2026 DCL Reading Challenge: A Favorite Author’s First BookLike this list

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• 2026 DCL Reading Challenge

  View on dcl.org

  Win a $200 gift card to Shanahan's Steakhouse in this year's random prize drawing of challenge finishers! Read any of the titles on this list, or choose your own, for your chance to win.

• The Love That Split the World

  Henry, Emily

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  Emily Henry's first books were young adult fare—this one is a fantasy novel published in 2016. It was followed by other young adult titles like "A Million Junes" and "Hello Girls" before she began writing the adult romance novels for which she is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Full Measures

  Yarros, Rebecca

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  Rebecca Yarros's first book was published in 2014 and is the first in her Flight & Glory series. It is a romance novel that follows an Army brat who finds a connection with her hockey-player neighbor after her father's death.

• A Time to Kill

  Grisham, John

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  Grisham's first novel was published in 1989. The setting and characters have recurred in many of his subsequent novels. Grisham has described the book as "very autobiographical" in that the novel's "young attorney is basically me" and the drama is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Looking for Alaska

  a Novel

  Green, John, 1977-

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  Green's first book, published in 2005, is a young adult novel about a teenager named Miles Halter who goes to boarding school in Alabama and becomes entangled with a captivating girl named Alaska. The novel won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award.

• Carrie

  King, Stephen, 1947-

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  King's first published novel, released in 1974. While he had written other novels before it, "Carrie" was the first to be published and brought him widespread recognition. The horror novel, made into a movie in 1976, is about a telekinetic teenager…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Open Season

  Box, C. J.

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  C.J. Box's first novel, published in 2001, is the first book in the Joe Pickett series. The novel introduces the protagonist, Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden who gets involved in a murder investigation.

• Throne of Glass

  Maas, Sarah J.

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  The writer of the wildly popular A Court of Thorns and Roses series published "Throne of Glass" in 2012. She started writing the novel when she was 16, initially posting chapters online under the title "Queen of Glass" on FictionPress.com before it…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Forever, Interrupted

  a Novel

  Reid, Taylor Jenkins

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  Taylor Jenkins Reid's debut novel is a contemporary romance that explores themes of love, grief and healing through the story of a young widow.

• The Intuitionist

  Whitehead, Colson, 1969-

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  Whitehead's first book is this 1999 novel that centers on the intrigue within the Department of Elevator Inspectors in a futuristic version of New York. The story follows Lila Mae Watson, the department's first Black female elevator inspector, after…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Slammed

  Hoover, Colleen

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  Before “It Ends with Us,” Hoover self-published "Slammed" in January 2012. The novel was inspired by a lyric from an Avett Brothers song and became a bestseller after being picked up by a publisher later that year. She added two more books to create…Read moreRead more of this annotation