I am participating in the Diversity on the Shelf Reading Challenge hosted by the Englishist.

I read 14 books in April. For the first time ever, I tried planning ahead what I was going to read, with limited success: I did read mostly from my list, and I think this was very helpful in making sure I read diversely.  But I was way off in the number of books I thought I’d be able to read, so I read 10 of the 20 books I’d planned to read and then an extra four that weren’t on my original list.  I will experiment and possibly confer with Brandy on this planning-of-reading thing.

Four of these were by authors of color:

• Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee (YA)
• Something Like Love by Beverly Jenkins (Adult)
• Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke (Early Chapter)
• Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Middle Grade)

(I started listening to the Alvin Ho Collection Books 3-4 by Lenore Look with my daughter, which would also have counted, but my daughter decided she was tired of Alvin Ho.)

Four more had main characters of color:

• Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (YA)
• Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell (YA)
• Space Hostages by Sophia McDougall (Middle Grade)
• Lumberjanes: Friendship to the Max by Noelle Stevensen and Grace Ellis (Middle Grade-YAish)

Bonus diversity points for

• The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle. (Middle Grade) The main character here has a disability which is pivotal in her worldview.

Hopefully soon I will catch up with reviewing all the great books I’ve been reading!  But, my total count for reading books by authors of color stands at 21 for the year, with an additional 13 books with main characters of color.