Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Thanks Stephanie,
I've already crossed that task off the list, hopefully twice soon!

I love The Poisonwood Bible enough that I’ve read it more than once. The 5 different voices it alternates between keeps it fast-moving and interesting. Also really loved A Fine Balance (but be warned it is LONG).

I personally think it's clever to satisfy multiple challenge requirements with one book. I figure, if I finish the challenge early, then I can go back and new books in categories that I previously double dipped.

I read M.F.K. as a comic written/illustrated by the same person, and a book in one sitting. I also read Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf to satisfy a female protagonist over the age of 60 and a novel published posthumously.

So far i've used Univers! #5 for 3 tasks:
comic by written and illustrated by same person, comic by poc, and my one sitting book

I've also used A Wrinkle in Time for my classic published before 1980 and my scifi novel with female protag and author.

Sara wrote: "There are 7 tasks that I haven't read or decided on yet. Most of them, I'm not looking forward to. If I can double dip them into 3 or 4 books, I'll be very happy

So far, I'm considering [book:The ..."

You can combine Western and one-sitting book with Brokeback Moutnain. It's quite short!

I'm going with 1 book per task (that's just something I want to do, not a judgement :) ). But I just finished reading The Wonderful World of Sazae-San サザエさん, Volume 1 and wanted to recommend it for people who want to cross off multiple tasks with one book. It's a comic*, bit like Peanuts but post World War II Japan. Some comics are collected to these editions in English (you can still read the Japanese in the margin if you so prefer, so many Japanese learn English with these).

I used this for the:
- A comic written and illustrated by the same person
but I could've also crossed off:
- A classic of genre fiction (if you count manga as a genre)
- A comic written or illustrated by a person of color (this is a bit weird for me, since I guess Japanese in US are PoC, but I doubt Japanese consider themselves as such... but what I've seen from other threads, this would qualify)
- A one-sitting book
- A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image
- A book of genre fiction in translation (again if manga/comics count as a genre, I'm not sure about that)

So, depending on if manga works as a genre, you could cross off 4-6 tasks with this book. And it's a very quick read too :)

*It's manga, but hey, manga is the word for comics in Japanese. I'm still confused how many ways Americans categorize their comics and what is what, so sorry if I make mistakes with that :)

I double dip all the time. I used The Harvester for a classic of genre & a book about nature. I used Kindred for a classic of genre & a sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author. I used The Witches: Salem 1692 for true crime & a book of colonial lit.

I highly recommend "The Pemmican Wars" , a comic by Canadian Metis author Katherena Vermette, the first in a planned middle school series called "A Girl Named Echo". It is about a teenage Metis girl who lives in the Canadian prairies and travels back in time to the early days of contact between white settlers and indigenous peoples, including the Metis. So, it qualifies for:

7 A western.
8 A comic written or illustrated by a person of color
16 The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series.
18 A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image.

Haley wrote: "So far i've used Univers! #5 for 3 tasks:
comic by written and illustrated by same person, comic by poc, and my one sitting book

I've also used A Wrinkle in Time for my classic pub..."

I'm also using A Wrinkle in Time for the classic children's. I'm also using it as the assigned reading hated or never finished. Hopefully I enjoy it more the second time around!

This is my first year and I really wasn't planning on double-dipping but with 24 challenges, and only 7 completed, I've just placed library holds for

Topaz for western and romance novel by/about a person of color (and maybe one sitting - we'll see)

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer for true crime/published posthumously

If I get through the list with some double-dippers and still have time at the end of the year, I'll go back and break some out.

Adding to my to do list (thanks to community suggestions!)

Kindred for classic of genre fiction & sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author

Ruby Red for first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series & book of genre fiction in translation

Adventures of Aku for Children's classic published before 1980 & single sitting book

I double dipped using Divergent for sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author / new to you ya series. I didn't like Divergent - something niggled me about it and when I got to the end, the postscript started ...'thank you god ...' and I realised what it was - it is a crusade story against unbelievers. I gave it 2 stars but almost gave it one.

I just discovered that the last Miss Marple mystery, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously. This means it fulfills tasks #s 1, 3, & 23: a work published posthumously, a classic of genre fiction, & a book with a female protagonist over the age of 60. For those curious about Miss Marple's age, wikipedia states:

"While Miss Marple is described as 'an old lady' in many of the stories, her age is mentioned in "At Bertram's Hotel", where it is said she visited the hotel when she was fourteen and almost sixty years have passed since then."

This came up elsewhere. I haven't read it, but it looks like For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink, by Sarah Rose, could satisfy #2, true crime, #5 BRICs, & #14, social science.

Just started A Rising Man for a colonial literature/mystery by a person of color

Thinking of getting American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures on audio for essays/social science

Just have to say: I am loving the mashups. I wish I'd started double-dipping sooner!

On to We Were Eight Years In Power for essays + social science

It's late in the year and I still have a few tasks left so I'm looking for double dipping opportunities! I just picked up Bog Child which fits the posthumous publication and if you think of Ireland as postcolonial, it fits the postcolonial prompt. The summary mentions the IRA so I figure it fits.

If you wanted to do posthumous and genre in translation, Henning Mankell died before After the Fire was published.

Now I need a western book of essays? or a mystery by a POC in translation? Hmm.

Sue wrote: "It's late in the year and I still have a few tasks left so I'm looking for double dipping opportunities! I just picked up Bog Child which fits the posthumous publication and if you t..."

Any of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's books would work for mystery by a POC in translation!

Thank you to all the double dippers who have participated! I’m planning on doing double dipping again next year, and will start that thread unless somebody beats me to it!

Happy Holidays!

yeah, I realized it's December and some of my originally planned books still aren't available, so I'm gonna be doing some retroactive double dipping....

I had hoped to avoid double dipping, but made sure to include a few books that could work for multiple categories in case I ran out of time at the end of the year. Lo and behold, two weeks left in the year and I have just the one double dip - The Devotion of Suspect X for both a book of genre fiction in translation and a mystery by an author of color or LGBTQ author. I could probably squeeze in one more book, but now that the 2019 challenge categories are out, I'm more focused on finding books for that! :)

I was hoping to avoid double dipping, also, but deliberately picked titles that could work in multiple categories. Amusingly, the title that needs to serve two purposes now that the year is closing isn't one of those! I'll be using The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History as both a book about nature, & a book of social science (history & economics).

Or I may shuffle things around & let The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson, be my book about nature. It also contains a female protagonist >60, & was a one-sitting read, but I have other titles that fulfill those tasks.