Friday, January 1, 2021

Reading in 2020 Vision

Last year I was actually able to meet all 24 of Book Riot's 2019 Read Harder challenges, so I figured why not try for it again in 2020? And unlike for 2019, most of the 2020 challenges actually sounded interesting and potentially like actual challenges.

Due to the global pandemic, I read a lot more e-books than usual, which made some of the challenges based on page numbers a little more tricky as "pages" in e-books can be more or fewer than the same book in print. So I tried to base my titles for those challenges on what the print book length was in my library's catalog record.

Once again, my book tastes include children's, teen, graphic, and audio book titles. Every one of those is a valid reading choice, and I have no interest in those who want to argue otherwise. In fact, in some cases, those were requirements of the challenge!

As always, I link to my LibraryThing reviews of each book; click on the titles for more on my thoughts and feelings for each title. Just because I include a title here does not mean I enjoyed it and/or recommend it.

Some titles would fit into multiple categories but I tried as much as possible to contain them to one "best fit" category. However, I did put multiple titles under some challenges if they fit the category and were not used elsewhere.

In the end, I was able to meet 23 of the 24 categories, a respectable achievement even if not a perfect one. For most of the categories, I actually read several titles that fit that challenge. For the one challenge I didn't meet and for the titles that were more of a stretch, I'm not overly concerned because most of these challenges were ones I had done already in the past and will likely do again in the future; it just wasn't in the cards for this year. 

While overall I enjoyed doing this challenge again this year, I'm not sure that I will do it again next year. There are already so many reading commitments on my plate between book clubs and awards committee work, and this sometimes feels like another assignment, leaving me with no time to read books entirely for personal enjoyment and no other reason/deadline.

Without any further ado, here are the 24 challenges and the titles I read to meet them in 2020.

1. Read a YA nonfiction book
Super You is one of those stretch books; the author's introduction says it is for teens to women in their 40s, which is a pretty big range.

2. Read a retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, or myth by an author of color
On Beauty is a loose retelling of E.M. Forster's Howards End for the new millennium, with a cast consisting largely of Black characters. More to the Story is a middle-grade novel that is a modern retelling of Little Women with a group of Pakistani-American sisters. Pippa Park Raises Her Grade is another middle-grade book; this one loosely uses the framework of Great Expectations to structure its narrative of a Korean-American girl trying to fit in. A Song Below Water features two Black teenaged protagonist who live in an America where mythical creatures such as sirens exist, but those mythos are often different from the traditional ones; for instance, being an eloko makes one beloved rather than feared.

3. Read a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman
Blue Monday by Nicci French is perhaps a bit of a stretch book as well; the description said it was about a missing male child, but the prologue opens up on a missing female child.

 4. Read a graphic memoir

5. Read a book about a natural disaster

6. Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author

7. Read a historical fiction novel not set in WWII
Set in the 1st century AD, the 1960s, the 1950s, and the 1980s, respectively. I'm not sure if I'm ready to accept the 1980s as "historical fiction," but if the shoe fits...

8. Read an audiobook of poetry
  • Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson 

9. Read the LAST book in a series
Hush Hush is the twelfth book in a series and there appear to be no other books in that series since this title's publication in 2015. So it seems to fit the bill here, although this is one of those 'letter of the law, not spirit of the law' situations because I believe the idea behind this prompt to finally finish a series you had started rather than accidentally picking up the last book in a series, as happened here. Murder at an Irish Christmas is the most recent (October 2020) book of the Murder in an Irish... series but it won't actually be the last forever, as there is Murder in an Irish Bookshop scheduled for release in February 2021.

 10. Read a book that takes place in a rural setting It seems like Book Riot is considering things set in small towns as "rural" as well, so this challenge was not as difficult as I thought it might be. These are set in small towns in these places, respectively:
  • Norway (a remote mountain village is the tableau for this tale)
  • Alaska (a town with a small population is the reason for this true tale)
  • Ireland/Indiana/Ohio (being in a small town plays a big role in these mysteries)
  • Ireland (same as above)
  • Minnesota (the woods and preserving them are a central part of this book)
  • Vermont (a dairy farm is the setting for the majority of this book)
  • Florida/Montana (nature, particularly wild and endangered animals, are critical to this story)
  • New Mexico (NM being a U.S. territory at the time plays a significant role in the plot)
  • Vermont? (a hobby farm is featured in this story; I don't think a specific location is ever given but the author lives in Vermont so I assume it was set there)
  • Sweden (assorted farms, forests, and other rural places are the backdrop for this magic story)

11. Read a debut novel by a queer author

12. Read a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own The C.S. Lewis books are actually quotations-style books, not strictly memoirs. But many of the quotations are direct from his more autobiographical books. Those are some real streeeetch ones. Pure is part memoir, part interviews, and part statistics -- all compelling.

 13. Read a food book about a cuisine you’ve never tried before
This is maybe one of those stretch books, as the BookRiot recommendations for this challenge all seem to be nonfiction rather than a YA anthology of magical realism. But food was a big part of this book and it embraced several cuisines that I wasn't well-versed in previously.

 14. Read a romance starring a single parent

15. Read a book about climate change
After reading Wilder Girls, which was on Book Riot's suggested list for this challenge, I realized that "about climate change" was also being very loosely defined and therefore included The Last Man, which I had read earlier in 2020 but not specifically for this challenge.

 16. Read a doorstopper (over 500 pages) published after 1950, written by a woman
The hardcover edition is 496 pages while the paperback edition is 512 pages. So maybe cutting it close there, but I think it still counts. I ran out of time to read the book I initially intended to read here. It awaits me in the future...

 17. Read a sci-fi/fantasy novella (under 120 pages)

18. Read a picture book with a human main character from a marginalized community
The communities are Jewish (times three), LGBT, Central American immigrants, Black/Asian immigrant families, and Black respectively. 

19. Read a book by or about a refugee
I was actually in the middle of reading The Night Diary already when I noticed it was on Book Riot's suggestions for this challenge ... lucky coincidence for me. The others I read later in the year also by coincidence. (Well, I intentionally read them all, but had another reason for reading them beyond this challenge.)

20. Read a middle grade book that doesn’t take place in the U.S. or the UK
Listen, Slowly is set in Vietnam.

21. Read a book with a main character or protagonist with a disability (fiction or non)
The three Shane Burcaw books are nonfiction about the author's life with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Penguin Days is a fictional book that features a protagonist on the autism spectrum (because this challenge appears to be including neurodiversity and mental illness under the umbrella of "disability"). 

 22. Read a horror book published by an indie press

23. Read an edition of a literary magazine (digital or physical)
  • Done in the past and likely to do in the future but was not done in 2020

24. Read a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author

 *Begun in 2019 but finished in 2020.
^Begun in 2020 but finished in 2021.
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