Book Riot Live

Book Riot Live: A Reading Challenge

A fun reading challenge and books from Book Riot Live speakers you can use to finish!

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Jenn Northington

Director, Editorial Operations

Jenn Northington has worked in the publishing industry wearing various hats since 2004, including bookseller and events director, and is currently Director of Editorial Operations at Riot New Media Group. You can hear her on the SFF Yeah! podcast nerding out about sci-fi and fantasy. When she’s not working, she’s most likely gardening, running, or (obviously) reading. Find her on Tumblr at jennIRL and Instagram at iamjennIRL.

View All posts by Jenn Northington

We’ve got a huge range of guests coming to present at Book Riot Live: check out the speaker page! To give you an idea of just how big the range is (and a fun reading challenge), I have lovingly prepared for you … drumroll please … the Book Riot Live Reading Challenge.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pick a category and start exploring! Whether you want to stick close to home (and by home I mean your usual reading) or venture farther afield, there are suggestions aplenty. We’ve got six weeks to go, so (depending on how fast you read) that’s enough time to get through at least a couple of categories, right? And, bonus, some of these also qualify for the 2015 Read Harder Challenge, so you can accomplish two reading tasks with one book!

1. A story by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQIA — check out the works of:

Alexander Chee
Roberta Kaplan
Sarah McCarry
NK Jemisin
William Johnson’s recommendations

2. A book by a person whose gender is different from your own

3. A romance, check out:

Alisha Rai
Beverly Jenkins
Sarah MacLean

4. A science fiction/fantasy novel — check out:
Daniel José Older
Margaret Atwood
Myke Cole
NK Jemisin
Sally Slater

5. Watch a BookTube video:

Ariel Bissett
Mark Oshiro

6. A YA novel — check out:
Brendan Kiely
Daniel José Older
Jason Reynolds
Laurie Halse Anderson
Sarah McCarry
Sona Charaipotra

7. A family saga — check out:
Jessamyn Hope
Beverly Jenkins
Laurie Halse Anderson

8. A poem — check out:
William Johnson’s recommendations
Jill McDonough
Guy Le Charles Gonzalez

9. A graphic novel — check out:
Greg Pak
Lucy Knisley

10. A webcomic — check out:
Wendy Xu
Margaret Atwood

11. A historical novel — check out:
Jessamyn Hope
Beverly Jenkins

12. A story that takes place in a country other than the U.S. — check out:
Sarah MacLean
Margaret Atwood
Jessamyn Hope
Sara Novic

13. A book for kids — check out:
Laurie Halse Anderson
anything published by Tu Books
Greg Pak

14. A nonfiction book — check out:
Roberta Kaplan
Danielle Henderson
Ryan Chapman
Peter Mendelsund
Margaret Atwood

15. Listen to a literary podcast episode — check out:
Overdue
the Book Riot family of podcasts