Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Use this space to discuss books you're reading or that might fit the 12th Read Harder task. Sign up for our new Read Harder newsletter to get recommendations for each task delivered straight to your inbox! https://bookriot.com/newsletter/read-...

I'm doing The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein.

Options:
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America
Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture
The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History
The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood
Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Marsha P. Johnson and Beyond
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
or The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison

Here's one that fits both the BIPOC plus Queer history:

Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America

I have a few things I really want to get to for this task. Queer: A Graphic History, Transgender History, Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback, History Comics: Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes, The Stonewall Riots: Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights, Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present, The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History, Righting Canada's Wrongs: The LGBT Purge and the fight for equal rights in Canada, and countless others are all things I'm hoping to get to across the upcoming year, so I guess I'll see how I do lmao.

Two I've already read that would fit this task are:

Love in a Dark Time: and Other Explorations of Gay Lives and Literature by Colm Toibin; and
Fighting Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served in Two World Wars by Stephen Bourne.

Planning on going with The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration

This one is tough for me. I don't tend to like nonfiction history books so this prompt feels like homework, and that is not something I want to introduce into my reading life. I will probably substitute a contemporary nonfiction book about race and/or queerness because those feel more spacious to me.

I'm thinking about these from my TBR. If anyone has read them and they have a particularly strong history component to them, let me know!
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia
So You Want to Talk About Race
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong

And ok, I did find one history book on my list. But I may just not be able to get into the mood for it, we'll see.
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender

Lailah wrote: "This one is tough for me. I don't tend to like nonfiction history books so this prompt feels like homework, and that is not something I want to introduce into my reading life. I will probably subst..."

Ace is so good; it's short and really easy to read. Highly recommend!

Lailah, when there's a category I just can't get into, I look for a children's book to fulfill the prompt.

I recently got a copy of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun Harrison and have heard amazing things. Happy for this prompt moving it to the top of my TBR pile for 2023.

I'm going with Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America

I have a ton of these that could work on my tbr, but a different choice I might go with is On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience. It's more of a niche history, but I own it and have been wanting to read it for a while. It would also work for #14 as it only has 30 ratings.

Hoping to read The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America for this prompt

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith would fit for this challenge. I HIGHLY recommend it! It's the kind of US history I wish I'd learned in high school. He's also a poet, so the writing is SO good while also being very readable and engaging. I think people who don't normally like history books might find this pretty approachable. It's also great on audio!

My options so far:
On Juneteenth (pretty short so might be another good one for those not usually into history)
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Lailah wrote: "This one is tough for me. I don't tend to like nonfiction history books so this prompt feels like homework, and that is not something I want to introduce into my reading life. I will probably subst..."

Stamped would count as it references historical moments. Its a excellent read. And high recommended the audio book read by Jason Reynolds.

So many good recommendations here! A book on my TBR pile is When Brooklyn Was Queer. I'm going to start with that one. I probably won't get through it in a month, to be honest, so I'm hesitant to even allude to wanting to read Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman. I have that doorstopper too, but it's so intimidating...

If anyone has read any BIPOC or queer histories from countries that are not the USA, I would love to hear any recommendations! Particularly queer histories, the ones I see always seem to revolve around specific USA policies.

I was gifted several books I can use for this challenge! I got Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood and I can’t wait to get started!

Zoe wrote: "If anyone has read any BIPOC or queer histories from countries that are not the USA, I would love to hear any recommendations! Particularly queer histories, the ones I see always seem to revolve ar..."

Sorry, they're not queer, but White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India, India: A History, China: A History, Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750-1914 and Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India. And, really, any of the Cambridge Ancient History ones if you're up to it. r/AskHistorians has some good recommendations too.

I read David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music for the "Read an LGBTQ+ history book" task in 2021 and I highly recommend it if someone is still looking for an option

This year I'm gonna read K-POP - The Odyssey: Your Gateway to the Global K-Pop Phenomenon because I do like to incorporate my other interests into non-fiction books (general music, not K-Pop in specific)

Zoe wrote: "If anyone has read any BIPOC or queer histories from countries that are not the USA, I would love to hear any recommendations! Particularly queer histories, the ones I see always seem to revolve ar..."

Hi Zoe - the two I recommended above are not US-specific - Colm Toibin is Irish and Love in a Dark Time: and Other Explorations of Gay Lives and Literature covers quite a few countries. Fighting Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served in Two World Wars is more British than US.

I read How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. 5 stars. It fits this prompt nicely.

Zoe wrote: "If anyone has read any BIPOC or queer histories from countries that are not the USA, I would love to hear any recommendations! Particularly queer histories, the ones I see always seem to revolve ar..."

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day was a decent one. Not my favorite book but interesting.

Mates and Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand I haven't read it so can't say to how good it is. and although it doesn't fit exactly for this task, I'd recommend Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa

Zoe wrote: "If anyone has read any BIPOC or queer histories from countries that are not the USA, I would love to hear any recommendations! Particularly queer histories, the ones I see always seem to revolve ar..."

Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis
This is historical fiction set in Uruguay in the 1970s and beyond. It’s fiction, but you might still want to read it. One of the stories involves a child in a facility to change her orientation.
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Begins in Ireland in the 1950s. The government’s stance was that homosexuality doesn’t exist in a Ireland. Lol. Also his fic, and a fabulous book.

Judith wrote: "Zoe wrote: "If anyone has read any BIPOC or queer histories from countries that are not the USA, I would love to hear any recommendations! Particularly queer histories, the ones I see always seem t..."

Love in a Dark Time: and Other Explorations of Gay Lives and Literature. I like Tobin and this sounds fascinating.

I’m focused on indigenous themes this year, and I’ll be looking at Tookie’s List for ideas.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community
Braiding Sweetgrass - if it fits
American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment

I actually came across this book on accident: The Community. I am doing the New Year Kindle Challenge and this book fulfilled the Best of 2022 challenge. Bonus: it is a Kindle Unlimited book, so I was able to borrow it for free. Extra Bonus: it also is going to count towards #7 Listen to an audiobook performed by a POC of a book written by an AOC.

My pick is Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion which is by the author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, a book I read last year.

Chris wrote: "My pick is Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion which is by the author of [book:An Indigenous Peoples' History of..."

That's awesome. I've been reading this book on and off and it's so good.

I’ve started reading Critical Race Theory 3rd Edition: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado et al., but I am also considering Attu Boy, by Nick Golodoff. The second choice would also qualify for a book with under 500 Goodreads ratings (it currently has 6).

Bobby wrote: I’ve started reading Critical Race Theory 3rd Edition: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado et al.

Nice. This is on my tbr for this year.

I'm reading Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism.

I just finished The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander.

Okay, going with Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

I'm reading the YA version with it too.

I've decided to use Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology for this task. I started it a couple nights ago and it's really interesting so far. I'm still working through the other books I listed earlier in the thread though.

I am reading Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua for this task.

Her stories are very personal, but the themes of her book are ones which everyone can relate to. While we do not realize it, we all live in some sort of border state. This is a collection of poems and short stories about her life in the Rio Grande Valley.

If someone is still looking, I've recently read these two about First Nations in Canada / North America. They were both very good.

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality

Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity seems like it would fit for you, Zoe. I haven't read it and know nothing about it but I was looking for something else and just came across it.

For this prompt I'm planning to read Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia It could probably double dip for some other prompts as well.

And the Category Is...: Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community, Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America, Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History were options sent in a Read Harder Challenge email that also sounded quite good to me

I read Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke. I was a kid in the '70s and have never really followed baseball, so a lot of this was completely new to me. I'd never heard of Glenn Burke, but his story was compelling.

Awful Egyptians and The Incredible Incas and When We Were Alone for those, like me, who don't like this prompt and want something quick and easy.

I read The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen, and it was fascinating. So much history that was just glossed over or ignored by white historians.

I went the tough route and read Parting of the Waters by Taylor Branch.

But I read history at uni, so getting through 700+ pages in a week was the norm. For one course, and not the other ones. 2000 - 3000 pages a week, between books and source documents, was typical.

Anyone who tries that prattle about liberal arts degrees being "easy" get an earful from me.

Would Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI count for this?

I read It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lowry, which was focused on Gran Fury, the self-described propaganda wing of ACT UP. Lowry does a really good job making the history feel very narrative, so I would recommend it to people who don't read a lot of history.
Another book from my TBR that I haven't read yet but would work is Lesbian Love Story, which is history on a more personal scale, but still archival enough that I would say it counts.

Alex wrote: "Would Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI count for this?"

Yes!