Wednesday, May 7, 2014

IWSG: #WeNeedDiverseBooks

It's IWSG day. Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for organizing this monthly event where writers share about their writerly insecurities and other stuff. I'm a few hours late with my post today, but hey, it's still Wednesday! 

My family and I moved to a new place on Monday. So it's been craaazy in my household these past few days. I had been planning to take a short break from social media but something came up last week on Twitter that caught my attention. Some authors put together the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign to address their concerns about the need for more diversity in literature. 

People supporting the #WeNeedDiverseBooks were asked to "put their money where their mouth is" last weekend and post pictures of diverse books they bought. Things get shuffled around when you move, but I still managed to uncover some, if not all, books I own that feature some element of diversity, big or small. (If you know me, and you don't see your diverse book in this image, it's probably because I haven't unpacked it yet.;)) I bought most of the books below; a couple of items were gifts/prizes. Featured in the photo below is SUMMONING THE PHOENIX (Lee & Low), a picture book about Chinese instruments that I bought at the end of April when I attended author Emily Jiang and illustrator April Chu's bookstore presentation. 


I can be a picky reader, and I mostly base my reading selections and book purchases on whatever sparks my interest and the suggestion of a reading experience I'm looking for. So while I like seeing diversity in books, this doesn't mean it's a given that I'll buy or read any book just because it's supposed to feature diversity. And while I support #WeNeedDiverseBooks, I am also interested in books that feature other stuff as well. 

For example, one book I have been waiting for to hit the shelves is Dianne Salerni's THE EIGHTH DAY. Dianne mentioned in a recent blog post that her book was coming out around this time. Today, I visited my local Barnes & Noble and I spotted Dianne's book sitting comfortably on a shelf, surrounded by Neil Gaiman and Angelina Jolie. This was the book purchase I made today. 


What was your most recent book purchase?

8 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Glad you're done with the move.
Saw several others post about that. Readers can make a difference with their book purchases.
I just purchased Nancy Thompson's latest, Leverage. Thought her first book rocked.

Dianne K. Salerni said...

Squeeee! That's my book! And I like how it looks as if previous copies have been sold. Yay!

The last book I purchased was The Runaway King by Jennifer Nielsen.

If you want some temporary tattoos to go with The Eighth Day, DM me on Twitter with your NEW address. Thanks for heading out to the store to buy it!!!

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

The last book I bought was Lani Taylor's DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS. Lately, I've been reading mostly ARCs I've won and books from the library.

Glad the move is over and things are starting to settle down some. :)

Madeline @ The Shellshank Redemption

Pat Hatt said...

Moving can sure suck, but now that it is done you can get back in the groove of things, first i heard of the diverse book thing too.

Nick Wilford said...

Hmm. I'm all for diversity. Keeps things interesting! Hop you get into a new routine after your move. Last book I bought was Jennifer Hillier's Freak, sequel to Creep.

Anonymous said...

I love that you guys did that, what a fun campaign!

I can't stand moving - it's the pits. Hope you're getting all settled in at your new place. My latest purchase was a book on mediation.

Elsie

S.P. Bowers said...

The last book I bought was SHIFTERS by Bethany Wiggins. It did have native American characters (I think Navaho, but I'm not sure I remember), though the MC wasn't ethnic in any way. It was a good read.

Anonymous said...

I hope you're all settled in.

I recognize some of those titles.

Yesterday I bought Seven Day Fiance.

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