I recently found out about this challenge and being Asian, myself this challenge makes me happy for a lot of reasons. I believe this is an amazing way of getting a lot of attention to Asian novels and authors.
Asia is such a beautiful place, being the biggest continent on the planet it is filled with varied cultures, with rich mythology just waiting to be explored and with this I believe that will happen and I am very proud.
The Year of the Asian Reading Challenge (YARC) encourages every booknerd to pick up books by Asian Authors and/or following Asian Characters. This amazing challenge is being hosted by :
- CW @ The Quite Pond
- Lily @ Sprinkles of Dreams
- Shealea @ Shut up, Shealea
- Vicky @ Vicky who reads
Be sure to check out their blog posts to sign up and join YARC.
There are 6 challenges of varying “difficulty” you can choose from and as much as I would love to aim for the Bengal Tiger challenge (50+ books) I don’t think that I will be able to achieve it, thus I am aiming for the Indian Cobra Challenge (11-20 books) as I am planning to read 12 Asian books (one each month) this year.

I will be adding names of all the books I wanna read in a mug and then picking them out from that mug (I won’t be doing that for January since I have already have the book I wanna read and in February since I will be preparing for an entrance exam, so it will prefer reading an audiobook and the only one I have is Wildcard)
I have picked a long TBR to choose from for my reads, there are some books I will definitely get to and some which I may or may not get to read.
Books I am definitely reading :
- Empress of all seasons by Emiko Jean
- Time Crawlers by Varun Sayal
- Wildcard by Marie Lu
- Poppy Wars by R.F Kuang
- Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
- Girls of Paper and Fire by Natash Ngan
- The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
- The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Adheih
- Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
- Blood Heir by Amelie Wen Zhao
- Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
- When Dimple met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
- Somewhere we know by Maurene Goo
Book I may or may not read :
- We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
- Descendants of the Crane by Joan He
- Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
- From Twinkle with Love by Sandhya Menon
- Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Linm
- Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott
- Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
- The Flame and The Mist by Renee Adheih
Books Read and Ratings :
(Will be updated through out the year)
- Time Crawlers by Varun Sayal – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
- Empress of all Seasons by Emiko Jean – ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Are you taking part in any reading challenges this year? If yes, which ones? Let me know
~Mehek
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Yay! I’m super excited and happy to see that you’ll be joining us for YARC2019! I love your TBR (especially love The Bone Witch and The Poppy War), and I’m so excited for you!
(Psst, we only count books by Asian authors, so Jay Kristoff’s Stormdancer won’t count! I hear the representation of Japanese culture is really poorly done as well, so give it a pass!)
I look forward to seeing how you go this year. Happy reading! 💛
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So am I, especially for The Poppy War in particular it sounds fantastic and also from the review pretty heartbreaking, I can’t wait to read it
Oh, thanks. I will set it aside for the challenge (I was wondering why it wasn’t as famous as his other books and now I know why)
Thank you. Happy reading to you too 💛
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I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS READING CHALLENGEEEE! I’m happy to see that you’re doing it too 🙂 Also, your TBR looks AMAZING! Shadow of the Fox and The Poppy War were two of my absolute favorite reads last year! I hope you reach your goals and that you enjoy the books you read 🙂
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I am dying to read both do them especially the Poppy War it sounds heartbreaking but amazing
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Mek, I hope you get to read Descendant of the Crane! I am reading it right now and I am almost at the end. I couldn’t trust anyone and I am gripping it harder than ever. I joined the challenge too! I am doing the Malayan tapir. Good luck with the Indian Cobra badge!
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Good Luck with your challenge 😊
I can’t wait to read it, it sounds amazing. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on it as soon as it releases
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Enjoy reading them! Do post some reviews after you read these books. Love reading your reviews!
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Thanks 😊😊
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