Tag: dvrc18

Diverse Reading Challenge FINAL Wrap-Up!

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THANK YOU so much to everyone who participated in my Diverse Reading Challenge this year! It was such a delight to host it and it lead me to pick up some books that I might not have otherwise! I hope others had the same experience. So, to mark the official end of the challenge, here is a complete list of all the diverse books we read this year! 

Note: (OT) means off-topic and is for a book with a non-#ownvoices author which nevertheless includes a prominent character matching the theme. (*) means conditional, which is a book that is diverse outside of the month’s theme.

With that, let’s get started!

JANUARY – WILD CARD MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@chand-ki-roshni read:

@jadedbug read:

@melesi325 read:

@avap12 read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@allirense read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

Anons read:

FEBRUARY – BLACK HISTORY MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@fennbirn-fandom read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

  • Dear Martin by Nic Stone

@melesi325 read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@avap12 read:

  • Dear Martin by Nic Stone
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Anons read:

MARCH – WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

@waywardbutonward read:

@avap12 read:

@allirense read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@inthedarknessofthesun read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

Anons read:

APRIL – ASIAN AMERICAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

@allirense read:

MAY – JEWISH-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

JUNE – PRIDE MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

JULY – INDIAN/SOUTH ASIAN MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

AUGUST – MUSLIM/WEST ASIAN MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

  • City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
  • King John by William Shakespeare (OT)

@nightmarebarrow read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

  • Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

anons read:

SEPTEMBER – HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@bookaholic1012 read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

OCTOBER – DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARENESS MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

NOVEMBER – NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@chaoslaborantin read:

Anons read:

  • Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (OT)
  • Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (OT)
  • The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (*)

DECEMBER – WILD CARD/HOLIDAY BONUS MONTH

@sarahviehmann read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read:

@nightmarebarrow read: 

Thank you once again to those of you who participated, and while I won’t be running the Diverse Reading Challenge again next year, it was a real pleasure to do so in 2018. As always, keep me updated on the diverse books you’re reading, because that’s always and forever incredibly important to improving our minds and ourselves. ❤ 

Sarah Viehmann

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I believe you didn’t make a call out post, but I’d like to send my challenge reads for December anyway. Those were “Mirage” by Somaiya Daud, “All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages” by Saundra Mitchell, “Forest of A Thousand Lanterns” by Julie C. Dao, “Sisters of the Winter Wood” by Rena Rossner, “Every Exquisite Thing” and “The Bane Chronicles” by Cassandra Clare and “The Darkest Part of the Forest” by Holly Black (reread). I enjoyed the challenge so much!

Oooh this sounds like a fantastic list! You’re right, I did forget to make a call out post in the midst of the holiday and some personal issues going on, but I’m glad you remembered to let me know! I really appreciate how involved you’ve been all year, and I know there are some you’ve read that I plan to get to in the future. Happy New Year!

November #DVRC18 Wrap-Up

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It’s Time for the Monthly Diverse Reading Challenge Wrap-Up!

This month was Native American Heritage Month:

This month we’re reading books by Native American or First Nations authors from North America. Suggested authors include Leslie Marmon Silko, Rebecca Roanhorse, Debra Magpie Earling, Louise Erdrich, Janet Campbell Hale, N. Scott Momaday, and Gerald Vizenor.

Since it’s possible to read diverse books that don’t exactly line up with the theme, I use a code to tell books apart. Note that Conditional status does not apply to books written by writers other than #ownvoices which fetishize or otherwise misrepresent the group in question.

  • (OT) = Off-Theme: a non-indigenous author without a prominent indigenous character, but diverse in other categories. Only counts if you’ve read at least one book according to the theme.
  • (*) – Conditional: A book featuring a prominent indigenous character written by a non-indigenous writer. DOES NOT APPLY to fetishized works or other misrepresentations.

Without Further Ado …

Here’s What We Read This Month:

@sarahviehmann read:

@chaoslaborantin read:

anon read:

anon read:

I read Empire of Sand and Girls of Paper and Fire this month! They are two amazing Asian ownvoices fantasies from British authors of colour, which is so exciting to me. The paucity of representation in the US publishing industry is bad, but in the UK it’s absolutely dire, so I was thrilled to support, read, and love these two books.

Wow, how did you send this a week ago and I’m only just getting to it? End of the semester blues, I suppose. Sorry for the delay, but I’m glad you found these and enjoyed them!

I read “Trail of Lightning” by Rebecca Roanhorse, “The Smell of Other People’s Houses” by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (*), and “Six-Gun Snow White” By Catherynne Valente (*). Off-theme reads were “Strange Grace” by Tessa Gratton, “Ruin of Stars” by Linsey Miller, “Kissing the WItch” by Emma Donoghue, “The Poppy War” by R.F. Kuang, and “Empress of all Seasons” by Emiko Jean.

Wow, that’s a lot of books! So many good ones, too, as always! 

Sarah Reviews: Trail of Lightning

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Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.

Publication Date: June 26th, 2018

Date Started: November 17th, 2018

Date Finished: November 26th, 2018

Recommended By: Basically everyone?

Acquired: Audiobook from Audible.com

Content Warnings: Violence, body horror, child death, monsters

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Good: The premise of this book is fantastic, and a lauded Native American fantasy like this is long overdue. Maggie is an awesome main character; she managed to have a really complicated self-perception without coming across as whining and deliberately self-deprecating. I frequently thought that I wish I’d have known about this book before I’d taught my Villains & Anti-Heroes class because she is a great example of an anti-hero. The supporting cast was also amazing. I loved Kai, Coyote, Grace and her family, and everyone else they came across. The worldbuilding was also fantastic; I loved the author’s explanation for how the world had become the way it was and the way she incorporated

Diné (Navajo) culture and narrative tradition into the book. I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series!

The Bad: The plot was a little too meandering for me, and this is what kept me from giving it a full five stars. For most of the book, the characters just seemed to be traveling from place to place with only vague references to why this was important to the conflict introduced at the beginning of the book. This problem is resolved in the last 25 percent of the book, but I wish there had a been a more consistent thread of plot throughout. I also didn’t like that we had no idea what the monsters were until the very, very end. Basically, there were just a few things that were brought up that I wish had remained consistent throughout instead of only being mentioned a couple of times. 

Representation: I mean, the premise precludes any white person from being in the text at all, and that’s pretty great (no, I mean it). Just as with Children of Blood and Bone or other secondary-world fantasies based in non-white settings, I really enjoyed and appreciated this. That said, the cast wasn’t exclusively

Diné, as Grace was black and her children were biracial. One of them was also gay! I know this book has received some criticism from the Diné, so I’ll make note of that here, but I’m not in the position to make any judgments about that. 

Favorite Line: “But I had forgotten that the Diné had already suffered their apocalypse over a century before. This wasn’t our end. This was our rebirth.”

November #DVRC18 Call Out!

Welcome, Everyone!

We read some really great books by indigenous authors for the Diverse Reading Challenge last month, and I’d love to hear how everyone did this month! As a reminder, here is November’s theme:

This month we’re reading books by Native American or First Nations authors from North America. Suggested authors include Leslie Marmon Silko, Rebecca Roanhorse, Debra Magpie Earling, Louise Erdrich, Janet Campbell Hale, N. Scott Momaday, and Gerald Vizenor.

Between November 25th and December 1st, send me asks and share with me what you read this month! Please remember to include the title and author. I’ll compile it all into a list, which will go up the first Sunday of December. If you read diverse books that don’t line up with the theme, let me know and I can list them as Off-Theme books–but this only counts if you’ve read at least one On-Theme book this month.

You can send in asks anonymously–that’s fine! I’ll have a special anon section of the post where I’ll compile those. Anyone who doesn’t respond on anon will be tagged so that other participants can find each other.

I’m really looking forward to hearing what you’ve all read. Don’t forget, next month is another Wild Card Month, so this is your chance to catch up on any diverse reads that you didn’t get the chance to read this year! There’s also a bonus challenge you can choose to meet if you’d like.

This month is a wrap-up month, so it’s another wild card! Is there a diverse book you wanted to read this year and didn’t get a chance to? Now’s the time! BONUS CHALLENGE: read a book about a winter holiday you don’t celebrate, ideally by someone who does celebrate it. Early in January we’ll share our reading lists and plan for next year’s challenge!

Happy reading, everyone!

Sarah Viehmann

Sarah Reviews: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship–like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor–April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world–everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires–and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.

Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity, and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.

Publication Date: September 25th, 2018

Date Started: October 20th, 2018

Date Finished: October 21st, 2018

Recommended By: @cassxfaith

Acquired: Audiobook from Scribd.com

Content Warnings: Body horror

Rating: 5/5 Stars

The Good: I was incredibly surprised by this, but I thought Hank Green captured the voice of a female narrator incredibly well. This is something that I’m very sensitive to, and perhaps my perception was altered by the fact that the narrator of the audiobook was a woman (and amazing), but I experienced no dissonance of the sort I usually do when I read a female character or narrator written by a man. I have a soft-spot for legitimately frustrating main characters, and April May certainly fills that role. Even though she pissed me off, I really enjoyed reading about her. The relationship dynamics were compelling and the book was also very intelligent on many levels. I also really appreciated that this is a thoroughly 21st-century book, but rather than coming across as a book that will date itself, it instead reads like a perfect snapshot of what life in this day and age is like and it will serve as a “classic” in that sense. 

The Bad: As I said above, April May is an incredibly frustrating character–and the funny thing is that she knows that about herself. Still, some readers might have a hard time getting through this book because of that. Also, if you go into this book expecting a true science fiction adventure, it isn’t that at all. It has far more to do with April becoming a pundit, dealing with fame, and handling her personal life amidst all of that. The science fiction element is there and it’s extremely smart, but this is far from a “high SF” novel. The ending of this book might be abrupt and unsatisfying for some readers. Apparently there will be a sequel (I personally think it can stand on its own), but if you don’t like a book in which all the answers aren’t presented by the end of the book, you might be annoyed. I found some of the supporting characters to be a little flat, but this might have been intentional on the part of the author because April is an admittedly self-absorbed person.

Representation: Just as this is a good representation of what society is like in the sense of the internet and the 24-hour news cycle, it is also a great representation of what kinds of people make up the world. While April and Andy are both white, April is bisexual and in a complicated relationship with a black woman. There’s even a conversation about biphobia. There are characters of multiple races and identities, and the underlying current of the conflict is that the Carls want the world to be united, and this requires cooperation from people of all walks of life. The core cast is relatively small, but the conversations about power, marginalization, globalization, and so forth all seemed very much in keeping with the cultural climate (the positive side) of 2018.

Favorite Line: “I saw myself as a leader of the community, not a member. I had no idea what a messed-up perspective that was at the time.”

October #DVRC18 Wrap-Up

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It’s Time for the Monthly Diverse Reading Challenge Wrap-Up!

This month was Disability Employment Awareness Month:

Though this month is meant to focus on employment for disabled people, I thought it would be a good month to read books by disabled authors. This includes authors who deal with mental illness, those with physical disabilities, or other kinds of disabilities. Again, as with Pride Month, don’t force an author to discuss their disability if they’re not comfortable doing so. Also, please choose books by #ActuallyAutistic people if you would like to read about autism. Suggested authors include Leigh Bardugo, S. Jae-Jones, Kody Keplinger, Mishell Baker, Laura Hillenbrand, Ana Mardoll, Philip K. Dick, Carrie Fisher, and Terry Pratchett.

Since it’s possible to read diverse books that don’t exactly line up with the theme, I use a code to tell books apart. Note that Conditional status does not apply to books written by writers other than #ownvoices which fetishize or otherwise misrepresent the group in question.

  • (OT) = Off-Theme: a non-disabled author without a prominent disabled character, but diverse in other categories. Only counts if you’ve read at least one book according to the theme.
  • (*) – Conditional: A book featuring a prominent disabled character written by a non-disabled writer. DOES NOT APPLY to fetishized works, tragedy porn, or other misrepresentations.

Without Further Ado …


Here’s What We Read This Month:

@sarahviehmann read:

@nightmarebarrow read:

@lemonlimeseltzer read: