I’m participating (or trying to!) in the Diversity on the Shelf Challenge hosted by Akilah at the Englishist.

As I mentioned in my last update, I was camping the first two weeks of August.  I didn’t finish even one book on this vacation – the only time I really sat down to read anything but the event’s paper was at the Laundromat. I only finished seven books total, way below my usual.  One of these was by an author of color:

• The Game of Silence. Birchbark House Book 2 by Louise Erdrich.

Two more were by white authors with narrators of color

• Poison is Not Polite. Wells & Wong #2 by Robin Stevens (Arsenic for Tea in the U.K.)
• Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling by Tony Cliff 

Two more yet had main characters of color who weren’t the narrator, though I won’t count them officially for the challenge:

Cupcake Cousins by Kate Hannigan. I read this aloud to my daughter – we’re now on the second book, Spring Showers, where the African-American cousin, Delia, is the narrator.

The Left-Handed Fate by Kate Milford, in which the little brother of one of the narrators is Chinese, and saves the day multiple times.

That puts me at 36 books total books by authors of color this year, and an additional 23 books by white authors with main characters of color.  I’ll need to read 9 books by authors of color this month to catch up to my goal!