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Southside Reads: 2024 Past Reads

Past Recommendations 2024

Did you miss a month? No worries! You can start at any time during the challenge. Want to catch up but need some help? You'll find our recommendations by month/theme.  Click on the heading to expand the selection with the recommendations.   

Each image of the book cover is a link to a description and more book details from Goodreads.  The Library Availability will give you details of format and availability by library.  Pick your title and start reading! 

Starts with S (January 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

Siren Queen book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Sister Mother Warrior book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Send for Me book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sweetness of Water book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Someday, Maybe book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sentence book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Silver Nitrate book cover with link to Goodreads description page
She Who Became the Sun book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Swimmers book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Storyteller's Death book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Shards book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sleeping Car Porter book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Shutter book cover with link to Goodreads description page
She Would Be King book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Sorry, Bro book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Stealing book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Saha book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Sacrificio book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Skull Water book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Overdrive/Libby is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

What a Character! (February 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

The House on Mango Street book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Their Eyes Were Watching God book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Less book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Bonesetter's Daughter book cover with link to Goodreads description page
There There book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Martyr! book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Dazzling book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Plot Against America book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Raisin in the Sun book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Esperanza Rising book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Lesson Before Dying book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Yiddish Policemen's Union book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Lady Tan's Circle of Women book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Harlem Shuffle book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Personal Librarian book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Our Missing Hearts book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Let Us Descend book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Overdrive/Libby is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

Book to Screen (March 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

Pachinko book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Underground Railroad book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Black Cake book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sympathizer book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Other Black Girl book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Three-Body Problem book cover with link to Goodreads description page
On the Come Up book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Crazy Rich Asians book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Family Business book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Turtles All the Way Down book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Someone Knows My Name book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Call Me By Your Name book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sun Is Also a Star book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Suite Française book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Six of Crows book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Libby/Overdrive is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

Around the World (April 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

Blue Is the Warmest Color book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Daughter of Fortune book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Vegetarian book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Suite Française book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Yacoubian Building book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Swallows of Kabul book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Love in the Time of Cholera book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Hippie book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Three-Body Problem book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Dancing to "Almendra"
Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Journey to the End of the Millennium book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Palace Walk book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Ali and Nino book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Texaco book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Leo Africanus book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Summer in Baden-Baden book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Convenience Store Woman book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Libby/Overdrive is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

Go West! (May 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

The Painted Drum book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Lone Women book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Toughest Indian in the World book cover with link to Goodreads description page
All Over Creations book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sight of the Stars book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Four Treasures of the Sky book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Sabrina & Corina book cover with link to Goodreads description page
How Much of These Hills Is Gold book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Topaz book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Perma Red book cover with link to Goodreads description page
West: A Translation book cover with link to Goodreads description page
War Journey book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Ghosts of Gold Mountain book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Prize Money book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Brothers of the Buffalo book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Kingsway West book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Firebrand book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Martha Moody book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Gloryland book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Libby/Overdrive is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

Award Winner (June 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension book cover with link to Goodreads description page
James book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Great Divide book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Wandering Stars book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Let Us Descend book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Land of Milk and Honey book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Happiness Falls book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Silver Nitrate book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Talk book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Celebrants book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Fourth Wing book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Haunting of Alejandra book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Symphony of Secrets book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Lone Women book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Black Candle Women book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Libby/Overdrive is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

Stranger than Fiction (July 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

Fear Is Just a Word: A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America's Revolutions book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Just as I Am book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad book cover with link to Goodreads description page
In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Thicker than Water: A Memoir book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Black and Female: Essays book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Visible Man: A Memoir book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Hijab Butch Blues book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Reckoning book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Pageboy book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The House of Hidden Meanings book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Libby/Overdrive is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

Other Worlds (August 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

Victory City book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Fourth Wing book cover with link to Goodreads description page
She Who Became the Sun book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Five Broken Blades book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Blood Trials book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Spear book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Taste of Gold and Iron book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Strange and Stubborn Endurance book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Final Strife book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Sun and the Void book cover with link to Goodreads description page
VenCo book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Màgòdiz book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The River of Silver book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Proud Pink Sky book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Shanghai Immortal book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Where it Rains in Color book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Fractured Infinity book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Genesis of Misery book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Rakesfall book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Libby/Overdrive is available for current students, faculty and staff only.

Author's Debut (September 2024)

Welcome to Southside Reads! We’re challenging you to read a variety of books in 2024 by assigning a different category to every month, but don’t worry! The categories are broad enough to put your own spin on them.

Go out and find a book, but if you want some suggestions to get you thinking, check out the list below (with information about local library availability*):

Such a Fun Age book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Black Cake book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Burning book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Of Women and Salt book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Pageboy book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Queenie book cover with link to Goodreads description page
More Happy Than Not book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Banyan Moon book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Beasts of a Little Land book cover with link to Goodreads description page
His Only Wife book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Firekeeper's Daughter book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer book cover with link to Goodreads description page
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez book cover with link to Goodreads description page
A Proposal They Can't Refuse book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Darius the Great Is Not Okay book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Purple Hibiscus book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms book cover with link to Goodreads description page
The Kiss Quotient book cover with link to Goodreads description page
Boy Meets Boy book cover with link to Goodreads description page

Key for Local Library Availability

Locations:

  • CVRL - Central Virginia Regional Library
  • LU - Longwood University: Greenwood Library
  • HSC - Hampden-Sydney College: Bortz Library

Services:

*LU Overdrive/Libby is available for current students, faculty and staff only.