Diverse-A-Thon

Diverse-A-Thon 
An important Read-A-Thon


This is a lovely Read-A-Thon that was created by Whitney at WhityNovels on YouTube, and a few others who are linked down bellow. I am going to participate in this, as I recently watched a video that shook the bookish community to its core this past week. This video was slandering those who believed that books with diversity are needed within this world that we currently live in, which I believe is completely asinine that she judged people in such a harsh manor. Though this post is not my rant yet about the video, though that is certainly going to be coming on Monday morning. 

This Read-A-Thon was created to encourage readers to pick up books written from diverse view points, or by diverse authors. This is going to bring people together within the book community to chat about diverse books and what it means to have diversity within our culture. In the end I believe that is is very necessary for everyone to participate in if we can, to gain some perspective on other cultures and races.

Dates: September 12th-19th
Time: 12:00 AM - 11:59PM in whatever your timezone is, either EST,GMT, Central Time etc...
Goals: 
  • Read Any Diverse book. 
    • Graphic novel, fiction, Non- Fiction, from any genre.
    • The author can be of a different race, or ethnicity, or the character can be diverse. 
  • Read as much or as little as you can.
  • Chat about Diversity on all social media! 
    • Twitter, Goodreads, and anywhere else you have a platform. 
  • Get a conversation going to bring up your thoughts about diversity and its role within society. 
    • This is a personal goal for me
General Info: 
My To Be Read Stack: I will be trying to complete one book and just hear from diverse and unique voices that I have not read from in the past.  
  • A Brief History of Seven Killings by: Marlon James 
    • I began this novel prior to this read-a-thon, however I had put it aside due to its heavy topic though now I feel like it is needed. James discusses a unique time in Jamaica's history during the time when Bob Marley was targeted and an attempted murder takes place. This is not a part of history that I have heard much on, however the patois writing style at times will push me to get beyond the dialects that are different from my own. Aside from the language barrier I believe this will give me an insight into the Jamaican culture that is often glazed over in preference for the "paradise" that society has made it out to be. 
    • Current Page: 132 of 686
    • The Themes:
      • Race
      • Poverty, drugs
      • The stigmas between cultures 
  • A Long Way Gone by: Ishmael Beah
    • This book was given to me by a friend who said that it had been her most influential read of the past years. This book also deals with the issues and viewpoints that deals with the topic of child soldiers in developing countries, which is something I have never read about and I feel as though it would open my eyes to this horrific topic. I am hoping to see the depiction of war from a first hand perspective, and get an un-biased look at such atrocities.
    • Page Count: 218 
  • Homegoing by: Yaa Gyasi 
    • This is the "buddy read" book for the Read-A-Thon. This book details the slave trade in Ghana with the United States, though it has been outlawed for many years within the United States. I would love to hear more about the multi generational impacts that slavery has on those involved and surrounding such devastating acts. 
    • I watched an interview with her that sealed my desires to read this novel!
  • Americanah by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
    • This book has received loads of praise from the general public and it will also be the first novel that I read from Adiche. With this one I am going to take the plunge into the book without knowing anything accept the fact that this is from a beloved writer of color. I believe I will absorb more of the written story through this way of reading, as I will need to focus on every word to understand what is being said.
    • Page Count: 496
I do realize that we all have pre-conceived notions about the meaning of diversity and how we think it should be dealt with, though through reading these books I hope to read from many perspectives and hear about their experiences and to attempt to understand where they have come from.  I do recognize that I will not be finishing all of these books, especially A Brief History of Seven Killings, which is going to take some dedication. Though through this Read-A-Thon I hope to understand and expand my knowledge of diverse groups of people and their histories. 

I urge you all to join in with this Read-A-Thon and or the Twitter chats, in order to discuss the glory that diversity is. I also would like to express that while all of these books deal with a similar group within our diverse world, that is because of the books I have on hand at this time though I do think that I will be carrying on with the diverse reading in future months. This event is just the touch stone for my future plans to read more diverse novels! 

Happy Reading... 
Please let me know if you will be reading along with this group with Homegoing, I hope we all can chat about diversity and all of our differences within our world. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts