Happy New Year, folks! One of my favorite things about starting off a new year is picking my reading list. This year I really wanted to work on diversifying my reading selections. I love a good YA book, but I wanted to reread a few classics that I haven’t touched since I’ve been in school or classics that have been on my reading list for a long time now. I’m challenging myself to compete this by picking one – although I’ve already failed – book for every letter of the alphabet. This is the A – Z reading challenge. Feel free to read that in a dramatic announcer voice.
I wanted to have at least five selections that were books to film and ended up with quite a few: The Color Purple, If Beale Street Could Talk, Where’d You Go Bernadette, Native Son, and Dumplin’ (which I broke my read the book first rule for). Damn you, Netflix! You’ll see a lot of female authors and authors of color. Let’s get started!
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Reading List: A – G
The Awakening was suggested to me as a book all feminists should read. I don’t know about all of that, but I had a hard time finding an “A” book so I added it to the list. From what I hear you either love the Meg Wolizter book or you hate it – there is no in between. I read her book The Interestings a few years back and enjoyed it so I thought I’d give this novel a chance. The Color Purple and Catch -22 are both rereads for me, but sometimes it’s good to pick up classics. The Favorite Sister and #fashion victim are both selections from The Paper and Glam Book Club. I’m not reading every book on their list this year, but have chosen a few.
- A: The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- B: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
- C: The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- D:Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
- E: Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester
- F: The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer and The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll and #fashionvictim by Amina Akhtar
- G: Ghosted by Rosie Walsh
Reading List: H – N
Last year I read Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jessmyn Ward and immediately added her other books on my “to read” list. I’m also getting a few book to film selections in with Beale Street – which I see is getting some amazing reviews – Native Son which premieres at Sundance later this month and the oh so classic Like Water for Chocolate.
- H: Heads of the Colored People by Nafiss Thompson-Spires
- I: If Beale Street Could Talk – by James Baldwin
- J: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
- K: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
- L: L.A. Woman – Eve Babitz and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
- M: Men We Reaped by Jessmyn Ward
- N:Native Son by Richard Wright
Reading List:O – T
I was introduced to Jenny Han through the To All the Boys I Loved Before series so I’m going back to her first series because my list is incomplete without some YA fiction. Queen Sugar has been on my list for awhile so I’m ready to dive in the book version of the Bordelon family.
- O: One of Us Is Lying – Karen M Mcmanus
- P: Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
- Q: Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile
- R: Room by Emma Donoghue
- S: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
- T: Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride
Reading List: U- Z
The standouts here are definitely under the letter ‘U’. I saw many of these titles plastered on my #bookstagram. I’ve read one other book by Colson Whitehead for an African American Literature class in college and have been meaning to read some of his other writing ever since. 2019 will be the year.
- U:The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
- V: Vox by Christina Dalcher
- W:The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory and Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple and White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn and What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons and What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan
- X:The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
- Y: You by Caroline Kepnes
- Z: Zone One by Colson Whitehead
What are you planning to read in 2019? Feel free to share your titles with me in the comments below!
