For the link-up page for state posts, click here.
For the link-up page for genre posts, click here.
For a New England Book List, click here.
Welcome to the official sign-up post for Reading New England, a 2016 challenge hosted here at The Emerald City Book Review. I’ve chosen twelve focus areas — the six New England states and six thematic/genre groups — to help us diversify our reading, but please feel free to pick and choose in your explorations of this wonderful region. Use the links above for linking your posts. Linking up will earn you extra points in the event giveaway(s) along the way, along with being a great way to share your discoveries with others.
What books qualify for this challenge? My idea is to include authors and books that represent the region in some way, bringing out its special qualities and characteristics. (For this purpose, books should be actually set in New England; books written by a New England author but set elsewhere would not qualify.) Classic authors to explore include Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and many more; contemporary possibilities could include Stephen King, Jane Langton, John Irving, Alice Hoffman…reader suggestions are very welcome. Here’s a list of books to help us get started.
Here are the twelve categories, with the months when I’m planning to focus on them here on ECBR (though you may read from any category at any time):
January: New Hampshire
February: Fiction
March: Maine
April: Poetry and Drama
May: Vermont
June: Nonfiction
July: Massachusetts
August: Children’s Books
September: Rhode Island
October: Speculative Fiction and Mystery
November: Connecticut
December: Readalong or free choice
Challenge levels:
To qualify, books must be read between January 1 and December 31, 2016, and must be posted about publicly in some way (blog post, Goodreads, Amazon, etc.). A substantial part of the book must take place in at least one of the six New England states. In the case of poetry, the poet should be strongly associated with or draw inspiration from the region.
Link up your posts here. Posts that qualify for multiple categories should only be linked in one.
A Single Leaf: 1+
Read at least one book from any of the challenge categories
Roots and Branches: 3-6+
Read at least 3-6 books from any of the challenge categories
Six State Challenge: 6+
Read at least one book representing each New England state
Genre Challenge: 6+
Read at least one book from each of the six genre categories (fiction, nonfiction, poetry/drama, children’s books, speculative fiction/mystery, freebie/readalong)
A New England Forest: 12+
Read at least one book from each of the twelve challenge categories
Will you participate? Link up below to let us know your plans!
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The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
Oh, this is a great way to structure this challenge, flexible but with a degree of commitment that’s up my street! I have a number of different but achievable challenges provisionally decided on for 2016, and this will definitely be one of them, one that will dovetail neatly into some of my choices for other categories. Thanks for prior notice, giving us a chance to plan what we go for.
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That’s what I hoped, that it would accommodate different reading interests and wishes. So glad you’ll be joining us!
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Count me in! I’m looking forward to participating in Reading New England! For now, I know that one book I’ll be reading for the New Hampshire part of the challenge is Peyton Place.
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Welcome, Monica! Peyton Place is a great choice — I’ve heard the name forever (mostly due to the soapy TV adaptation I think) but had no idea it was set in New Hampshire.
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I’m all ready to start with 1/2 my books already purchased! Looking forward to this challenge.
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You have terrific choices too, Keri. I need to add some to the reading list.
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This is such a great challenge! I wasn’t going to do any challenges next year, but I couldn’t resist. 🙂
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Always glad to be an enabler. 😉
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Love this challenge. I’m shooting for the Six State Challenge…and am so glad you included a list of possible books to read. This should be fun. 🙂
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It was already fun to compile the list, reading the actual books will be even better.
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What a great list! A few of those books are sitting on my shelves. I’m really hoping to join in for some of this!
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It’s not hard to find lots of books I want to read on this list.
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I really love this challenge idea! I grew up in Maine (with a little bit of New Hampshire), and now live in Virginia, so I like connecting with my home landscape throughout the year via books!
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So glad you will join us, Christy.
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This is a really interesting event. I am chalking in advance tne title of event participant who lives furthest from New England at 13,554 measured from Boston to Manila. Indian book bloggers could beat this and I challenge this to join us.
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I do think you win the prize there so far, Mel!
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Hi Lori, as a New England blogger of course I love your challenge! 🙂
Thanks for hosting it! 🙂
I’m looking forward to participating. Since I my blog is about speculative fiction I may missed a few categories, though.
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That’s great, Daniela. I’ve found SF choices from nearly every state, but I’m sure there are more to be discovered. I wish you a wonderful year of reading and blogging!
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I love this idea, thanks for hosting. I’m hoping this will inspire me to read more of the books I own!
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Welcome Rory! I also have some books on my shelves I’m hoping to finally crack open for this challenge.
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Great Challenge! I’ve been meaning to read A Prayer for Owen Meany so this is great reason to push it to the top of the list 🙂
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I do hope this challenge will help us to pull out some of those long-postponed titles.
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Can’t wait to get reading on this challenge and learn more about my new region! What a great challenge. I appreciate all the suggestions. One book that has been staring at me from my TBR pile is Robert Thorson’s Stone By Stone: The Magnificent History in New England’s Stone Walls. And A Prayer for Owen Meany is also at the top of my list.
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Stone By Stone looks fascinating — I’ve added it to the list. Thank you and welcome to the challenge!
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Is it too late to join?
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There’s no deadline for joining. All are welcome!
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Awesome! I wish I had found this sooner though. I am fascinated with Maine. Last September my bff and I went on a New England/Canadian cruise so that I could see Maine LOL. It was beautiful and everything I had hoped it would be. I want to go back to Maine for a whole trip one day.
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Another quick question…how do we sign up? I feel like I am missing something.
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It’s not too late to read books set in Maine. The monthly focus is just what I’m doing on my blog. You can read any New England book at any time and count it for the challenge.
To sign up, write a post about your plans, and enter the URL of the post in the “Mister Linky” widget just above the comments. In the “Your Name” field enter your blog name. It will be great to have you with us!
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The browser I was using didn’t display the linky boxes so I was baffled.
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Weird, I never encountered that problem before. Glad you figured it out.
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