Read Around the World: Book Voyage Reading Challenge

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Are you ready to go on an unforgettable journey from the comfort of your favorite reading chair? Throughout this year-long challenge, we’ll be your travel guides, and we’ve put together comprehensive reading lists full of great books for each geographic monthly reading prompt!

We’re calling this reading challenge Book Voyage: Read Around the World because you’ll get to experience every continent and the vastly different landscapes and cultures that make up our beautiful planet.

If you’re looking for our Read Around the World Summer Reading Challenge for Kids, you’ll find that here!

For each region, you are welcome to choose any book that you’d like. But to get you started, you’ll find links below to lists of books ranging from novels to memoirs covering a variety of cities and topics. While we love taking your reading life out of your normal comfort zone, it should also be fun. We work hard to choose a broad mix of books to suit every style, including adding a few young adult (YA) picks to each region.

For this Reading Challenge, you’ll visit a new region each month. We originally created the book lists in 2021, but as we go through 2022, they’ll be updated as we find promising new books. We also had members of our Facebook group and email list log their reading and book ratings last year, which helped us refine the lists. We’ll continue making updates throughout the year, so be sure to revisit the applicable list each month!

Book Voyage Challenge Schedule

Click the month below to get our reading suggestions for each region.

• January: Arctic & Antarctic
• February: Western Europe
• March: Eastern Europe & Russia
• April: Books Set on an Island
• May: Northern Asia
• June: Southern Asia
• July: Australia & New Zealand
• August: Middle East
• September: Africa
• October: South America
• November: North America
• December: Books Spanning Multiple Continents

Each list contains a mix of enjoyable contemporary fiction, historical fiction, memoirs full of locals’ own experiences in the region, and other highly rated books from a variety of locations within the region. We always try to include light options for months when you’re busy or stressed, along with some deeper reads.

The variety of book options makes it easy to mix this challenge with your other reading goals. You’ll also find many potential book club picks on each list. We love hearing from groups that have opted to follow our year-long reading challenge together!

Additionally, each list contains a blend of new releases and books that are a little older, which means they’ll be more likely to be available at your local library. We check each book through our library systems and aim to have at least 70% of each list easily accessible

We hope you’ll have a great time reviewing each post and adding new books to your reading list.

Do you share books on Instagram?
Use #bookvoyagechallenge when you post your challenge book so we can see what you read.

@READWITHTHEBOOKGIRLS

Don’t worry if you found this challenge on social media well after the start of the new year, you’re welcome to join at any point.

Just jump into the current month and then work in the others. While we’re making a geographic circle, unlike the Decades Challenge, this one works just as well out of order.

Happy travels and happy reading!

IMPORTANT NOTE: We took some liberties in dividing up the regions to create a 12 book challenge, so don’t give our map to your kids for a geography test. For example, Russia is located partially in Europe and partially in Asia, but for our purposes, it is grouped with Europe – East. Oceania is part of Australia, but we’re including the smaller island-nations in our island month along with other islands around the globe. There are other examples within our divisions of the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find the book lists each month?

The BEST way is to join the email list. We also publish the links in our Facebook group, but sometimes Facebook doesn’t show every post to every group member promptly. The final option is to return to this post each month.


Can I choose my own book?

Absolutely! You can choose any book from our list, or any other book that meets the challenge prompt for that month. In fact, if you really enjoy an off-list book you select, we’d love to hear about it on this form. Keep in mind that if you want to participate in our monthly book discussion groups, those are created for a sub-set of books from the list.

Can I recommend a book for a future month?

We always love book recommendations! If there’s a book you think we should know about for one of the upcoming age ranges, tell us about it using this form. Please only recommend books that you’ve already read

Can I also do the Decades & Lifetime of Reading Challenges?

Yes! In fact, you’ll be in great company. We’ll be doing all the challenges in 2022 ourselves and we’ve already heard from many in the Facebook group that plan to join them again as well. Depending on your reading goals, you can do just one of the challenges per year, or complete them in any combination.

Can I join the Challenges after January?

Absolutely! You can join our year-long reading challenge at any time. You’re welcome to simply pick up from the month where you join, or you can go back and start at the beginning. How you choose to participate is totally up to you, so there’s no such thing as being behind and any month can be a great time to start! If you’re a voracious reader, you can double up and complete multiple prompts in one month. Sometimes people jump in and start with the current month’s theme, while also picking a second book from earlier in the year. But really, no pressure from us, we’re happy for you to join in whenever and wherever!

Remind me again, how do I get the printable map book tracker?

To get the printable reading log, along with email notifications when each month’s book list is ready, just fill out the form email form in the box above the breakdown of monthly regions. If you’re already on the email list, it’s okay to fill it out again for this year’s tracker (you won’t end up getting double emails from us).

What if I signed up, but didn’t receive the email?

Sometimes our emails might get trapped in your spam filter. If you signed up, but haven’t received the email with the printable reading tracker, be sure to check your spam folder. To keep future emails out of the spam folder, be sure to add our email address to your address book, or drag our emails over to your Primary tab in Gmail. If you’ve checked your spam folder and still don’t see the email from us, then please send us a quick email to hello(at)bookgirlsguide(dot)com and we’ll get it sorted out for you as quickly as we can.

Can we use the challenge for our book club?

Absolutely! We’ve had several book clubs use our challenges and reading prompts to help guide their book selections throughout the year. Give each member a link to the list and let them vote on their top 3 options to help narrow down the book suggestions before making the final decision.

Is this group only for girls?

Not at all! We welcome all to read with us. The “Book Girls” refers to us – two friends who love books and wanted to help guide and inspire other readers. You can read more about how this site started and who we are at the beginning of our books about friendship post.

Love reading as much as we do?
Join us for more free content, reading challenges, and discussion in the Book Girls’ Guide Facebook Group!