I'm Participating

To step away from my usual routine of posting about my quilting exploits (or recent lack thereof), we bring you:

For more information or to participate yourself in this Montgomery County Public Libraries initiative, you can go here: http://montgomerycountypubliclibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/2016-mcpl-reading-challenge.html

For a quick side-note: According to Goodreads (which I've been trying to keep updated over the past year) I read 51 books in 2015 (of which about 7 were books I read to my son, though I've read way more than that to him over the course of the last 10 months, and 2 of which were compilations of 3 or 4 books, so it kind of evens out). For my full list, you can go here:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/16018309

So because I read that many books in 2015, I didn't think reading 12 books over 12 months, even if there are very specific categories associated with these 12 books (plus one bonus if you happen to dislike one of the categories or just can't find anything), I wanted to challenge myself a little further.

So my goal is to read only books by female authors with some sort of female focus (heroine, protagonist). 

I've made a tentative list of possibilities for each category here and my goal is to do a minor review of each book once I finish it:

1) A book by a local author or set in the DC/MD/VA area (if you're from somewhere else, just insert your own state here - I chose to limit myself to books set in MD, since that's where I live): 

• Kindred - Octavia Butler (this kept popping up as an option for many of the categories)
• Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler
• Divine Fall - Kathryn Knight
• Blindsided - Priscilla Cummings (not 100% sure this is set in MD, so it's at the bottom of the list)

 2) A book from a genre you don't typically read (any one of the non-fiction or memoirs books could go here as well for me):

• Lee Miller: A Woman's War - Hilary Roberts (WWII, non-fiction, photography)
• Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World - Aja Raden (non-fiction)

3) An Audiobook (any format):

• Any one of the other books, or really any book that strikes my fancy, or I'll sub this out for the bonus book, since I'm only really a fan of audiobooks on car trips

4) A graphic novel or comic book:

• Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi (this has been on my to-read list for some time, it's a memoir by a woman in graphic novel format)

5) A book by an author whose race, religion, or ethnicity is different from your own:

• Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali (African, Muslim, Somali)
• Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad- Waris Dirie (African, Somali)
• Lakota Woman - Mary Crow Dog (Native American, I may have already read this one or have picked it up multiple times meaning to)
• Wench - Dolen Perkins-Valdez (African American, the only non-memoir on the list, about pre-Civil War slavery)

6) A book published this year (this seems too easy since most of my favorite fantasy authors have books with strong female characters):

• Night Study - Maria V. Snyder (coming out Jan 26, 2016)

7) A non-fiction book: 

• 4000 Years of Uppity Women - Vicki Leon (part of why I wanted to focus on female authors and female subjects was because I want to learn more about women who made contributions to history, so this is at the top of my list)
• Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists- Marcia Bonta (female scientists, reading through the summary I don't recognize any of these women except Rachel Carson)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot (cells taken from this woman without her consent are still bought and sold today and have contributed to many medical advances)

8) A memoir, biography, or autobiography of someone who is still alive:

• I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced - Nujood Ali (child brides are a topic I feel passionate about - in an "why is this still happening" sort of way, but have never actually read anything about them)
• I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban - Malala Yousafzai (the title really says it all, she also recently won the Nobel Peace Prize)

9) A book that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages, children to adults:

• Kira-Kira - Cynthia Kadohata (Newbery Medal winner)
• Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech (Newbery Medal winner, this has been on my to-read list for a very long time as well)

10)  A book that has been made into a movie (many options here, but I've already read Hunger Games and Vampire Academy):

• Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (haven't seen the movie yet)
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed (haven't seen the movie yet)
• Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen (saw the movie a while ago, mental illness scares me way more than physical disabilities so it might be good to get some additional insight this way)

11) A book recommended by another person or organization (like your library!) (I cheated a little here and just used Goodreads as the organization and chose some books from the Awesome Women of the Ancient World list that looked interesting):

• Brigid of Kildare - Heather Terrell (historical fiction set in Ireland about a female priest and bishop)
• The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora - Stephanie Thornton (I know quite a bit about Rome, but almost nothing about Byzantium - i.e. Eastern Rome)

12) An award winner (it was actually surprisingly hard to find something that matched my criteria of female subject, female author, and adult book):

• Dreamsnake - Vonda McIntyre (SciFi, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, )
• The Snow Queen - Joan Vinge (SciFi, Hugo Award, Locus Award)

Bonus: A book that takes place in the future:

• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (dystopian, I was supposed to read this in high school but never actually read it - one of two assigned books I skipped, the other was The Old Man and the Sea and I have absolutely no desire to revisit that one)