350 The Emissary

by Yōko Tawada, 2014

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: Read a book about a natural disaster*.

Something bizarre has happened in Japan, leaving the older generation to live indefinitely and the younger generation to wither away years before their time. There is now a hierarchy of eldery, with the young elderly a spry 70 years old and the middle-aged eldery well into their 90s. Retiring from jobs is considered a bizarre practice, as it’s no longer necessary to relinquish positions from one generation to the next. Young Mumei is doing his best to survive these unprecedented times with the aid of his great-grandfather, the 100-something-year-old Yoshiro, who devotes nearly every moment of his day to keeping the boy alive, for Mumei and all children suffer a host of physical ailments due to an unspecified event that changed the course of Japanese lives. 

331 The Round House

by Louise Erdrich, 2012

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: Read a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author.

Joe is thirteen on the day that he and his father grow worried when his mother, Geraldine, doesn’t show up at home at the expected time. The two climb into their car and are quickly relieved when they see her driving past them, on the way to their home. However, when they return, they realize that something is horribly wrong. Frozen in the car, covered in vomit and blood, and reeking of gasoline, they hurry her to the hospital. While waiting, Joe overhears a woman say that it looks like his mother has experienced one of two things. The first–a miscarriage–he knows to be impossible, as his mother was no longer able to get pregnant after his birth. That just leaves the second thing–a rape.

310 All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr, 2014

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: Read a book with a main character or protagonist with a disability.

It’s the early 1940s and war is breaking out across Europe. Young Marie-Laure LeBlanc, who has gone blind due to congenital cataracts, accompanies her father to a Paris museum, where his routine work belies his genius at creating intricate designs that he uses to delight and educate his daughter. When Paris becomes too dangerous for them, they leave the city on foot and take up residence in Saint-Malo with Marie’s great uncle Etienne and his housekeeper Madame Manec. Unbeknownst to Marie, her father also carries with him one of four versions of a precious artifact, the Sea of Flames, which is known for keeping its possessor alive while simultaneously bringing them great misfortune. Several hundred miles away, Werner Pfennig and his sister Jutta enjoy listening to the strange radio broadcasts of a French man until all radio broadcasts are shut down by the German government. Werner finds himself drafted into the Hitler Youth, where his astounding capabilities with radios – he rebuilt the one he found in his attic – brings him a certain amount of respect and awe. These are their stories as they grow up in the same war, in two very different worlds, amid unimaginable hardship and loss.

269 Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson, 2014

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009.

I’ve heard many laudatory things about Jacqueline Woodson’s work for some time, but, as often goes, I never quite made the time to pick up one of her books. This Read Harder Challenge task gave me the push I needed, and I’m so glad it did. Having won the Coretta Scott King Author Award in 2015, and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2014, as well as the John Newbery Medal in 2015, Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir in verse, containing stories from the author’s childhood growing up in both the northern and southern parts of the country during the civil rights era. The poems are incredibly easy to read, but they are thick with meaning, offering those of us who were born many years later (or those of different races) a unique window into life as a black child when being black denoted membership to a de facto second class.

261 Home Fire

by Kamila Shamsie, 2017

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018.

Winner: Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018

We have a very one-sided way of thinking about terrorism in America. It is us and it is them, and there is never a thought of those who are affected by terrorism not as a result of violent acts, but as a result of its influence on the people they love most. Home Fire deals with this issue head first, focusing on a family whose absent, jihadi father has died and whose idolizing son has decided to follow in his footsteps. It is a study of five people whose lives Islamic militarism has touched and the manner in which cope with the effects of others’ violent actions as they struggle to live their lives as normally as possible.

243 All Systems Red

by Martha Wells, 2017

Winner: Nebula Award – Best Novella 2017; Hugo Award – Best Novella 2018

Aside from winning the above two awards, I don’t think I would’ve known about this novella had it not been for Liberty’s constant proclamations of love for the character Murderbot on All the Books. Just the name alone – “Murderbot” –  intrigued me, let alone that it could apparently inspire such delight in another human being. Indeed, in this slim volume, the first in a series, Wells has created a character not quite like any other. Think Marvin the android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets April from Parks & Rec and you’ll get an idea of the sullen teenage contempt running through these pages. It’s pretty darn delightful.

242 All the Birds in the Sky

by Charlie Jane Anders, 2016

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse.

Winner: Best Novel – Nebula Awards 2016

Well, add this to the growing list of books that disprove my notion that I don’t like fantasy! Despite the book winning a Nebula Award and despite hearing nothing but favorable reviews, I was still very hesitant to pick up this book that was touted as a great fantasy read. When I realized that it fit not one, but two of the Read Harder Challenge categories (Anders is also transgender), I knew it was time to read it. I’m not sure what I expected of this story, but this smartly told, sarcastically humorous, eloquently written yarn certainly wasn’t it. Fantasy: 1; Veronica: 0.

238 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

by Jared Diamond, 1997

This is the second time I’ve read this tome on how the civilizations came to be how they are. The first time was for a book club, during which time I read the book as quickly as possible in order to have it finished by the discussion date and, as a result, I remembered very little of it. As I’ve been reading more books about history and culture and, especially, books about the history of racism, I’ve been curious to revisit Diamond’s ideas on why some cultures conquered others and not the other way around. The idea that some cultures dominated because they were morally and intellectually superior still somewhat persists and that is the exact idea that Diamond attempts to destroy. For Diamond, there no one culture was superior to another, some were just in the right places at the right times, aligned along the right axis.

184 The Sympathizer

by Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2015

Man, I really wanted to enjoy this book. There is a certain disappointment in picking up a much lauded book only to find yourself struggling through it every step of the way. In this case, I wasn’t necessarily disappointed in the book – I was disappointed in myself. I’m certain The Sympathizer contains a fair amount of genius within its pages, but, either because I did not have sufficient background knowledge of the Vietnam War, thus exposing my own ignorance, or because I could not follow the stream-of-consciousness narrative, calling into question my English Master’s degree, I clawed my way through every page. You guys…this book made me feel dumb.

182 The Power

by Naomi Alderman, 2016

If women were the dominant force in society, the world would be a much more peaceful, compassionate place, right? Well, according to Naomi Alderman…not so much. The Power imagines exactly what would happen in this scenario by granting women the gift of physical superiority. While men, in general, are still bigger and more physically imposing than women, girls and young women have discovered an electric spark that emanates from their hands and allows them to control, subdue, and even kill others. It is no longer women who have to travel in packs, fearing what might reach out for them in the night, but men who tremble at the thought of being randomly assaulted. Some might say dudes had it coming, but I’m not entirely convinced of the righteousness of this world.