Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Use this space to discuss books you're reading or that might fit the 21st Read Harder task.

I started reading this line of books ages ago and never finished it Now's the perfect time:

Mama Pursues Murderous Shadows

They are wonderful!

The Shadow of the Wind

This one is going to be tricky for me, but I’m thinking about trying something by Rita Mae Brown.

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke

I love mysteries, so I'm excited for this prompt. My ideas so far are The Unquiet Dead, IQ, or Bluebird, Bluebird.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Loved the HBO miniseries but have never read the books.

While the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books are really good, they won't work for this challenge. The person who writes the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is a white guy.

Thanks Rachel! I assumed, and that always gets me in trouble. back to the drawing board! I think I am going to go with Goldenboy. Micheal Nava is both Gay and a POC.

Rachel Howzell Hall has 4 books out and she is so very very good, highly recommend this author!

I planned on reading Bluebird, Bluebird anyway. The Cutting Season was OK, (I wanted it to be better and had high expectations).

I am leaning toward a new-to-me author, but I've read Walter Mosely and his Easy Rawlins series which would fit (and are very good- bonus!)

Ann wrote: "I planned on reading Bluebird, Bluebird anyway. The Cutting Season was OK, (I wanted it to be better and had high expectations)."

Bluebird, Bluebird sounds really good! Thanks for the heads-up!

I was perusing the Lambda awards site for a different challenge and came across Speakers of the Dead and Trigger - the second is more of a thriller maybe, but involves police and medical examiner.

Would something by Patricia Highsmith work? Or are they all more suspense than mystery?

Looking at The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra or Fadeout for this one probably (as well as a couple others already mentioned)

Great challenge theme! Here's my top recommendation for the group:

The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley

I would categorize this one as a psychological thriller with race and power dynamics in America as one of the suspects.

Ann wrote: "I planned on reading Bluebird, Bluebird anyway. The Cutting Season was OK, (I wanted it to be better and had high expectations)."

I added this to my list! Thanks for the recommendation.

I'm super excited to read The Monkey's Mask for this one! It's a lesbian noir thriller written in verse :)

I love seeing everyone's ideas for these challenges! Sarah Waters has been on my TBR for ages too!

Rachel Howzell Hall has written 4 books in her series and the first two were terrific. Highly recommend!

Here is the first in the series:
Land of Shadows

I'm planning on either The Lazarus Effect or The Interpreter. I don't read mysteries very often, so this is something new for me!

I'm reading The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen. I remember reading one of her other books years ago and I really liked it. This one sounds interesting and it's a stand alone.

This is very interesting to me. I did not know Tess Gerritsen was a “person of color” until this post. I have read several of her books and didn’t know until I just looked it up that she is Chinese American. I would choose one of her books for sure.

I think I'm going to go with The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead.

PoC annoys the crap out of me because it accounts for over 3/4 of the world's population!! Wouldn't it be better to be specific say, Chinese American, Indian Australian, Nigerian, Singaporean etc??

I'll be reading Smaller and Smaller Circles (which was just recently adapted to film!) by F.H. Batacan.

Ooh! I own Smaller and Smaller Circles! That goes on the possibilities list.

Thinking about The German by Lee Thomas for this one...

Yrinsyde wrote: "PoC annoys the crap out of me because it accounts for over 3/4 of the world's population!! Wouldn't it be better to be specific say, Chinese American, Indian Australian, Nigerian, Singaporean etc??"

It's just a phrase to indicate that folks should try to read something by a non-white author, and it's broad enough so people have options. Authors racially identify themselves in all kinds of ways that are personal, nuanced, and sometimes not apparent. This terminology just means people are sweating less. This same grievance could be applied to the LGBTQ+ part of this too. For example, we could ask why we're not being requested to search for a non-binary transwomyn author; being pedantic is not the point of this challenge.

This isn't something to get stressed out about.

Also, I'm gonna go with The Icarus Girl

Nina wrote: "Yrinsyde wrote: "PoC annoys the crap out of me because it accounts for over 3/4 of the world's population!! Wouldn't it be better to be specific say, Chinese American, Indian Australian, Nigerian, ..."

I agree that in this context POC is used to be inclusive and to get people to read authors outside of the white heteronormative mainstream. Authors self-identify in a lot of different ways, so it makes sense to refer to individual authors in the ways they prefer to identify themselves, but as a challenge prompt I think it's totally reasonable to use POC to refer to a large group of people who aren't white (and self identify in a range of ways) without resorting to deficit-based terminology, such as non-white.

Thank you Nina and Riah. I tried to respond ti this and found everything I wrote sounded aggressive so I chose not to post. You both said it really well

I'm going to go for The Ruined Map by Kobo Abe. I've read some of his stuff before and it's been fantastic. Haven't read this one but apparently it's a sort of weird surreal mystery, which sounds pretty cool.

Thanks Nina and Riah. I guess being Australian, it makes me think that it's racist (and yes, Australia is a racist country - I'm not proud of it!!). It isn't used here and I've only come across it in the US. But as this is primarily a US challenge, I guess it's OK. It is also puzzling for others who are not from the US because we don't know what it includes.

Russia would be included in this group because people have a non-Western outlook - would you agree?

Yrinsyde wrote: "Thanks Nina and Riah. I guess being Australian, it makes me think that it's racist (and yes, Australia is a racist country - I'm not proud of it!!). It isn't used here and I've only come across it ..."

No, Russians are European. POC is non-white non-European. Here is the defintiion https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/def... . Also, here is an article you might enjoy https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswit....

My choice for Mystery by an LGBTQ person is: The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith. I wanted to get to this because I absolutely loved her take on the historical St. Hilda of Whitby in Hild.

Yrinsyde wrote: "Thanks Nina and Riah. I guess being Australian, it makes me think that it's racist (and yes, Australia is a racist country - I'm not proud of it!!). It isn't used here and I've only come across it ..."

I am Brazilian and find this terminology really strange too. I mean, I consider myself white but just because I'm Brazilian it seems that I would be considered a person of color. Even though my skin tone is white. IDK, Americans see things in a different way.

Vívian wrote: I am Brazilian and find this terminology really strange too. I mean, I consider myself white but just because I'm Brazilian it seems that I would be considered a person of color. Even though my skin tone is white. IDK, Americans see things in a different way.

I think its more about what colour your skin is as opposed to the country you are from. America, Australia and England are generally seen as "white" countries but a lot of the population is composed of people of colour. My understanding is that Brazil has quite a diverse population comprised of caucasian and people of colour. You are classified as a person of colour just because you are from Brazil however if you were a Black, Asian, Pardo or American Indian Brazillian then you would be a person of colour.

(edited for spelling error)

tif wrote: "Vívian wrote: I am Brazilian and find this terminology really strange too. I mean, I consider myself white but just because I'm Brazilian it seems that I would be considered a person of color. Even..."
That definition does make a lot more sense to me. Thanks!

The Surgeon

Thanks Bonnie, for that article. This means PoC actually means people of mixed heritage. So, you can't use a Nigerian author if they don't have mixed heritage (eg, not having part English or other European parentage). This makes the PoC sections of the challenge harder!! Which is good! Hmm - that means my choices will have to be rethought....

While the term was originally referred to black/white biracial people, I think it's strange to stick to that definition, since it's not used that way anymore. The article also says "Today, it usually covers all/any peoples of African, Latino/Hispanic, Native American, Asian or Pacific Island descent, and its intent is to be inclusive." The way I use it includes both biracial/mixed people and people who identify as a single race, so long as that's not white.

NPR’s Code Switch is a radio show about being of a mixed racial background. The term Person of Color (POC) is not.

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke is likely my choice for this prompt. Hat tip to Feminist Texican Reads for the suggestion!

I've already put Wife of the Gods on hold at the library to read as my mystery novel by a PoC. It's the first book in Kwei Quartey's Darko Dawson mystery series, and it looks pretty interesting.

Quartey was born in Ghana, which is where the series is set, and what caught my attention about it in the first place (I've been working my way through Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing, which is brilliant, and it has made me curious about other fiction set in Ghana as I knew nothing about it other than its location on the map).

Riah wrote: "While the term was originally referred to black/white biracial people, I think it's strange to stick to that definition, since it's not used that way anymore. The article also says "Today, it usual..."

Yes, as it says in the article it is an inclusive term, everyone who is non-white and/or of non-European descent is considered a POC.

Yrinsyde wrote: "PoC annoys the crap out of me because it accounts for over 3/4 of the world's population!! Wouldn't it be better to be specific say, Chinese American, Indian Australian, Nigerian, Singaporean etc??"

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll be reading this one as well!

I am going to read "Under the Midnight Sun" by Keigo Higashino

Felicity wrote: "I'm super excited to read The Monkey's Mask for this one! It's a lesbian noir thriller written in verse :)
Oo, this sounds really interesting! I don't typically read mysteries so wasn't sure what to choose for this task, but I think I'll give this a try.

This was one I thought I'd struggle with, but I managed to come across A Scone to Die For (currently free on all major eBook shops!) and it fits the bill as the author is an Asian woman.