Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Share and discuss book ideas for Task 1: Read a microhistory

I'm going to finally read Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

I’m going to read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Several Goodreads lists for possible ideas here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I don't know if it counts, but I always recommend The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

Considering one of the following:

Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

or anything of Mary Roach

Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain

I've had this to read since it won the Pulitzer Prize for History (2021) - will get to it in 2026.

I've loved everything that I've read by Mary Roach! I think I'm going with Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection.

Luci wrote: "I'm going to finally read Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall"

This sounds quite good - adding to my TBR. Thanks

I have a few things in mind for this one. I'm currently considering Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández, The Orphans of Davenport: Eugenics, the Great Depression, and the War over Children's Intelligence by Marilyn Brookwood, and The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery by Siddharth Kara. I really haven't decided though!

Some suggestions others might like that would count as microhistories (at least count enough in a for fun challenge rather than an academic context haha):

-Bellevue: A History of America's Oldest Hospital by David M. Oshinsky
-Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fictionby Gabrielle Moss
-Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin
-Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
-Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones by Carole Boyce Davies

Salt: A World History Mark Kurlansky

I highly recommend anything by Mary Roach

I picked up a used copy of The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, which has been on my TBR list and sounds really interesting.

I think I will go with Paper: Paging Through History or Worn: A People's History of Clothing

I'm thinking Challenger by Adam Higginbotham. I've been meaning to read it for a while.

Not sure what I'll read for this yet, but I recommend Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol

I'm thinking about Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, Salt: A World History, Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World: A History, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, or The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time.

Finally started Radium Girls on audio as I was cleaning up holiday decorations. Love it but am excited to get out of a phase of teeth and jaws decaying soon.

Phil, I read that book a few years ago and the mental images of their teeth and jaws still pops up in my head on occasion.

Reading Bonk by Mary Roach

I haven’t read anything by Mary Roach but as she is so highly recommended, I will read Spook by her for this task 😊

Oh, I am reading this one this year!

Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder

But I'm also interested in The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story

Here's a list I made on microhistories. There are so many good ones!

https://smplibrary.bibliocommons.com/...

I decided on Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall which I didn't get to last year

I was thinking about A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel. I have wanted to read this for ages, but I could never fit in my schedule. It seems like it may fit here.

I found The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann mentioned in a list of microhistories. It was a tense, fascinating piece of narrative nonfiction about survival, mutiny, and competing truths that plays out like a historical thriller. David Grann also wrote The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon and Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, and I recommend his work highly.

Rebecca wrote: "I'm thinking about Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, [b..."

I ended up reading [book:Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection|220341389]. Interesting!

I read Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis for this prompt.

I think I'm going to be reading Eric Hazan's History of the Barricade (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) for this prompt.

I am going to do Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void or Salt: A World History or Bitter Chocolate: Anatomy of an Industry