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:
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…
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?
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. 13
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:-)
Have you read anything by Kameron Hurley? I started God’s War and was really impressed.
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!
That’s such a great challenge. I am doing way to many this year but so far, am managing. In fact, I’ve already completed my “New Release” challenge. Every time I see “Every Heart a Doorway” I fall in love with it all over again!
Barb (boxermommyreads) recently posted…TTT – Top 10 Books I Loved But Never Reviewed
Such a wonderful story, right? Challenges are like chocolate for me, if I don’t exert some kind of control, well, you know;-)
Goodreads is always taunting me with how I’m behind. Thanks goodreads. I haven’t checked the other ones, but probably not pretty 😀
Lisa @TenaciousReader recently posted…Review: The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis
Ha ha, yeah GR never lets you forget;-)
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.
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!
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’Malley
By the way, are you counting novellas? I thought you read The Drowning Eyes (it was on my list but I didn’t see it on yours). I just keep checking new entries to their database to see if I can spot something I’ve read 🙂
Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum recently posted…Book Review: Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley
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:-(
Yes, very few YA books. And it’s too bad, I’ve read some that I thought for sure would show up there!
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 Callihan
Ok I don’t feel quite as bad, lol!
24 new authors of any gender sounds like a big task… but 90 book total in a years sounds like even bigger! Maybe you’ll have an easy summer and have time to catch up?
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:-)
WWE is a great place and I love their chaalenges: you can always find one or more that appeal to you. Unfortunately their book database does mot always show the titles or authors we need, and that can be frustrating indeed…
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