The Diverse Shelf discussion
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So, who are you? (Introduction thread)
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I love it. I think the average age is probably a bit older than Goodreads. Plus I really like having my collection cataloged there where I can add my own tags. I've grown really attached to the community there. Plus at Christmas there's Santa Thing, a secret santa book exchange you can sign up for.
Hi! I'm Kaye, I'm 21 and I'm a Muslim girl who wears more hats than I actually realized in the world of YA - including YA Interrobang writer, #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign team member, and intern for Pooja Menon of Kimberley Cameron and Associates.Books are my life. I constantly speak on diversity in books because, as a Muslim girl and a person of color, I feel that need for diversity to transcend the border of being an "other".
We are not others. We shouldn't have to constantly ask for our space and our voices to be heard and acknowledged.
I can't wait to see the great things this group will accomplish! Kudos to Byron for starting it! <3
Hi All!I'm Lindsy and I'm 23 year old from Seattle. I have a B.A. in Psychology and History and will hopefully earn a PhD in Clinical Psychology. I'm specifically hoping to work with at-risk youth.
I'm an avid reader and love Fantasy and Non-Fiction, but I will give anything a chance. I'm the weirdo who needs to touch all the books in the bookstore.
I'm also a total soccer nut! I can usually be found trying to coerce friends and family into watching games with me. Sometimes I worry that I will never love anyone as much as I love the Seattle Sounders
As a straight, white, cisfemale, I have never had to fight to see myself represented in what I read. There are so many books written specifically for me, and this is a huge problem because it allows people like me to pretend that we are the only ones with stories worth telling. I also know that simply acknowledging that we need diverse books isn't enough. People like me need to be especially vocal in this because those who are underrepresented shouldn't have to take on the publishing industry by themselves.
Hi guys! I'm Virginia (or Ginnie if that's easier) and I'm a lover of all fiction and a wannabe author of lgbt and other fiction. My dream is to make a living writing and maybe selling my own and other indi books at fairs and stuff.I'm a lesbian and on the autistic spectrum so it's hard to find fiction that talks about people like me, but I also love reading about people with different experiences who I might never meet in real life.
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Also nice to see another soccer fan!
Salutations all! My name is Eileen Jay Nottingwood, E.J. for short. I am an LGBT author, with one published novella ("Zenith") so far. I haven't completely determined my own sexual orientation thusfar, but I enjoy writing love stories, so the gender thing doesn't really matter to me. I look forward to enjoying this group!
hello everyone. I am Asma'u Shaheedah a straight female, author of Solitude, a collection of contemporary poetry. I love reading and writing african poetry, feminism etc and i love a wide variety of diverse books.
Hi,My name is Violeta I live in Chicago, IL, I joined the group because the topic is one that really interests me. It doesnt seem like a very active group but I hope we can get some activity going on here
Hi there,
My name's Linda and I liked the sound of this group. It is something that I have thought about, the lack of representation for certain groups in society, and as a reader, and would be writer, I am interested in opening my boundaries to be inclusive.. should prove interesting to find out how other's experience life. These days, I have a disability, so that hampers me, and my progress in life..
My name's Linda and I liked the sound of this group. It is something that I have thought about, the lack of representation for certain groups in society, and as a reader, and would be writer, I am interested in opening my boundaries to be inclusive.. should prove interesting to find out how other's experience life. These days, I have a disability, so that hampers me, and my progress in life..
Hi everybody,I am an author and storyteller from Rome, Italy.
Diversity is my life in every sense, real and fictional on my stories.
I like to say I was born between two "Souths", the world's one, Africa, and Italy South, Naples. Or you may read as my parents, two brave pioneers in Italy as a biracial couple in the last century.
This was the inspiration for my first book, Sunset, a kind of mask about the son of Darkness and Light, a child born between different worlds, between day and night, black and white a many other things.
I am a compulsive reader too and maniacal theatre plays, movies and tv series watcher.
Happy new year!
Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher
Hi everyone :)I'm Heather, I'm originally from London and now live in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm a pop culture and disability awareness blogger and content creator who blogs about all things geeky, living with seven chronic illnesses and my love for beauty products. I'm a massive bookworm and regularly review books, with fantasy, science fiction, horror and urban fantasy being my favourite genres. As a disabled bisexual woman I'm always on the lookout for diverse books and recently found out about We Love Diverse Books (so love that this group was founded as a result of that movement!).
I'm a massive geek, gamer and have research superpowers. I'm also a bit of an overachiever with two undergrad degrees (Art History, and English Literature) and was planning a career as a Librarian when my seventh chronic health condition, ME/CFS came along and quite literally kicked my ass as I was studying for my Masters in Information and Library Studies. I was very fortunate to have a fantastic and supportive supervisor (who was also chronically ill) and department that allowed me to go on medical leave for the full time, so I was able to finish my dissertation and graduate with merit!
My other health conditions are hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), chronic migraines, asthma, IBS, anxiety and depression, and rhinitis.
You can find me talking about all of these openly on my blog at Just Geeking By - http://geeking-by.net
And I'm on social media as justgeekingby, feel free to come say hi!
Hi, I found this group searching for novels on representation. I, Bente, am a Norwegian English Second Language and social studies/history teacher in Norway. I was so happy to see this group and the wonderful bookshelf! I hope to find great suggestions to use in my classroom.
At the moment my ESL classes are reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. I think it is a fantastic novel with so many aspects and topics to discuss in class.
Personally, I live and work with the chronic condition hEDS and have noticed how few books in my reading interest show protagonists with chronic conditions and how this realistically affects their lives. As a teacher, I have become increasingly aware of how important representation is in a multicultural and diverse classroom.
hi everyone,My name is Aurelia Young, it's a pseudonym I use for writing. I am 27 years old and I've just published my first book called Blood Ink (dark fantasy)! I've worked on the book for at least 10 years because I trashed the story several times and started again.
I wanted to join this group because I find it important that ALL people in a story are represented, so that nobody is left out. you can find that in my book Blood Ink. In the second part of Blood Ink (WIP), I am planning on letting more people be represented in the story... so right now, I could not fit ALL people in my book because it's fast-paced... but I will try my best!
Happy reading to you all!
All the best, Aurelia
Aurelia wrote: " I wanted to join this group because I find it important that ALL people in a story are represented, so that nobody is left out. you can find that in my book Blood Ink. In the second part of Blood Ink (WIP), I am planning on letting more people be represented in the story... so right now, I could not fit ALL people in my book because it's fast-paced... but I will try my best!"This reeks of tokenism. Quality is more important than quantity. In other words, it is more important that writers accurately represent characters from marginalised groups by having less diverse characters that they accurately research, rather than being able to show off that they have X amount in their book.
I'm not sure if I've posted here before but I'm Louis. I'm a orientated aeroace/demisexual. I prefer men, but could date women. I love fashion. I switch between masculine and feminine styles as society would call it but honestly I just see cute or cool clothing.I love listening to music and collecting books. I am hoping to write my own books again like I did in high school, only this time publish them although I'm unsure what I'd publish.
At the moment I am obsessed with listening to old books and japanese literature. I really love paperbacks as someone who struggles with on off tendonitis.
I am a transgender man from the uk.
I'm not able to get out much so I spend most of my time reading. I read a bit of most genres though I'm happier with non-fiction, generally. I actually use LibraryThing way more than Goodreads, in terms of communities and keeping a catalog of books I own. I love my paper book collection, even though mostly I need to use audiobooks.
I'm a crafter, mostly embroidery and knitting. I design and sell my own cross-stitch patterns. I do a fair bit of cooking as well.
Soccer is a great passion and lately I spend a lot of time explaining the game to my niece and nephew, to prepare them for the upcoming World Cup.
Diverse books are important to me because the world is diverse but we don't all live in diverse communities, because disability is not life-ending or an aberration, because representation is important for everyone.