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