2024 March Reading Challenge

[Elizabeth]

Hello all,

In the spirit of Saint Patrick's Day, you need to read a green book. What does this mean? Well, it can have the word green in the title, or Green(e) can be the author's last name. It can have a green cover. It can be about something green, like plants, or the forest, the environment, or money. If it's not super apparent why it's green, please let us know how it relates to green for you. There are some suggestions below, but have fun searching for the type of green book you want to read!

Green in the Title:
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Simply Color: Green: A Crayon Box for Quilters by Vanessa Christenson
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Green by Jay Lake
Green: The Beginning and the End by Ted Dekker
Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley

Author's last name is Green(e)
Looking for Alaska by John Green
The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene by Richard Greene (this one's got both the title, and author!)
Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars by Kate Greene
Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe by Brian Greene
The Third Man by Graham Greene

Cover is green:
A Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey
Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Tom Clancy Target Acquired by Don Bentley

Plants or Forest:
Observing the Plants of the Forest with Hansel & Gretel by Sabina Konečná
Look What I Found in the Woods by Moira Butterfield
Footsteps in the Forests: Biome Explorers by Laura Perdew
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah

Green Environment:
Sea of Greed by Clive Cussler
Renewable Energy Made Easy: Free Energy from Solar, Wind, Hydropower, and Other Alternative Energy Sources by David Craddock
Sustainable Energy - without the hot air by David J.C. MacKay
Infographics: Renewable Energy by Alexander Lowe
What on Earth Is Renewable Energy? by What on Earth Is Renewable Energy?

Money or Finance:
Basher Money: How to Save, Spend, and Manage Your Moola! by Jacob Field
Make Your Own Money by Ty Allan Jackson
Not-So-Common Cents: Super Duper Important Facts About Money You Can't Afford to Miss by Sarah Wassner Flynn
Alexander Hamilton on Finance, Credit, and Debt by David Cowen
A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History by Diana B. Henriques
How Money Works: The Facts Visually Explained by Beverly Blair Harzog

[Britt, Book Habitue]

Hmmm..... there are so many ways to go with this one.
Off to check what I have out on Libby....

[Carolyn]

This should be very interesting to see what people come up with.

[Elizabeth]

I'm excited to see what people think of as "green." Maybe someone will read a political book about a politician in the green party? Maybe someone will read a book about Ireland, it is after all the Emerald Isle, maybe someone will read a book that takes place in Greenland.

So many different options!

[JoAnn]

Ooooh! I have two very good options: I have a beautiful green penguin clothbound Persuasion, as well as the Owlcrate Exclusive version of The Hazel Wood which has a lovely green and gold dust jacket (very on brand for St. Patrick's Day). Now to choose....

[Elizabeth]

JoAnn wrote: "Ooooh! I have two very good options: I have a beautiful green penguin clothbound Persuasion, as well as the Owlcrate Exclusive version of The Hazel Wood which has a ..."

Persuasion is my favorite Austen, so... I lean towards that one, but the other one sounds lovely too. decisions.... decisions....

[Teresa]

I'm going to read Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas and/or Garlic and the Witch. I'd been eyeing Grania recently and wondering how I could work her into a reading challenge. Green =Ireland didn't even occur to me, so thanks for the prompt. Garlic has a green cover. It's the second book in the series, a children's cozy fantasy graphic novel.

[Debbie]

I had a feeling a book I'm currently reading might count for this challenge and it turns out that feeling was right. It's kind of a stretch for "green" but it is a book about the environment and climate change. I am reading Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert. Kolbert won the Pulitzer Prize for her book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History which was excellent. This new book is just as well written and compelling.

[Clancy]

I think I'm going to read Anne of Green Gables. It meets one of my other reading challenges. :)

[Carolyn]

Assuming I leave some or all of this for March, I am probably going to use From Badger to Worse for this challenge. A green cover and the author's name. If not that, I'll see what else comes up in my March reading. I've been noticing all my books with green covers since this challenge was posted.

[Brittany]

This month I'm going to re-read one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, The Merchant of Venice. My copy has this green cover:

[Elizabeth]

Carolyn wrote: "Assuming I leave some or all of this for March, I am probably going to use From Badger to Worse for this challenge. A green cover and the author's name. If not that, I'll see what ..."

Ooh, I love the Investigators, I didn't realize they were doing another series. It looks super fun. :D

[Elizabeth]

Brittany wrote: "This month I'm going to re-read one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, The Merchant of Venice. My copy has this green cover:

"

Perfect!

[Elizabeth]

Clancy wrote: "I think I'm going to read Anne of Green Gables. It meets one of my other reading challenges. :)"

I should reread these. I love them, but haven't read them in ages.

[Carolyn]

Elizabeth wrote: "Carolyn wrote: "Assuming I leave some or all of this for March, I am probably going to use From Badger to Worse for this challenge. A green cover and the author's name. If not that..."

I have been buddy reading InvestiGators and the spin off series with one of my nephews. I think I like the original series best of the two.

[Debbie]

I have fiished Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert ( Review ) . It dealt with the environment and not just climate change.

I also read the new Caldecott Medal winner Big by Vashti Harrison. Through most of it the main character wears a green outfit, which is core to the story. A most thought provoking book.

[Carolyn]

Finished From Badger to Worse which I enjoyed. Besides the authors name and the cover, there are plants involved in the story. Another book coming in this spin off series.

[Greg]

I read Out in the Cold by Bill Murray (no, not that Bill Murray.) It was about his travels through Greenland, Iceland, Canada, Svalbard, and the Faroe Islands.

It was really good for my book settings map.

[Em]

I checked out Killer Green Tomatoes by Lynn Cahoon. Book completed March 9.

[Kristen]

I just started “The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance” by Dan Egan. I really enjoyed Egan’s first book about the Great Lakes, so that and the green cover made it an easy pick.

[Darin]

I have “The Little Book of Energy Medicine” and “Building a Second Brain.” Working on understanding how energy affects our bodies for the first book, and working on trying to be more organized. I recently subscribed to the Goodnotes app and use it just about every day, but I need to watch some YouTube videos on a few things - just want to be more organized.

[Darin]

Since it was a pretty little book, I finished reading “The Little Book of Energy Medicine.” I’m trying to learn and understand a little more about “The Emotion Code” and “The Body Code” by Dr. Bradley Nelson. Energy is part of these books, and I’m hoping to have this help with all that ails me. My PCP is an advocate of both “western” medicine and alternative medicine. I’ve tried so many things over the years, so…why not?

[Carolyn]

Bonus book I read that just happens to go with this challenge: Big Tree by Brian Selznick. The main characters are two Sycamore seeds.

[Stephanie]

I'm going with the Ireland connection and reading How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. I've had another of his books on my shelf for a while but haven't read it. This is the first in his "Hinges of History" series, so I'm excited to start it.

[Linda]

I read . It was really good.

[Britt, Book Habitue]

I read Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and while it takes place in a very wintry far-from-green setting, the concept of green and growing forests, and the faerie magic that goes along with it, felt like an important plot point.
It's also my first 5 star read from the current Readers' Choice list!

[Deborah]

I decided to go the environmental definition of Green. For this challenge I read both The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and The Wump World by Bill Peet. Both books focus on the importance of taking care of our environment.

[Clancy]

Finished Anne of Green Gables. I'm not sure I've ever read it, but it was good.

[Linda]

Clancy wrote: "Finished Anne of Green Gables. I'm not sure I've ever read it, but it was good."

I love Anne of Green Gables. It is one of my favorite books.

[Mary]

I read Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands. It has a dark green cover.

[Teresa]

I read Garlic and the Witch, a middle grade graphic novel.

[Elizabeth]

Clancy wrote: "Finished Anne of Green Gables. I'm not sure I've ever read it, but it was good."

Clancy, you should keep going. My favorite books are Anne of the Island (Book 3) and Anne's House of Dreams (Book 5) - Well... she wrote it fourth, so sometimes it'll show up as book 4, but Anne of Windy Poplars takes place in between book 3 and 5, so when I was growing up, that one was always labeled as book 4.

[Elizabeth]

Can you guys believe that it's already March 20th? Only 11 more days to tell me what you read, and how it relates to being green. :D

Now I'm gonna have Kermit's voice stuck in my head all day.

It's not easy being green
Having to spend each day
the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer
being red, or yellow, or gold
or something much more colorful
like that

[alisonwonderland (Alison)]

I read (and really enjoyed) We Are the Brennans about a complicated Irish Catholic family.

And there are clovers on the cover!

[Linda]

Can we get a heads up on next month's challenge so we can get our books by the weekend.

[Brittany]

I finished my re-read of The Merchant of Venice last night. 5 stars! Quite possibly my very favorite Shakespeare play. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Carolyn]

I read The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare my copy has a nice green cover. It is from the Folger Shakespeare Library. I really like these editions because of the notes that help me understand it better. Loved the book.

[Whitney]

Some green books I read this month were
Maya’s Laws of Love by Alina Khawaja (green cover)
Honey Witch by Sydney Shields (green witch magic)
Build your house around my body by Violet Kupersmith (green cover)

[Stephanie]

I finished How the Irish Saved Civilization. It was fascinating.

[Greg]

I don't see an April challenge up, yet. Anyone know anything?

[Linda]

I asked last week because I wanted to find a book early, and never received a response.

[Elizabeth]

Sorry everyone. April challenge will be up soon. March got away from me!

[Elizabeth]

April challenge is up!

[Elizabeth]

Carolyn is our prize drawing winner for March’s reading challenge for reading From Badger to Worse by John Patrick Green.

Congratulations!