The Phoenix Book Challenge is in month three of twelve and we are gaining steam! Online reading challenges have helped even the busiest readers get through those TBR piles! A quick internet search will bring up hundreds of results, ensuring there is a challenge for every taste. We want to share with you some of what our #PhxBookChallenge readers have said about their picks so far.

In February, the winner of our Bookmans Box (congrats Marta!) read five new titles including The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (which also happens to be our March Back Room Book Club pick). Marta says, “I liked her family and how supportive they were of each other. It seemed like the author tried to break some stereotypes, with the police officer uncle living in a nice neighborhood and the father owning a store. I didn’t like the sub-story of her and her brother attending a school in a different neighborhood, it just didn’t ring true to me. The suburban school was full of stereotypes and let Starr hide behind “her other side” instead of speaking out.”

She also read, Me Before You (pink cover), The Westing Game (childhood book), The Book Case (set in a bookstore), and The Frog Prince, a fairy tale retold. Marta would recommend 4 out of the 5 titles. She noted The Westing Game is “just too confusing, especially considering it is aimed at a young audience.”

Other February picks recommended were Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, Dark Matter, Trevor Noah: Born A Crime, Dorothy Must Die, Griffin and Sabine, and The Old Man and the Sea.

If you find yourself needing a bit of a nudge, take a look at our Phoenix Book Challenge list! We are all about promoting literacy to all ages and don’t mind giving you incentives to do so! Each month, we will give away one Bookmans Box curated by a member of our staff. It will include a medley of merchandise that only a Bookmans employee could imagine. Stay tuned to our social media feeds to find out more and peek at the winner’s Bookmans Boxes!  Maybe you will be the March #PhxBookChallenge winner!