Reading hard during a hard year
Today Book Riot announced its 2026 Read Harder Challenge . I look forward to this annual announcement and immediately start considering what books I might read for which challenges. Last month I finished the 2025 Read Harder Challenge , making this the eighth year in a row I've completed the 24 reading prompt challenge. While I worked through this year's read harder challenge, 2025 proved particularly hard on all fronts—personal, professional, and health. The health challenges have not been my own but have been impacting my immediate family. Despite not writing any blog posts this year, I wanted to do my annual post to share the books I read for the challenge. Below are the covers of the 24 books I read and a challenge-by-challenge list follows. Read Harder Challenge 2025 Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) author - Written in the Waters by Tara Roberts * I learned about this book through Elizabeth Gilbert's Onward Book Club . There is a...