Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Use this space to discuss books you're reading or that might fit the 4th Read Harder task.

Every year I say I will read Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and it never happens. This time it will!

I'm leaning towards They Called Us Enemy by George Takei for this one.

Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey by G.B. Tran - which may fit the Refugee task, as well.

Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution by Julia Alekseyeva

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf

Highly recommended: March: Book One by John Lewis and its sequels.

Mercedes wrote: "So many great suggestions! I might read them all, including the sequel to Fun Home (I think) Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama"

I'm about to start this as I finish the 2019 challenge!

Karen wrote: "Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey by G.B. Tran - whic may fit the Refugee task, as well.

Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution by [author:Julia Aleks..."

Interesting options! And I will second he March books. They are miraculous.

I highly highly recommend The Complete Maus - an account of the author's father's experience of the Holocaust.

I will be reading Becoming Unbecoming - about a girl during the time period of the Yorkshire Ripper (interesting fact for me: my mother was one of the police officers on duty the night he was arrested for the completely unrelated misdemeanour that finally got him charged for the murders. She looked him in the eyes while he was in the cell, and she described his look as pure evil)

Rachael wrote: "I highly highly recommend The Complete Maus - an account of the author's father's experience of the Holocaust.

I will be reading Becoming Unbecoming - about a girl dur..."

That is amazing!

I will add another recommendation for the March books by John Lewis. Fabulous!!!

Emerging wrote: "I'm leaning towards They Called Us Enemy by George Takei for this one."

I forgot about that work. Now I want to use that too.

Emerging wrote: "I'm leaning towards They Called Us Enemy by George Takei for this one."

I think this is my plan too. I put it on hold at the library in late October, so it must be a REALLY good book. It might be 2020 before I get to check it out LOL.

The Complete Persepolis is PHENOMENAL. Highly recommend it for this one!

I think both of these would work, both are nonfiction, focusing on a specific time in their lives
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Follow Me In

Follow Me In was lovely, I just finished it.

I plan to read The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.

I highly recommend The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman, as well as the March trilogy, by John Lewis. March is one of the most powerfully moving works I have read in any genre.

Happy Monday, everyone! Our rec post for this task is now live.

I really enjoyedThe Impostor's Daughter: A True Memoir

Bonnie G. wrote: "Every year I say I will read Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and it never happens. This time it will!"

I read it this year for my book club and really enjoyed it!

Do you guys think The Complete Maus would qualify? What about March: Book One?

Jane wrote: "Do you guys think The Complete Maus would qualify? What about March: Book One?"

Maus is written by the son about his parents' experience, so I don't think that's technically a memoir. March is though.

Milena wrote: "Jane wrote: "Do you guys think The Complete Maus would qualify? What about March: Book One?"

Maus is written by the son about his parents' experience, so I don't think..."

I was thinking the same about Maus -- many people have mentioned it but its not a memoir its a biography. Same for Are you My Mother.

I disagree with the above assessment of Maus. It is definitely a memoir. He tells his own story, especially his relationship with his father. Even the parts of the story from before he was born are told to the reader from the perspective of Spiegelman hearing the story from his father.

If we're going by a dictionary definition of memoir, one of the official definitions of the word is:

"a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources."

Bonnie G. wrote: "Milena wrote: "Jane wrote: "Do you guys think The Complete Maus would qualify? What about March: Book One?"

Maus is written by the son about his parents' experience, s..."

Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama is about Bechdel's relationship with her mother, so it is definitely a memoir, no matter your definition. That said, it's inferior to Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic which is Bechdel's early memoir about her relationship with her father.

I read Lucy Knisley's Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos this year, and it was great. In fact, most (if not all?) of her books would work for this task.

Tillie Walden's Spinning is also lovely!

I'll echo all of the suggestions for Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, The Complete Persepolis, and The Complete Maus, and March: Book One (and books two and three, too, of course).

I will probably go with Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob.

I'm going to read They Called Us Enemy.

I highly recommend The Best We Could Do , The Story of My Tits and Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.

Emerging wrote: "I'm leaning towards They Called Us Enemy by George Takei for this one."

This was so wonderful. I'm mad I've already read it, but also happy that I can fully support you in this read. :)

I'll probably read something by Lucy Knisley, but can also recommend The Complete Persepolis and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.

I can't recommend The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui highly enough. I loved it. It's gorgeous and well-written.

The author came here as a young child from Vietnam with her family. When she has her first child, she decides to move back home and learn more about her parents' lives in Vietnam. She also learns about how the move to the US impacted them.

It's a fabulous book, and it should count for the book by a refugee as well.

Catie wrote: "I read Lucy Knisley's Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos this year, and it was great. In fact, most (if not all?) of her books would work for this task.

[auth..."

[book:Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations|34953002] is such a fantastic read! I hope you enjoy it.

I just saw that Noelle Stevenson has a graphic memoir coming out next year, The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures.

This graphic memoir is being released in February 2020: Banned Book Club

The Best We Could Do is gorgeous and about a refugee family.

Another suggestion ic Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir by Tom Hart.

There are so many fantastic graphic memoirs. I'll probably be reading Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley for this. All of her books are outstanding, my favorite so far being Relish: My Life in the Kitchen.

I second so many books already previously mentioned, such as:
Senator John Lewis's March series
The Best We Could Do
They Called Us Enemy
The Complete Maus
The Complete Persepolis or even just the first book

Some recommendations of mine that haven't been mentioned yet:
A Fire Story - about the wildfires in California in 2017
Waves - about a lesbian couple's attempts to have a child
Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story
Unterzakhn

^ Please correct me if I'm wrong as it's on my TBR anyway and it would be cool to count it for this task, but I thought Unterzakhn was fiction?


I think I'm probably going to end up reading The Best We Could Do. I've read a lot of graphic memoirs, and this is one of those ones that I haven't gotten around to and is near the top of my comics tbr at the moment.

I highly recommend Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home byNora Krug It's written/illustrated by a German woman who has moved to the U.S. and is trying to understand/come to terms with her family members' involvement in WWII.

Elizabeth wrote: "^ Please correct me if I'm wrong as it's on my TBR anyway and it would be cool to count it for this task, but I thought Unterzakhn was fiction?


I think I'm probably going to end up reading The Be..."

Huh, maybe it is fiction. It came off so realistic that I've always just shelved it as a graphic memoir in my mind.

^ Thanks for responding. That's totally fair. I'm hoping to get to it this year anyway, I just won't count it for this task.

I'm going with How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less.

Hannah wrote: "I’m going use Mira Jacob’s new book Good Talk."

Me too, reading it right now.

I’ve had Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir, by Liz Prince on my tbr list for a while, so I will read that.


How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less sounds interesting, too.

I'm definitely going with Persepolis on this one.

Recommendations from my friends who run a comic shop (if you've already read the standards like Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic):

In Waves
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (my pick this year)
The Infinite Wait and Other Stories

Would My Friend Dahmer work for this? In my TBR for the year anyway. I think it’s technically a memoir?

My Friend Dahmer absolutely works.

My daughter gave me Spinning by Tillie Walden and I’ll use that for this prompt.

I’m reading Guts by Raina Telgemeier for this one. (Her earlier books Smile and Sisters would also work.) My 10-year-old daughter is a huge fan so we own all of her books already.

If anyone is interested, this just made the long list for the Canada Reads book competition this year. It's a graphic memoir tackling postpartum depression.Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression

I recently finished and enjoyed Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh for this prompt.

I'll be reading I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir, it's been on my to read list!

Book Riot wrote: "Use this space to discuss books you're reading or that might fit the 4th Read Harder task."

That book is great. Are You My Mother? is even better in my opinion.