For the last few years, Book Riot has offered readers a wide swath of literary challenges to encourage them to broaden their reading horizons and to step out of their bookish comfort zones. Sometimes it takes a little extra work to find marginalized voices that aren’t publicized or reviewed as widely, but the possibility of finding books you never knew to look for is well worth the effort. Here are the 2021 Book Riot Read Harder challenges, and a few suggestions for each to get you on your way.

1. Read a book you've been intimidated to read

Paradise Lost by John Milton
An epic poem on the clash between God and his fallen angel, Satan, is a profound meditation on fate, free will, and divinity, and one of the most beautiful works in world literature.

Moby Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville
A nineteenth-century tale of life aboard a New England whaling ship whose captain is obsessed with the pursuit of a large white whale.

Native Son by Richard Wright
Traces the fall of a young black man in 1930s Chicago as his life loses all hope of redemption after he kills a white woman.

Middlemarch by George Eliot
In nineteenth-century England, Dorthea Brooke's wishes to defy social conventions are inhibited by the strict nature of her surroundings.

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
A poet, critic and nonfiction author explores the possibilities and limitations of romance, love, desire and sexual identity by exploring her own relationship with a fluidly-gendered artist, Harry Dodge.

2. Read a nonfiction book about anti-racism

How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi
Combines ethics, history, law, and science with a personal narrative to describe how to move beyond the awareness of racism and contribute to making society just and equitable.

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla Saad
The host of the “Good Ancestor” podcast presents an updated and expanded edition of the Instagram challenge that launched a cultural movement about taking responsibility for first-person racism to stop unconsciously inflicting pain on others.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incareration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; and it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund. Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
Traces the idea of a white race, showing how the origins of the American identity were tied to the elevation of white skin as the embodiment of beauty, power, and intelligence, and how even intellectuals insisted that only Anglo Saxons were truly American.

For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y'all Too : Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education by Christopher Emdin
Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color and merging his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America, award-winning educator Christopher Emdin offers a new lens on an approach to teaching and learning in urban schools. 

Bonus: Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List

3. Read a non-European novel in translation

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata,translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori
A Japanese woman who has been working at a convenience store for eighteen years finds friendship with an alienated, cynical, and bitter young man who becomes her coworker.

Frankenstein in Baghdad> by Ahmad Sa’Dawi, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright
Hadi, an eccentric scavenger in U.S.-occupied Baghdad, collects human body parts and cobbles them together into a single corpse, but discovers his creation is missing just as a series of strange murders begins to plague the city.

The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea by Bandi, translated by Deborah Smith
Smuggled out of the country, an anonymously published collection of short stories depicts life under the North Korean regime and how it impacts a range of people.

The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal, translated by Nick Caistor
Juan Salvatierra began secretly painting a series of long rolls of canvas in which he minutely detailed six decades of life in his village on Argentina's river frontier with Uruguay. After his death, his sons return to the village to deal with their inheritance: a shed packed with painted rolls of canvas stretching over two miles in length. 

Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk, translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns
In 1940s apartheid South Africa, Milla discovers a child abandoned in the fields of her family farm and brings the girl, Agaat, into her home. But the kindness is fleeting, as Milla makes Agaat her maidservant and, later, a nanny for her son.  In complex and devastating ways, the power shifts between the two women, mirroring the historic upheavals happening around them and revealing a shared lifetime of hopes, sacrifices, and control.

4. Read an LGBTQ+ history book

And the Band Played On:Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts
An examination of the AIDS crisis exposes the federal government for its inaction, health authorities for their greed, and scientists for their desire for prestige in the face of the AIDS pandemic.

Stonewall Reader edited by The New York Public Library
Presents a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines, and newspapers chronicling the years leading up to and the years following the Stonewall uprising.

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
Drawing on 19th and 20th-century medical illustrations, pickup notices, fugitive-slave narratives, true-crime books, documentary films, and poetry, the author analyzes the connections between blackness and trans identity in the context of ongoing black and trans deaths

When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan
A groundbreaking story of the neighborhood’s colorful and forgotten queer history, from the mid-1850s up to the present day, shows how the formation of the Brooklyn we know today is inextricably linked to the stories of the extraordinary people who created its diverse neighborhoods and cultures.

Gentleman Jack: A Biography of Anne Lister, Regency Landowner, Seducer and Secret Diarist by Angela Steidele, translated by Katy Derbyshire
Anne Lister's journals were so shocking that the first person to crack their secret code hid them behind a fake panel in his ancestral home. Anne Lister was a Regency landowner, an intrepid world traveller...and an unabashed lover of other women.

5. Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
When a small town needs her help in finding a missing girl, Maggie Hoskie, a Dinâetah monster hunter, reluctantly enlists the help of an unconventional medicine man to uncover the terrifying truth behind the disappearance and her own past.

Not For Nothing by Stephen Graham Jones
The town is Stanton, Texas, population three thousand; the private investigator is disgraced Midland homicide detective Nicholas Bruiseman, who's so down on his luck that he's forced to take a job as a live-in security guard for the town's lone storage facility. This is his new life—starting over with nothing in the town he grew up in.

Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
A story inspired by the Canadian Mâetis legend of the Rogarou finds a woman reconnecting with her heritage when her missing husband reappears in the form of a charismatic preacher who does not recognize her.

A Girl Called Echo  graphic novel series by Katherena Vermette
A time-traveling adventure starring a young Métis girl.

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
A tale set in the near future finds the world thrown into chaos by rebelling artificial intelligences under the leadership of a murderous technology called Archos that kills its creator and takes over the global network, triggering an unprecedented united front among all human cultures.

6. Read a fanfic

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (The Iliad)
A retelling of the legend of Achilles follows Patroclus and Achilles, the golden son of King Peleus, as they lay siege to Troy after Helen of Sparta is kidnapped—a cause that tests their friendship and forces them to make the ultimate sacrifice.

No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts (The Great Gatsby)
A tale inspired byThe Great Gatsby is set in the contemporary South and follows the difficulties endured by an extended black family with colliding visions of the American dream.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Jane Eyre)
Beautiful and wealthy Antoinette Cosway's passionate love for an English aristocrat threatens to destroy her idyllic West Indian island existence and her very life.

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James (Pride and Prejudice)
Pemberley is thrown into chaos after Elizabeth Bennett's disgraced sister Lydia arrives and announces that her husband Wickham has been murdered.

Mycroft Holmes series by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Raymond Obstfeld, art by Joshua Cassara (Sherlock Holmes)
At the behest of Queen Victoria, Mycroft Holmes embarks on a globe-trotting adventure to retrieve a stolen handbook that contains plans for a civilization destroying weapon.

7. Read a fat-positive romance

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
When her viral fan-fiction leads to a disastrous publicity-stunt date with her celebrity crush, a talented plus-sized writer discovers that the actor secretly writes his own popular fan-fiction against studio rules.

Vow of Celibacy by Erin Judge
After a string of sexual conquests, Natalie is determined to figure out why the intense romantic connections she's spent her life chasing have left her emotionally high and dry. As she sifts through her past and her present, she confronts her complicated feelings about her plus-sized figure, her bisexuality, and her thwarted career in fashion design.

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers and a massively broken heart. Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: the hit reality show​ Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition&;under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated.

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
When a friend she has not spoken to since the fight that ended their friendship six years earlier asks her to be her maid of honor, Daphne Berg confronts the dynamics of friendship and forgiveness during the increasingly disastrous wedding.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown! by Talia Hibbert
Emerging from a life-threatening illness, a fiercely organized but unfulfilled computer geek recruits a mysterious artist to help her establish meaning in her life, before finding herself engaged in reckless but thrilling activities.

8. Read a romance by a trans or nonbinary author

A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett
Eleven unique short stories that stretch from a rural Canadian Mennonite town to a hipster gay bar in Brooklyn, featuring young trans women stumbling through loss, sex, harassment, and love.

Coffee Boy by Austin Chant
After graduation, Kieran is offered the internship of his dreams, but the pressure of being an out trans man in the workplace quickly sucks the joy out of things especially when he develops an awkward crush on supportive, but prickly Seth.

The Queer and the Restless by Kris Ripper
Ed Masiello has been on testosterone for a year, is working his dream job as a reporter, and is finally passing as a man. But the investigation of a murder case is starting to take over his life. Afraid he's becoming obsessed, he goes to the local club to relax, and meets the flighty, whimsical Alisha. As their relationship heats up, so does the murder case. 

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
A girl hiding the truth, a boy with secrets from his past, and four sisters who could ruin them both.

Bad Boy by Elliot Wake
A fast-paced, mind-bending romantic thriller about a transgender vlog star who struggles with a past that continues to haunt him as he sets out to prove that he's not a bad boy, but something else entirely: a good man.

9. Read a middle grade mystery

Me, Frida & the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes
When Lizzie and Gael share an irresistible challenge, to find the peacock ring that once belonged to artist Frida Kahlo, Paloma decides it is the perfect way to honor her father.

The Greenglass House by Kate Milford
At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, 12-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winter holidays relaxing, but soon guests begin arriving with strange stories about the house, sending Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an adventure.

Emperor’s Riddle  by Kat Zhang
During a family trip to China, eleven-year-old Mia Chen and her older brother, Jake, follow clues and solve riddles in hopes of finding their missing Aunt Lin and, perhaps, a legendary treasure.

The Story Collector  by Kristin O'Donnell Tubb 
A story based on the author's childhood introduces 11-year-old Viviani Joffrey Fedeler, who lives in the New York Public Library and decides to play a Halloween prank on a girl who teases Viviani for believing in ghosts.

The Wig in the Window by Kristen Kittscher
When their game of neighborhood spying takes a dark turn one night, pre-teen sleuths Sophie Young and Grace Yang find themselves caught in a dangerious cat-and-mouse game with their bizarre guidance counselor, who may be hiding something sinister.

10. Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color

A People’s Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers& edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
Each of 25 speculative stories by such writers as Violet Allen, Charlie Jane Anders, Ashok K. Banker, Tobias S. Buckell and Omar El Akkad imagines the future of America, with the collection featuring tales of both dystopias and utopias. 

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings: 15 Retellings of Asian Myths and Legends edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman
Fifteen authors of Asian descent reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia, in short stories ranging from fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge.

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl
Showcases emerging and seasoned writers of many races telling stories filled with shocking delights, powerful visions of the familiar made strange.

Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 edited by N.K. Jemisin
Boundary-pushing and experimental, this diverse selection of science fiction and fantasy stories illuminates what it means to be human and explores the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today.

11.Read a food memoir by an author of color

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael Twitty
A culinary historian uses the story of his own ancestors, both black and white, to trace the origin of barbecue, soul food, and Southern cuisine, revealing the power of food to bring people together.

Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi
The host of Top Chef presents a memoir about her immigrant childhood and complicated life in front of the camera, tracing her formative experiences in her grandmother's South India kitchen and her relationships with people who influenced her culinary skills and career.

Fresh off the Boat by Eddie Huang
A Taiwanese-American rebel restaurateur chronicles his rise to success from his difficult childhood in the American South to his decision to embrace all he had learned about food in his father's restaurants and his mother's kitchen to create his own culinary identity.

Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
Samuelsson traces his Ethiopian birth, upbringing by an adoptive family in Sweden and rise to a famous New York chef, sharing personal insights into his challenges as a black man in a deeply prejudiced industry.

A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family by Cheryl Lu-lien Tan
In a heartwarming, charming and delicious memoir about food and family and the meaning of home, the author explains how she longed for and became reacquainted with her childhood home of Singapore.

12. Read a work of investigative nonfiction by an author of color

Beneath the Tamarind Tree : A Story of Courage, Family, and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram by Isha Sesay
The first definitive account of the lost girls of Boko Haram and why their story still matters by celebrated international journalist Isha Sesay.

A Moonless Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa by Alexis Okeowo
A staff writer for the  New Yorker  describes the true stories of Africans who are bravely resisting the fundamentalism sweeping their country, including a women's basketball team in Somalia, a vigilante against Boko Haram, and kidnapping victims of Joseph Kony’s LRA.

Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge
Tells the stories of the lives lost on November 23, 2013, profiling ten victims whose deaths exemplify the statistic that on an average day in America, seven young people aged nineteen or under will be shot dead.

Pandemic by Sonia Shah
A science journalist tracks the story of cholera to explore the origins of epidemics, including coronaviruses, and discuss modern pathogens that have the potential to follow in the disease's pandemic footsteps.

The Golden Thread: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld by Ravi Somaiya
Investigates the mystery behind the 1961 death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, drawing on previously undisclosed evidence, recently revealed firsthand accounts and groundbreaking interviews to identify the powerful international cabal behind his death.

13.Read a book with a cover you don’t like

This one is so subjective that we can’t begin to make suggestions. However, if there is a genre of books that you tend to steer clear from because you don’t like the covers (romance, fantasy, classics), now is the time to lean into that aversion, and give one of those a try.

14.Read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay (Puerto Rico)
When seventeen-year-old Jay Reguero learns his Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.

Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez (Argentina)
Seventeen-year-old Camila Hassan, a rising soccer star in Rosario, Argentina, dreams of playing professionally, in defiance of her fathers' wishes and at the risk of her budding romance with Diego.

I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn (Japan)
Eagerly visiting her estranged grandparents in Japan to distance herself from the mother who disapproves of her fashion ambitions, a talented young designer immerses herself in Kyoto's markets and cherry blossom festival and bonds with a cute med student while uncovering illuminating family secrets.

When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina (South Africa)
It’s 1976 in South Africa, and four young people are living in Johannesburg and its black township, Soweto: Zanele, a black female student organizer; Meena, a South Asian girl working at her father's shop; Jack, an Oxford-bound white student; and Thabo, a teen-gang member, or tsotsi. From each of their points of view, this book explores the roots of the Soweto Uprising and the edifice of apartheid in a South Africa about to explode.

If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan (Iran)
In Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, seventeen-year-olds Sahar and Nasrin love each other in secret until Nasrin's parents announce their daughter's arranged marriage and Sahar proposes a drastic solution.

15.Read a memoir by a Latinx author

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado 
The award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties shares the story of her relationship with an abusive partner and how it was shaped by her religious upbringing, her sexual orientation and inaccurate cultural beliefs about psychological trauma.

Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
An award-winning poet chronicles his experiences of growing up undocumented in the United States, describing how his family and his attempt to establish an adult life were heartbreakingly complicated by racist policies.

An Unlikely Journey by Julian Castro
The former San Antonio mayor and secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Barack Obama shares his life story, recounting how his mother's political activism inspired his ascent from poverty to a successful political career.

Spirit Run by Noe Alvarez
At nineteen, Álvarez learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys—epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of college and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O’odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Álvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. 

Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz
A biographical debut by a Pushcart Prize-winning writer traces her upbringing in the housing projects of Puerto Rico, her mother’s battle with schizophrenia, her personal struggles with sexual assault and her efforts to pursue a literary career.

17. Read an own voices YA book with a Black main character that isn’t about Black pain

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
A Black, underprivileged misfit from a wealthy, prom-obsessed midwestern community carefully plans to attend a prestigious medical college before the unexpected loss of her financial aid forces her to compete for her school’s prom-queen scholarship

18. Read a book by or about a non-Western world leader

19. Read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist

20. Read a book of nature poems

21. Read a children’s book that centers a disabled character but not their disability

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.