February's Task: African American Authors

In February my book group has decided to read a book that has been written by an African American author (you can read all about my book club in this post here if you're curious). I wanted to challenge myself to come up with a list of titles that would fulfill each task on our list for this year, so here is the first installment.

Let me preface this by saying, we shouldn't need a prompt to read African American authors, or authors that have a different religion, race, gender, or situation than our own, but there is a lack of adequate diversity in publishing and too often we all become stuck in what's comfortable, cling to our prejudices and don't feel like branching out into the unknown and likely uncomfortable or challenging. However! Growth happens outside of the comfort zone. Reading is an excellent way to gain empathy and understanding and allows you to see someone's perspective and gain understanding so you can move past just being angry and confused by something or someone's viewpoint.

Take a look at your reading, and, I triple dog dare you (now you have to do it!), in the coming year, challenge yourself. Are you reading books written mostly written by white men? Start reading books written by women, or men from a different background than your own, or written by someone who lives in another country, or written by an immigrant, or someone who practices a different religion than your own. It doesn't even have to be non-fiction, just read from a wider lens.

With that said, here's a list of books I've read, enjoyed, and learned from that were written by African American authors.
Everything's Trash, But It's Okay, by Phoebe Robinson
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, by Brittney Cooper
Citizen: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine
So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, by Austin Channing Brown
When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Behold the Dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue

Books I haven't read yet but am considering for this task (and want to read anyway):
Becoming, by Michelle Obama
We're Going to Need More Wine, by Gabrielle Union
Hunger, by Roxanne Gay
Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland
Stay with Me, by Ayobami Adebayo
Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin

Please let me know what I should add to my TBR pile! What do you do to broaden your reading life?

It's A Social Group With A Book Emphasis

When I moved to California a little over three years ago I knew I wanted to find a way to send a bat signal to find my nerdy book lovers in my new town. The fastest way for me to do that is to offer a monthly book club and so I started one by spreading the word of it where I go to church. I didn't want to do a church or religion specific book club though, but my religion is a big part of the community I have because I'm rather a recluse and excel at being a homebody, so those are the people I see regularly.

Having had some less than stellar book club experiences in the past, I wanted to establish the rule that this was mostly a club for book lovers, rather than a book club where we'd have questions and had to stay on topic and there was pressure to finish the book every month. That just stresses me out and makes me angsty. Our club has been going for over two years now and it's mostly a social group with a book emphasis to get the conversation going. Our regulars are in different stages of life but we all have a common interest in books and, as many book lovers will agree, we like learning things and exploring parts of the world and ideas without having to go anywhere. It's become a lot of fun, and I look forward to our monthly outing for the conversation and social time as much as for the book chat that starts us off.

In the past we've always chosen specific titles for each month and it's worked out ok, but we decided on doing something different this year that I'm excited about. We're adopting the idea of book challenge prompts or themes for each month instead of a particular title we all have to read. This is cool to me because it will allow us each to choose what we want to read within that month's theme, we'll learn about more books when we meet and other people have read different things, and we'll have more to talk about and broaden each others reading horizons. I think it's going to work out pretty well.

I always love a book task, whether or not anyone's asked me to do one, so I gave myself a challenge to post some suggestions each month here for the prompt/monthly theme that we picked to share with the group and with you. It'd be an easy challenge to join in on and I'd love to have a discussion of topics here as well. I'll be sure to report back each month too about what we each read, thought, learned, and discovered, but I really think this is an awesome way to have a welcoming and inclusive, low-pressure book group!

Here's our list:
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February - read a book written by an African American author
March - read a classic you have not gotten to yet
April - read a collection of poetry
May - read a book written by a female author with a positive maternal figure or about a mother
June - read a children's book
July - re-read a favorite book
August - read a book by an Indigenous author
September - read a book by a Hispanic author
October - read a thriller/mystery/ghost story
November - read a historical fiction novel
December - read a biography or memoir

Have you been a part of an in-person book club before? I'd love to hear what you do or what you're looking for if that's something you'd like to add to your reading life. I'd encourage you to start one if you're interested too! It's a lot of fun. Book people are the best people!

I'm working on a post about a couple of my favorite online book clubs, so stay tuned for that!

A Compilation of 2019 Reading Challenges

The beginning of the year always signals a lovely tumbling rollout of new yearly reading challenges. While I really enjoy the inspiring intention of these challenges I've never actually participated in completing one!! Shocked, I know. It's ok.

I do love looking at the prompts, and using them to expand my own yearly reading as I find it helpful to read with intention and at least some hopes of broadening my horizons during the year. I love reading for entertainment and escape but I find it is ultimately, for me, about learning more about the world around me and the people in it. If we only read books about or written by people who look like ourselves, we're really doing a disservice to the world and to ourselves. So, with that in mind, if you are a reader or like to set reading goals, or just want to think about expanding your reading life, here are the 2019 reading challenges that I think are worth a look:

From Book Riot: The 2019 Read Harder challenge! Intentionally set up to encourage more diverse reading, with 24 interesting prompts like, read a book of nonviolent true crime, read a book written in prison, and read a comic by an LGBTQIA creator.

From PopSugar: The 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge! This is a very popular reading challenge that I've seen hashtags for frequently. The challenge is longer with 40 tasks including such prompts as, a book that takes place in a single day, a book by two female authors, and a book written by a musician (non-fiction or fiction). A pretty fun list, and the article in the link above actually has book suggestions for each prompt listed which is incredibly helpful if you want to peruse that.

From Modern Mrs. Darcy: The 2019 Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge is a pretty unique offering and her challenges have evolved and changed shape over the past few years. This year's challenge includes steps for improving your reading life, not just ticking boxes on a task list, which is a nice addition for readers to think about. There are only 10 items on the actual challenge so it is not very intimidating. Prompts include: a book in translation, three books by the same author, and a book published before you were born.

From the Reading Glasses podcast: The Reading Glasses 2019 Challenge! I'm particularly excited about this because I really enjoy the podcast and the friendship of the hosts. This challenge is also unique because it includes activities like, get a library card! It's a great combination of things to do and things to read and isn't too long.

Finally, from The Professional Book Nerds Podcast: The 2019 Reading Challenge is only 12 tasks so you could accomplish one per month. Includes things like, read a book with a cover you hate, listen to an audiobook of a memoir that is read by the author, and book set on a continent other than you own.

There are also a ton of fun ones on Instagram if you search for them. Perhaps a separate post for Instagram centered reading challenges would be fun to do. The book people on Instagram are incredibly fun and lovely. I recommend looking around that corner of social media if you want some immediate book reading friends.

Do you participate in reading challenges? Have any favorite prompts or challenges that aren't in this list? Let me know, I'd love to hear about them!

Excellent Books I Read in 2018

Here are a few of the books I enjoyed most of my year of reading in 2018. Presented in no particular order and with many more left out that were just as good, but I had to narrow it down a little bit.

• Bitter Orange, by Claire Fuller

• From the Corner of the Oval, by Beck Dorey-Stein

• Dim Sum of All Fears, by Vivien Chien

• Final Girls, by Riley Sager (Sager's latest book, The Last Time I Lied, is also excellent)

• Goodbye, Vitamin, by Rachel Khong

• The Woman in the Window, by A. J. Finn (shortly to become a movie starring Amy Adams)

• The Woman Next Door, by Yewande Omotoso

• Chemistry, by Weike Wang

• Eloquent Rage, by Brittney Cooper

• The 7 and 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton

• I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, by Maggie O'Farrell

• The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells (series of novellas, of which I read the first 2 this year)

• So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo

• Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions, by Mario Giordano

• Force of Nature, by Jane Harper

• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (Can't believe it took me so long to read this but it's so good!)

• Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, by Ada Calhoun

• Calypso, by David Sedaris

• Look Alive Out There, by Sloane Crosley

• Tangerine, by Christine Mangan

I'm always looking for more to read, what was the best book you read last year? Let me know in the comments below.