This year, we’re excited to host a reading challenge: we give you #LansingReads22

Each year for the past several years, @thereadingwomen has hosted a challenge focused on celebrating women writers. Their goal to #reclaimthebookshelf resonates deeply with our own mission, and we were looking forward to their 2022 challenge. We were bummed to hear they aren’t hosting a challenge this year, but we’re excited to see what they’re working on next.

So, we decided to host our own 2022 reading challenge, adapting a few of our favorite prompts from past Reading Women challenges while adding some of our own.

Here are a few ways you can participate:

1. Select your own books for any or all of the prompts below. Share pictures/reviews of your picks on social media using the hashtag #lansingreads22

2. Read any of the books we pre-selected for each prompt and join any of the Zoom discussions that interest you. Send us your email address to join! You can either DM it to us here on Storygraph, on Instagram, or email us at [email protected]

Schedule:

Jan: A book by a Japanese writer in translation
Our pick: Strange Weather in Tokyo, by Hiromi Kawakami
Zoom: 2/10, 7 pm

Feb: A book featuring a queer love story
Our pick: All of You Every Single One, by Beatrice Hitchman
Zoom: 3/3, 7 pm

March: A book about incarceration written by a woman
Our pick: Are Prisons Obsolete?, by Angela Y Davis
Zoom: 3/31, 7 pm

Apr: A fantasy novel by a BIPOC writer
Our pick: Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse
Zoom: 4/28, 7 pm

May: A feminist essay collection
Our pick: You're the Only One I've Told by Meera Shah
Zoom: 5/26, 7 pm

June: A book by a Caribbean writer
Our pick: Patsy, Nicole Dennis-Benn
Zoom: 6/30, 7 pm

July: A nonfiction book about nature and/or science
Our pick: Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
Zoom discussion: 7/28, 7 pm 

Aug: A short story collection written by a woman in translation
Our pick: The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez
Zoom: 8/25, 7 pm

Sept: A graphic novel by a queer writer/artist
Our pick: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, by Mariko Tamaki
Zoom: 9/29, 7 pm

Oct: A horror novel or thriller published by an indie press
Our pick: The Gold Persimmon, by Lindsay Merbaum
Zoom: 10/27, 7 pm

Nov: A poetry collection by a Latinx or Xicana writer
Our pick: blud, by Rachel McKibbens
Zoom: 11/24, 7 pm

Dec: A memoir by a woman of color
Our pick: Bone Black, by bell hooks
Zoom: 12/29, 7 pm