THE 2016 DIVERSE BOOKS READING CHALLENGE

This is  a good challenge to participate in.  Go to Chasing Faerytales to sign up and see more detail.

You all know how much I love diversity. And one of my main resolutions for 2016 is to read more diverse books, so I was looking for a reading challenge to keep me in track! And I was astonished to realise that there was no such challenge available, so why not host one myself? As I was thinking aloud on the lines, the lovely Shelly @Read.Sleep.Repeat offered to co host if I did do it, so here are we, hosting the 2016 Diverse Reads Book Challenge!

The main objective of this challenge is to promote diverse books and help bloggers and readers who want to read more diversity in 2016!

THE RULES

                ·         Read books that are diverse.

·         The Main Character must be part of a diverse group*

Defined by We Need Diverse Books:  We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities*, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.                        

*We subscribe to a broad definition of disability, which includes but is not limited to physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities, chronic conditions, and mental illnesses (this may also include addiction). Furthermore, we subscribe to a social model of disability, which presents disability as created by barriers in the social environment, due to lack of equal access, stereotyping, and other forms of marginalization.
·         The book can be set in a diverse setting, but not necessarily.

( But, note that books set in a different country, but features a white MC won't be considered as diverse here. Eg : Ink by Amanda Sun, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins )

·         #Ownvoices stories (stories about marginalized groups written by a member of that marginalized group) are widely encouraged as well! Promoting diverse books by diverse authors is important.

·         If the book is a fantasy it can be based on/inspired by a diverse mythology or folklore    

   ( E.g. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh)

·         If the book is sci fi or dystopia, it has to be based on a dystopian country that’s not USA.

  ( E.g. Cinder by Marissa Meyer)

·         Intersectionality is encouraged.

 ( Eg :- A book featuring a person of colour with a disability )

·         The novels don’t have to be YA, but as we are YA bloggers, those are probably the novels we are more likely to read

THE LOGISTICS

·         This challenge will run from the 1st of January 2016 to the 31st of December 2016.

·         You can join in anytime you want.

·         This challenge is meant to be a personal goal challenge to help find more diverse novels and to read more diversely.

·         There are no levels/points! You can read as much or as little as you’d like, this is a personal goal and is mainly individualized

·         To join the challenge, add your sign up post to the link up at the bottom of the post. You can include your TBR for the challenge if you want, but it’s not a requirement. Your sign up post can be a separate post or a part of a giant list of all your 2016 reading challenges. Anything is fine.

·         If you don’t have a blog, you may use a twitter handle or instagram profile and share this post with the hashtag #DiverseReads2016 that you’re participating! But add that link to the sign up link below.

·         If you want to share why you joined the challenge or why you want to read more diverse books, you can tweet us using #Iwanttoreaddivesitybecause… and we can discuss there. This is optional, just adding your blog to the bottom of this post is enough for this requirement!

Here is what I am reading:

1. Brown Girl Dreaming--Jacqueline Woodson
2. Prozac Nation--Elizabeth Wurtzel (mental illness)
3. The Alchemist--Paulo Coelho
4. Kitchen Princess Omnibus Volume 1--Natsumi Ando
5. War and Peace--Leo Tolstoy
6. Letter to My Daughter--Maya Angelou
7. The Education of Little Tree--Forrest Carter
8. Murder in Little Italy--Victoria Thompson
9. Far Away and Close to Home--Michael Katz
10. Somewhere in the Darkness--Walter Dean Myers
11. Little Bee--Chris Cleave
12. To Kill a Mockingbird--Harper Lee
13. Persepolis--Marjane Satrapi
14. Persepolis 2--Marjane Satrapi
15. Precious--Sapphire
16. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?--Mindy Kaling
17. A Cold Day for Murder--Dana Stabenow
18. Everything I Never Told You--Celeste Ng
19. I Am Malala--Malala Yousafzai
20. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot--Kim Barker
21. Pink Slip--Rita Ciresi
22. Walk Two Moons--Sharon Creech
23. Deep Blue--Jennifer Donnelly
24. A Sheetcake Named Desire--Jacklyn Brady
25. 1968: The Year That Rocked the World--Mark Kurlansky
26. Cress--Marissa Meyer
27. Fairest--Marissa Meyer
28. Winter--Marissa Meyer
29. Stars Above--Marissa Meyer
30. The Housekeeper and the Professor--Yoko Ogawa
31. The Widow of the South--Robert Hicks
32. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel--Deborah Moggach
33. On the Count of Three--Maureen Johnson
34. Things Fall Apart--Chinua Achebe
35. Gorky Park--Martin Cruz Smith
36. Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia--Jean Sasson
37. Princess Sultana's Daughters--Jean Sasson
38. Princess Sultana's Circle--Jean Sasson
39. Being Jazz--Jazz Jennings
40. Eleanor & Park--Rainbow Rowell
41. Kimi Ni Todoke: From Me to You Vol 1--Karuho Shiina
42. Kimi Ni Todoke: From Me to You Vol. 2--Karuho Shiina
43. Kimi Ni Todoke: From Me to You Vol. 3--Karuho Shiina
44. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty--A.N. Roquelaure
45. Go Set a Watchman--Harper Lee
46. The Kite Runner--Khaled Hosseni
47. Polar Star--Martin Cruz Smith
48. Vampires in the Lemon Grove--Karen Russell
49. The Ghost Bride--Yangsze Choo
50. Anya's Ghost--Vera Brogsol
51. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer--Michelle Hodkin
52. Lenobia's Vow--P.C. Cast
53. Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad--Ann Hagedorn
54. The Underground Railroad--Colson Whitehead
55. I Was Here--Gayle Forman
56. Red Square--Martin Cruz Smith
57. Wolf Dreamer of the Longest Night Moon--Elayne Silva-Reyna
58. Soul Eater: Vol.1--Atsushi Ohkubo
59. Another Brooklyn--Jacqueline Woodson
60. Empress Orchid--Anchee Min
61. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time--Mark Haddon
62. From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun--Jacqueline Woodson
63. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan--Lisa See
64. Carol--Patricia Highsmith

Challenge completed on December 25