#Diversity March





I have always been a bookaholic even as a child. Back then I did not know that actual books, like novels existed. I mostly read the stories in news papers and in my English textbooks. When I was done I would start over again until I knew all of them by heart. I also read comics mostly Supa or was it Super Strikers which was my favorite. Later on I'd discover fairy tales and I would devour this stories and want more.

In my tween years there was Sweet Valley,  the Nancy Drew series and the Babysitter's club. Stacy was my favorite character (reading Stacey's ex boyfriend made me feel deliciously deviant). Don't roll your eyes, back then the word boyfriend was almost a taboo word.

Through the years I continued to read more and more books but one thing was clear, there was no diversity in any of them. If I wasn't reading about animals then I was reading about people who looked nothing like me.  I learnt the words snow, blonde and cheerleaders from these books. I read of blue and green eyes before I ever saw them. Of course the word diversity did not come to mind back then. It was more of a realization that the books I read did not have characters that were like me. Characters who spoke like me,  had names that were familiar or lived in places I could recognize. 

I went to highschool and there was literature, where books like The River and the Source, Utengano and I Swear by Apollo were introduced. Reading them was not that exciting though. The aspect of taking a test about a book just took out all the fun in reading for me. 

Fast forward to the present and nothing has changed. I can't count past ten the number of #diversity books I read last year out of the 100+ I read which is sad. On that note, I would like to present this month's theme, #Diversity. 

I actually did not have a theme for this month until a couple of days ago. A Goodreads author asked me if I could read her book(it is part of this month's tbr list).

At first, I was going to decline since I was so busy. I already had two Netgalley arcs I needed to complete and CATs which were, still are driving me nuts but I said yes. I accepted because who am l kidding a new book? Yes please. Seriously though, I said yes because she said her book was a good representation of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign and I was like yes, yes I need to read this. 

Beginning from this month, I am starting what I hope will be a tradition of reading more diverse books. 

So here is this month's tbr list... 
~Full Circle: Regina Timothy 
~This Child Will Be Great: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
~Americanah: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
~When Dimple met Rishi: Sandhya Menon
Happy reading.

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