Read with MLC: A Book about Nature

Welcome to June, and the sixth month of the Read with MLC 2025 Reading Challenge! This month's goal is to read a book about nature and the natural world. June happens to be National Great Outdoors Month and we thought, "What better time to ditch the screen, pick up a book, and head outside?" June boasts the official beginning of summer on the 20th, as well as:

• National Fishing and Boating Week - June 1-8
• National Trails Day - June 7
• National Service and Conservation Corps Day - June 13
• National Get Outdoors Day - June 14
• National Go RVing Day - June 14

Not enough outdoors for you? Check with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and Mississippi's state parks and national parks for fun events this June and all summer long.

Need a few suggestions on the perfect book to take camping or to the beach? Check out our staff picks at the jump below.

Read with MLC: A Book with a One-Word Title

Welcome to May, and the fifth month of the Read with MLC 2025 Reading Challenge! This month's goal is to read a book with a one-word title. While September is the longest month word, May is the shortest. It makes our nerdy little librarian hearts go all aflutter to have a reading prompt - short title - that matches the month - short name. Why, though, do we see so many one-word titles, when it's possible to have, well, something more descriptive? Vivienne Woodward posits that the ambiguity of a one-word title is what makes them work so well for fiction. A short title teases the brain, makes us wonder what magical story is printed on the pages of so brief a name. MLC staff rose to the challenge of providing their favorite one-word titles, so check them out after the jump below!

Read with MLC: A "Library" Book

Welcome to April, and the fourth month of the Read with MLC 2025 Reading Challenge! This month's goal is to read a book set in a library or about a librarian... a "library" book, if you will. Next week marks the 67th annual National Library Week with the theme "Drawn to the Library!" It's a celebration of all the things that librarians do and all the services our libraries offer to our communities. Have you ever wondered what exactly we do? (I promise you, we don't get to read all day, no matter how much we might want to.) Check out MLC's page on the Institute of Museum and Library Service's website to learn more. You can also wander on over to your local public library. There's one nearby; here's where to find them. They would love to welcome you through their doors so you can browse their books, use their computers, and participate in a variety of programs. We promise: you'll be drawn to them. And no matter what, check out our staff's suggestions of "library" books to read this month for our reading challenge.

Read with MLC: Read a Book with a Woman on the Cover

Welcome to March and the third month of the 2025 Read with MLC Reading Challenge! This month's goal is to read a book with a woman on the cover. This not-so-subtle nod to Women's History Month should have you examining the covers of the books you are reading just as closely as you do their insides. In The Clothing of Books, Jhumpa Lahiri says “The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that a cover is a sort of translation, that is, an interpretation of my words in another language -- a visual one. It represents the text, but isn't part of it. It can't be too literal. It has to have its own take on the book." How does your chosen book portray the women pictured? Does it meet the expectations you formed once you read the book or does the cover seem to follow a book cover trend that does little to show off the story it surrounds, like the women looking away phenomenon. It’s so much of a trope that we even created this test to see if our followers could spot a fake.

 

Our staff had some fun suggesting their own books with women on the cover, either ones they plan to read or ones they've already enjoyed. Catch their suggestions after the jump!

Read with MLC: By or About Someone You Admire

Welcome to February and the second month of the 2025 Read with MLC Reading Challenge! This month's goal is to read a book by or about someone you admire. The book industry produces an astounding number of biographies and memoirs each year. According to the Library and Book Trade Almanac, there were 4,887 biographies published in the first year of this millennium. Just over 20 years later, in 2022, that number remained just as high, at 4,949. Why do we enjoy reading about other people so much? A quote often misattributed to C.S.Lewis says that "we read to know we are not alone". Even though the quote comes from screenwriter William Nicholson instead of Lewis, it still rings true. Biographies and memoirs humanize the people we admire, showing us their foibles and faults as well as their heady accomplishments. They show that we are all out here in the world, living our lives and doing our best. Which biographies and memoirs have staff members of the Mississippi Library Commission enjoyed? Scroll down to find out!

Read with MLC: A Year in the Title

Happy New Year, everyone!

We're excited to start another year of reading packed to the brim with both learning and fun. We've come up with a brand-new year of reading prompts designed to help you step out of your comfort zone and find something new, all while celebrating the joy of reading with our Read with MLC 2025 Reading Challenge.

Read With MLC: Listen to an Award-Winning Audiobook

Welcome to November, and the eleventh month of the 2024 Read with MLC reading challenge! This month's prompt is to listen to an award-winning audiobook.

People listen to audiobooks for a lot of very different yet valid reasons. Some people can't see to read the words on the page, like those with blindness or visual impairments. Others, like those with dyslexia, have trouble processing the printed word. Still others, like people with arthritis or broken limbs, can't hold a book to read. Seriously, Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, the world's longest novel, clocks in at thousands and thousands of pages. (Incidentally, if you fall into one of these categories, you're eligible for MLC's Talking Book Services. You can learn more here.) Some people don't have time to sit and read a book, while others enjoy the experience of having someone read to them. Other people like to rest their eyes after a day staring at screens, and others find that the audiobook experience can be downright more enjoyable than a book that's slow or unwieldy. Truth be told, a lot of MLC staff love to listen to books! While not all of our suggestions below are "official" audiobook award winners, they are, in our hearts, exceptional audios.

Read with MLC: Retelling of a Classic

Welcome to October, and the tenth month of the 2024 Read With MLC reading challenge! This month's reading prompt is to read a retelling of a classic. Once a tale has been released into the public domain, the sky's the limit when it comes to storytellers and their ability to put their own stamp on an older work. (Want to learn more about when works hit the public domain? Check out one of our earlier posts here.)  Meg Donohue, author of the Wuthering Heights retelling You, Me, and the Sea says that, "Reimaginings present a unique delight to readers because they manage to combine the pleasure of surprising twists with the comfort of a familiar story." Whether you long to hear the "Wicked" Witch's side of the story (Wicked by Gregory Maguire) or you want to see Anne of Green Gables succeed in the modern world (Anne of Manhattan by Brina Starler), there's a retelling of a classic out there you're going to love.

Read with MLC: Book in Translation

Welcome to September, and the ninth month of the 2024 Read With MLC reading challenge! This month's reading prompt is to read a book in translation. Why should we read books originally written in languages other than English? Georgi Gospodinov, winner of 2023's International Booker Prize for his book Time Shelter, says, 

When we have ears and eyes (and a translation) for the story of the Other, when we hear and read it, they become a person like us. Storytelling generates empathy. It saves the world. Especially a world like the one we live in today. We write to postpone the end of the world. And the end of the world is a very personal thing. It happens in different languages. Translation gives us the sense that we are working towards this postponement together.

Still, when some people think of translated fiction, their thoughts may immediately turn to dry, ponderous tomes that have no connection to their lives or interests. Luckily, the staff at the Mississippi Library Commission have shared some of their favorite works in translation below.

Read with MLC: Historical Fiction

Welcome to August, and the eighth month of the 2024 Read With MLC reading challenge. This month's reading prompt is to read a work of historical fiction. What drives so many of us to explore the past instead of the present or the future? When Time Magazine(1) asked historical fiction great E.L. Doctorow what the difference was between a historian writing history and a novelist, he responded, "The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like." Experiencing a semblance of what our Cro-Magnon ancestors thought about, living through the American Civil War, dodging accusations during the Salem Witch Trials... These are the great experiences historical fiction offers us.

Read With MLC: The Year You Were Born

Congratulations, y'all! We've made it halfway through 2024 and this year's Read With MLC reading challenge. We dedicated the month of July to reading a book published the year you were born. Sure, reading the latest bestseller can be really satisfying, but reading older books can be a rewarding experience as well. While doing research for a project in 2018, Emily Temple, the managing editor of Literary Hub, noticed that, just like today, the books that were the most popular weren't necessarily the ones that made the biggest impression on society, and therefore, aren't remembered as well. She collected the top ten best-selling booklists from 1918 forward and added in a sprinkling of "classics" from each year. The result is a kaleidoscope of titles of all genres and for all tastes. If you're interested in Temple's findings, here is her list of the most popular fiction and nonfiction books of the past century.

We asked our staff if they've read anything from the year they were born. Check out their thoughts below!

Read With MLC: Colorful Titles

Welcome to June, and the sixth reading prompt for our 2024 Read With MLC reading challenge: read a book with a color in the title. The idea behind our reading challenge is to inspire you to explore books year-round. There are tons of popular books available with a color in the title: just think about popular classics like Anna Sewell's Black Beauty or Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, human beings can identify approximately ten million colors. That's a lot of book possibilities!

Read With MLC: Short Stories

Welcome to May, and the fifth reading prompt for our 2024 Read With MLC reading challenge: read a short story collection. May is actually Short Story Month and reading one is a great way to celebrate this brief but tantalizing literary form. Lauren Groff, guest judge at last year's O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction said of short stories, "They are quick, breathtaking windows into other humans’ souls, which is where the infinite resides, in my personal credo. The story form is infinitely malleable, gorgeously economical, and endlessly surprising." Don't know where to start finding one, or some, to read? We have some ideas below!

Read With MLC: Celebrity Memoirs

Welcome to April, and the fourth reading prompt for our 2024 Read With MLC reading challenge: read a celebrity memoir. Is there anything more delicious than escaping your own life to peer into the intricacies of someone else's? Affairs, addiction, divorce, abuse... seeing how others deal with adversity somehow makes our own more manageable. Add in the shiny gloss of reading a tell-all book about someone famous? You can see why celebrity memoirs are a booming business. 

If you look at the past five years, the top US sales slots go to famous people from a variety of backgrounds. In 2020, Barack Obama's A Promised Land sold 17 million copies. He was closely followed by Prince Harry's Spare, with 16 million copies, Michelle Obama's Becoming, with 14 million copies, and Britney Spears's The Woman in Me, with 11 million copies. And these are figures for just the first week of sales! If you're wondering which memoirs your local librarian liked as opposed to national sales figures, you need look no further than below this graphic!

Read with MLC: Graphic Nonfiction

Welcome to March and the third reading prompt of our 2024 Read with MLC challenge: read a work of graphic nonfiction. Nonfiction comics have been around for longer than you might think. Thomas Nast, who created political cartoons, started drawing as a teen in 1856. The Republican elephant was one of the artistic brainchildren of his decades-long career. He brought other popular figures to the forefront of American consciousness, figures just as beloved and enduring as, say, Superman, like the Democratic donkey, Uncle Sam, and Santa Claus. Robert Ripley and his Ripley's Believe It or Not franchise started in 1918 as a single panel comic and grew to encompass a wealth of researchers to back up his claims. There are many more examples, here in America and across the world. While fiction comics dominate the reading landscape, there is a wide world of graphic nonfiction available that has literally exploded onto our reading shelves. If you have a thirst for knowledge and a love of art, this may be the perfect type of book for you.

So... Just what is available out there? I scanned our shelves for some of our top graphic reads and found some in an array of subject areas that are sure to tickle your nonfiction reading taste buds.

Read with MLC: Reread a Book You Love

Welcome to February and the second reading prompt of our 2024 Read with MLC challenge: reread a book you love. There's something incredibly special about a book you enjoy so much that you want to reread it. Setting aside a wedge of time to experience something again is a unique act, but especially when it's something as time consuming as reading a book. I don't do a lot of rereading--there are so many books out there I want to get to--so I was curious about what drives other readers to reread. Here is what a few of my fellow library workers had to say about their favorite rereads.

Read with MLC: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

There's something about clearing out the holiday decorations and putting up a new calendar that makes anything and everything seem possible. Start exercising? You got this. Eat healthier? You can do it. Learn a new language? Research your roots? Read more? Turns out there's probably a book for that, and we've got you covered at the library.

Alongside those New Year resolutions, we challenge you to join our 2024 Reading Challenge. January's prompt is to read a book that has the word "New" or "Year" (or both!) in the title. There are quite a few books that qualify in our library catalog (surprise, surprise), but here are a couple of wide-ranging suggestions:

Read with MLC: 2024 Reading Challenge

Elisabeth Scott

Reference Librarian

I don't know if you've noticed, but the angels are heralding, the treetops are glistening, and 2024 is nigh upon us. If you're anything like me, you're already cheating on your 2023 reads (Sorry! I promise I'll finish you next week!) by poring over all of the "best of 2023" book lists and checking out the 2024 reading challenges. I think I like planning what I'm going to read almost as much as snuggling down with a good book. (Of course, I always reserve the option toss all my planning and lists away to snag a book from a library shelf.) Like last year, the Mississippi Library Commission partnered again with the Mississippi Center for the Book (MS CFB) to create another reading challenge for you, our beloved readers.

Read with MLC: A Book With Less Than 100 Pages

Elisabeth Scott

Reference Librarian

When we chose 100 pages as our reading cap for December's part in our Read with MLC Challenge, we did so with the knowledge of just how busy this time of year can be. The hustle and bustle of the holiday season melded with the gloom of suddenly shortened days can be a very real reading inhibitor. Once we hit the front door, binging a series on TV sounds mighty attractive. It turns out, though, that reading can clear the mind and free the spirit: winging your way to another world for half an hour or so might be all you need to change your mood for the better. Here are a few lists of very short books (though perhaps not all exactly under 100 pages) that you can use to fulfill December's goal.

 

• Book Riot's beginner's guide to SFF novelettes
• Esquire's list of books to read in one sitting 
• The Guardian's list of 50 great short stories
• LitHub's list of novellas for our current age of distraction
• Modern Mrs. Darcy's list of nonfiction books that you can finish in a day
  
• The Nebula Awards list of nominees and winners for best novelette
  
• Powell's essential list of novellas

We'll be announcing the categories for our 2024 Reading Challenge later this month, so be sure to check back to get your reading engines primed!

Read With MLC: A Classic You've Been Meaning to Read

2023 is inexplicably and inevitably drawing to a close. As the days grow shorter and the temperature (hopefully) grows cooler, it's the perfect time of year to dig into great reads that entertain and enlighten, but hey, it's also a great time to focus on finishing this year's reading goals. Our Read With MLC challenge prompt for September is to check out a classic you've been meaning to read. Sure, you can turn to Dickens, Plato, or Voltaire, and you're welcome to do so if you want to give them a try, but there are a lot of amazing books out there hovering right under your radar. Just what qualifies as a classic? And what should you read this September? Settle in while we explore!