Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2021

Oh hello there.

I disappeared shortly after The Troubles began because I simply stopped reading. Some of my friends coped with this year by reading even more, I delved into writing fanfiction. We all find our way.

I made a pretty decent dent in the BRRHC for 2020 but I am here with a new syllabus and new determination for BRRHC 2021:

1. Read a book you’ve been intimidated to read – Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
2. Read a nonfiction book about anti-racism – Fatal Invention, Dorothy L. Sayers
3. Read a non-European novel in translation – Our Lady of the Nile, Scholastique Mukasonga
4. Read an LGBTQ+ history book – Bisexuality in the Ancient World, Eva Cantarella
5. Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author – The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones
6. Read a fanfic – TBD
7. Read a fat-positive romance – Spoiler Alert, Olivia Dade
8. Read a romance by a trans or nonbinary author – Reverb, Anna Zabo
9. Read a middle grade mystery – A Spy in the House, Y.S. Lee
10. Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color – Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, ed. Sheree R. Thomas
11. Read a food memoir by an author of color – The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, Michael W. Twitty
12. Read a work of investigative nonfiction by an author of color – Explaining Humans, Camilla Pang
13. Read a book with a cover you don’t like – Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins, Emma Donoghue
14. Read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada – A Girl Like That, Tanaz Bhathena
15. Read a memoir by a Latinx author – My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education, Jennine Capó Crucet
16. Read an own voices book about disability – Run, Kody Keplinger
17. Read an own voices YA book with a Black main character that isn’t about Black pain – If It Makes You Happy, Claire Kann
18. Read a book by/about a non-Western world leader – Cleopatra: A Life, Stacy Schiff
19. Read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist – Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
20. Read a book of nature poems – A Thousand Mornings: Poems, Mary Oliver
21. Read a children’s book that centers a disabled character but not their disability – Hands & Hearts, Donna Jo Napoli
22. Read a book set in the Midwest – Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
23. Read a book that demystifies a common mental illness – Everything is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss, Stephanie Wittels Wachs
24. Read a book featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn’t die – The Familiars, Stacy Halls

All books are subject to change via DNFing or difficulty accessing them.