1. Read a book about sports: You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott - I don't love Abbott and her choppy sentences. I'm the kind of person who is still surprised by the endings of M. Night Shyamalan movie endings, so when I've figured out the "mystery" by the halfway point of the novel, you've got yourself a problem. I feel like I've read this book without the competitive gymnastics angle before. And, frankly, besides a paragraph or two harping on how much it costs to support an Olympic-caliber athlete, that entire subplot was not actually present during most of the novel. Maybe Abbott is just not the author for me.
2. Read a debut novel: The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
3. Read a book about books: Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir by Lauren Slater
4. Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author: Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia - I'm over multiple perspectives from multiple time periods. Just done. It's hard to follow and just when you get invested in one character you're abruptly jolted into another POV. I just didn't really LOVE this book and it left me feeling melancholy, so I will not be recommending it to anyone.
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative: My Antonia by Willa Cather - "Mrs. Harling was short and square and sturdy-looking, like her house. Every inch of her was charged with an energy that made itself felt the moment she entered a room. Her face was rosy and solid, with bright, twinkling eyes and a stubborn little chin. She was quick to anger,quick to laughter, and jolly from the depths of her soul." This is the type of writing Cather does. I know that this character is jolly and square (like a house!), but I know nothing of what she actually looks like. It's an interesting way to write, although I didn't love it. I'm not putting anymore Cather on my bucket list of books to read.
6. Read an all-ages comic: Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson - This was a Newbery Award Winner for a reason. The illustrations were fantastic and the emotional range of the main character and her friends is immense and realistic. I admit that I'm quite confused about the appropriate age range for this book (tweens? it seems a bit young for that, but there's swearing - I don't know), but as an adult I thought it was great. I don't think I'm going to buy it for any of my nieces of nephews, though, because I don't actually understand who the intended audience actually is.
7. Read a book published between 1900 and 1950: The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - It's always interesting to read about race relations in another time and another place. If you think the split between Black Lives Matter supporters and opponents within the black community is intractable now, imagine a time in which you have to decide whether or not the government is legitimate at all, when leadership is split between integration and separation. It was a tough read for me because it appears we haven't come all that far since it was published in 1903, but I guess that's why it's important to read, too.
8. Read a travel memoir: Bill Bryson's African Diary by Bill Bryson - This is a bit of a cheat because at 55 pages, it's not so much a book as a series of brief journal entries, but I love Bryson and hadn't read this before, so I used this opportunity to read it. It's in the irrepressibly hilarious dry tone of Bryson and I passed an enjoyable hour on the couch reading it. It wasn't life altering or anything, but if you like to read about self-deprecating people being self-deprecating in places that aren't their normal places to be, give it a shot.
9. Read a book you've read before: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (still good, people, still good)
10. Read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location: Evicted by Matthew Desmond
11. Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location: A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn
12. Read a fantasy novel: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
13. Read a nonfiction book about technology: Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick
14. Read a book about war: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
15. Read a YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+: The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson - This book is short and deals with issues of sexuality and race, particularly looking at a biracial young woman dealing with having parents of different races. It was short and because of this brevity, the themes were not able to be fully fleshed out in a way that satisfied me. So, it was lovely in its way, and important in its topic, but didn't really meet the expectations I had for it. I do have another Woodson novel on my bookshelf, though, so I definitely see the potential for me enjoying the author's writing style.
16. Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country: The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman - So I actually didn't read this prompt particularly closely. I guess Maus has been banned in other countries (particularly Russia), not really the US, but, oh well. I'm not going to undo it. In this graphic novel, Spiegelman simultaneously tells the story of his relationship with his elderly father, as well as his father's experiences as a Jew in Poland during World War II. I had never heard of it and then one day I was talking with TJC on the phone and she mentioned it. It was really an excellent read and it touches on the horrors of the Holocaust, of course, but I thought the bits in which Spiegelman talked about his own feelings about his father to be the most compelling frames. He discusses his own survivors guilt, his feelings of uncertainty about portraying his father as a stereotypical penny pinching Jew, and his emotional attachment to a brother he never met in such an open way that you can't help but want him to be okay. Seriously. Read this if you haven't.
17. Read a classic by an author of color: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - The first hundred pages have incest, barbaric cage fighting, and constant racism. It was a troubling read. I also felt kind of like a student because I kept having to consult with SparkNotes to figure out what was going on. I'm glad I read it, but I'm not going to read it again.
18. Read a superhero comic with a female lead: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Emily Henderson - Look, I know I'm supposed to think that it's great that this character is drawn to look like a normal teenager and it IS great, but that doesn't make this series awesome. This was not for me. It's cartoonish and relies on a large amount of knowledge of the Marvel universe that I do not possess. I read most of the first volume before I just gave up. (Also, how come male leads get to be men like Spider-Man and Batman and female leads are girls like Supergirl and Squirrel Girl?)
19. Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
20. Read an LGBTQ+ romance novel: Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz
21. Read a book published by a micropress: Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape by Jessica Luther
22 . Read a collection of stories by a woman: The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro - Munro always disappoints me. I know she's beloved, but she's just not for me. I think it must have been absolutely fascinating for her to learn about her family, but it wasn't absolutely fascinating for me to read about it. I wanted to be invested, but because they were just short little blips, there wasn't much to be invested in. I'll keep reading Munro because I sort of feel obligated to, but I didn't enjoy this collection so much.
23. Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love: Pages from the Biography of an Exile by Adnan Al-Sayegh translated by Stephen Watts & Marga Burgui-Artajo - This is the only book I had to purchase to complete the challenge - I couldn't find it through my local library system OR the University library system and had to order from a seller overseas. If anyone else is interested in it, let me know and I'll happily send it your way. This is a short collection that tells the story of Al-Sayegh's journey from a soldier in the Iraqi military to a nomadic refugee about Europe, filled with the contradictions and confusions that come along with trauma and uncertainty. This particular translation has the Arabic on the left side of the page and the English translation on the right and I really appreciated having the original text there even if I couldn't read it. Although I'm not a huge poetry fan, I did find some of the poems quite powerful, especially the short, eight to ten line entries.
24. Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color: The Sellout by Paul Beatty
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