Read Harder 2019 Task #3: A Book by a Woman and/or Author of Color That Won a Literary Award in 2018

There is a finite set of books that can fit this task because there are only so many awards given in a year. Hopefully this post will help to expand on some that you may have already seen. With so many people trying to expand their reading with audio books, I thought I would focus on the Audie Awards which are granted for outstanding audio books and spoken word entertainment by the Audio Publishers Association. Not all of these books won the 2018 Audie Award but if they didn’t then they also won another award within 2018.

“The Children of Blood and Bone” by Tome Adeyemi is the first in what will be a young adult series.  It is an epic high fantasy about a young girl, her brother and a rogue princess who all fight to return magic to their land. It won the 2019 Audie Award for audio book of the year as well as the Kirkus Prize Nominee for Young Readers’ Literature (2018), and the Goodreads Choice Award for Debut Author and Nominee for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2018).

“The Hate You Give” by Angie Thomas is another young adult book about a sixteen-year-old girl who has to learn to deal with the violent death of her best friend. Her parents move her and her siblings to a “safe” middle class school so she also has to learn to navigate in two different worlds. This book won SO MANY awards! Among them are the Audie Award for Best Female Narrator (2018), Odyssey Award (2018), William C. Morris YA Debut Award (2018), Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction & for Debut Goodreads Author (2017) and for Best of the Best (2018). It also won our very own March Madness Teen Book Tournament Champion!

You probably know Trevor Noah from The Daily Show but he has also written a pretty wonderful book about his childhood and life in South Africa. “Born a Crime” won the Audie Award for Best Male Narrator (2018) which was the author himself. It also won the NAACP Image Award for Debut Author and for Biography / Auto-biography (2017) and the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2017).

“The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter” by Theodora Goss is the first book in a series. It combines fantasy, mystery and history in a novel about the daughter of Dr. Jekyll as she delves into her father’s past. This book won the Audie Award for Fantasy (2018), the Locus Award for First Novel (2018) and World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel (2018).

“Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman is the story of a woman who thinks she’s fine but, honestly, we’re all a little broken here and there from time to time, aren’t we? This book won the Audie Award for Fiction (2018), Costa First Novel Award (2017) and the Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2017).

“Loving vs. Virginia: a Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case” by Patricia Hruby Powell is a love story in verse. It tells the story of Richard Loving (a Caucasian boy) and Mildred Loving (an African American girl) who fell in love as teens. They fought and won to have their marriage legally recognized. This book won the Audie Award for History/Biography (2018).

“The Duchess Deal” by Tessa Dare is a historical romance that begins the Girl Meets Duke series. The Duke of Ashbury has returned to London from war and finds himself in need of a wife. Emma Gladstone, the Vicar’s daughter, finds herself as his target but she is no pushover. This book won the Audie Award for Romance (2018).

“Educated” by Tara Westover is a memoir of a young girl who was born into a survivalist family in the mountains of Idaho. She tells the story of how she had never attended school until she was 17 years old, but educated herself enough to be accepted at Brigham Young University.She eventually attended both Harvard and Cambridge. As well as winning the Audie Award for Autobiography/Memoir (2019) and for Best Female Narrator (2019), this book also won the Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography (2018) and it has been nominated for so many more.

I hope you will give an audio book a chance as part of your Read Harder challenge if you are new to the format. And if you are an old hand at downloading audiobooks, I hope this have given you a few to add to your list. Happy Reading!