Read Harder Challenge 2026

#reading

date: 2026-01-01  author:  Lei

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last updated: 2026-05-29

1. Microhistory
   📖 Tea: The Drink that Changed the World by Laura C. Martin 🇺🇸
2. Featured on a “best book covers” list
   🤔 I deliver parcels in Bejing by Hu Anyan 🇨🇳
3. YA by a Latine author
   🎧 With the Fire on High by (& read by) Elizabeth Acevedo 🇺🇸 🇩🇴
4. MC who uses they/them pronouns
   📱 Sing Anyway by Anita Kelly 🇺🇸
5. Nonfic about resistance
   🤔 tbd, recommendations welcome!
6. Gothic novel published in last 10 years
   📖 Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 🇨🇦 🇲🇽
7. Sports book by a woman, trans, or NB writer
   🤔 Personal Score by Ellen Van Neerven 🇦🇺 🇳🇱
8. Classic from Zero to Well-Read Podcast
   🤔 Forever… by Judy Blume 🇺🇸
9. Romantasy with a queer and/or BIPOC mc
   🤔 tbd, probably from my sister’s recs!
10. Book recently adapted for film-TV-musical
    📱 The Long Game by Rachel Reid 🇨🇦
11. By a d/Deaf author
    📖 Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino 🇺🇸
12. Try a recipe from a cookbook about a culture whose food you’ve never eaten
    📖 The Iraqi Cookbook by Lamees Ibrahim 🇮🇶
13. Nonfic comic
    🤔 tbd
14. Magical realism or fabulism
    📖 Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link 🇬🇧
15. By a librarian
    📖 How Can I Help You by Laura Sims 🇺🇸
16. Queer picture book
    📖 Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love 🇺🇸
17. About a cult or cults
    🎧 Cultish by Amanda Montell, narrated by Ann Marie Gideon 🇺🇸
18. By an intersex author
    🤔 Inverse Cowgirl by Alicia Roth Weigel
19. Nonfic about AI or social media 📱 Algospeak by Alex Aleksic
20. Set in space
    📖 To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers
21. Genre book in translation
    🤔 I could count Apothecary Diaries
22. Nonviolent true crime
    📖 Cryptomania by Andrew R. Chow
23. By an African author
    📖 a fire like you by Upile Chisala
24. Repeat previous challenge: 2025 nonfic about nature
    🤔 Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer