Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Get a Life, Chloe Brown hits this prompt as well as #4.

I found this helpful: https://bookriot.com/read-harder-2021...

Good Housekeeping had an article about books to read by disabled authors with disabled characters. Girl at War by Sara Nović was one of them. I just don't know how to determine if the author fits the criteria.

Noor

Nnedi Okorafor's books fit this category. I'll read Noor for the challenge.

Cull
:-)

I'm doing the queer challenge and am excited about Ellen Outside the Lines

My Left Foot

I'll be looking into authors who have mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, etc.

What Willow Says by Lynn Buckle

Also look at longlisted books for the Barbellion Prize. The Barbellion Prize is a book prize dedicated to the furtherance of ill and disabled voices in writing. https://www.thebarbellionprize.com/

Think I'm going for The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal! I started it for 2021's challenge but ended up switching to something else. I also highly recommend El Deafo!

This one comes out in 2022 and I'm really looking forward to it - Just By Looking at Him

For my disabled author I will be reading The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

Ron, it's a good read!!

Tara wrote: "Noor

Nnedi Okorafor's books fit this category. I'll read Noor for the challenge."

Oh, I didn't realize Nnedi Okorafor had a disability! I've got several of her pieces on my TBR.

Like another poster, I am also considering my next Talia Hibbert book (Act Your Age, Eve Brown - the third in that series, or some other options include: The Centaur's Wife, or The Heart Principle, or perhaps something that directly interrogates disability like Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century which I was planning to read for this year's challenge but... I haven't yet.

Anna wrote: "Ron, it's a good read!!"

Awesome! I'm looking forward to it.

Gail wrote: "Good Housekeeping had an article about books to read by disabled authors with disabled characters. Girl at War by Sara Nović was one of them. I just don't know how ..."

Sara Nović is a Deaf author. I plan to read her True Biz set in a Deaf school.

Ron wrote: "I'll be looking into authors who have mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, etc."

If you have time, please report what you find? I'd choose Allie Brosch, but I've read them all.

Tara wrote: "Noor

Nnedi Okorafor's books fit this category. I'll read Noor for the challenge."

I'm torn between her and Helen Huong, or maybe this one:
The Labyrinth's Archivist. That author is also a queer woman, so it's good to support her!

Kelly wrote: "Gail wrote: "Good Housekeeping had an article about books to read by disabled authors with disabled characters. Girl at War by Sara Nović was one of them. I just do..."

Absolutely.

I don't read much fiction. A lot of the ones I read are nonfiction. This is a list I was able to come up with though.

[YA]

(not really by an author who deals with a disability but the stories are)

Speak (deals with depression)
Eliza and Her Monsters (deals with anxiety disorder)
Fangirl (deals with anxiety disorder)

*****

[NonFiction]

(books that are by people with mental disabilities)

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays
Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me
Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life
Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
Wishful Drinking
The Princess Diarist
If You Feel Too Much: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped For
Rx
Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing My Mind
Madness: A Bipolar Life
Modern Madness: An Owner's Manual
Manic: A Memoir
Listen: Poems on Being Gay, Bi-Polar and Alive

Struggling with this one because I much prefer fiction to non-fiction, and Google seems to be finding mostly non-fiction.

Any book by Seanan McGuire should count for this (and the bonus task, as Seanan is also queer). She also writes under several other names and is EXTREMELY prolific, so there's a lot to choose from.

I enjoyed If at Birth You Don't Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny for last year's "own voice" challenge

The anthology Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century is excellent. I work in the disability services office at Oregon State University, and we have been discussing the essays at our staff meetings.

Erin wrote: "Ron wrote: "I'll be looking into authors who have mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, etc."

If you have time, please report what you find? I'd choose Allie Brosch, but I'v..."

Anything by Jenny Lawson, The Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness (haven't read this one but it's been on my TBR).

My pick is Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body

I've begun working on The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays .

Given that I have my own mental illnesses, bipolar disorder, and a wide variety of anxiety disorders (which are disabilities even if you don't believe they are) I've always been fascinated by others who have them as well. Though I don't have schizophrenia this is something which I'm trying to learn more about since I had a great-aunt who was.

It's a short book, 208 pages, so I have no doubt I'll be able to finish it quickly.

Ron wrote: "I've begun working on The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays .

Given that I have my own mental illnesses, bipolar disorder, and a wide variety of anxiety disorders (which are disabi..."

I read The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
Which is an autobiography of a woman who has schizophrenia - and was diagnosed in the 1950s? Somewhere around there. She chronicles her life and the advancements in medicines for schizophrenia as she uses them. An excellent read.

Have you read any books about bipolar that you liked? I read Waiting for Normal which is a middle school read with a mother who has bipolar - and I really liked that one.

For this read, I will read
I read last year, and Judith Heumann is now one of my heroes.
I'd recommend it.

Melissa wrote: "I read The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
Which is an autobiography of a woman who has schizophrenia - and was diagnosed in the 1950s? Somewhere around there. She chronicles her life and the advancements in medicines for schizophrenia as she uses them. An excellent read.

Have you read any books about bipolar that you liked? I read Waiting for Normal which is a middle school read with a mother who has bipolar - and I really liked that one.."

Honestly I haven't found that one book that "does it for me" when it comes to bipolar disorder. I've read memoirs and diagnostic books but none that have really stood out. I suppose the one that maybe comes close is An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness .

My main issue currently is that I'm trying to find more recent stuff, published within the past 5 or 10 years or so.

*****

I do like the book you mentioned though, 'Waiting for Normal', (despite it it having a 2008 publishing date). It sounds like it would be really good. I read YA every now and then and this looks like one that could be worth looking into.

Emily wrote: "My pick is Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body"

This book is TERRIFIC.

Melissa wrote: "Ron wrote: "I've beguMadness: A Bipolar Lifen working on The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays .

Given that I have my own mental illnesses, bipolar disorder, and a wide variety of anxiety disorders (whic..."

I passionately recommend Madness: A Bipolar Life

My dad got me a copy of The Illustrated A Brief History of Time/The Universe in a Nutshell for christmas. What great timing. I read Brief Answers to the Big Questions last year, so I'm excited to get into this.

I'm going for something by Jen Campbell for this one and she has such a variety to choose from - fiction and non-fiction, poetry, short stories, children's books... I'll probably go with The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers: And Other Gruesome Tales

Kelly wrote: "Gail wrote: "Good Housekeeping had an article about books to read by disabled authors with disabled characters. Girl at War by Sara Nović was one of them. I just do..."

True Biz sounds amazing, thank you for the recommendation!

I'm going to read Cull by Tanvir Bush (how do i do the cool linkage here?) for this prompt. Love a good satire!

I highly second Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig for anyone who hasn’t read it - I think it should be required reading, haha! It’s truly, truly amazing.

I used Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert for this prompt.

I listened to The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl who is at least partially deaf. (This would probably apply to any rock musician.) What he describes as his experience sounds about like my husband's, and Brian has been officially disabled since childhood.

I highly recommend The List of Ten by Halli Gomez. She has Tourette Syndrome and the main character, Troy, has Tourette and OCD. Trigger warning: the book deals with suicide, mental illness, and some slight self-harm.

I recently found out that this was released this past year:

OMG That's Me! 3: Bipolar Disorder, Depression, PTSD, Mental Health and Humor

I still need to finish book 2 so I'll be working on this one for now: OMG That's Me! 2: Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, and Hope...

Also discovered this one today which had been on my reading list.

Prozac Nation

I read It's Always Been You, which also features ace rep

I read The Un-Arranged Marriage and really enjoyed it!

I'm doing the disability readathon this month so I have a lot!

Read already:
-Deaf Republic Really good poetry, tells a very vivid story
-A Kind of Spark a middle grade book about an autistic girl that felt so dear to my heart
-Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me a graphic novel memoir that was ok, taught me a lot but didn't feel very deep

Currently reading:
-One for All A Three Musketeers retelling with girls including a girl with POTS. It's cute and the characters are very interesting
-Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability this is a collection of essays and poetry about disability poetry. It's very dense but I've learned so much!

TBR:
-Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century
Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space
-True Biz

El Deafo is a good young adult one

I read Get A Life Chloe Brown for this challenge

I found The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating to be a quiet gem for this task. Highly recommended for nature lovers and those looking to avoid "disability porn"!!

I'm reading the The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays for this one.

Steph wrote: "I'm reading the The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays for this one."

Nice. I have that on my TBR. I love books that deal with mental health.

Ron wrote: "Steph wrote: "I'm reading the The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays for this one."

Nice. I have that on my TBR. I love books that deal with mental health."
Same here! I'm learning so much from Wang's explanations.