Challenge: 50 Books discussion

I just started a PhD so I'm not sure how much reading I will manage to get done, but I'm hoping for 50 but will be happy as long as I do over 25.

This year I will focus on:
- Diversity (ethnic, gender, LGBTQ)
- Asexuality representation
- Horror

As usual, I will be reading second hand books from my local thrift stores, ebooks (Libby), and audiobooks (Libby + Audible).

I will be participating in the 2021 Buzzwordathon and trying to do the 2021 POPSUGAR Reading challenge for once (I may track this here too just for my own self-accountability).

Happy reading, peeps!

January

1# Dune by Frank Herbert
2# Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill
3# In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
4# Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
5# The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner
6# The Fire by Katherine Neville
7# Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
8# Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
9# We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
10# One Left by Kim Soom
11# Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
12# Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc
13# Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
14# Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
15# Persephone Station by Stina Leicht
16# The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

February

17# 1984 by George Orwell
18# North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society by Jieun Baek
19# How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
20# She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
21# Recursion by Blake Crouch
22# Gilded Needles by Michael McDowell
23# Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
24# Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yū
25# Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee
26# Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
27# Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger & Melanie R. Anderson
28# My Year Abroad by Lee Chang-rae
29# Thinner by Stephen King

March

30# Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur
31# Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
32# Our Happy Time by Gong Ji-young
33# Please Look After Mother by Shin Kyung-sook
34# Three Rooms by Jo Hamya
35# Loveless by Alice Oseman
36# Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
37# Float True by Deborah Jang
38# Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
39# The Prisoner by Hwang Sok-yong
40# Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki
41# The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

April

42# On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
43# Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
44# Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Krystoff
45# Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
46# The Cold Between by Elizabeth Bonesteel
47# Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
48# Lotus by Lijia Zhang
49# Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
50# The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
51# Yi Sang: Selected Works by Yi Sang

May
52# The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
53# Drifting House by Krys Lee
54# Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
55# The World is at War, Again by Simon Lowe
56# Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-yong
57# Thin Girls by Diana Clarke
58# Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
59# Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
60# Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
61# Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
62# The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate
+++ The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov

June

63# Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
64# Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono
65# Seven Years of Darkness by You-Jeong Jeong
66# Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey
67# Remnants of Trust by Elizabeth Bonesteel
68# How I Became a North Korean by Krys Lee
69# There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
70# Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
71# Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
72# The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea by Bandi
73# Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

July

74# Reprieve by James Han Mattson
75# The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
76# The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
77# Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
78# Questland by Carrie Vaughn
79# Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
80# Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey
81# Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

August

82# The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
83# Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis
84# The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward
85# Rewriting Revolution: Women, Sexuality, and Memory in North Korean Fiction by Immanuel Kim
86# Made in North Korea: Graphics From Everyday Life in the DPRK by Nicholas Bonner
87# Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World's Most Repressive Country by Mike Kim
88# The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater
89# The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes
90# Friend: a Novel from North Korea by Paek Nam-Nyong
91# Marching Through Suffering: Loss and Survival in North Korea by Sandra Fahy

September

92# Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
93# The Cabinet by Kim Un-su
94# Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
95# Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
96# Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
97# Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
98# At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop

October

99# The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
100# A Burning by Megha Majumdar
101# Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey
102# The Tenth Muse by Catherine Jung
103# All Systems Red by Martha Wells
104# Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
105# The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories: Terrifying Tales Set on the Scariest Night of the Year! by Stephen Jones
106# Exhalation by Ted Chiang
107# How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
108# Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
109# The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

November

110# The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
111# The Magical Language of Others by E. J. Koh
112# Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
113# The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
114# Blood Price by Tanya Huff
115# The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
116# Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
117# Outsiders: Memories of Migration to and from North Korea by Markus Bell
118# Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
119# The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

December

120# A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
121# Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey
122# Native Country of the Heart: A Memoir by Cherríe L. Moraga
123# Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
124# This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

POPSUGAR 2021 Reading Challenge - I'm having the list here for self-accountability, will mark it as a spoiler since it doesn't *really* belong in here.

34 out of 50 books read

(view spoiler)[REGULAR
1. A book that published in 2021: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht
2. An Afrofuturist book
3. A book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover
4. A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign
5. A dark academia book
6. A book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title: How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
7. A book where the main character works at your current or dream job: North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society by Jieun Baek
8. A book that has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction
9. A book with a family tree: Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur
10. A bestseller from the 1990s
11. A book about forgetting: Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill
12. A book you have seen on someone’s bookshelf (in real life, on a Zoom call, in a TV show, etc.): Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
13. A locked-room mystery
14. A book set in a restaurant: The Fire by Katherine Neville
15. A book with a black-and-white cover
16. A book by an indigenous author: Elatsoe by Darcy Little Badger
17. A book that has the same title as a song: 1984 by George Orwell (David Bowie's song)
18. A book about a subject you are passionate about: Loveless by Alice Osesman
19. A book that discusses body positivity: Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc
20. A book on a Black Lives Matter reading list
21. A genre hybrid: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
22. A book set mostly or entirely outdoors:The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner
23. A book with something broken on the cover: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
24. A book by a Muslim American / Muslim British author: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
25. A book that was published anonymously Thinner by Stephen King (published with another name)
26. A book with an oxymoron in the title
27. A book about do-overs or fresh starts: We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
28. A magical realism book: Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
29. A book set in multiple countries:: Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger & Melanie R. Anderson
30. A book set somewhere you’d like to visit in 2021: Recursion by Blake Crouch
31. A book by a blogger, vlogger, YouTube video creator, or other online personality
32. A book whose title starts with “Q,” “X,” or “Z”: Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee
33. A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child):Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
34. A book about a social justice issue: One Left by Kim Soom
35. A book in a different format than what you normally read (audiobooks, ebooks, graphic novels): Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
36. A book that has fewer than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads: Gilded Needles by Michael McDowell
37. A book you think your best friend would like
38. A book about art or an artist: Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
39. A book everyone seems to have read but you: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

ADVANCED
41. The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list: Dune by Frank Herbert
42. The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list: Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yū
43. The book on your TBR list with the prettiest cover:My Year Abroad by Lee Chang-rae
44. The book on your TBR list with the ugliest cover
45. The book that’s been on your TBR list for the longest amount of time
46. A book from your TBR list you meant to read last year but didn’t: Please Look After Mother by Shin Kyung-sook
47. A book from your TBR list you associate with a favorite person, place, or thing: Our Happy Time by Gong Ji-young
48. A book from your TBR list chosen at random: Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
49. A DNF book from your TBR list
50. A free book from your TBR list (gifted, borrowed, library) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
(hide spoiler)]

Wow, getting a PhD! Congrats and good luck! Yeah, I'd imagine you're going to have some stuff to do that might keep you from reading (at least reading for fun) as much as you want to! :)

Feel free to un-mark the POPSUGAR as a spoiler -- we've had people in the past use those lists as their guides, and if that's one of your personal challenges, then it absolutely fits here! I think they're fun to look at, too.