Whether you’ll be read­ing in the refuge of some cool­ing air con­di­tion­er, or sit­ting out­side soak­ing up the sun, we have some read­ing chal­lenges to keep your TBR pile fresh and your book­ish con­ver­sa­tions sizzling. 

(This year’s list is inspired by last year’s list which was inspired by ​“The New York Times’s Sum­mer Read­ing Buck­et List.”)

• Feel­ing Knicks pride? Read a Jew­ish bas­ket­ball sto­ry! (Try out Charley Rosen’s Drib­bling a Bas­ket­ball on the Road to Dam­as­cus.)
• Read a book that trans­ports you to an idyl­lic relax­ation spot. (Take a look at Maine Char­ac­ters by Han­nah Orenstein)
• Sign up to read and review a Jew­ish book for JBC. (Learn more here.) 
• Savor a tasty treat! (Check out The Pick­led City by Paul van Ravestein and Monique Mul­der, Zariz by Adeena Suss­man, or Alle­gra Goodman’s This is Not About Us—from our third Nu Reads box! — for a few ideas.)
• Hap­py 250th Amer­i­ca! Read a book about the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Expe­ri­ence. (Find our read­ing list for adults here and for chil­dren here!) 
• The World Cup is in full swing! Set a read­ing GOAL for this summer! 
• Find a romance that’s hot­ter than it is out­side! (Dahlia Adler’s Soon By You will not dis­ap­point. And check out Adler’s sug­ges­tions for oth­er Jew­ish romances in ​“Bash­ert, Base­ball, Bab­ka: Jew­ish Romance Today.”)
• Explore a lit­tle! Read a book out­side your usu­al genre.
• Cre­ate a mood­board, scrap­book, etc. after read­ing an espe­cial­ly good book.
• Read two books from the same author.
• Gift a loved one a love­ly Nu Reads subscription! 
• Post a book self­ie on Insta­gram and tag us @jewishbookcouncil
• Get lost in the past with a mes­mer­iz­ing his­tor­i­cal fic­tion nov­el! Check out our read­ing list here.
• Read some spooky sto­ries around the camp­fire. (Taran­tu­la by Eduar­do Hal­fon and Odessa by Gabrielle Sher are bound to give you the chills.)
• Steep your­self in nos­tal­gia and sum­mer camp sto­ries. (We have your ​“Sum­mer Camp Vibes” read­ing list covered.)
• Nosh your way through the days! We all need some treats. (Are you a fan of mak­ing your own? Check out the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award win­ner in the Food Writ­ing & Cook­books cat­e­go­ry, Arthurs: Home of the Nosh: A Big Per­son­al­i­ty Cook­book of Deli­cious Jew­ish Favorites by Rae­gan Stein­berg and Alexan­der Cohen.)
• Step into the future with some grip­ping spec­u­la­tive fic­tion! (Por­tia Elan’s Home­bound is the per­fect choice for this and our cur­rent Nu Reads selection.)
• This book is one for the books! Keep a read­ing jour­nal this sum­mer to track all of your favorite reads. 
• Reread Helene Wecker’s cap­ti­vat­ing The Golem and the Jin­ni in advance of the third install­ment com­ing out in Sep­tem­ber! (Need anoth­er golem read? We have rec­om­men­da­tions for you here!

Do you have any read­ing chal­lenges to sug­gest? Send us a note at info@​jewishbooks.​org