24 Books that Make Me 4 for 4

With only 10 days to spare I finished the 2021 Read Harder Challenge, making this the fourth year in a row that I've completed the challenge.  I've also been doing the monthly Unread Shelf challenge and Liz Gilbert's Onward Book Club.  At times it's felt like a lot of assigned homework but I've read some really great books.  I tried to read books that checked the block on more than one challenge but that only turned out to be a few.      

So here are the 24 books I read for the Read Harder challenge with a bit of commentary below.  I hope that you'll be inspired to read a book or two.  If so, please leave me a comment and let me know which one you plan on reading.  

Read Harder Challenge 2021

Read a book you've been intimidated to read: 'A Problem From Hell': America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power.  This book also took care of the Unread Shelf challenge in October:   Read a book you're secretly afraid of.  I have owned this book for more than 10 years, and I'm really glad I finally took it on.  I created a reading schedule (at least 30 pages a day) to ensure I finished the book in one month.   

Read a nonfiction book about anti-racism: The Fire this Time (Essay Collection edited by Jesmyn Ward).  Jesmyn Ward's book Sing, Unburied, Sing is an Onward Book Club selection.  I didn't get to that book this year but I did read this essay collection that she edited.  I think this is probably one of the most important books I read this year and I would highly recommend it.  I would also recommend listening to Ward's conversation with Liz Gilbert.  Great conversation about Sing, Unburied, Sing but also about the craft of writing.  Here is the link.      

Read a non-European novel in translation: Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi

Read an LGBTQ+ history book: A Wild and Precious Life by Edie Windsor

Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author: The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich.  This book and two other Erdrich books were saved in my Amazon 'Wish List' of books I want to read.  It was recommended I read this one first, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year.  The main character is based on Erdrich's grandfather, who led the fight against Native American dispossession in the 1950s, when a bill was proposed in the U.S. Congress to 'terminate' the treaty with several tribes, including his - the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa.    

Read a fanfic: Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir (story) and Sarah Andersen (illustrations)

Read a fat-positive romance: Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson

Read a romance by a trans or nonbinary author: If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Read a middle grade mystery: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (Various Authors).  Fifteen Retellings of Asian Myths and Legends. 

Read a food memoir by an author of color: Aphrodite by Isabel Allende

Read a work of investigative nonfiction by an author of color: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom.  This was a unicorn of a book - checking the block on all three challenges.  An Onward Book Club selection, which I read for Read Harder and the June Unread Shelf challenge: Read a book bought in a spending spree.  While this is an investigative nonfiction book that delves into how housing for black Americans was permitted to be built in an industrial area of New Orleans and in wetlands, an area later devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  But the book is also a beautiful memoir about Broom's family.  I would highly recommend reading this book and listening to the interview between Liz Gilbert and Sarah M. Broom.  Here is the link to the YouTube video.     

Read a book with a cover you don't like: Talking to Myself by Studs Terkel.  Well a cover I didn't like seems fitting for my least favorite book of the challenge.  Fortunately it did knock out two challenges - this one and the April Unread Shelf challenge: Read a book from a used bookstore. 

Read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada: The Cat I Never Named by Amra Sabic-el-Rayess.  This isn't just a realistic YA book; it's a nonfiction YA book.  Sabic-el-Rayess recounts her teenage experience during the years-long Bosnian War.  Probably one of my favorite books of the year.    

Read a memoir by a Latinx author: In the Country We Love by Diane Guerrero

Read an own voices book about disability: Haben by Haben Girma.  Haben shares her experience as a deafblind woman and her pursuit of a law degree at Harvard.  Really inspiring!  

Read an own voices YA book with a Black main character that isn't about Black pain: You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Read a book by/about a non-Western world leader: The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming.  When I was a child I remember a made-for-TV movie that explored the mystery of Anastasia -- the Romanov daughter who some suspected might have survived the assassination of her entire royal family at the fall of Imperial Russia.  This theory was debunked this century when the bodies of the missing Romanovs were found in a separate burial location.  I found this book to be a great introduction to the last ruling Romanov family and also a cautionary tale about manipulation, hubris, and the dangers of an ever growing gap between the ruling and the ruled.

Read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.  So happy to finally read my first Lisa See book.  This is a beautiful book and is one of the few that made me cry. 

Read a book of nature poems: A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver.  Whenever I'm doing a web search to find recommendations on poetry books...Mary Oliver's name ALWAYS comes up.  This was my first time reading one of her works.  I saved a lot of quotes from her poems in my book journal.  I was only going to share one but I think I might share a few.  Some seem very appropriate as we approach the start of a new year.  A time of great reflection.  Perhaps one of these will resonate with you.   

"And therefore who would cry out to the petals on the ground to stay, knowing as we must, how the vivacity of what was is married to the vitality of what will be?"  ~ Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness

"I try to be good but sometimes a person just has to break out and act like the wild and springy thing one used to be.  It's impossible not to remember wild and want it back."  ~ Green, Green is My Sister's House

"Stillness.  One of the doors into the temple."  ~ Today

Read a children's book that centers a disabled character but not their disability: What Stars are Made Of by Sarah Allen

Read a book set in the Midwest: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.  I've had Robinson books on my TBR list for ten years and this is the first one I've actually read.  I hope to read the rest of the series: Home, Lila, and Jack but I'm glad I finally checked Gilead off. 

Read a book that demystifies a common mental illness: Dog Medicine by Julie Barton.  An honest exploration of debilitating depression and how a very special golden retriever helped save Barton's life. 

Read a book featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn't die: Nala's World by Dean Nicholson.  I started following Dean Nicholson's 1bike1world account on Instagram after searching for pet books where the beloved pet doesn't die in the end.  I have really enjoyed keeping up with him and Nala.  She is truly a special cat.     

So there it is.  Another year of reading harder.  I've already saved the 2022 challenge.  Looks like another good one.  If you're interested in joining, you can find the list of 24 challenges at the following link.

Keep Reading!