Read Harder Challenge Update: The Books

Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

I am participating in Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge for 2019.  In past years, I would set a goal that was just a random number of books I wanted to read for the year.  This challenge is meant to stretch you and push you out of your genre comfort zones in an effort to expand your horizons.  I don’t think I understood just how much it would stretch me and how specific the book categories would get.  Thankfully, there’s a Goodreads discussion group that helped out tremendously with suggestions.

My only stipulations were that I had to already own it or it had to be available at the library.  If there were multiple books within a category that were available, I mostly chose the shortest ebook.  With two classes this semseter, I don’t really have time to read a 600-page book.

Behold, my list!  Note: Struckthrough items are already read (Go me!)

1. An epistolary novel or collection of letters: still undecided but either The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis or The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary
   Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
2. An alternate history novel: The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal
3. A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018: Severance by Ling Ma
4. A humor book – Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
5. A book by a journalist or about journalism: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
6. A book by an AOC set in or about space: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
7. An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
8. An #ownvoices book set in Oceania: Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington
9. A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads: Urban Apologetics by Christopher Brooks
10. A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman: The Live-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
11. A book of manga: She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai and Tsubasa Yamaguchi
12. A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character: Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
13. A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
14. A cozy mystery: Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
15. A book of mythology or folklore: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (heaven help me)
16. A historical romance by an AOC: Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz
17. A business book – Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
18. A novel by a trans or nonbinary author: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
19. A book of nonviolent true crime: The Library Book by Susan Orlean
20. A book written in prison: Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
21. A comic by an LGBTQIA creator: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
22. A children’s or middle-grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009: I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley
23. A self-published book: Until the End of the World by Sarah Lyons Fleming
24. A collection of poetry published since 2014: The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace and ladybookmad

And there you have it.  There are some of these categories I’m looking forward to more than others, but I’m excited about how I’ll be challenged.

It’s not too late to join me!!