“As part of GGI’s 10 birthday celebrations we officially launched the Girl Gone International Global Book Club. This new online Global Book Club sits alongside our 70 local book clubs across the world which offer in-real-life monthly events in cities across the world.
The Global Book Club will operate in multiple languages, across the globe – putting women at the centre of the story alongside the topics that bind us such as immigration, travel, movement, displacement, adventure, female empowerment, friendship, and languages.
During the pandemic and global lockdowns, books have been an escape, a safe way to travel to new worlds.
“Books have always been a comfort and learning tool for me. Sharing my love of books through my involvement with the Girl Gone International Book Clubs has helped me navigate the pandemic in Abu Dhabi, far from my family in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The experience has served as inspiration for a new tradition – the Girl Gone International first annual Global Reading Challenge!”
This list of unique and inclusive book prompts was lovingly created by our global team of Girl Gone International Book Club Leaders to reflect the values and guiding principles of our global community of womxn.
‘[a] good friend is a connection to life—a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.’ – Lois Wyse, Women Make the Best Friends: A Celebration
global reading challenge
- The Global Book Club Challenge consists of 12 book prompts, with the aim of averaging one book prompt per month from the main Reading Challenge list. Bookworms have the option of completing the Bonus list too, for a total of 24 prompts for the year.
- There is no pressure to read a separate book per prompt, or to complete the entire list. The rules are made to be flexible. This is your challenge. You can choose one book that meets multiple prompts, or focus only on one of the columns. Seriously, it’s up to you!
- The goal of the prompts is to get you out of your comfort zone by reading a book from a genre, author or context that is not often found amongst your usual to be read pile. Challenge yourself to read quality materials on topics of importance to our Girl Gone International lifestyles.
- Have fun! Share your progress and ideas for books that fit each topic with each other.
Accomplish your 2021 reading goals
- Download the 2021 Girl Gone International Reading Challenge
- See if there’s a local Girl Gone International Book Club near you
- Join the Girl Gone International Global Book Club on Facebook – a community of like-minded, international womxn who also just happen to be bookworms.


By April Lane
April is a High School English & Drama teacher, a wannabe photographer, and an avid reader with a passion for travel. This combo spurred her love for travelling and teaching abroad from Canada to South Korea, to Canada again, and eventually to UAE where she presently resides. By good fortune, she found the Abu Dhabi Girl Gone International community where she seamlessly joined the team as both co-manager of the main group and the Book Club.