Another year of reading hard

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Saturday I finished the 2024 Read Harder Challenge with nearly two months to spare. It's the seventh year in a row that I've completed the challenge. Typically I try to read as many of my own books for the different challenges but this year I was only able to complete five with books I already own. I completed the rest thanks to my local libraries. 

Here are the covers for all the books I read and the list of challenges is below.    

2024 Read Harder Challenge

Read a cozy fantasy book - A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.    

Read a YA book by a trans author - Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings.  

Read a middle grade horror novel - The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf.

Read a history book by a BIPOC author - Homecoming: The Story of African-American Farmers by Charlene Gilbert and Quinn Eli. . 

Read a sci-fi novella - Very Far Away from Anywhere by Ursula Le Guin. While a novella and a book by Ursula Le Guin, who typically writes sci-fi, this book is NOT sci-fi. As I was reading it, I kept waiting for the twist but it never happened. I still read it for this particular challenge so it's staying on the list.

Read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main charcter - King and the Dragon Flies by Kacen Callenda.

Read an indie published collection of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author - The Tradition by Jericho Brown. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2020. 

Read a book in translation from a country you've never visited - Liliana's Invincible Summer (El invencible verano de Liliana) by Cristina Rivera Garza. Won the Pulitzer Price for Memoir / Autobiography in 2024. This is probably one of my favorite books of the challenge. Cristina's sister Liliana was murdered on July 16, 1990 in Mexico City where she was attending university. Cristina returns to Mexico City in 2019 and tries to reconstruct what happened to her sister using her sister's journals, interviews with friends and family, and news & police reports.  

Read a book recommended by a librarian - Circe by Madeline Miller. I read Madeline Miller's other book The Song of Achilles a few years ago and have been wanting to read Circe. It's really well done. I love Miller's descriptive writing and rich & creative retelling of Greek mythology.  

Read a historical fiction book by an Indigenous author - Code Talkers by Joseph Bruchac. If you are interested in World War II Navajos Code Talkers, this is a great book to start with. I really enjoyed it.   

Read a picture book published in the last five years - Lambslide by Ann Patchett.

Read a genre book (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) by a disabled author - True Biz by Sara Novic. I highly recommend this book. I've never read anything quite like it. The central story line happens at a school for the deaf. Sprinkled throughout the book are sections where you learn a bit about deaf history and culture and sign language.  

Read a comic that has been banned - Maus by Art Spiegelman. Winner of the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. I've long wanted to read this book, and I was familiar with its history of often being banned. Having read it, I'm not certain why that's the case. I can only assume it's because it's about the Holocaust. This is a sobering and powerful book that more people should be reading, not less.

Read a book by an author with an upcoming event (virtual or in person) and then attend the event - The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo. Kate DiCamillo attended the Tucson Festival of Books in March 2024. I got into one of her author events and she's as wonderful as you'd hope.

Read a YA nonfiction book - The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown.

Read a book based solely on the title - Dying of Politeness by Geena Davis.

Read a book about media literacy - Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. This is probably the book I recommended to the most people after reading. I think everyone living in today's digital age would get important and helpful take aways from this book. 

Read a book about drag or queer artistry - Workin' It! by RuPaul. 

Read a romance with neurodivergent characters - A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole. I've read several Alyssa Cole books for my Read Harder challenges through the years and she NEVER lets me down. I always enjoy her writing and storytelling.

Read a book about books (fiction or nonfiction) - Words Are My Matter by Ursula Le Guin.

Read any book that went under the radar in 2023 - The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland.

Read a manga or manhwa - What's Michael: A Hard Day's Life by Makoto Kobayashi.

Read a howdunit or whydunit mystery - The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. 

Pick a challenge from any of the previous years' challenges to repeat - For this challenge I selected Read a book about religion from 2016. I read Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber. A pastor who occasionally curses is not for everyone, I know, but this is a REALLY good book. 

So there's my completed list for 2024. It feels great putting a big ole check mark next to this year's challenge. The prompts for 2025 will be out in December. Until then, I'll just be sitting here on the hill...reading whatever I want through the end of the year!

Keep Reading!  

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 12, 2024 at 5:56 PM

    Thank you Nicole! I love reading about the challenge & seeing the books you've chosen. How much time do you spend choosing the books?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karen RiggsNovember 12, 2024 at 5:58 PM

    The above comment was me. Didn't notice the anonymous until I'd hit send.

    ReplyDelete

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