Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Top Ten Books That Celebrate Diversity

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish


I think by this point we can all agree diverse books are not only wanted by readers, they're needed, too. There are countless people who have never seen themselves - or their families, friends, neighbours, significant others, etc - reflected on the page. It's so, so important to have books that celebrate diversity in its many beautiful forms: people of different races, colours, religions, sexual orientation, gender identities, socio-economic backgrounds, plus neuro-diversity, disabilities, differences in body type, different types of family structures. I've read so many great books (especially this year) that have incorporated almost all these forms of diversity, and I'm excited to get to share some of my favourites today. If you love diverse books as much as I do, keep an eye on the blog because I'm planning to create a page dedicated to diverse books that I hope to add to on a regular basis.

My Top Ten Books That Celebrate Diversity
Since my list is actually more than 10, I'm just going to say what makes each book diverse. If you want to read my reviews (which are gushing for most of these), the links lead to my reviews.  

  • Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli - LGBTQ (also happens to be one of the cutest books ever, and one of my top favourites of 2015)
  • Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone - MC has purely-obsessive OCD
  • My Best Friend, Maybe by Caela Carter - LGBTQ + POC love interest, who's adopted
  • The Path of Angels series by Patricia Josephine - this urban fantasy series has gay characters, POC characters, plus in one there’s a polyamorous relationship.
  
  • Sugar by Deirdre Riodran Hall - MC is an obese Puerto-Rican girl; story deals with poverty, among many other things
  • I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios - MC lives in poverty, love interest is a Marine with PTSD and a war injury
  • Burn for Burn and Fire With Fire (also Ashes to Ashes, but I haven't read that one yet) by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian - one of the main characters is Asian (which is actually represented on all three covers, which I love, because that's not always the case)

Honorable mentions (because it was so bloody hard to narrow it down!): The Summer I Wasn’t Me by Jessica Verdi (LGBTQ), One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva (LGBTQ, plus MC is Armenian), the Off the Map series by Lia Riley (MC has OCD), No One Needs to Know by Amanda Grace (LGBTQ characters, deals with poverty), Galgorithm by Aaron Karo (POC love interest), Between Everything and Us by Rebecca Paula (MC has MS), A Desperate Fortune by Susannah Kearsley (MC has asperger’s), Make it Count by Megan Erickson (MC has dyslexia), Hushed by Kelley York (LGBTQ), the International School series by Chanel Cleeton (Lebanese love interest), Last Will and Testament by Dahlia Adler (Filipina-American MC), Black Iris by Leah Raeder (LGBTQ, mental illness).


*Shameless self-promotion in 3...2...1...
I try to keep self-promo out of my meme posts, but I know a lot of people are specifically looking for diverse books, which is amazing. I’ve seen a lot of discussion on Twitter about how important it is to talk about these books, buy them, share them, blog about them, etc...and it’s great to write diverse books and it’s great to read them, but if people don’t know they exist, or if they don’t support the authors writing them, those books go unnoticed. I’m not saying you should buy my books because they have diverse characters, but if they sound like something you’d enjoy and you want to read them, that makes this little author very happy! In my book After the Storm, the love interest is Aboriginal (Native Canadian), and my book Take Them by Storm is LGBTQ. *drops that info for you guys and goes to check out your TTT posts and add some diverse books to my TBR*

 
   
What are some of your favourite diverse books? Is there a type of diversity you gravitate toward? Any books not on my list that you'd highly recommend? If you did this week's TTT, feel free to leave your link and I'll visit you in return! If you want to chat about diverse books (or anything else for that matter) you can find me on Twitter!
http://sweetmarie-83.blogspot.ca/p/about-me.html

7 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed Sugar, mostly at least. I thought that it was very well written and the character developed very nicely. I forgot that book on my list for some reason, but that happens to me constantly especially if i only have the book as an e-book and not as a "real" book.

    I have Every last word on my list as well, and will have to get my hands on that as soon as possible :)

    I also got a few other books from your list to put on my TBR.

    Great List :)

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  2. I keep hearing so much about Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda. Need to get around to reading that one!

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  3. Glad Im not the only one who has read and enjoyed the Ultraviolet series. Great Picks. Check out my Top Ten Tuesday

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  4. I have Hushed on my shelf and started reading it but stopped. One of these days I'll finish it. Love all your picks. I need more time in the day.

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  5. Every Last Word is on my TBR.
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/top-ten-tuesday-14/

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  6. I actually prefer reading books outside the 'norm'. I like people who aren't rich and really enjoy reading stories from other cultures and places outside my regular life. Yes, more!

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  7. I really liked Ultraviolet, and don't know why I haven't picked up the sequel yet! I won a copy of I'll Meet You There and it's just arrived. Can't wait :)
    My TTT

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~Marie

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