Summer is winding down, and so is our Summer Reading challenge. Have you had a chance to complete your Bingo card yet? We will accept entries until August 30, so there is still time! Just click here to view and print a copy of the Bingo card, read in as many categories as you can and turn it in to the main library to be entered. Plus it’s fun to read off the beaten path. To wrap up the challenge, I’m going to share a few more categories that I have accomplished lately. For even more ideas about what to read, visit some of our past posts. Today I am going to cover some suggestions to Read a book by an author that is new to you:

An author I encountered for the first time recently is Casey McQuiston. McQuiston writes thoughtful, imaginative, and hilarious romance stories about young people finding love and at the same time learning so much more about who they are. The title I read is her most recent, One Last Stop, in which August, a cynical 23-year old living in NYC, finds love in the form of a beautiful but hard-edged punk rocker named Jane, whom she meets on the subway everyday. This should be happily ever after, but there’s a serious catch: Jane is actually stuck in time, in the 1970’s, and cannot exist beyond the subway car they ride every day. This novel is peppered with other great characters too, and some great pop-culture references – it’s a delight!

A second author I’ve just tried for the first time is Karin Slaughter. Yes, I know, she has been writing for a while and is very popular, but that’s one of the things that makes challenges like this so great, they present an opportunity to pick up some of the books we may have missed. Slaughter writes taught, smart, gripping, and even, at times, funny thrillers. Her main characters often face immense challenges, both externally and internally before they find the killer. The novel I chose to read was Pieces of Her, for the Mystery Book Club, and I was pulled into the suspense immediately. In the story, Andy (Andrea) thinks she knows her mother, the caring, hardworking, smart woman that Andy left her life in NYC for when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Flash Forward three years, and Andy at 31, is still living with her mom, but her mom thinks she should really be getting back to her life. Until a terrible event occurs that changes Andy’s perception of her mother for good. Now Andy has to uncover who her mother was before Andy came along to help them clear their names.