2023 Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge

My ninth year doing this challenge! Last year I didn’t complete it, but it seems a lot easier this year, nothing really out of my normal reading: Asian? African? Indigenous? Microhistory? Classic Retelling? Manga? Maybe they realize they overdid it last year, and decided that a graphic novel of a classic retelling drawn by an indigenous artist who is also LGBTQ is a bit too challenging?

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25: You Don’t Know What War Is

A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65

A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people): There’s Nothing Romantic About Washing the Dishes

A book published by an indie press: We’re Still Here

A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ

A book by a person whose gender is different from your own: The Man Who Invented Christmas

A book that takes place in Asia: Tua and the Elephant

A book by an author from Africa

A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.): Pushing the Bear

A microhistory: The Book of Eels

A YA novel: Scion of the Fox

A sci-fi novel: Space Race

A romance novel

A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade

A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.): The Palace of Illusions

An audiobook: Never Wave Goodbye

A collection of poetry: I Am Loved, Too

A book that someone else has recommended to you: Babel

A book that was originally published in another language: The Librarian of Auschwitz

A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind: Zom 100

A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)

A book published before 1850

A book published this year

A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)

2023 Popsugar Reading Challenge

My sixth year of this challenge. The year has started off slow – in reading, not in life… Mid March already and I’m only 15th books in. I kept thinking I must have missed journaling some books but nope, I am just not reading much… Hopefully I can finish this year’s challenge.

1. A book you meant to read in 2022: The Book of Jonah
2. A book you bought from an independent bookstore
3. A book about a vacation: Ella in Europe
4. A book by a first-time author: Crossings
5. A book with mythical creatures: The School for Good and Evil
6. A book about a forbidden romance: The Palace of Illusions
7. A book with “Girl” in the title: Paper Girls #1
8. A celebrity memoir
9. A book with a color in the title: Chasing Redbird
10. A romance with a fat lead
11. A book about or set in Hollywood: Beautiful Ruins
12. A book published in spring 2023
13. A book published the year you were born
14. A modern retelling of a classic: The Palace of Illusions
15. A book with a song lyric as its title: Last Train to Paradise
16. A book where the main character’s name is in the title: Tua and the Elephant
17. A book with a love triangle: Mary Modern
18. A book that’s been banned or challenged in any state in 2022: The Bluest Eye
19. A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past challenge
20. A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2023
21. A book set in the decade you were born:
22. A book with a queer lead
23. A book with a map: Babel
24. A book with a rabbit on the cover: Drawing Europe Together
25. A book with just text on the cover
26. The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list
27. A #BookTok recommendation
28. A book you bought secondhand: Last Train to Paradise
29. A book your friend recommended: Babel
30. A book that’s on a celebrity book-club list
31. A book about a family: The Snow Child
32. A book that comes out in the second half of 2023
33. A book about an athlete/sport: The Naked Olympics
34. A historical-fiction book: Pushing the Bear
35. A book about divorce
36. A book you think your best friend would like
37. A book you should have read in high school: The Devil in Vienna
38. A book you read more than 10 years ago
39. A book you wish you could read for the first time again
40. A book by an author with the same initials as you

2023 GoodReads Around the Year in 52 Books

Life has been so busy – time just really seems to fly by stealthily. I didn’t get to set this page up till late March! My reading is very slow though, I only got to 15 books three months into the year. Hopefully all the readathons in April will help! I’ve been doing this challenge since 2019.

THE 2023 LIST
1. A book set in a location that begins with A, T, or Y: The Snow Child (Alaska)
2. A book by an author you read in 2022: The Tarantula In My Purse
3. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the 2023 list
4. A book with an interracial relationship:
5. A book with 4 or more colors on the cover: Zom 100 vol 1

6. A book where books are important: The Man Who Invented Christmas
7. A book with ONE of the five “W” question words in the title: You Don’t Know What War Is
8. An author’s debut book: Crossings
9. A book nominated for an award beginning with W

10. A book related to one of the Spice Girls’ “personalities”
11. A book about a person/character with a disability: Scion of the Fox
12. A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies: Chasing Redbird
13. A book that has an object that is repeated on the cover: Three Apples Fell from the Sky

14. A book with a con, deception, or fake: Never Wave Goodbye
15. -17. Three books, each of which is set in a different century
Set during Mythological Times (Ancient BCE): The Naked Olympics
Set Pre-19th Century (BCE through the 1700s)
Set in the 19th Century (1800s)
Set in the 20th Century (1900s): Last Train to Paradise
Set in the 21st Century (2000s)
Set Post-21st Century (2100 and Beyond)

18. A book related to science: The Disappearing Spoon
19. A book related to the arts
20. A book with a cover or title that includes a route of travel
21. A book by an Asian diaspora author
22. A book with a faceless person on the cover: The Ghost Rider

23. A book with a body of water in the title: The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams
24. A character that might be called a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy: The Librarian of Auschwitz
25. A book with a tropical setting: Last Train to Paradise
26. A book related to pride

27. A book by an author from continental Europe: We Won’t See Auschwitz
28. A book that is dark
29. A book that is light
30. A book related to a chess piece
31. A book found by inputting a favorite author on https://www.literature-map.com

32. A book set in a UNESCO City of Literature
33. A book by an author with a first name popular in 1923
34. A novella
35. A book with a school subject in the title

36. A book that has been translated from another language: The Woman in the Dunes
37. A book with the theme of returning home: Never Wave Goodbye
38. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover: Solar
39. A western

40. A book with a full name in the title: Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows
41. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists
42. A book related to a ghost, spirit, phantom, or specter
43. A book that involves a murder: Love and Death Among the Cheetahs
44. A book where the cover design includes text that is not completely horizontal: The Tarantula In My Purse

45. A book whose author has published more than 7 books: Squirm
46. A title that contains a word often found in a recipe: Bitter Lemons of Cyprus
47. A book related to a geometric shape: I am Maru
48. A book with an unusually large version of an animal in the story

49. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2022
50. A second book that fits your favorite prompt
51. A book published in 2023
52. A book with an unusual or surprising title: Pushing the Bear