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A new year means a new Read Harder Challenge! The 2026 challenge includes plenty of nonfiction prompts, including 5.) Read a nonfiction book about resistance, 12.) Read/try a recipe from a cookbook about a culture whose food you’ve never eaten, and 18.) Read a nonfiction book about AI or social media. But today, we’re focusing on 13.) Read a Nonfiction Comic.
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Translated from French by Anjali Singh
I discovered Persepolis during one of my very first Women in Translation Month celebrations. This graphic memoir follows Marjane Satrapi through the Iranian Revolution and her flight to France. She goes to school in Paris for a few years, but eventually, she returns home to Iran. She finds it completely changed. Satrapi’s illustrations capture your attention from the first page, and her memoir is a testament to her love of Persian culture and the grief she experiences as she can no longer live in her home country.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
Cartoonist Kate Beaton heads West to work in the oil sands, taking advantage of the oil rush to help her save money so she can more fully dedicate herself to her art. But out west, she’s confronted with the harsh realities of working in the small communities popping up because of the oil industry. In these sort of episodic-like snippets, she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at her life, pointing out the many issues—sexism and violence towards women in particular—that are common in these communities.
Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance by Denali Sai Nalamalapu
Denali Sai Nalamalapu, a climate activist, brings the story of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the people who resisted it to vivid life. Spanning 300 miles through West Virginia and Virginia, the pipeline cut through farms and forests, devastating the land. Nalamalapu spent hours with activists, distilling their experiences into six illustrated chapters. Each one depicts small but powerful acts of defiance, like Becky Crabtree chaining herself to her Bronco or Monacan seedkeeper Desirée Shelley preserving her community’s future. With its intimate storytelling, Holler shows how collective, everyday resistance can protect both land and hope.
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You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave, over on Instagram @kdwinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
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