Reading Challenges Complete!

I know, it took me long enough this year. Well, I didn’t quite finish the Nobel Women that I’m planning to get through, but they’re sprinkled in and I’m working on it. I did, however, finish both the 2017 Read Harder Challenge and the Litsy A to Z Challenge. While I’d love to do both of these again, I think I’m going to stick to Read Harder for a third year and challenge myself to some shelf control. I have far too many books that I haven’t read and really need to get to them.

I will admit that I did make some substitutions along the way, more than I really wanted to. I like sitting down and planning the books for the challenges but also find that I read so many that fit and then get short on time and well, I think you all know how it goes. So, here are the official lists and links to the reviews!

2017 Read Harder Challenge:

1. Read a book about sports: Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of Long Distance Swimmer by Lynne Cox
2. Read a debut novel: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
3. Read a book about books: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
4. Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author: I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchú, translated by Ann Wright or My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Read an all-ages comic: Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy Volume 1
7. Read a book published between 1900 and 1950: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
8. Read a travel memoir: The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure by Rachel Friedman
9. Read a book you’ve read before: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
10. Read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
11. Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location: This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
12. Read a fantasy novel: Zodiac by Romina Russell
13. Read a nonfiction book about technology: Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt
14. Read a book about war: Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
15. Read a YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+: The Archived by Victoria Schwab
16. Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country: The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
17. Read a classic by an author of color: The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
18. Read a superhero comic with a female lead: Invincible Iron Man: Ironheart
19. Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey (From Daniel José Older, author of Salsa Nocturna, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, and YA novel Shadowshaper) A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
20. Read an LGBTQ+ romance novel (From Sarah MacLean, author of ten bestselling historical romance novels) Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan
21. Read a book published by a micropress. (From Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, Marvel’s World of Wakanda, and the forthcoming Hunger and Difficult Women) The Floating Garden by Emma Ashmere
22. Read a collection of stories by a woman. (From Celeste Ng, author Everything I Never Told You and the forthcoming Little Fires Everywhere) Bloodchild and other Stories by Octavia E. Butler
23. Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love. (From Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of the Esa Khattak/Rachel Getty mystery series, including The Unquiet Dead, The Language of Secrets, and the forthcoming Among the Ruins) Madwomen: The “Locas mujeres” Poems of Gabriela Mistral, a Bilingual Edition or Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wisława Szymborska, translated by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak
24. Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color. (From Jacqueline Koyanagi, author of sci-fi novel Ascension) Dear Zari: The Secret Lives of the Women of Afghanistan by Zarghuna Kargar

Litsy A to Z:

• All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of the Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister
• Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt
• Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism edited by Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman
• Dear Zari: The Secret Lives of the Women of Afghanistan by Zarghuna Kargar
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
• Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
• Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself by Rachel Lloyd
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler *Spoilers*
• The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time by Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bark
• Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wisława Szymborska, translated by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith
• Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
• Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer by Riki Wilchins
• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
• Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
• This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
• Unbowed by Wangari Maathai
• Voices from Chernobyl by by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Keith Gessen
• Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed
• X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz
• You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
• Zodiac by Romina Russell

I really love these challenges because they get me to make a decision on some specific books I’m reading this year which in turn gets me reading the books that are important to me but not as available as I’d like. I’m looking forward to making plans for next year!