For the last three years, I’ve attended Sirens, an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to women in fantasy literature. In 2015, the conference will be held in Denver, from October 8-11, with the theme of “rebels and revolutionaries.” If you know me and what I like to read, you will understand why I am really excited about this year’s theme.
Every year the conference organizers develop a reading list for staff, and this year, they’ve adapted that reading list into a reading challenge. I do love a good reading challenge!
(Please ignore how far behind I am on my Goodreads challenge this year.)
Here’s the list, with challenge instructions, copied-and-pasted from the Sirens website. I’ve included some annotations on what I’ve already read and what was already in my figurative to-read stack. You’ll notice that I have a habit of leaving books half-finished these days. Purchase links below go to The Tattered Cover and help support the conference. [ETA: Hat tip to starlady, since I first saw the challenge when she posted about it on her blog.]
Sirens 2015 Reading Challenge
In each required category, you must read—or have previously read—each work listed. In each category of selections, you must select books by authors who are new to you. If you cannot reach the required number of selections without selecting authors you have already read, you may select works you haven’t read by authors you have read before. If you cannot reach the required number of selections without selecting books you’ve read, bravo, and please read as many new-to-you books as you can to complete the challenge.
Guests of Honor: Required
- Rae Carson, The Girl of Fire and Thorns [partly read, plan to finish]
- Kate Elliott, Cold Magic [+ sequels, read] or Court of Fives (forthcoming August 2015) [read]
- Yoon Ha Lee, Conservation of Shadows [own, not yet read]
Rebels and Revolutionaries: Required
- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
- Alaya Dawn Johnson, The Summer Prince [partly read, plan to finish]
- Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice [plan to read this]
- Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock [+ sequels, read]
- Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death [read]
- Tamora Pierce, Trickster’s Queen
- G. Willow Wilson, Alif the Unseen [currently checked out from library]
Rebels and Revolutionaries: Select Five
- Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor [plan to read this]
- Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen
- Kelly Barnhill, Iron Hearted Violet
- Elizabeth Bunce, StarCrossed
- Sarah Beth Durst, Vessel
- Sarah Fine, Of Metal and Wishes [read]
- Catherine Fisher, Incarceron
- Shira Glassman, Climbing the Date Palm
- Kameron Hurley, The Mirror Empire
- N. K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
- Erika Johansen, The Queen of the Tearling
- Intisar Khanani, Sunbolt
- Marie Lu, The Young Elites [plan to read this]
- Laurie J. Marks, Fire Logic [+ sequels, read]
- Jodi Meadows, The Orphan Queen
- Sara Raasch, Snow Like Ashes
- Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes [oops, guess I shouldn’t have given away that ARC…]
- Sherry Thomas, The Burning Sky
- Nahoko Uehashi, Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness
- Kit Whitfield, In Great Waters
Middle Grade/Young Adult: Select Five
- Lindsey Barraclough, Long Lankin [read]
- Franny Billingsley, Chime [own, not yet read]
- Stephanie Burgis, Kat, Incorrigible
- Emily Carroll, Through the Woods
- Cinda Williams Chima, The Demon King
- Corinne Duyvis, Otherbound
- Jessica Day George, Tuesdays at the Castle
- Hiromi Goto, Half World
- Shannon Hale, Book of a Thousand Days
- Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty
- Ambelin Kwaymullina, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf
- Laura Lam, Pantomime
- Margo Lanagan, Yellowcake
- Grace Lin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
- Juliet Marillier, Wildwood Dancing
- Patricia McKillip, Ombria in Shadow [read]
- Dia Reeves, Bleeding Violet
- Heather Tomlinson, Toads and Diamonds
- Leslye Walton, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
- Ysabeau Wilce, Flora Segunda
Adult: Select Five
- Lauren Beukes, The Shining Girls
- Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls [read]
- Ronlyn Domingue, The Mapmaker’s War
- Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins [read]
- Eugie Foster, Returning My Sister’s Face: And Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice
- Charlie N. Holmberg, The Paper Magician
- Mary Robinette Kowal, Shades of Milk and Honey [plan to read this]
- Violet Kupersmith, The Frangipani Hotel [read]
- Kelly Link, Get in Trouble [have ARC, not yet read]
- Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo [plan to read this]
- Kushali Manickavel, Things We Found During the Autopsy
- Seanan McGuire, Sparrow Hill Road
- Erin Morganstern, The Night Circus
- Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox [read]
- Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In
- Kiini Ibura Salaam, Ancient, Ancient: Short Fiction
- Softia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria [plan to read this]
- Delia Sherman, Young Woman in a Garden
- Karin Tidbeck, Jagannath
- Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni