I know I've said I was going to skip Book Riot's 2016 Read Harder Challenge. I know I said I loved 2015's but I wanted a bit of a break to be free and read all the things, and that's true, but I love that the challenge makes me read new things and I love that it motivates me to read when I don't feel like it and I love that it's an attainable goal for me. 2016's challenge has some great categories and the NYPL's list of recommendations is beautiful, so as you might have suspected I can't resist. It's not even 2016 yet and I'm already jumping on the bandwagon.
This year I made the mistake of making a list of books that fit the categories and trying to stick to it. That didn't work for me. I need to be able to pick up a book on a whim, not necessarily spontaneously, but it has to appeal to me in the moment, and having a pre-set list doesn't allow that to happen. So instead, this year I'm making a list of books by challenge category to use as a jumping off place, which means I'm going to keep looking for new books to add to the list (recommendations are welcome!). I can't promise I'll update this list since I've learned I'm not so great at that, but at least this is a place to start. I'm hoping to have a recommendations post up within the next couple of weeks, so look out for that if you're interested.
So far I've taken suggestions from the shelves of the Read Harder Goodreads group (which are an awesome resource. I can't wait till the 2016 shelves go up.), my own TBR lists (off the top of my head so these may not be the most accurate), and the NYPL list I've linked above. Google, Slate, and NPR are also good sources, but I haven't checked them out yet since I'm trying to save some of the excitement for the new year.
I've copied over my abbreviated challenge category titles to use; for the original (i.e. full) wording check out the announcement post on the Book Riot blog(linked above). For my own reference, books marked with asterisks are books I own physical copies of.
Horror
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
Undeniable by Madeline Sheehan
The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber
Making of Mr Gray's Anatomy by Ruth Richardson
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Infested : How the Bed Bug Infiltrated our Bedrooms and Took Over the World by Brooke Borel
Essay Collection
Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay
Nothing if not Critical: Essays on Art and Artists by Robert Hughes
The Expo Files by Stieg Larsson
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminism edited by Sandra Buckley
Letters to a Young Feminist by Phyllis Chesler*
Letter to a Future Lover by Ander Monson
Book to Read Aloud
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens*
George by Alex Gino
Middle Grade
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling*
The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh
Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson
White Dolphin by Gill Lewis
Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy by Susan Vaught
Mine for Keeps (Copeland Family) by Jean Little
The Discovery (Dive #1) by Gordon Korman
Stoner & Spaz by Ron Koertge
Biography
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
The Road by Cormac McCarthy*
Orxy & Crake by Margaret Atwood
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian
Orleans by Sherri L. Smith
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor
Stranger (The Change #1) by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith
Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block
Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
Find Me by Laura van den Berg
Published in 1980s
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Beloved by Toni Morrison*
Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Audie Award Winner (see also 2015)
Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 by Gordon S. Wood
500+ pages
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Collected Poems: Edna St. Vincent Millay edited by Norma Millay
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald*
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson*
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle*
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal
The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
The Dublin Murder Squad Series by Tana French
Purity by Jonathan Franzen
Dozakhnama by Rabisankar Bal
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (Eon #1) by Alison Goodman
Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian translated by Mabel Lee*
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg
Less Than 100 pages
Atlas: Poems by Katrina Vandenberg
War's End: Profiles from Bosnia, 1995-1996 by Joe Sacco
Sylvia Plath: Her Drawings by Sylvia Plath, Frieda Hughes (Introduction)
Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
Jimmy & Rita by Kim Addonizio
By/About A Trans* Person (I've expanded this to include nonbinary genders)
The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting by Brené Brown
For Today I Am a Boy by Kim Fu
Autumn Harvest: Maiden by Tof Eklund
Being Emily by Rachel Gold
Just Girls by Rachel Gold
Wandering Son, Vol. 1 by Takako Shimura
Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt
Set in the Middle East
ISIS: The State of Terror by Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger
Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange translated by Malcolm C. Lyons
A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan by Christiane Bird
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson*
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant*
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi
Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour
Southeast Asian Author
Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan
Letters to Montgomery Clift by Noel Alumit
What Your Teacher Didn't Tell You: The Annexe Lectures by Farish A. Noor
The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma by Thant Myint-U
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka
Supernova: The Knight, the Princess and the Falling Star by Dewi 'Dee' Lestari translated by Harry Aveling
Historical Fiction Set Before 1900
The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon*
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden*
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
First Book in Series by POC Author
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See*
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
City of the Beasts (Eagle and Jaguar #1) by Isabel Allende translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
Adaptation by Malinda Lo
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Fair Coin by E.C. Myers
Reboot by Amy Tintera
Non-Superhero Comic Published after 2013
A punto de partir by Fancisca Meneses
I Think I Am in Friend-Love with You by Yumi Sakugawa
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamison
Cat Person by Seo Kim
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached
Read a Book and Watch its Film Adaptation. Discuss.
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
Americandah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland*
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri translated by John Cullen
Nonfiction Feminist Text
War Is Not Over When It's Over by Ann Jones
Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives From Survivors of Burma's Military Regime edited by Maggie Lemere and Zoe West
Religion
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan
Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation edited by Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke
Love in Action by Tatch Nat Han*
The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World by Pema Chödrön
The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön
Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Politics
Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister
Fixed Ideas: America Since 9/11 by Joan Didion
Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation by Pratap Chatterjee
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman
Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
This Non-Violent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles Cobb
Food Memoir
Craft of Cooking by Tom Colicchio
Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos by Natacha Du Pont de Bie
Plenty by Alisa Smith
Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
Life from Scratch by Sasha Martin
Play
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner
Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph
Mentally-Ill Main Character
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
Romancing the Dark in the City of Light by Ann Jacobus
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Placebo Junkies by J.C. Carleson
Tender Points by Amy Berkowitz
This year I made the mistake of making a list of books that fit the categories and trying to stick to it. That didn't work for me. I need to be able to pick up a book on a whim, not necessarily spontaneously, but it has to appeal to me in the moment, and having a pre-set list doesn't allow that to happen. So instead, this year I'm making a list of books by challenge category to use as a jumping off place, which means I'm going to keep looking for new books to add to the list (recommendations are welcome!). I can't promise I'll update this list since I've learned I'm not so great at that, but at least this is a place to start. I'm hoping to have a recommendations post up within the next couple of weeks, so look out for that if you're interested.
So far I've taken suggestions from the shelves of the Read Harder Goodreads group (which are an awesome resource. I can't wait till the 2016 shelves go up.), my own TBR lists (off the top of my head so these may not be the most accurate), and the NYPL list I've linked above. Google, Slate, and NPR are also good sources, but I haven't checked them out yet since I'm trying to save some of the excitement for the new year.
I've copied over my abbreviated challenge category titles to use; for the original (i.e. full) wording check out the announcement post on the Book Riot blog(linked above). For my own reference, books marked with asterisks are books I own physical copies of.
Horror
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder
Out by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Stephen Snyder
Within These Walls by Ania Ahlborn
Science Nonfiction
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanUndeniable by Madeline Sheehan
The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber
Making of Mr Gray's Anatomy by Ruth Richardson
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Infested : How the Bed Bug Infiltrated our Bedrooms and Took Over the World by Brooke Borel
Essay Collection
Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay
Nothing if not Critical: Essays on Art and Artists by Robert Hughes
The Expo Files by Stieg Larsson
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminism edited by Sandra Buckley
Letters to a Young Feminist by Phyllis Chesler*
Letter to a Future Lover by Ander Monson
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens*
George by Alex Gino
Middle Grade
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling*
The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh
Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson
White Dolphin by Gill Lewis
Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy by Susan Vaught
Mine for Keeps (Copeland Family) by Jean Little
The Discovery (Dive #1) by Gordon Korman
Stoner & Spaz by Ron Koertge
Biography
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
The Road by Cormac McCarthy*
Orxy & Crake by Margaret Atwood
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian
Orleans by Sherri L. Smith
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor
Stranger (The Change #1) by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith
Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block
Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
Find Me by Laura van den Berg
Published in 1980s
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Beloved by Toni Morrison*
Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Audie Award Winner (see also 2015)
Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 by Gordon S. Wood
500+ pages
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Collected Poems: Edna St. Vincent Millay edited by Norma Millay
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald*
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson*
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle*
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal
The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
The Dublin Murder Squad Series by Tana French
Purity by Jonathan Franzen
Dozakhnama by Rabisankar Bal
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (Eon #1) by Alison Goodman
Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian translated by Mabel Lee*
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg
Less Than 100 pages
Atlas: Poems by Katrina Vandenberg
War's End: Profiles from Bosnia, 1995-1996 by Joe Sacco
Sylvia Plath: Her Drawings by Sylvia Plath, Frieda Hughes (Introduction)
Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
Jimmy & Rita by Kim Addonizio
By/About A Trans* Person (I've expanded this to include nonbinary genders)
The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting by Brené Brown
For Today I Am a Boy by Kim Fu
Autumn Harvest: Maiden by Tof Eklund
Being Emily by Rachel Gold
Just Girls by Rachel Gold
Wandering Son, Vol. 1 by Takako Shimura
Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt
ISIS: The State of Terror by Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger
Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange translated by Malcolm C. Lyons
A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan by Christiane Bird
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson*
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant*
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman*
Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi
Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour
Southeast Asian Author
Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan
Letters to Montgomery Clift by Noel Alumit
What Your Teacher Didn't Tell You: The Annexe Lectures by Farish A. Noor
The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma by Thant Myint-U
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him
The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw*The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka
Supernova: The Knight, the Princess and the Falling Star by Dewi 'Dee' Lestari translated by Harry Aveling
Historical Fiction Set Before 1900
The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon*
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden*
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
First Book in Series by POC Author
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See*
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
City of the Beasts (Eagle and Jaguar #1) by Isabel Allende translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
Adaptation by Malinda Lo
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Fair Coin by E.C. Myers
Reboot by Amy Tintera
Non-Superhero Comic Published after 2013
A punto de partir by Fancisca Meneses
I Think I Am in Friend-Love with You by Yumi Sakugawa
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamison
Cat Person by Seo Kim
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached
Read a Book and Watch its Film Adaptation. Discuss.
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
Americandah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland*
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri translated by John Cullen
Nonfiction Feminist Text
Spinster by Kate Bolick
Lean In by Sheryl SandbergWar Is Not Over When It's Over by Ann Jones
Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives From Survivors of Burma's Military Regime edited by Maggie Lemere and Zoe West
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran translated by Esther Tyldesley
Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam by Zaina Salbi
Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran by Roxana Saberi
A Woman Among Warlords by Malalai Joya
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi*
The Warrior Queens (Medieval Women Boxset) by Antonia Fraser*
Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran by Roxana Saberi
A Woman Among Warlords by Malalai Joya
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi*
The Warrior Queens (Medieval Women Boxset) by Antonia Fraser*
Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered Black Women
Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan
Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation edited by Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke
Love in Action by Tatch Nat Han*
The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World by Pema Chödrön
The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön
Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Politics
Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister
Fixed Ideas: America Since 9/11 by Joan Didion
Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation by Pratap Chatterjee
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman
Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
This Non-Violent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles Cobb
Food Memoir
Craft of Cooking by Tom Colicchio
Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos by Natacha Du Pont de Bie
Plenty by Alisa Smith
Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
Life from Scratch by Sasha Martin
Play
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner
Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph
Mentally-Ill Main Character
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro
Romancing the Dark in the City of Light by Ann Jacobus
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Placebo Junkies by J.C. Carleson
Tender Points by Amy Berkowitz
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