Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge: Plans for 2015

Yesterday, I wrote about Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge and looked at how I would have down if I attempted the challenge in 2014. Today I'm highlighting possibilities for my reading in 2015 to help prioritize. I've found the Goodreads forums helpful in some cases. Many of these titles can count for more than one category, but I will commit to counting each book for only one category.
  1. A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25.
    • White Teeth by Zadie Smith has been on my TBR since it came out
    • Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
    • Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
  2. A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65.
    • God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
    • Lila by Marilynne Robinson
    • Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose
  3. A collection of short stories.
    • American Innovations by Rivka Galchen
    • Bark by Lorrie Moore
    • Can't and Won't by Lydia Davis
    • Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
  4. A book published by an indie press.
    • The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann
    • The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink
    • Song of the Shank by Jeffrey Renard Allen
  5. A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ.
    • The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
    • The Accidental by Ali Smith
    • Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon
  6. A book by a person whose gender is different from your own.
    • Family Life by Akhil Sharma
    • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
    • Nora Webster by Colm Toibin
  7. A book that takes place in Asia.
    • The Ballad of a Small Player by Lawrence Osborne
    • Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
    • The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
    • Bangkok 8 by John Burdett
  8. A book by an author from Africa.
    • All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
    • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    • The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami
  9. A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
    • The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
    • The Secret River by Kate Grenville
    • Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinksi
    • Forty Days Without Shadow by Olivier Truc
    • The King of America by Samantha Gillison
  10. A microhistory.
    • A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Stondage
    • The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
    • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
    • Longitude by Dava Sobel
    • Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
    • A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheeres
    • Deadly Outbreaks by Alexandra Levitt
    • The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
    • The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
    • Gotham: A History of New York by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace
  11. A YA novel.
    • Bumped by Megan McCafferty
    • The Diviners by Libba Bray
    • We Are Liars by E. Lockhart
    • Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
  12. A sci-fi novel.
    • The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber
    • The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
    • Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  13. A romance novel.
    • Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
    • A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
  14. A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade.
    • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
    • The Gathering by Anne Enright
    • The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
    • The Blind Assassin  by Margaret Atwood
    • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
    • March by Geraldine Brooks
  15. A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)
    • Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
    • The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
  16. An audiobook.
    • The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs
    • Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
    • The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
  17. A collection of poetry.
    • Mean Free Path by Ben Lerner
    • The Angel of Yaw by Ben Lerner
    • The Lichtenberg Figures by Ben Lerner
    • Motherland Fatherland HomelandSexuals by Patricia Lockwood
  18. A book that someone else has recommended to you.
    • TBA
  19. A book that was originally published in another language.
    • The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann
    • Colorless Tsukuru Tazai and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
    • My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
    • The Lover by Marguerite Duras
  20. A graphic novel, a graphic memoir, or a collection of comics.
    • Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel by Anya Ulinich
    • Displacement by Lucy Knisley
  21. A book that you consider a guilty pleasure.
    • The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
  22. A book published before 1850.
    • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
    • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
    • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
    • Oroonoko by Aphra Behn
  23. A book published this year.
    • After Birth by Elisa Albert
    • The Last Good Paradise by Tatjana Soli
    • A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear
    • Pleasantville by Attica Locke
    • Early Warning  by Jane Smiley
  24. A self-improvement book.
    • The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
    • Find the Good by Heather Lende
    • How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
    • Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Now tell me: I left my options for Task 18: A Book That Someone Has Recommended to You blank. Here's why: I want you, my dear readers, to recommend a book to me. It can be anything you think I'd enjoy. I won't promise to read them all, but I will read at least one to satisfy this challenge.


Comments

  1. I think you'd enjoy Chika Unigwe's "On Black Sisters' Street". It's a novel about four African (3 Nigerian and one Sudanese) women who are working in the sex trade in Belgium. This was hands-down my favourite discovery of 2014 (although the book was published in 2009). The subject matter is dire, but the book is beautifully written. I loved it and I think you would find it interesting.

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  2. I've also decided to join and so far have ticked the sci and translated book boxes. I'm especially struggling with the self-improvement choice, it's really far from my comfort zone.

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  3. So many of these are on my list! This has finally convinced me to join the challenge--I was going to take a "wait and see" approach.

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