it.

A BBC “Big Read” book

At first I thought I’d just read the first book on the BBC’s “Big Read” list that I hadn’t already read. I started “Birdsong” by Sebastian Faulks a few weeks ago, and I could not get into it. There was a lot of talk of labor and unionizing and repressed romance, and I nearly fell asleep every time I opened the book. So I took it back to the library and went back to the list. Everything from “The Princess Diaries” to “Ulysses” is on there, but I’m leaning toward either “The Pillars Of The Earth” by Ken Follett or “The Colour Of Magic” by Terry Pratchett for this one.

A Pulitzer winner

I’m about a third of the way through Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove” (1986), and so far I’m really enjoying it. Rockford says the miniseries was great, but I never saw it so I don’t know what’s coming.

A North Carolina author

Hannah’s heart is in NC — literally and figuratively — so this was a nice fit for the challenge. North Carolina has produced a lot of great authors, so I’ve had a tough time narrowing it down. Right now I’m thinking about trying
“Salt: A Novel” by Isabel Zuber.

Reader’s choice

I have no idea what I’m going to do for this one yet. What do you think I should read?