Reading Throughout A Year of Change

When the new year started we still had contractors at the house, installing the tile floors and doing the stucco finish. We were emptying the rental and the connex as finished spaces in the house allowed. I'd received my tentative job offer from the U.S. Department of Agriculture just before Christmas and had a start date at the end of February. Work on the house continued throughout the year, the largest project being new porches constructed during the summer. 

I went on three work trips, one to Northern California and two back to Washington D.C. We went to Colorado to see family and hosted friends from Italy for three weeks. We've had a handful of other house guests, a few gatherings with our neighbors, and my parents have moved to Arizona after more than two decades living in Nebraska. It has been a FULL year. 

During all that I have been slowly checking off my Read Harder challenges for 2023, finishing the challenge yesterday, November 17. This is my sixth year in a row completing the challenge. I continue to like the prompts and the intent of the challenge, getting you to read books/genres you might normally not.

Just a few themes to mention before we dive into the full list. I continue to read books recommended by Elizabeth Gilbert, as part of her Onward Book Club. I read three for the challenge: The Light of the World, Rest is Resistance, and We are never meeting in real life. I read several books that were either completely or partially set here in Arizona: The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, The Forgotten Botanist, In the Shadows of the Freeway, and Coming Home to Eat. I wrote a blog post earlier this year about several of those books. Here is the link if you'd like to go read it.   

Here is an image of the 24 books I read for the 2023 challenge. The full list is below.

Read a novel about a trans character written by a trans author - The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar.    

Read one of your favorite author's favorite books - The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander. One of my favorite books of the year. I might write a separate post about this book and others that I've read this year that deal with death and grief. A reoccurring theme in much of my reading this year.  

Read a book about activism - All We Can Save by Various Authors.  

Read a book that's been challenged recently in your school district/library OR read one of the most-challenged/banned books of the year by a queer and/or BIPOC author - The 1619 Project by Various Authors. I wrote this quote by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of this book, in my journal: "If we are a truly great nation, the truth cannot destroy us." I want to read several books a year that challenge and broaden my understanding of our national history. I follow Equal Justice Initiative on Instagram and on November 10 they posted about a mob that overthrew Wilmington, North Carolina's city government in 1898. A book called Wilmington's Lie won the Pulitzer last year. I've put that book on my reading list. Another book I hope to read next year is called Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk

Read a completed webcomic - Check Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

Finish a book you've DNFed [Did Not Finish] - Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther

Listen to an audiobook performed by a POC of a book written by an AOC - Hunger by Roxane Gay. I don't usually listen to audiobooks but I did enjoy Hunger, which is read by the author. The book is extremely personal so I think listening to the author read it makes it all the more powerful.

Read a graphic novel/comic/manga if you haven't before; or read one that is a different genre than you normally read - Ducks by Kate Beaton

Read an independently published book by a BIPOC author - In the Shadows of the Freeway by Lydia Otero. I think anyone who has lived in Tucson, Arizona should read this book. It's the story of a family but told against this larger backdrop of citizenry (who matters) and the negative consequences city planning and development can have on the most vulnerable in our communities.

Read a book you know nothing about based solely on the cover - We are never meeting in real life by Samantha Irby

Read a cookbook cover to cover - A Place at the Table by Kelly Minter with Regina Pinto

Read a nonfiction book about BIPOC and/or queer history - The Crusades of Cesar Chavez by Miriam Pawell. I spent a lot of time thinking about which book I'd read for this challenge.  For a while I was pretty certain I'd read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. As a new USDA employee though I settled on this book because I knew who Cesar Chavez was but I knew nothing about his life or the farm workers labor movement. 

Read an author local to you - Coming Home to Eat by Gary Paul Nabhan

Read a book with under 500 Goodreads ratings - Corked by Cabernet by Michelle Scott

Read a historical fiction book set in an Eastern country - Peony in Love by Lisa See

Read a romance with bisexual representation - I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee

Read a YA book by an Indigenous author - Those Pink Mountain Nights by Jen Ferguson

Read a comic or graphic novel that features disability representation - Marbles by Ellen Forney. This is going to be such a random note but is anyone watching the latest season of The Great British Bakeoff? There is a deaf contestant named Tasha and she's made it to the quarter finals. There are two episodes left. She's been doing such a great job and I've been cheering on the show for making this wonderful casting decision. Just think of all those deaf children who are watching her compete every week and thinking Bakeoff is something they could do too. So awesome!   

Read a nonfiction book about intersectional feminism - Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

Read a book of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author - How to Love a Country by Richard Blanco

Read a book of short stories - Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver

Read any book from the Ignyte awards shortlisted/longlisted/winner list - Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Read a social horror, mystery, or thriller novel - When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole. I've read several of Alyssa's books and I always enjoy her writing. She normally writes romance, modern and historical, so this is a bit of a departure but it's good. 

Read a challenge from any of the previous years' challenges to repeat - I chose 'Read a nonfiction book about science' from the 2016 Challenge.  I didn't start doing the Read Harder challenge until 2018 so this wasn't one I'd done before. I don't read a lot of books about science so I thought this would be a good category for me. I read Wynne Brown's book The Forgotten Botanist.  

So there it is. My 2023 Read Harder books. I've just got one more book to read in December for my Unread Shelf challenge and I'll have successfully completed both. I've got a new batch of books to pick up at the library next week. Reading entirely what I want through the rest of the year. Yay! While it always feels great to have the challenge over, I'm looking forward to seeing what the prompts will be for 2024.  

As always, leave a comment if you have a questions about a specific book.

I thought I'd share this photo I took this morning. Daisy insisted on being in my lap, which made my typing angle a bit awkward, but I'll never turn down snuggle time with our girl! 

Supervised blog writing

Keep Reading!