Thoughts on My Third 'Read Harder' Challenge

Escaped into any good books lately?  Has reading helped you survive 2020?  With two months to spare, I finished the Book Riot 2020 Read Harder Challenge.  Completing all 24 challenges for the third year in a row.  I'm already stalking the Book Riot website waiting for the 2021 challenge to be posted.  It usually goes up in early December.

I enjoy looking over the new challenge.  Identifying books I might read for each category.  My process remains unchanged.  I look first at the books I own.  Then I review my "Wish List" of books I want to read and then ultimately do internet searches.

This year I had to do a fair amount of online research.  My searches included: Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author.  Read a debut novel by a queer author.  Read a food book about a cuisine you've never tried before.  Read a book about climate change.  Read a sci-fi/fantasy novella (under 120 pages).  Read a picture book with a human main character from a marginalized community.  Read a book by or about a refugee.  Read a horror book published by an indie press.  Read a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author.

Just the search.  Reading articles and reviews.  Fulfills the purpose of the challenge.  To broaden your reading life.  Finding authors and books you otherwise wouldn't.  Because I know we all have genres or authors we gravitate towards and without a bit of prodding may not venture too far from our preferences.  Do you have a favorite genre?  

So here are the books from my 2020 Read Harder Challenge.  With just a bit of commentary.  

Read a Young Adult nonfiction book: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. 

Read a retelling of a classic of the canon, fairy tale, or myth by an author of color: A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole.  I read my first Alyssa Cole book for the 2018 Read Harder Challenge.  I continue to enjoy her books. 

Read a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman: The English Assassin by Daniel Silva.  Snagged this from my mom when I was home for Christmas last year.  She reads a lot of mysteries and I had to look through a LOT of books to find one that didn't have a female victim. 

Read a graphic memoir: They Called Us Enemy by George Takei.  Highly recommend this book.  Shines a light on the rarely discussed internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. 

Read a book about a natural disaster: The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.

Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author: The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman.

Read a historical fiction novel not set in WWII: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.  I'm glad I read this classic but didn't particularly like it.  A lot of it takes place in the region of Italy where we live so I did enjoy that aspect of the novel 

Read an audiobook of poetry: Celebrations by Maya Angelou.  Didn't really understand this challenge.  I ultimately picked a book of poetry that had an accompanying audio book and read the book. 

Read the LAST book in a series: Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton.  I read the first couple alphabet mystery books by Grafton back in the late 90s.  I hadn't read one since.  Knowing that Grafton died a few years ago I thought I'd revisit the series and read her last novel.  Hard for me to put my finger on it but I didn't enjoy this book.  I felt like the author was leading me a bit too much.  And it felt like a long read but I hung in there and finished it.     

Read a book that takes place in a rural setting: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.  An ending that did surprise me - although in retrospect there was some clear foreshadowing.  A love letter to nature and a unique exploration of natural instinct.  I enjoyed this book and celebrate Owens for publishing her first book of fiction when she was nearly 70.  There is hope!  :-)  

Read a debut novel by a queer author: Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett.  A book that strongly invokes place, character and time.  I never would have chosen to read a book about a father - daughter taxidermist business in central Florida without this challenge.  But I'm really glad I did.  It's heartbreaking and a bit dark but deep and moving.      

Read a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own: Reconciliation by Benazir Bhutto.

Read a food book about a cuisine you've never tried before: Day of Honey by Annia Ciezadlo.

Read a romance starring a single parent: The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers.

Read a book about climate change: The Story of More by Hope Jahren.  Book I think everyone should read.  I wrote a blog post about it earlier this year. Clink on link if you want to read it. 

Read a doorstopper (over 500 pages) published after 1950, written by a woman: Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford.  The book I'm most proud of finishing.  Along with Nancy Milford's other book Zelda, Savage Beauty has been on my bookshelf a VERY, VERY LONG time.  I even started to read it a while back but never got that far into it.  A tour de force biography of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.  She is the poet who coined the phrase - 'my candle burns at both ends.' 

Read a sci-fi/fantasy novella (under 120 pages): Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang.  This is the short story that the movie Arrival was based on.  I'm not sure it qualifies as a novella but it came up during my web searches.  With some heftier books in the mix I gladly took a bit of an easy pass on this one.   

Read a picture book with a human main character from a marginalized community: Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love.

Read a book by or about a refugee: First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung.  An incredible true story that makes you marvel at what a child can endure.   

Read a middle grade book that doesn't take place in the US or the UK: The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani.

Read a book with a main character or protagonist with a disability (fiction or non): The Unheard by Josh Swiller.

Read a horror book published by an indie press: Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman.  This is the challenge I was dreading.  I do not read horror aside from a few Stephen King books and a book or two by Dean Koontz back when I was in college.  I enjoyed the writing - descriptive, smart and darkly humorous.  But the book totally lost me once the true identify of those across the river was revealed.  

Read an edition of a literary magazine (digital or physical): Tin House (Vol. 6 Number 4).

Read a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author: Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo.   

Hopefully this list provides some inspiration.  A book or two you might be interested in reading.  If you have a questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.  I'm always happy to share what I think about the books I've read.  

Last year I set a record for how many books I read in a single year - 64.  I'm two books shy of passing that number.  And with one more month before year's end, I have a feeling I'll be able to read another 4 or 5 books before we all get to ring in a new year.

Happy Reading!