I'm also not sure if I can put it into words or explain why diversity is important to me. It's important to me personally for a mess of reasons that I'm just not comfortable going into - personal and also health related.
However, saying that, all types of diversity and representation are important to me. And if you've got an diverse books - POC, LGBTQIA+, physical disabilities, mental health, or other - then feel free to drop them in the comics, I'm always looking.
I started by having some recommendations and then a list of books I wanted to read - not a TBR because there's too many, just a general list because why not, someone might be looking for a book that one of the ones on my endless TBR fits. However, I realized how long the post was getting. I was originally going to jam them all into one post but apparently theres's a lot of books I love so I guess I'm going to have to cut them into a few posts because whew, so man damn good books.
Those posts will be up through the week and I'll link them at the bottom of this post as they go up, hopefully I remember. I'll be updating my reading progress throughout the week on twitter, instagram, and goodreads - and doing a final wrap up here. This week is always the beginning of #slowathon (one week) and tackle your TBR (#tackletbr - two weeks). Basically: heaven (I am a readathon junkie).
I have a giant stack of diverse books in my apartment I'd like to get to this week - I'll probably only get to a few (I do have 3 that are pretty damn short, 2 of which I've heard amazing things about). So onto the books I will possibly be reading this week but don't hold me to any of them (and also please leave recommendations in the comment because, really, there's no such thing as too many books)
- Citizen by Claudia Rankin (I have the audio of this, I am... not prepared. Am predicting being a sobbing mess on the ground?)
- Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (I am also not prepared but more excited, mostly because I don't predict it was leave me a sobbing mess. Hopefully not...? I can only take so much emotionally)
- Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time: An Indigenous LGBT SciFi Anthology (oh yeah. you read that right. indigenous LGBT scifi anthology. I stumbled upon this on amazon, has great reviews, know nothing else.)
- Welcome to Night Vale scripts - Volumes 1 & 2 (I wouldn't normally be counting these, even though main relationship is m/m, and Carlos - a gay character of color - is voiced by a gay person of color. I just don't know, but these guys are incredible in trying to do the thing right. Mostly, I got these and am almost done with volume 1 but not quite so, really, they have to go on the list because I'm not going to put them aside)
- Lightspeed #73 - People of Colo(u)r Destory SciFi (I've been reading this forever. Well, I put it aside, but I want to get back into it. The stories I have read are amazing, but my attention span with short story collections isn't great. Still. Want to finish so badly, all of the ones so far are 4 or 5 stars).
- Crush by Richard Silken (I've been putting this on readathon TBR after readathon TBR, I have to read it at some point. Silken is gay and I've seen his poems pretty much all over tumblr, I might as well actually sit down and read them. Maybe I will this week, maybe I won't).
- Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (a reread, but I really want to reread this one. I remember loving it but remember like... maybe 25% of it? My memory isn't great about, well, anything so that isn't surprising but still).
- Ash by Malinda Lo (gay Cinderalla. What more could you want to know? Nothing. Well, I don't, I've heard amazing things, and I've heard Malinda talk and she's fantastic. So excited)
- Brooklyn Burning by Steve Brezenoff (no idea what to expect, it's queer in some way. And I love New York in books, and real life, which will be evident in my book rec posts later this week).
- We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (I only know the vague synopsis of this, it's faded from memory. I'm pretty sure this came in a book riot quarterly box, though, and that's really all I need to know). (LGBTQIA+)
Those are just some that I have near me, there's a ton that I pulled off my shelves to consider (and this picture will show you some more), but there are even more then that in this apartment. It's honestly impressive how many books I have in my studio apartment, probably almost 2,000. You can imagine hat it looks like (just picture books everywhere and you've got it, that's what it looks like).
Anyway - if you're participating in this readathon, let me know. If you're just hearing about it - eh, jump in, anyway. Even if you only read one diverse book this week, there will be discussions happening over on twitter, I believe every day, using the #DiverseAThon hashtag. Take part, see what others are reading, tweet/instagram/blog out your favorite diverse reads. Let me know in the comments.
And, most importantly, be kind to each other. If you don't want to read diversely this week because you've already got plans, or because you're in the mood for a certain kind of book/author and you don't own one in that feeling that's diverse - don't sweat it. Just know that it is important, diversity in literature, television, movies - pop culture in general. To kids, to teenagers, to adults, to people over sixty. It's important.
Let me know what you're reading this week, though, if you are planning on getting some diverse reads in. Or your most recent diverse read, whatever it was or had to do ith, I'd love to hear about it.
Happy read(athon)ing!
(Note: obviously I am still taking part in #slowathon and #tackleTBR, as well, just for this week I'm going to try and be very deliberate in my books. And, in the future, remember to be as well. It shouldn't be too hard with how many diverse books I own. However, I am still going to start my reread of The Way of Kings because my heart was set on that for my #slowathon goal, though it's definitely going to take damn longer then just a week, that's for sure).
No comments:
Post a Comment