originalslicey reads Diverse Books in 2020.

I joined the "75 book" group last year and didn't reach my goal. I kept the same goal, but honestly, this group seems more my speed. :)

My goal for the past two years has been to read more diverse books and to read books that I've had TBR for a long time.
I'll also be reading more books set in my hometown.
----------------------------------------------------------
These were my favorite books read in 2019.

Little Princes by Conor Grennan
The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee
Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
When Love Comes to Town by Tom Lennon
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan
Rotten Reviews by Bill Henderson
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn
-------------------------------------------------------
These are the Books I'm Currently Reading:


Black Dove White Raven by Elizabeth Wein
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Mister Posterior and the Genius Child by Emily Jenkins

Next Up...



A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
Raging Sea by Michael Buckley
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper

Books I Hope to Read This Year
Want to Read

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Inspired by Rachel Held Evans (3)
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (1,4,5)
Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes
Little Bee and Incendiary by Chris Cleave
Who By Fire by Diana Spechler
Sing You Home; Handle With Care; Harvesting the Heart; and Great Small Things by Jodi Picoult
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (1)
Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo (1,3,4)
Ash by Melinda Lo (1,3,4)
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (2)
Leap: Leaving a Job with No Plan B by Tess Vigeland (3)
Undertow by Michael Buckley
A Widow for One Year by John Irving (1,5)
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (5)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2)
An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones (2)
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Shameless by Nadia Bols-Weber
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
Alex As Well by Alyssa Brugman
Monsters: A Love Story by Liz Kay
Before the Fire by Sarah Butler
Searching for John Hughes by Jason Diamond
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
Less by Andrew Sean Greer

2020 Books Read

January

And She Was by Jessica Verdi
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
George by Alex Gino
The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith
American Heart by Laura Moriarty

February

Undertow by Michael Buckley
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Heartbeats of Wing Jones by Katherine Webber
Push by Sapphire
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Zora & Nicky: A Novel in Black and White by Claudia Mair Burney

March


Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
A Stroke of Magic by Tracy Madison
The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich
This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Working Stiff by Rachel Caine
Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
Alex as Well by Alyssa Brugman

I haven't been good about posting any reviews this year. I've mostly just been trying to read and get on to the next book, so I haven't taken time to write reviews. These will be posted out of order.

1.

2.

3.

4.
The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Not as good as I had hoped. I thought it was going to be tied to "Simon" in some way. I also thought the lesbian relationship would be front-and-center, but it's not. This book is about the straight sister who compares herself to her twin and finds herself lacking. She constantly complains about not having a boyfriend and not having kissed anyone, even though her life seems pretty great and she's still young.

The better parts of this book are the boy who likes her (actually multiple boys in this book seem pretty cool), even though the girl's internal monologue is annoying. The sister relationship and the family dynamic with the moms finally getting married is good. I just was never really into it and didn't find myself really liking the main character or caring much whether she found a romantic relationship or not. I rolled my eyes at her a lot.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.
10.
Push by Sapphire

I read this book in one night. It's fantastic. The protagonist is an illiterate teenage girl from an abusive family, twice pregnant by her own father, and about to be kicked out of school.

She transfers to an alternative school where the other kids in her class have also suffered abuse and also have low levels of literacy. Here, she finds, she doesn't have to hide. Her life isn't incomprehensible to the other kids and the teachers here. They aren't afraid of her. They don't think she's worthless.

It's the first time in her life anyone has told her that a life like hers, a body like hers, a mind like hers has any value at all. Her teacher encourages her to keep a journal, even though she barely knows her letters. This takes her on a journey of self-acceptance and growth as she learns to read and begins processing the trauma she has endured.

MANY similarities to Alice Walker's The Color Purple. The author's voice is believable, and the illiterate, first-person writing style wasn't annoying at all - it was very impactful.

11.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
I've always been somewhat familiar with Alice Walker's novel, but I was too young to see the movie when it came out, though I have seen clips of Oprah and Whoopie and even Steven Spielberg talking about the movie. I always had a picture in my head about what it was, and I guess I was never in the mood to pick up something with such a weighty subject matter.

I picked this up to read during Black History Month. I had just finished reading the novel Push, by Sapphire. In that novel, the main character, Precious, mentions the book The Color Purple and the character Celie and how she relates. So, after reading Push in one night, I opened this the next day. From the very first page I could see the similarities. Push is a modern-day retelling of The Color Purple! How have I never heard this before?!

From the way the characters write in the first person and in real-time to the voice the author gives these characters - including misspelled words and some misunderstandings of both language and of how society operates outside of their narrow worldview, the two books are almost tonally identical. Precious (Push) writes in a journal, Celie (TCP) writes letters to her sister. Both suffer devastating abuse and bear children to their own fathers at a young age, both are constantly told they are worthless, ugly, stupid, they both are greatly affected by the trauma they have endured, but at the same time, it is considered almost normal in their world. They don't really know to expect to be treated any better, even though they sometimes wish for it.

I loved the writing style and the way the story unfolds. I love the character growth and the larger messages presented by Walker. And above all, I love that this turns out to be a lesbian novel, and I had no idea! What a great work of literature. Well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. And I highly recommend reading this alongside the novel Push. Whether you read this one first or second probably doesn't matter, but it gives some insight into ways in which our society has changed (or hasn't changed much at all) for some people. The corner of the world in which some people live can be incredibly small and can have the most profound impact on their lives. In order to better understand and to love our fellow human beings, it is important to understand where they come from and how the world that they experience has been shaped and manipulated to keep them where they are.

12.
Zora & Nicky by Claudia Mair Burney

I liked the themes in this book of confronting our own internatlized racism, of exploring the spectrum of Christianity - from the extremes at the ends - fire and brimstone vs prosperity gospel - to the encompassing middle of sacrifice and Christ-like behavior or embracing the stranger. Finding yourself and your own community, even if that means walking away from your family and their values and teachings. Seeing one another, through our differences as parts of the body of Christ. Some of the stereotypes written on the page in this book are hard to hear. Sometimes the characters who are in love aren't even nice to each other. It shows their passion, but can be uncomfortable to read. We want our romances to be perfect. Zora and Nicky are far from perfect, but they keep trying. I didn't realize this was Christian when I picked it up. I thought it was just young adult romance, so it wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be. If you're comfortable reading Christian themes, including all the language and buzzwords around religion and all the talk of Jesus, then this is a good book. I don't know if interracial romance is becoming more common in Christian Fiction. I've never seen it. It's the whole reason I picked up this book because it isn't a theme I see very much anywhere, but I'm interested in these relationships, in how they develop and how two people in love can overcome not just their cultural differences and their upbringing, but also survive in a world that can be hostile to their love.