Diversity Awareness Tag & #DiverseAThon TBR

**Each person listed is linked to either their tag video or their announcement video for the #DiverseAThon. Each book or author is linked to its goodreads page**

I was tagged by Alyssa over at Pucks and Paperbacks. Decided to do this tag on my blog since I've been sick the past week and a half I haven't been up for filming.

Original Tag by Green Eggs and Sam

1) Why does diversity matter to you?

Diversity matters because we are not all the same person. Everyone is different and diverse in some form or another. Diversity doesn't just have to be about race and religion but about disabilities, mental health, sexuality, and so much more. Diversity is what makes us all individuals with unique tastes and personalities. We need diversity in books because without it, we'd be stuck reading the same book over and over. 

2) Find a diverse author.

Sherman Alexie

I have not yet read anything by Alexie but I have two of his books and I've met him. He is an amazingly sweet person and I want to read his books! He primarily writes things that are taken from his own experiences as a Native American.

3) Find a diverse lead character (preferably not from above author).

Eilis Lacey from Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. Eilis is an Irish woman who makes the journey to America to start her life post WWII. I love this book and the movie adaptation! Eilis is such a wonderful character and getting to see how she adapts to life in America was very eye opening and wonderfully done. 

4) Find a book with a cast full of diverse characters.

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. This book is filled with diverse characters! As is the podcast! It's cooky and weird and diversity is what they build on. 

5) Find a book where a diverse character is not a stereotype.

For this one I'm using the same book Alyssa used, I've started this book but haven't finished it. The Haters by Jesse Andrews. The main set of characters in this book are at Band Camp but they aren't your stereotypical band geeks (trust me, I know).  

6) Find a character with whom you can identify.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I definitely identify with Cath because she is an introverted book lover. Her anxiety with school was very relatable and she's a book lover, I connected with her from the very beginning.   

7) Find a relationship with different diversities.

Eleanor and Park  also by Rainbow Rowell. I love this book for many reasons! The biggest is that it is not just a love story, it also deals with some pretty intense issues. But for this question the two are of different diversities, Eleanor is an overweight Caucasian girl from a broken and abusive home and Park is an Asian boy who is short, skinny and quiet.  

8) Find a book with a disabled (mental or physical) character.

Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. This book is filled with characters all of which are at different points in their lives with a good handful of them having various degrees of mental health disorders. 

9) Find a book with an LGBTQiA+ character (bonus if the character gets into a relationship).

I have to go with Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I just recently read this and loved every moment of it! Our main character Simon is not openly gay but is falling for his pen pall when he gets blackmailed by his classmate who saw his emails. 

10) Reflection. How hard was it to find books?

Most of these were easy and I could think of them on the spot, the only one I had trouble with was the stereotype question. Mostly because I don't tend to think about stereotypes while I'm reading. 

That is all for the tag portion of this post! I'm not tagging anyone specific but I want to tag anyone and everyone reading this!! It's a great tag that gets you thinking about different characters and books and also gives an opportunity to get different book recommendations.  

Info and TBR for the DiverseAThon

The Diverseathon is a readathon from Monday September 12 through Monday September 19th. It is being hosted by Whitney, Monica, Christina Marie, and Joce. There is a group book and that book is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. 

I'd love to read the group book but there are people ahead of me on Overdrive, so hopefully I'll be able to read it at some point in the future. 

The book I plan on reading is The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison. In this book the main character becomes the caregiver of a young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. I saw this on the recommended reads on Overdrive and thought it sounded really good and different, so I downloaded it. I'm reading this for the readathon because I haven't read many books dealing with physical disabilities so I'm looking forward to this one.

I'm not sure if I'll get to anything else specifically for the readathon, but there are other diverse reads I plan on reading before the year is out. For example, the two books by Sherman Alexie that I own as well as rereading One Night at the Call Center. I'm also going to be buddy reading More Happy than Not in November.

I know the book I chose may not be the most diverse but it's what I have available to me during a super busy week where I already had books planned out. Chances are I'll find something else to listen to towards the end of the week but I'm not sure what that will be just yet. When I figure it out I'll be sharing it on Twitter. 

Thanks for reading and I'll see you all in the next post!

Gina