March Adult Reading Challenge: Reading Women!

March is Reading Month for Michigan children, but adults can join the fun, too! 

For the month of March, complete any three of the challenges from the 2021 Reading Women Challenge. You can read books in any format—physical book, eBook, or audiobook! Email the three titles (or more!) and your contact information to amoreno@cityofeastlansing.com before Monday, April 5^th.

Shortly after, one reader will be drawn at random to win a prize!  

Need some ideas about what to read? Check out our 2021 Reading Women Challenge List for ideas., opens a new window

Want to share some ideas with other readers? Send an email to amoreno@cityofeastlansing.com with some titles and comments, and we’ll add it to them to the list.

The challenges are listed below. 

1. A Book Longlisted for the JCB Prize

   • The JCB Prize for Literature is an award presented each year to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian author.

   • The prize aims to celebrate Indian writing and to help readers across the world discover the very best of contemporary Indian literature. It also makes significant awards also to translators, without whose work no reader can appreciate the scale and diversity of a literature written in over twenty languages.

   • Find out more over on the prize’s website., opens a new window

2. An Author from Eastern Europe

   • Eastern Europe is, as the name says, the eastern part of Europe. According to the United Nations Statistics Division, countries within Eastern Europe are Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and the most-western part of the Russian Federation.

3. A Book About Incarceration

   • Read a fiction or nonfiction book about any kind of incarceration set anywhere around the world.

4. A Cookbook by a Woman of Color

   • You do not have to read every word of the cookbook.

   • Making a recipe from the cookbook is encouraged but not required.

   • If you are triggered by food, please feel free to read a book about cocktails, tea, coffee, olive oil, cocoa beans, or anything else food adjacent.

5. A Book with a Protagonist Older than 50

   • Bonus points if the author is also over 50!

6. A Book by a South American Author in Translation

   • As with all of our translation prompts, you can read in any language you like as long as the book has been translated from one language to another.

7. Reread a Favorite Book

8. A Memoir by an Indigenous, First Nations, Native, or Aboriginal Woman

   • This prompt is inspired by Erin and Dani’s Book Club, which is focusing on Indigenous memoirs this year! Head over to their instagram page to find more information., opens a new window

9. A Book by a Neurodivergent Author

   • While “neurodivergent” often refers to people on the Autism Spectrum, it also includes people with ADD, ADHD, learning disabilities, and any other type of condition that causes cognitive difference.

10. A Crime Novel or Thriller in Translation

    • As with all of our translation prompts, you can read in any language you like as long as the book has been translated from one language to another.

11. A Book About the Natural World

    • This can be interpreted as specific or as general as you like.

12. A Young Adult Novel by a Latinx Author

13. A Poetry Collection by a Black Woman

14. A Book with a Biracial Protagonist

15. A Muslim Middle Grade Novel

16. A Book Featuring a Queer Love Story

17. About a Woman in Politics

    • Bonus points for reading about a woman in politics from a country that’s not your own!

18. A Book with a Rural Setting

19. A Book with a Cover Designed by a Woman

20. A Book by an Arab Author in Translation

    • As with all of our translation prompts, you can read in any language you like as long as the book has been translated from one language to another.

    • The Arab World consists of twenty-two countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

21. A Book by a Trans Author

    • This includes trans women and nonbinary trans authors comfortable being included in feminine-coded initiatives.

22. A Fantasy Novel by an Asian Author

23. A Nonfiction Book Focused on Social Justice

24. A Short Story Collection by a Caribbean Author

BONUS

• A Book by Alexis Wright

• A Book by Tsitsi Dangarembga

• A Book by Leila Aboulela

• A Book by Yoko Ogawa