2019 Read-a-Longs

Beginning last year, I agreed with myself that I would read books representing more diverse points of view. The question was, how would I go about doing that? The answer: read-a-longs!

I’m guiding this year’s reading via two Instagram-based reading challenges, the FemmeFanTale readathon and the Reading Women Challenge. I’m currently figuring out how these books fit into those – you can see how things are breaking down here. I’m basing my efforts on the idea of still reading female-identified authors, as that is simply a Thing I Always Do and Want To Do. But more diverse female-identified authors talking about more diverse subjects.

Below are the books I’ve identified so far for the challenges (I will identify more as time goes on), it’s to-be-discovered how they fit exactly. I haven’t read them all yet so I’ll fill it in as I go.

My Plan So Far

Here are the books I’m planning (and have already started) to read. There will probably be more.

1. Roar of Sky by Beth Cato (Blood of Earth #3)
2. Wings of Sorrow and Bone by Beth Cato (novella of the Clockwork Dagger series)
3. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (Girls of Paper and Fire #1)
4. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
5. The Omega Objection by G.L. (Gail) Carriger (San Andreas Shifters #2)
6. Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier
7. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (Akata Witch #1)
8. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth #1)
9. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (Winternight Trilogy #1)
10. Enchantee by Gita Trelease (Enchantee #1)
11. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows #1)
12. The Wicked King by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air #2)
13. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler (Earthseed #1)
14. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, translated from German by Anthea Bell
15. I’m also going to read *We, The Children of Cats* by Tomoyuki Hoshino, translated from Japanese by Brian Bergstrom. It is not by a female author but sounds like it fits, and the number of fantasy books by female authors translated into English is very small. Apparently the book contains gender-bending ideas and myth/folkloric stories, is a stand-alone, has a BAME author, and contains novellas – so not my usual, and hopefully will fit the general idea here.