Book Riot's 2021 Read Harder Challenge: November Update - The Weight Of Our Sky & Fingersmith

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope everyone's been staying healthy and happy.  I can't believe were just days away from December already.  Anyway, that means that I've now completed 22 tasks of Book Riot's 2021 Read Harder Challenge.  The tasks I completed this month required me to read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., U.K., or Canada and a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist.  I selected The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.  Read on to see my mini reviews and what's coming up for December:

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The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf is an absolutely brutal and heart-wrenching work of historical fiction with a great cast of characters as well as good mental health representation.  The novel handles the tough subject matter very well and the characters voices are all quite distinct.  Now that I've finished it, I feel like I really ought to learn more about the history of Malaysia.  I don't think I've ever read about Kuala Lumpur in fiction before and I had no idea about the real life 1969 race riots during which this novel is set.  I'm going to have to look into more history about Malaysia and also read more of Hanna Alkaf's work in the future.

My review is also on Goodreads.

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Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is a fantastic historical novel. Waters always does a marvelous job when it comes to her world-building.  This novel takes a little while to get going, it's more than worth sticking with it for all the twists and turns.  As much as I appreciated this book, I'm going to have to say I think I prefer the Korean movie adaptation The Handmaiden more.  Although both are great, I'd say the film actually wins in my book.

My review is also on Goodreads.

Next Up For December:

Read a book of nature poems 

My choice: A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver - I'm not normally a poetry person, but this sounds like it will be good.

Read a memoir by a Latinx author

My choice: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado - I didn't realize this was a memoir for some reason, but now that I know a little more about it it sounds like a must read.

Have you read either of these books?  Are you taking part in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge this year?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!