The Pie Premise
Over the past few years there have been a lot of Diversify Your Reading challenges and calls to action. Our Book Bingo Reading Challenges have included prompts that gently nudged you towards diversifying your reading. For this challenge we’re going to do something a little different. In this challenge, we’re going to have pie (charts)!
This pie chart challenge is not our usual challenge, because while everyone who participates has the same four prompts: Diversity, Inclusion, Education and History, what those mean, in the context of a reading challenge, is very personal.
- Which groups are underrepresented in your reading?
- Whose perspectives do you have to go out of your way to find?
- What knowledge do you feel you need more of?
- What history is being erased or has been overlooked?
The Challenge
This is a challenge to read books that expand your comfort zone, and sometimes the feelings about those books can be too personal to share publicly on the internet. This challenge focuses on the reading, not the writing, so anyone can participate in the reading part of the challenge, even if they’re not signed up for CBR17.
As you can see in the graphic above, there are 4 pie charts, and each chart has space for a minimum* of 4 books. While you must read at least 4 books, you only have to write 1 review to complete each pie. For those of you registered for 2025’s CBR17 challenge, only the books for which you publish a review will count towards your CBR17 Cannonball Read Leaderboard total.
(*Just as you can split a pie into many pieces, you can read more than 4 in each category if you so choose.)
The Categories
Diversity and Inclusion
Both terms can mean reading books by authors whose race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, class, disability, sexuality, immigration status or language sets them apart from the dominant group.
Possible examples:
- Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
- The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
- The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang
- A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlé Clark
- Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
- Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
- The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Education and History
While facts don’t disappear, we’ve all seen examples of available information being erased. Education and History are for books that contain information or help you understand information that you want more of.
Possible examples:
- Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day by Peter Ackroyd
- Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies by Rossi Anastopoulos
- She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
- Pox: an American History by Michael Willrich
- The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan
- Rambutan, Recipes from Sri Lanka by Cynthia Shanmugalingam
- Unmasking Autism by Devon Price, Ph.D.
Pie or Broccoli?
While this challenge is intended to incentivize reading outside your usual comfort zone, it isn’t meant to be a punishment. I’ve found some of my favorite authors when I actively started to diversify my reading. It’s pie, not broccoli (I actually love broccoli, but you get the point.) I would also encourage you to enjoy pie or another treat while you read, because joy is important.
Recipe Details
- The CBR17 Pie Chart Reading Challenge runs until the end of CBR17 – Noon eastern, December 31, 2025.
- Books must have been read during 2025.
- Just as with Cannonball Read, any kind of books count. They can be fiction or non-fiction, audiobooks, fanfiction, or any other genre.
- All rules of Cannonball Read 17 apply to written reviews.
- Please note which pie category you’re fulfilling at the top or bottom of your written reviews.
Questions?
If you’re not sure about the recipe for your individual pie, please drop a note below, or reach out to us on the contact form.
