Author: Autumn Weese
#RogersReads2021: Read A Book That Makes You Laugh
It’s time to sign up for our #RogersReads Reading Challenge for 2021! Register and enter the books you read at rpl.readsquared.com under “missions” for the chance to win monthly and grand prizes. Each month, prizes will be awarded to two readers who complete a mission online by the end of the month. If you complete all twelve missions before December 31, 2021, you will be entered for the grand prize that will be awarded at the end of the challenge.
Each month, we will highlight one of the twelve challenges here with some ideas of titles that could fulfill that prompt, but you can finish the challenges in any order over the course of the year with eBooks, audiobooks, or print copies of a title. Share your own ideas and show off your progress by tagging us on social media with #RogersReads. We are excited to see what you select to fulfill these challenges!
Read A Book That Makes You Laugh
At the library, we have a great sense of humor, and we hope you do too! It’s hard to guess what will books will tickle your funny bone, but we can try! Here’s a list of books from different categories that we hope can make you smile.
Some authors, like David Sedaris, are known for their humorous writings. You can check out books like Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.
Black Widow by Leslie Streeter, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell, and The Facts of Life: And Other Dirty Jokes by Willie Nelson are great blends of memoir and humor.
Other humorous non-fiction books are also available. I Like You by Amy Sedaris, Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss, and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson are all great selections that will have you laughing.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and The Princess Bride by William Golding are humorous science fiction and fantasy books that are so popular they are considered classics.
Looking for a romance with a good sense of humor? Check out Destination Wedding by Diksha Basu, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison, and Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella.
Just because there’s a murder doesn’t mean it can’t be funny! My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten, and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde are mystery books that may make you smile.
We are looking forward to a year full of challenging new reads with you!
Happy reading!
#RogersReads Reading Challenges for 2021
- Read a book that makes you laugh.
- Read a book that is about food or has food in the title.
- Read a book set in or about space.
- Read a book that is about or based on mythology or folklore.
- Read a book whose author is known for something other than writing.
- Read a book, fiction or non-fiction, about nature.
- Read a fictional retelling of a historical event.
- Read a book you meant to read in 2020.
- Read a book with an animal on the cover.
- Read a book from your least favorite genre.
- Read a book that, for better or worse, you judged by its cover.
- Read a book with a body of water on the cover or in the title.
Sightseers Wanted!
Sightseers Wanted! Are you tired of sitting at home? We know it’s hard to travel right now, so we want to invite you to read your way through the United States with us. You can tour this list of fun titles that are set in each state to explore somewhere new or familiar from the comfort of your home. Click on a title and it will take you to our catalog where you can place a hold on the book. Come enjoy the States with us!
Alabama
March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydia
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Alaska
Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Arizona
The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner
Arkansas
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield
True Grit by Charles Portis
California
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Colorado
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Centennial by James Michener
Connecticut
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
Delaware
The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
West of Rehoboth by Alexs D. Pate
Florida
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Florida by Lauren Groff
Marley & Me by John Grogan
Georgia
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Hawaii
Moloka’I by Alan Brennert
The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Idaho
Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson
Educated by Tara Westover
All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki
Illinois
Black Girl Magic edited by Mahogany L. Browne, Idrissa Simmonds, and Jamila Woods
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Indiana
The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
Iowa
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
Kansas
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty
Blessings by Kim Vogel Sawyer
Kentucky
Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
Clear Springs by Bobbie Ann Mason
Louisiana
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Bayou Folk by Kate Chopin
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
Maine
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Taker by Alma Katsu
Cider House Rules by John Irving
Maryland
Song Yet Sung by James McBride
Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman
Massachusetts
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Wedding by Dorothy West
The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem by Stacy Schiff
Michigan
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Minnesota
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Mississippi
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Missouri
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
Montana
Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
Nebraska
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett
Nevada
Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
November Road by Lou Berney
New Hampshire
The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve
Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
New Jersey
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Family Life by Akhil Sharma
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
New Mexico
Old Man’s Love Story by Rudolfo Anaya
American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett
New York
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jazz by Toni Morrison
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
North Carolina
This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash
Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
North Dakota
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
LaRose by Louise Erdrich
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Ohio
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison
Oklahoma
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina by Maria Tallchief and Larry Kaplan
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Oregon
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Shack by William P. Young
Pennsylvania
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Allison Bechdel
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Rhode Island
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
South Carolina
Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza
Saints at the River by Ron Rash
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
South Dakota
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Lakota Woman by Mary Brave Bird
The Work of Wolves by Kent Meyers
Tennessee
A Death in the Family by James Agee
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
Bloodroot by Amy Greene
Texas
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
Ruby by Cynthia Bond
Utah
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams
Vermont
The City Baker’s guide to Country Living by Louise Miller
Family Tree by Susan Wiggs
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
Virginia
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Wish You Well by David Baldacci
Washington
Where’d You Go Bernadette by Marie Semple
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
West Virginia
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam, Jr.
Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
Wisconsin
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Wyoming
Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx
Open Season by C.J. Box
Safe travels!