• Welcome
  • About
  • Blog
    • Novels
    • Flash Fiction
    • Poetry
  • News
  • Connect
Menu

Janet Ursel

IN FABULA VERITAS
  • Welcome
  • About
  • Blog
  • Writing
    • Novels
    • Flash Fiction
    • Poetry
  • News
  • Connect

GOURMET READING

We Read Diverse Books January Challenge

December 31, 2014

Tomorrow the New Year starts and our 2015 Reading Challenge starts with it. I decided not to beat around the bush with this, and to start with what is the most obvious category of all: race.

So your challenge for the upcoming month is to read at least one book (a novel, collection of short stories, or a memoir) about and by someone of a race different from yours. I strongly recommend choosing one that you haven't already done a lot of reading in. If you are biracial, please try for a third. As a general rule, I also recommend that you pick something other than Caucasian, not because I have anything against my fellow whites, but because we are the ones who are already disproportionately represented in the English-language publishing world. Chances are everybody reading this post has already read many, many books that cover the white experience. If for some strange reason you haven't, well then, feel free.

I would also really appreciate it if people posted recommendations here, with a special shout-out to librarians, bookstore owners, and other publishing professionals. I'm sure many of us could use inspiration. If you've written a blog post with recommendations, please feel free to leave a link in the comments. (Spam will be deleted.) You can also post recommendations on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ with the hashtag #WeReadDiverseBooks or #WRDB if you need the extra room. If you know someone who is well-qualified, nudge them in this direction please.

There is no obligation to review or say anything at all, but it would be really cool if you tweeted your reads and let us know. Feel free to leave a comment or a link to your review here or on my Facebook page or wherever your little heart desires. Again, hashtags are your friend.

I have no experience with designing widgets. If anybody wants to volunteer and create a WRDB widget, please let me know.

Authors you could investigate:

Toni Morrison, Nnedi Okorafor, Chinua Achebe, Dinaw Mengestu
Jeffrey Renard Allen, Roxanne Gay, Nuruddin Farah, Okey Ndibe, Teju Cole
Joseph Boyden, Wayne Arthurson, Thomas King
Haruki Murakami, Celeste Ng, Jamie Ford, Amy Tan, Kazuo Ishiguro
Ali Eteraz, Salman Rushdie, Khaled Hosseini, Akhil Sharma
Alexis Wright, Kim Scott

To recap:

  • read at least one novel, short-story collection, or memoir by and about someone of a different race

  • Recommendations, review, and ratings can be shred on social media with the hashtag #WeReadDiverseBooks or #WRDB

  • feel free to save the logo and post it on your blog

February's challenge will be posted January 31st on this blog. (Now up. Click here.)

 

 

In Announcement Tags WRDB
← Technical problemsReview: Heart of Darkness →

Don't miss anything

Sign up with your email address to receive a monthly summary of blog posts, news, and exclusive fiction.

I respect your privacy. My email list will be used only for the purposes stated and never sold, rented, or given away to anybody else.

Thank you!

Latest posts

Blog
Fib: Event Horizons
about 3 years ago
Blogger Interview: Hannah Waterman
about 3 years ago
Review: The King's Sword
about 3 years ago
Near Phoenixville PA?
about 3 years ago
Coventree: The Basic Beliefs of Wizardry
about 3 years ago

Vox Dei Publishing

Fresh Tweets

  • Fresh snow, coloured lights, a window full of plants: some of the small blessings that make life rich https://t.co/2kwn1tffhn
    about a year ago
  • RT @newcountry94: Congrats to our pals @RiverTownSaints for taking home Single of the Year for "Cherry Bomb" at @theCMAOntario Awards… https://t.co/4kOqxxZ3E1
    about a year ago
  • Seen on a local truck 😁 https://t.co/BQ14FzwlYO
    about 2 years ago
  • Bonnie Raitt - Down to You https://t.co/uUlaOgaXOL Dedicated to all teachers who might want to play it to their students
    about 2 years ago
  • I discovered this evening that somebody else grew up with an Aunt Violet and an Aunt Viola. My only claim to uniqueness, gone! 😉
    about 2 years ago

Connect

Powered by Squarespace

Google+