After suffering through Islands in the Stream (go figure, a Hemingway novel about men drinking & fishing) I gave up on the Read Harder Challenge. I was spending a lot of time trying to identify books to read for each category, and I got tired of it. I read 13 of the 24 categories, so not bad.
I have kept up with reading new releases (I count that as within three months of publication) and more recently-released stuff in general, which has been really great. I also signed up for Book Riot’s Tailored Book Recommendations service, and will get three recommendations each quarter. I got the first set recently and was pleased to see that none of them were already on my radar, and they all sounded interesting.
November
- When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson
- NOS4A2, Joe Hill
- The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy; Martha Wells
- Redshirts, John Scalzi
- The Library Book, Susan Orlean (new releases)
- Why New Orleans Matters, Tom Piazza
October
- Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway (A book published posthumously)
- The Witch Elm, Tana French (new releases)
- The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner
- The Incendiaries, R.O. Kwon (new releases)
- The House of Impossible Beauties, Joseph Cassara
September
- The Man Who Came Uptown, George Pelecanos (new releases)
- One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
- Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, Sue Halpern
- The Book of M, Peng Shepherd (new releases)
- The Changeling, Victor LaValle
- How to Stop Time, Matt Haig
- Djinn City, Saad Hossain