Talking Books Talk - Website at State Library of Kansas

Have you ever told yourself, “This year, I'm going to read more books”? Do you want to encourage yourself to read outside your comfort zone? Are you looking to challenge yourself?

Several reading challenges exist online, some with various prompts to get you reading outside your box, others with a numbered reading goal to reach, but all with the goal to get you reading more. Yes, we know we're already nearing mid-February, but it's still early in the year and a perfect time to get started. Try yourself with any one of these challenges we've rounded up from the multitude across the Internet.

Remember, if you need help to find books to fit your challenge prompts or just need help finding your next read, the Kansas Talking Books' team of readers' advisors are just a call (1-800-362-0699) or email (ktb@ks.gov) away. We are happy to help you with any of your reading or library needs.

Reading Challenges:

Book Riot's 2025 Read Harder Challenge - use the 24 prompts provided to read outside your comfort zone.

The StoryGraph's Genre Challenge 2025 - read outside your normal genres with this list of prompts for both fiction and nonfiction genres.

2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge - set your goal to read x number of books this year and use the tips and prompts new this year to reach your goal.

2025 Barnes and Noble Book Challenge - challenge yourself to read 52 books, one for each week, fitting the one simple prompts provided which include a couple of possible books matching the prompt as a starting point.

Beat the Backlist - focus on clearing out your to-be-read (TBR) list with this challenge using the prompts provided.

Booklist Queen's 2025 Reading Challenge - read as many books as you can this year, maybe even one per week, with the 52 prompts provided to expand your reading selection.

2025 PopSugar Reading Challenge - use these prompts as inspiration for choosing your next read.

2025 NoveList Reading Challenge - use the monthly prompts to inspire you pick something different for your next read:

January: Mix things up with a genre blend.
February: Fall in love with an LGBTQIA+ romance.
March: Stay up to date with a book about current social issues.
April: Read a book with neurodivergent characters.
May: Enjoy a larger-than-life cinematic book.
June: Lighten up with a funny or whimsical graphic novel.
July: Enjoy a chilling summer with must-read horror.
August: Read a cli-fi, solarpunk, or hopepunk book.
September: Read a book set in the decade you were born.
October: Try an award-winning audiobook or graphic novel.
November: Tempt your tastebuds with a culinary read.
December: Go meta with books about books.

Kansas Talking Books Summer Reading - while not a reading challenge, find book recommendations each week focused on a different theme between June 2 and August 1. Find out more on our website.

Recent Posts

Reading Challenge Round-Up

Have you ever told yourself, “This year, I'm going to read more books”? Do you want to encourage yourself to read outside your comfort zone? Are you looking to challenge yourself?Several reading challenges exist online, some with various prompts to get you reading outside your box, others with a numbered reading goal to reach, but all with the goal to get you reading more. Yes, we know we're already nearing mid-February, but it's still early in the year and a perfect time to get started. Try yourself with any one of these challenges we've rounded up from the multitude across the Internet. Remember, if you need help to find books to fit your challenge prompts or just need help finding your next read, the Kansas Talking Books' team of readers' advisors are just a call (1-800-362-0699) or email (ktb@ks.gov) away. We are happy to help you with any of your reading or library needs.Reading Challenges:Book Riot's 2025 Read Harder Challenge - use the 24 prompts provided to read outside your comfort zone.The StoryGraph's Genre Challenge 2025 - read outside your normal genres with this list of prompts for both fiction and nonfiction genres.2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge - set your goal to read x number of books this year and use the tips and prompts new this year to reach your goal.2025 Barnes and Noble Book Challenge - challenge yourself to read 52 books, one for each week, fitting the one simple prompts provided which include a couple of possible books matching the prompt as a starting point.Beat the Backlist - focus on clearing out your to-be-read (TBR) list with this challenge using the prompts provided.Booklist Queen's 2025 Reading Challenge - read as many books as you can this year, maybe even one per week, with the 52 prompts provided to expand your reading selection.2025 PopSugar Reading Challenge - use these prompts as inspiration for choosing your next read.2025 NoveList Reading Challenge - use the monthly prompts to inspire you pick something different for your next read:January: Mix things up with a genre blend.February: Fall in love with an LGBTQIA+ romance.March: Stay up to date with a book about current social issues.April: Read a book with neurodivergent characters.May: Enjoy a larger-than-life cinematic book.June: Lighten up with a funny or whimsical graphic novel.July: Enjoy a chilling summer with must-read horror.August: Read a cli-fi, solarpunk, or hopepunk book.September: Read a book set in the decade you were born. October: Try an award-winning audiobook or graphic novel. November: Tempt your tastebuds with a culinary read.December: Go meta with books about books.Kansas Talking Books Summer Reading - while not a reading challenge, find book recommendations each week focused on a different theme between June 2 and August 1. Find out more on our website....

On The Download - February 2025

Check out January's top BARD downloads in Kansas! If you aren't yet a BARD user, you can learn more at the NLS BARD website. If BARD isn't a good fit for you, we are still happy to mail books and magazines directly to your home. Just drop us a line at KTB@ks.gov or call 800-362-0699. Happy reading!Most popular Kansas BARD user audiobook downloads January DB125080 The Boyfriend by McFadden, Freida.DB125159 Raised by Wolves by Patterson, James & Raymond, Emily.DB124996 In Too Deep by Child, Lee & Child, Andrew.DB125278 Haunted by White, Randy Wayne.DB125480 To Die For by Baldacci, David.DB124695 Ward D by McFadden, Freida.DB124746 The Waiting by Connelly, Michael.DB122801 The Housemaid is Watching by McFadden, Freida.DB120063 James by Everett, Percival.DB123601 A Home for Hannah by Davids, Patricia.DB125318 The Grey Wolf by Penny, Louise.DB124686 Framed: Astonishing true stories of wrongful convictions by Grisham, John & McCloskey, Jim. Most popular Kansas BARD user audio magazine downloads from January 2025. Atlantic Monthly January, 2025The Week January 17, 2025The New Yorker December 23, 2024Guide Posts February, 2025The Week December 27, 2024AARP Magazine and Bulletin October, 2024Mother Jones January, 2025Atlantic Monthly December, 2024Discover November, 2024The New Yorker January 13, 2025New York Times Book Review January 05, 2025 A full list of available magazines can be found on the NLS Website. Most popular Kansas BARD user braille book downloads from January 2025 BR25214 What Every Blind Person Needs You to Know: A handbook for friends, family and colleagues of the visually impaired by Hunt, Leanne.BR24484 The Chicken Bible: Say goodbye to boring chicken with 500 recipes for easy dinners, braises, wings, stir-fries, and so much more by America's Test Kitchen....

Top 10 Most Popular Kansas Books

Today is Kansas Day, celebrating the day Kansas was admitted into the Union in 1861 as the 34th state. In honor of this day, we've pulled a list of the top ten most popular books in the past 5 years that are about Kansas and recorded by your very own Kansas Talking Books library through efforts of staff and volunteers. These books cover a variety of topics, people, and events in Kansas history with a popular paranormal western included. Make one of these local interest books your next read.1. DBC06570 It happened in Kansas: remarkable events that shaped history by Sarah SmarshIt Happened in Kansas features over 25 chapters in Kansas history. Lively and entertaining, this book brings the varied and fascinating history of the Sunflower State to life. Some violence.2. DBC17284 Flint Hills cowboys: tales from the Tallgrass Prairie by James F. HoyThe Flint Hills are America's last tallgrass prairie, a green enclave set in the midst of the farmland of eastern Kansas. Known as the home of the Big Beef Steer, these rugged hills have produced exemplary cowboys -- both the ranch and rodeo varieties -- whose hard work has given them plenty of material for equally good stories. Adult.3. DBC17310 Peggy of the Flint Hills: a memoir by Zula Bennington Greene"Peggy of the Flint Hills" was a beloved Topeka newspaper columnist, dispensing common sense and uncommon insight six days a week for 55 years. But her true masterwork was this little memoir, now seeing publication for the first time--a breathtakingly rich recollection of her childhood in the Ozark foothills and her young adulthood in the Kansas Flint Hills. With a full heart and a matchless memory, Peggy writes of the people and places that shaped her, offering readers a crystalline window into a long-gone world.4. DBC14923 Notorious Kansas bank heists: gunslingers to gangsters by Rod BeemerBank robbers wreaked havoc in the Sunflower State. After robbing the Chautauqua State Bank in 1911, outlaw Elmer McCurdy was killed by lawmen but wasn't buried for sixty-six years. His afterlife can be described only as bizarre. Belle Starr's nephew Henry Starr claimed to have robbed twenty-one banks. The Dalton gang failed in their attempt to rob two banks simultaneously, but others accomplished this in Waterville in 1911. Nearly four thousand known vigilantes patrolled the Sunflower State during the 1920s and 1930s to combat the criminal menace. One group even had an airplane with a .50-caliber machine gun. Join author Rod Beemer for a wild ride into Kansas's tumultuous bank heist history. Some strong language and some violence.5. DBC06565 Of grave concern: Ophelia Wylde series, book 1 by Max McCoyThe Civil War is over, and many a young widow has turned to spiritualism to contact their husbands on 'the other side.' But Ophelia Wylde won't be fooled twice. After wasting her money on a phoney psychic, she decides if she can't beat 'em, join 'em. She leaves New Orleans and heads West, selling her services as a spiritual medium who speaks to the dead. By the time she reaches Dodge City, business is booming. Except for a handsome but skeptical bounty hunter named Jack Calder, no one suspects Ophelia of running a con game--until an unfortunate 'reading' of a girl who's still living exposes her to a town full of angry customers. As punishment, the mob drags Ophelia to Boot Hill and buries her alive in a fresh grave overnight. That's when the dead start speaking. To her. For real. And for dead people, they've got lots to say. Contains some descriptions of sex, some strong language, and some violence.6. DBC08730 Harvey Houses of Kansas: historic hospitality from Topeka to Syracuse by Rosa Walston LatimerStarting in Kansas, Fred Harvey's iconic Harvey House was the first to set the standard for fine dining and hospitality across the rugged Southwest. In 1876, the first of Harvey's depot restaurants opened in Topeka, followed just a few years later by the first combination hotel and restaurant in Florence. Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls introduced good food and manners to the land of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and raucous cattle drives. In her third book on the Harvey House legacy, author Rosa Walston Latimer goes back to where it all began in this history of hospitality from the Sunflower State.7. DBC05083 Time's shadow: remembering a family farm in Kansas by Arnold J. BauerArnold Bauer grew up on his family's 160-acre farm in Goshen Township in Clay County, Kansas, amidst a land of prairie grass and rich creek-bottom soil. His meditative and moving account of those years depicts a century-long narrative of struggle, survival, and demise. A coming-of-age memoir set in the 1930s to 50s, it blends local history with personal reflection to paint a realistic picture of farm life and families from a now-lost world. Contains some strong language and some violence.8. DBC06579 Shadow on the hill: the true story of a 1925 Kansas murder by Diana Staresinic-DeaneOn Decoration Day in 1925, John Knoblock returned to his Kansas farm to find his wife slaughtered on the kitchen floor. Within hours, dozens of lawmen, family members, well-meaning neighbors and gawkers paraded through the Knoblock farmstead, contaminating and destroying what little evidence was left behind. A small team of inexperienced lawmen, including a newly elected sheriff who had never run a murder investigation, attempted to reconstruct and solve the most gruesome murder in the history of Coffey County, Kansas. Adult. Some violence.9. DBC08676 The border between them: violence and reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri line by Jeremy NeelyThe author recounts the exploits of John Brown, William Quantrill, and other notorious guerrillas, as well as the stories of everyday people who lived through the conflict that marked the terrible first act of the American Civil War. He then examines how emancipation, industrialization, and immigration eventually eroded wartime divisions. Some violence.10. DBC02420 And hell followed with it: life and death in a Kansas tornado by Bonar MenningerDetailed account of the June 1966 tornado in Topeka, where property damage of $100 million made it the most destructive in U.S. history up to that time. Some violence and some strong language....

January 2025 Staff Picks

January is a fresh start to a new year. Wondering what our staff is reading this month? Some of us are rereading some of our favorite comfort reads while others are reading new books. Check out what we're reading and see if any of these will be your next read.Michael Lang, DirectorDB 119203 Orbital by Samantha Harvey"A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space-not towards the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts-from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan-have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate. So are the marks of civilization far below, encrusted on the planet on which we live." -- Provided by publisher. -- Commercial audiobook.DB 124838 Blood test by Charles Baxter"In this fresh take on love and trouble in the American heartland, Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a blood test. Baxter, a master storyteller, brings us a gradually building rollercoaster narrative, and a protagonist who is impertinent, searching, and hilariously relatable. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the excessively macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battle--no spoilers, but there is one--couldn't be more delightful, as this quick and bracing novel reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didn't choose them, and love them all well"-- Provided by publisher. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.Nataly Renfro, Machine ClerkDB 122854 The black bird oracle by Deborah Harkness"Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself--and her family history--in the highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling All Souls series. Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two other-worldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana's family line. Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family's future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It's time you came home, Diana. On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family's dark past, and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power-if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it"-- Provided by publisher. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.Ryan Lauber, Library AssistantDB 94475 Mistborn by Brondon SandersonIn the prisons of the Lord Ruler, Kelsier discovers he has the powers of the Mistborn. A brilliant thief, Kel recruits a team from the underworld's elite to challenge the Lord Ruler. It's a long shot, until Kel finds the ragged girl Vin, a half-skaa orphan like him. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2006.Jason Brinkman, Production ManagerDB 123864 The fellowship of the ring: being the first part of the lord of the rings by J. R. R. Tolkien"Frodo Baggins, a young hobbit, sets out on a perilous journey to the Cracks of Doom, along with a band of warriors from different kingdoms, to destroy the Dark Lord's Ring of Power."-- WorldCat. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.DB 123865 The two towers: being the second part of the lord of the rings by J. R. R. Tolkien"Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin-alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go."-- Goodreads. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.DB 123866 The return of the king: being the third part of the lord of the rings by J. R. R. Tolkien"Presents the adventures of the little hobbit Frodo Baggins and his trusty companion, Sam as they journey from Middle Earth to the land of the Shadow in a final reckoning with the evil power of Sauron."-- From publisher. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.Maggie Witte, Outreach LibrarianDB 113965 The Wager: a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder by David Grann"On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death-for whomever the court found guilty could hang. The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound." -- Provided by publisher. -- Some violence. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.DB 110541 A merry little meet cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone"Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star. With a huge following and two supportive moms, Bee couldn't ask for more. But when Bee's favorite producer casts her to star in a Christmas movie he's making for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, Bee's career is about to take a more family-friendly direction. Forced to keep her work as Bianca under wraps, Bee quickly learns this is a task a lot easier said than done. Though it all becomes worthwhile when she discovers her co-star is none other than childhood crush Nolan Shaw, an ex-boy band member in desperate need of career rehab. Nolan's promised his bulldog manager to keep it zipped up on set, and he will if it means he'll be able to provide a more stable living situation for his sister and mom. But things heat up quickly in Christmas Notch, Vermont, when Nolan recognizes his new co-star from her ClosedDoors account (oh yeah, he's a member). Now Bee and Nolan are sneaking off for quickies on set, keeping their new relationship a secret from the Hope Channel's execs. Things only get trickier when the reporter who torpedoed Nolan's singing career comes snooping around--and takes an instant interest in mysterious newcomer Bee. And if Bee and Nolan can't keep their off-camera romance behind the scenes, then this merry little meet cute might end up on the cutting room floor." -- Provided by publisher. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.DB 115206 Fourth wing by Rebecca Yarros"Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general-also known as her tough-as-talons mother-has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away ... because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter-like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda-because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die." -- Provided by publisher. -- Explicit descriptions of sex, some strong language, violence. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller....