Read Harder 2021

Ready to Read Harder?

Challenge yourself to break out of set reading habits by completing Book Riot’s 2021 Read Harder Challenge.

Our Readers’ Advisory committee has selected five titles for each of the 24 categories to help you get started: 

1. Read a book you’ve been intimidated to read:

• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Ulysses by James Joyce

2. Read a nonfiction book about anti-racism:

• Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race edited by Jasmyn Ward
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

3. Read a non-European novel in translation:

• The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous (Iran) 
• Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Labodalih Sembiring (Indonesia) 
• The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, translated by John Cullen (Algeria)
• Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza, translated by Thomas Bunstead (Argentina) 
• Umami by Laia Jufresa, translated by Sophie Hughes (Mexico)

4. Read an LGBTQ+ history book:

• David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music by Darryl Bullock 
• The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle by Lillian Faderman 
• A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski 
• The Stonewall Reader edited by Jason Baumann 
• We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation by Matthew Riemer 

5. Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author:

• Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger 
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich 
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice 
• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 
• Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden 

6. Read a Fanfic:

• The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols : Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell 
• Pemberley Ranch by Jack Caldwell
• Redshirts by John Scalzi 
• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire 

7.  Read a Fat Positive Romance:

• Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
• If the Boot Fits by Rebekah Weatherspoon
• One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
• Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
• There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

8.  Read a romance by a trans or nonbinary author:

• Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
• I Wish You all the Best by Mason Deaver
• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
• Next Year, for Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson
• Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

9. Read a Middle Grade Mystery:

• The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
• From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Greenglass House by Kate Milford
• Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
• Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

10. Read a SFF anthology edited by a person of color:

• A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh
• Love After the End edited by Joshua Whitehead
• The People’s Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle
• A Phoenix Must Burn by Patrice Caldwell
• Vampires Never Get Old edited by Natalie Parker and Zoraida Cordova

11. Read a food Memoir by an author of Color:

• The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty
• Eat a Peach by David Chang
• From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Home by Tembe Locke
• Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi
• Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

12. Read a work of Investigative nonfiction by an author of color:

• Adnan’s Story by Rabia Chaudry
• Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang
• The Golden Thread by Ravi Somaiya
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Yellow Bird by Sierra Crane Murdoch

13. Read a book with a cover you don’t like:

• Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
• Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

14.  Read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., U.K., or Canada:

• Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
• Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite
• The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
• Salt to the Sea by Ruth Sepetys
• The Silence of Bones by June Hur

15.  Read a memoir by a Latinx author:

• Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
• The Closer by Mariano Rivera
• A Dream Called Home by Reyna Grande
• In the Country We Love by Diane Guerrero
• My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

16.  Read an Own Voices Book About Disability:

• Disability Visibility by Alice Wong
• El Deafo by Cece Bell
• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• Strangers Assume My Girlfriend is My Nurse by Shane Burcaw

17.  Read an Own Voices YA book with a black character that isn’t about black pain:

• Black Leopard, Red Wolf by James Marlon
• Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
• Pride by Ibi Zoboi
• The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

18.  Read a book by/about a non-Western world leader:

• Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
• Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948 by Ramachandra Guha
• Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
• Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
• Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by Helene Cooper

19. Read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist:

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (POC)
• The Huntress by Kate Quinn (LGBTQ+)
• Kindred by Octavia Butler (POC)
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (LGBTQ+); January 2021 publication
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (POC)

20. Read a Book of Nature Poems:

•  An American Sunrise by Jo Harjo
• Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds edited by Billy Collins
• Earth Keeper by N. Scott Momaday
• New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver
• The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck

21. Read a children’s book that centers on a disabled character but not their disability:

• The Girl Who Thought in Pictures by Julia Finlay Mosca (autism)
• Hello Goodbye Dog by Maria Gianferrari (wheelchair)
• My Ocean is Blue by Darren Lebeuf (crutches)
• Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly (deafness)
• Thank you Mr Falker by Patricia Polacco (dyslexia)

22. Read a book set in the Midwest:

• Beach Read by Emily Henry (Michigan)
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Ohio)
• The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray (Michigan)
• LaRose by Louise Erdrich (Minnesota)
• You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson (Indiana)

23. Read a book that demystifies a common mental illness:

• Hello I Want to Die, Please Fix Me by Anna Mehler Paperny (depression)
• Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker (schizophrenia)
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks (neurological disorders)
• The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison (alcohol)
• Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (OCD)

24. Read a book featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn’t die:

• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
• The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
• Happily Ever Esther by Steve Jenkins
• Olive, Mabel and Me by Andrew Cotter
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler