Ep. #114 — Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, Part II

We’re back with round two of our Book Riot Read Harder Challenge suggestions! Completing this challenge is a lot of fun and can help broaden your literary scope but it can be tough to find books that fit the categories. That’s where we come in! In ep. 82 we did five different categories and today we have 5 more for you. Below are links to all the books we discuss. Take a listen!

Read a Debut Novel

• This is Where it ends by Marieke Nijkamp
• Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
• Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• American War by Omar El Akkad
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts

• In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
• Start up by Doree Shafrir

Read a book published between 1900 & 1950

• The Old Man The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• The Sun Also Rise by Ernest Hemingway
• Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
• The Trial by Franz Kafka
• The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Read a book about books

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• The Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Neverending Story by Michael Ende
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Carry on by Rainbow Rowell
• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• This one Summer by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
• 1984 by George Orwell
• George by Alex Gino
• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
• Persopolis by Marjane Satrapi

Read a classic by an author of color

• Anything by Toni Morrison
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Their eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• Go tell is on the mountain by James Baldwin
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

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Music

“Buddy” provided royalty free from www.bensound.com

Podcast Overview

We’re not just book nerds: we’re professional book nerds and the staff librarians who work at OverDrive, the leading app for eBooks and audiobooks available through public libraries and schools. Hear about the best books we’ve read, ger personalized recommendations, and learn about the hottest books coming out that we can’t wait to dive into.