Reading Challenge Check-In: 2016 Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge

Women of genre 2016

Other than my normal Goodreads challenge, the only other reading challenge I’m doing this year is Worlds Without End’s 2016 Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge, and since we’re at the half-way mark in 2016, I thought it would be a good idea to see where I am. The rules are to read SFF fiction by “new-to-you” women authors (and I have to admit I’m cheating a bit with this rule). It’s a great challenge and it’s harder than it looks. I’ve signed up to read 24 books by the end of the year, and to date, I’ve only read EIGHT. See what I mean by “harder than it looks”? Here’s a screenshot of my challenge so far:

WWE Challenge update

The reason this is a tough challenge is that you are limited to books that are already in the WWE database, and because they focus on award-winning and nominated books, not every book by a woman author is available to use for the challenge. And because I read mostly current/upcoming books, I don’t have as big a selection to choose from. So you just have to do a lot of searching. BUT I love this challenge, and I love that it forces me to make sure I’m not reading all male-authored books, which pretty much dominate the SFF field.

Here are the books I’ve read so far, linked to my reviews:

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Borderline by Mishell Baker

Company Town by Madeline Ashby

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky

Masks and Shadows by Stephanie Burgis

Roses and Rot by Kat Howard

And as for my Goodreads challenge? Well, it’s a little sad…

GR challenge

Yeah, I may be changing that one real soon, LOL:-)

Tell me about your reading challenges! How are you doing at the half-way mark?

Posted June 28, 2016 by Tammy in Reading Challenges / 19 Comments

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19 responses to “Reading Challenge Check-In: 2016 Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge

  1. I’ve seen people mention this challenge in the past and I think it’s such a worthwhile one – but I know that i would personally struggle with it. The vast – VAST – majority of books I read are written by women, but few of those authors are new to me because I tend to prefer sub-genres that have a large number of books in a series.

    From what you’ve read for the challenge this year, it looks like it’s shaping up very well! Masks and Shadows has been on my list for ages and I absolutely loved Every Heart a Doorway. Good luck with the challenge! 🙂
    Danya @ Fine Print recently posted…Graphic Novels, Tough Chicks: Vol. 13My Profile

    • Tammy

      I definitely know what you mean. It’s so comforting to read “familiar” authors. I did cheat with Seanan McGuire because I’ve read her before, but oh well:-)

  2. Matt

    Have you read anything by Kameron Hurley? I started God’s War and was really impressed.

    • Tammy

      Yes! I read The Mirror Empire a couple of years ago, which sadly can’t count towards this year’s challenge. But good idea, I may try to squeeze one of her other books in!

    • Tammy

      Such a wonderful story, right? Challenges are like chocolate for me, if I don’t exert some kind of control, well, you know;-)

  3. I signed on for this challenge after reading about it here on your blog, opting for 24 titles as well. And so far I’ve read 8 too. (Two of which are BORDERLINE and ROSES AND ROT!) I’m not too worried. July is very light on scheduled reviews and even though I anticipate I’ll be reading more manuscripts for work I should be able to fit in a few more challenge titles and get closer to where I need to be for the year.

    • Tammy

      I’ve just discovered that I left a few off, so I’m doing better than I thought. Yay, I’m glad you’re doing this challenge too!

  4. I do the Women of Genre Fiction challenge every year! It’s awesome. I had to actually go update my WWEnd profile to figure out how I was doing, but like you said, the difficulty with this challenge is the available books in their database. Like if they had included some of the YA titles I read this year (WWEnd doesn’t appear to have too many YA books in their DB sadly) I might actually be done.
    Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum recently posted…Book Review: Stiletto by Daniel O’MalleyMy Profile

      • Tammy

        You know, I missed a bunch! I also read The Jewel and her Lapidary. Something is up with the Goodreads database. I went through my “read” books for the year but they aren’t all showing up. Grrrr. Another quirk about GR that I don’t like:-(

    • Tammy

      Yes, very few YA books. And it’s too bad, I’ve read some that I thought for sure would show up there!

  5. I’m in denial that the year is halfway over already. I finished one of my challenges, but I still have quite a bit of catching up to do on the rest of them if I’m going to finish them.

    I’m glad that you’re having fun with your challenge! I’m a little behind on my GoodReads one too. I think it says I’m behind by 11 books. Oops! 😉
    Samantha recently posted…Review: Forevermore by Kristen CallihanMy Profile

    • Tammy

      Ha ha I wish! I don’t really have time off in the summer, but I am going to try to squeeze more reading time in anyway:-)

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