#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR.
This is a really interesting topic, and it’s one that’s a little hard to pinpoint for TBR works, where you might not know if a book is challenging or not before starting, but I did my best at picking out ones that I have may have been avoiding for now, because it feels like they’re going to be challenging, or I know I need to be in the right frame of mind for.
#5OnMyTBR March 4th: Challenging
The Mabinogion by Charlotte Guest
Genre: Classic – Mythology
Age: Adult
Published: 1838
Format: Audiobook
I have tried to read The Mabinogion in the past and got very lost, very quick. I’m hoping listening to an audio version helps – translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, these tales are collected from medieval Welsh manuscripts, and though they’re not incredibly popular outside Wales, they are the basis for a lot of Welsh/Celtic mythology (with crossover with Irish mythology, too). This book has been, in some form, on my TBR forever, and I have another physical copy here somewhere that I want to read as well as listen to the audio version. So, we’ll see how that goes.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age: Adult
Published: February 8th, 2011
Format: Paperback
This book is currently taunting me from my TBR. I know it might not seem like a typically challenging book, but from everything I know about it and even from the way it looks it seems quite dense, long, and slightly intimidating. I’ll get to it eventually though.
Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett
Genre: Memoir
Age: Adult
Published: May 5th, 2020
Format: ebook
I think this is going to be challenging in the sense that it seems like a difficult read – the author was born into a cult, and the book focuses on his story of life in the Church of Synanon, where children were separated from their parents. I’m really looking forward to (finally) digging into this, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be difficult to get through, and I know I need to make sure I’m emotionally equipped for it.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Genre: Non-Fiction – Sociology
Age: Adult
Published: January 16th, 2018
Format: Paperback
Any book that discusses almost any form of social justice issue is going to be, in some way, challenging. At least in my experience. And they should be – and books like this are likely to be the kind that (if you’re white) make you reflect on your own bias and behaviour, and I know I need to make sure I am fully in a position to take it all on board when I read it.
Trauma and Uprooting by Diana Miserez
Genre: Non-Fiction – History
Age: Adult
Published: October 23rd, 2020
Format: ebook
It really surprises me this only has a single rating and review on Goodreads. It sounds more like it has a focus on history from the summary, and anything that deals with trauma and traumatic events is going to be challenging.
I’d love to hear what some of the challenging books are on your TBR, and what sort of books you find challenging. If you’ve read any of these, I’d love to hear what your thoughts on them were, too.
Unwrapping Words 