Sunday, August 10, 2014

#Diversiverse Sign-Up Post!


It's time to sign up to participate in A More Diverse Universe!  Thanks to the glorious talents of Sandstone78, we have loads of buttons and banners for you to use wherever you would like.  Use any of the ones you see on this post and go crazy!

For those who have not heard about #Diversiverse before, it's a very simple challenge.  For those of you who have participated in the past, it's even easier this year.  The criteria are as follows:
  • Read and review one book
  • Written by a person of color
  • During the last two weeks of September (September 14th - 27th) 

 That's all!

I have talked at length before about why reading diversely is important.  But in case you are one of those people who doesn't like to click through to other posts, I'll just quote myself below (that's ok, right?):
 I know your TBR list is huge.  I know your commitments are many.  I know that there are so many things on which you must take a stand, and it can be exhausting to make reading a political activity.  But this is so important to me, and I really think it should be important to you, too.  None of us lives in a monochromatic world, and yet the fact that terrifying hate crimes still occur makes it clear that we do not fully understand or trust each other.  And maybe part of the reason is because the media we consume does not accurately reflect the diversity of our society.  And books are such a massive part of the media we consume that we should demand and fight for those that do represent minorities and those that do present the world from a different perspective than the one we are used to.  So please - participate.  You may just discover a character or an author or a setting or a story that will completely change your life.
 
So!  I urge you to sign up and read just ONE book.  Well, I hope you read WAY more than one book, but perhaps #diversiverse will help you dip your toe into the water before you cannon ball completely in.  Read a book, change the world - that's a good deal, right? 

And it's really not that hard, I PROMISE you!

To quote myself one more time: You may have to change your book-finding habits to include POC authors in your reading rotation.  You absolutely do not need to change your book-reading habits. 

In the past few weeks, I have posted book suggestions for people who are interested in reading non-fiction and historical fiction for this challenge.  Posts from prior years have many, many, many suggestions for books in the science fiction and fantasy genres.   And if you'd prefer not to focus on just a genre but choose your reading based on other criteria, here's a post with resources you can use to read diversely across all genres.


So what are you waiting for?  In my opinion, I have left you with NO EXCUSES not to participate in this challenge ;-) 


Sign-ups are on the Mr. Linky below.  Please participate and help create the bookshelves we all want to see!  Convince your friends to sign up!  And your followers!  And see you in mid-September, when the link-up post will be up!


77 comments:

  1. A great post! I'm already looking at my reading list.

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  2. Of course I will sign up :) It's actually easier this year if I do not have to focus on sci-fi/fantasy stuff. Now that was hard.

    Now, to decide what to read

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    1. And now I know what to read, score!

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    2. What did you pick?!

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    3. Angelfall by Susan Ea. I did a POC list search on goodreads and got lucky. I have it in ebook form so that works perfectly

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    4. Sweet! I am not familiar with that book at all, so I'm looking forward to your review.

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    5. Thanks for the heads up on this! I'm all signed up under will be reading the second book in NK Jemisin's Dream Blood series.

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  3. This looks awesome!

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    1. Thank you! And just visited your blog - it is great! Glad we discovered each other today :)

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  4. I'm already planning my review schedule!

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    1. I am doing much the same :). Hoping to get at least a few genres represented during the two-week period!

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  5. Just put together my pile of books and a post to go up tomorrow... I hope I'll get through a few of them!

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    1. I am hoping to get through multiple books, too! I just started Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson and it is so good so far!

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  6. Anonymous8/11/2014

    Thank you so much for hosting this event again. I missed it the last time and was devastated. Not that I thought I'm not allowed to read authors of color, but it's so much more fun when you read anything with other people. :)

    I already have a list of books I might read for September. Hopefully, I'll manage more than one.

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    1. Oh, I'm so glad that you are able to participate this year! And I am glad you have a big list to choose from, too - sounds like you are well on your way to reading diversely as a habit already :-)

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  7. I've signed up and am trying to decide what to read. I love all the buttons and banners!

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    1. I love them, too! So thrilled sandstone78 was willing and able to help :-)

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  8. Great event. Great idea. I'm in!

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  9. Anonymous8/11/2014

    As always, I am thrilled you are doing this. I am about to post my own reading suggestions for historical fiction, history, memoirs, and mystery by men and women of color. If you's like to post any of it, feel free.
    Your discussion of why read these books is great. Just to add my own motivations; I find these books fascinating because they give me an emotional sense of why others act and think as they do. The blend of familiar and different is great fun.

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    1. I can't wait to see your suggestions, too - I get so many from you as it is.

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  10. Signed up! I have many many ideas for what to read, so I just have to get out of this reading slump I'm in right now and read some of them. Thanks, as ever, for organizing this, Aarti!

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    1. I just switched books because of a reading slump, too, and that helped a lot. The book that got me out was Monkey Beach, by Eden Robinson, if you want to give it a whirl :-)

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    2. YOU READ MONKEY BEACH :D :D :D

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    3. Well, I am currently reading it and loving it! Not done yet, but am sure it will only get better - I have not gotten to most of the folklore yet!,

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  11. It has been a while since I took up a book challenge but this one I had to sign up. I'll make a list of books soon.

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    1. This is the only challenge I participate in, too :)

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  12. Anonymous8/12/2014

    I think I can manage one book!

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  13. Hey Aarti! Thanks for hosting this again. It's a lot easier when we don't have to focus on Sci-fi / Fantasy. Although that was fun, it would have been very limiting to me this year. In fact, this year is difficult for me, anyway, because I'm hosting my own event in Sept - Oct for Suicide and Mental Illness Awareness. I just checked my list of books that I'm HOPING to read for my theme, and found that NONE of them are by people of color! At best, I was thinking of reading or watching the Soloist, which I think is about a person of color. So I looked and looked, but to my astonishment, it was really hard to find books written by people of color about this topic.

    This is probably the unfortunate result of the fact that mental illness and suicide are more highly stigmatized in minority groups than they are in the white community in the US. (Which also means a disproportionate number of minorities go without proper treatment.)

    I'll continue looking, but for now I've found the play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf" which I'll rent from Netflix rather than reading, if you don't mind a review of a play? It was written by a person of color. My other options are Murakami's "Norwegian Wood" and Coelho's "Veronika Decides to Die" if Portuguese authors count (which I seem to remember from past discussions that they count as Europeans, not people of color). Let me know what you think.

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    1. Ooo! I thought of a couple very good ones! The Famished Road, by Ben Okri; and Shadows in the Sun, by Gayathri Ramprasad. See! That's better. :)

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    2. I listened to For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide on audiobook and thought it was excellent. So sure you can review the play version. I am really pretty flexible on the requirements, as long as it features POC (and no, Portuguese authors do not count). Glad you have some more options, too! Your challenge is quite important as well - best of luck with it!

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  14. I'm joining in! I've put a button for it up on my blog (The Illustrated Page, username CoolCurry).

    I've got both Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin sitting in my TBR pile. Hopefully I can find even more before September.

    Do you have any lists for science fiction and fantasy? Or recommendations for other lists? Most of what I've found has been characters, not authors.

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    1. Hi Sarah, so glad you are participating! I believe I responded to your request for SFF recommendations on your last comment - if you go back to the other post, you should see all my links there. #Diversiverse was solely focused on SFF by POC authors in previous iterations, so there are a ton of suggestions from prior years!

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  15. I'm in, and I'll probably be using Goodreads for my post. I read a book last year and should have linked to my Goodreads review but didn't because I thought I would write up a longer post :(

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    1. Oh, that's ok! Goodreads is a very powerful force, too :-)

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  16. I''m so excited to participate in this challenge again! the last time I discovered Ash Mistry {from your suggestion} and was wowed by the author! thank you for organizing and hosting this event again!

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    1. Absolutely - so glad you are participating again!

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  17. I am hungrily accumulating to-reads! I think I added everything from your Historical Fiction post to my list, and I'm behind on N.K. Jemisin books (haven't read The Killing Moon yet!). I also want to read Mat Johnson's Pym and something by Aliette de Bodard.

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    1. Aliette de Bodard is fantastic! I highly recommend her. And she writes shorter fiction, too, so you could probably fit another book in, too!

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  18. Anonymous8/13/2014

    I'm in! I have a LONG list of TBR authors (so far, I've devoured everything by Octavia Butler and NK Jemisin), so this will be a good challenge for me :) Now I just have to decide if I want to go for Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor, Borges, or someone else who my sleep-deprived brain is forgetting at the moment. (alternatively, if anyone out there has a must-read author for the list, I'd love to add them)

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    1. I think there are tons of must-read authors out there! My favorite #diversiverse discovery was Intisar Khanani. Her novel Thorn is really good!

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  19. Anonymous8/14/2014

    As an Aussie myself, I have a fantastic Australian fiction writer in mind, but I'll try and see if I can find a great biographer too...

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    1. I can see why biography would work for you :-) I have wanted to read Kim Scott for a long time, so maybe now is the time.

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  20. I'm definitely excited for this!

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  21. Sorry for the double link, Aarti. The title auto populated for the first one-although the link should be correct. If you know how to delete the first one, please do.

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  22. Basically already do this :p

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  23. Anonymous8/19/2014

    Aarti, this is truly brilliant and I'm so glad I found your blog (thanks to Twinjas Book Reviews). I'm thrilled to participate in this year's event, despite the fact that I should be focusing on my own writing. I'm certain I can do both and can't wait to read everyone's reviews and find some new POC books to add to my own TBR list. Rock on with your bad self. Cheers!

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  24. So glad to have found your challenge. We are hosting a Travel the World in books Readathon Sept 1-Sept14 with the aim to read books in countries set in ones other than the one you live in or by authors from other countries. I think these go well together and one right after the other! :) Working on our announcement and sign up post now so hope you stay tuned and pay us a visit!

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  25. I wasn't sure I had time to add another book to my schedule and then realized that I'm reading Thrity Umrigar's latest right now. Timing is perfect!

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  26. Hi, found you via Jenny's Books. Haven't done a challenge in ages, am sure I can find a few on my TBR pile that fit the bill.

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  27. Anonymous8/23/2014

    Sounds awesome. I had just added a POC author's book to my TBR pile, so I think this must be fate!

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  28. Anonymous8/23/2014

    I'm in! I just added a POC author's book to my TBR pile, so this must be fate!

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  29. I know you say that readers need to change*where* they find their books, but lots of independent bookstore and libraries already have a great selection of books that reflect that diversity you're talking about. (The children's and adult fiction buyer at my own local bookstore frequently try to nudge the readers who come in looking for new books in the direction of authors/characters with more diversity.

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  30. I should finish Siddhartha Mukherjee's book The Emperor of Maladies just in time for this challenge. Would love to squeak another one in if I have time.

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  31. Anonymous8/24/2014

    I'm looking forward to participating in this awesome challenge!

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  32. What a wonderful challenge! For me, the hard part will be buckling down and doing a review, which I definitely will do this September :D

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  33. Anonymous8/26/2014

    Just got my kick-off post scribbled. I'm planning to read quite a few books and stretching the challenge out for a few months at least!

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  34. Anonymous8/27/2014

    love this challenge and am excited by the bloggers listed! I know I am going to find some great new reads. Thanks for hosting this and lending your eloquence to such a necessary movement.

    ~L (omphaloskepsis)

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  35. Anonymous8/29/2014

    Hi! Looking forward to participating in Diversiverse 2014.

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  36. Are Japanese authors ok? I have a couple unread on my shelves, Murakami and Yasunari Kawabata. I'm also considering The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston and Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal.

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    1. Yup, Japanese authors qualify :-)

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  37. What a great reminder to keep broadening my horizons! Looking forward to reading and writing.

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  38. What a great reading challenge! Although, I don't want to call it a challenge because reading more diverse books should just be standard practice! :) And your blog header picture is gorgeous!

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  39. I'm in, I"m in!! I won't fail out this time! :D

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  40. What a wonderful thing to do! Thanks :)

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  41. Anonymous9/04/2014

    I plan to review Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales on The Fictional 100 and Aarti's great suggestion, An African in Greenland, on Northern Lights Reading Project. A great project and one to keep in mind for diverse books long into the future.

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  42. I will be reading Ruby by Cynthia Bond.

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  43. It's a hectic time of year, but I'm trying to get through Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming.

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  44. Anonymous9/11/2014

    I'm having trouble figure out the Mr.Linky, but I'm in. This is just the thing to bet me blogging again.

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  45. Hello,

    For some reason I can't find the sign up link...is it too late?

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    1. No, the link is above but sometimes it doesn't show up depending on the proxy settings of your browser. The event has already started, so there's no real reason to sign up any more. If you would like to participate, please just link your review on the link-stravaganza post linked at the top right side of this page.

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  46. Aarti, as I mentioned, I am not blogging right now. I am rating books on Goodreads and occasionally write a short comment. I finished Redemption in Indigo and, like The Best of All Possible Worlds, I find Lord's writing to be a mix of lyrical writing and serious social commentary. She has a very light touch, which I love. I can't wait for The Galaxy Game, coming out in January.

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  47. Aarti, Mr. Linky HATES ME. I don't know, I'm gonna have to slap him if I mess with him much longer. May I just TELL YOU my link? I found a steampunk fairy tale retelling (sort of) called BABA ALI AND THE CLOCKWORK DJINN, by Danielle Ackley-McPhail & Day Al-Mohamed.

    Thank you once again for doing this!!

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