2019 Reading Challenges

This year I’m going to avoid signing up for any new challenges, but will continue with the ones I enjoyed most last year.

The TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Roof Beam Reader, asks you to take 12 books, plus two alternates, that have been on your TBR list for over a year.  I often find some of my favorite reads through this challenge.  Last year I only read six books from the list, so I’m continuing five books onto my list this year.  I’m concentrating on books by diverse authors, and also books that I already own.  Hopefully some of these can also count towards other challenges.

1. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
3. Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
4. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
5. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
6. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
7. Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
8. Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
9. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
10. The Gowk Storm by Nancy Brysson Morrison
11. How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
12. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
13. Alternate: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
14. Alternate: The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge

The Read Harder Challenge, by Book Riot, is a list of 24 categories designed to push you to read different types of books.  I first did this challenge in 2018 and loved it.  Most of the categories were easy to complete but as the year went on, I really pushed myself to complete each one and read some great books as a result.  This year’s list looks a lot more difficult because of its specificity, but there’s a Goodreads discussion group for each item that provides a lot of helpful suggestions.  I haven’t figured out yet what I’ll read for each category, although hopefully some of my other challenge books will work towards this one.

1. An epistolary novel or collection of letters
2. An alternate history novel
3. A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018
4. A humor book
5. A book by a journalist or about journalism
6. A book by an AOC set in or about space (The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard)
7. An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America
8. An #ownvoices book set in Oceania
9. A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads (The Gowk Storm)
10. A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman
11. A book of manga
12. A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character
13. A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse (The Kiss Quotient or Animals in Translation)
14. A cozy mystery
15. A book of mythology or folklore (Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik)
16. An historical romance by an AOC (A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole)
17. A business book
18. A novel by a trans or nonbinary author
19. A book of nonviolent true crime
20. A book written in prison
21. A comic by an LGBTQIA creator
22. A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009
23. A self-published book
24. A collection of poetry published since 2014

In 2018 I read 22 books for the Doing Dewey Nonfiction Reading Challenge.  So this year I’ll be back!  My goal will be 25 books.  Some of the nonfiction I plan to read includes:

• How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
• Duel with the Devil by Paul Collins
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
• Born Survivors by Wendy Holden
• The Library Book by Susan Orleans
• The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Megan Mullaly and Nick Offerman
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
• Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
• Dopesick by Beth Macy
• Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
• The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed
• We Fed an Island by Jose Andres
• Make Trouble by Cecile Richards
• The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
• Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

I didn’t do so well with classics last year, but I’ll continue to work towards the Back to the Classics challenge by reading at least six books.  I know I want to read Les Miserables, and I also want to read books by Anthony Trollope and Evelyn Waugh.  I’d like to read more by Wharton and Eliot, and I’d like to read classic science fiction by Ursula LeGuin and Octavia Butler.  If I get that far, I’ll need some help coming up with the last few categories.  Suggestions?

• 19th Century Classic: The Mill on the Floss
• 20th Century Classic: Brideshead Revisited
• Classic by a Woman Author: Left Hand of Darkness
• Classic in Translation: Les Miserables
• Classic Comic Novel: The Warden
• Classic Tragic Novel: Anna Karenina
• Very Long Classic: Bleak House
• Classic Novella: The Gowk Storm
• Classic From the Americas (includes the Caribbean).
• Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia).
• Classic From a Place You’ve Lived.
• Classic Play.

I’m going to continue with the Feed Your Fiction Addition Book Blog Discussion Challenge, because it’s always good to write more book discussion posts.

And last, I’ll continue with the Reading All Around the World challenge, hosted by Howling Frog, where you choose at least 50 countries and read books set in those countries and written by people who live there.  This is a multi-year challenge I started in 2017.  My goal is to reach 50 countries by 2021, or 10 new countries a year (I added 12 this year).  I also like The Reader’s Room Read Around the World Challenge, where a random country is selected each month.

Here’s what I’ve already read.  Only countries not on this list will count, and a majority of the book has to be set there.

1. Argentina: Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht
2. Bulgaria: The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova
3. Canada: The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
4. Chile: In the Distance with You by Carla Guelfenbein
5. China: What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan
6. Colombia: The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
7. France: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
8. Ghana: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
9. Greece: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
10. Haiti: An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
11. India: Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
12. Iran: The Last Days of Cafe Leila by Donia Bijan
13. Ireland: The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
14. Jamaica: Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
15. Japan: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
16. Nigeria: Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
17. Poland: We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
18. Russia: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
19. Serbia: Miss Ex-Yugoslavia by Sofija Stefanovic
20. Scotland: The Long Drop by Denise Mina
21. South Africa: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
22. Uganda: The Atlas of Forgotten Places by Jenny D. Williams
23. United Kingdom: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
24. Vietnam: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Those are my challenges for the year! Will you be participating in any of these?  And which challenges are you looking forward to?