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Friday, March 9, 2018

Weres Wanna Know: How do you diversify your TBR?


It's Women's History Month, a time of year when we see a lot of  Best [insert genre here] Books by Women. I've seen the statistics and I understand the need for these lists, but it's still so bizarre to me. I almost exclusively read books by women. Not intentionally, but I would guess I read 5 books by men every year. I counted my 2017 list and I only read 2 out of just over 100 total books. (Unless you count Ilona Andrews who is a husband and wife team. Then it's 6.)

So I've definitely got women covered, but I think I only read 4 books by POCs and 2 or 3 by queer authors last year. Again it wasn't intentional, but I should definitely do better. And those are a little trickier to count because I don't usually read an author's bio before I pick up the book. And even if I did, there's no reason the authors need to tell you their sexual orientation or their ethnic background in their bios. (I think the idea that Own Voices is a label you can only assign yourself is kind of profound.)

I was actually surprised when I found out how few POC authors I read last year because I do feel like I read diverse books. For example, one of the things I love about Nalini Singh is how effortlessly diverse her worlds are. And stories about aliens and supernatural creatures are almost always allegories for racism (or some other -ism.) But I want to support new authors and I want the publishing industry to do representation better. So I suppose what I'm looking for is a way to balance it all.

And here's where I need some suggestions. Given that I'm such a mood reader I can never stick to a monthly TBR list and that I don't read a lot of YA, which is where I see the most Own Voices books, how do I do better in 2018? Give me book recs from marginalized authors. Tell me your favorite tracking methods or where you discover diverse books.

How do you diversify your TBR?




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