I’m so
excited to be participating in the first-ever discussion post meme
Conversations! Conversations is a meme created by Geraldine @ Corralling Books and Joan @ Fiddler Blue with a basic theme and a topic to follow! For more
information on the meme, click here. This week’s theme is popular issues, and
the topic is: Are there any diverse books you read more and why”?
My answer to
this question is: yes, there are diverse reads that I tend to go for more than
others, and that is specifically LGBT books. The reason for this is, that LGBT
rights is an issue that I am passionate about and I really enjoy reading different
takes on them. Being a contemporary junkie, romance is obviously a huge
component and it’s almost always between a boy and a girl. Now while this gives
me something to relate to, it get’s kind of repetitive after a while reading
about the same relationships. In LGBT contemporary books, there is more of a
diverse romance that brings a fresh new edge.
I think that
the reason I am so passionate about LGBT issues is because of my upbringing. I
was raised in a very religious family, and obviously in the church LGBT rights
is a huge issue. Now while I am fortunate enough to have a family that is
accepting of all people, many of our friends have more negative views and there
is always that sour note in a room whenever someone mentions “gay marriage”.
This issue really angers me especially when people bring religion in it, but I
guess this is another story. Right now, let’s just focus on the books.
The point
is, that LGBT books appeal to me more when it comes to diversity because I enjoy
the change in relationships. One of my favourite LGBT books is Simon vs. The
Homosapiens Agenda, because it was a very unique take. You’d expect LGBT
contemporary to be very dark with very negative views towards the person, and
while this issue is sadly very relevant in real life, this book had a much
lighter,funnier tone to the issue where everyone was accepting of Simon. It
made me happy that there are good people in this world.
Now you may
be wondering, do you not read any other diverse reads? The answer is, while I
would like to, I don’t really find other extremely striking diverse reads, that
is, I don’t know which books are diverse. You don’t see many books that perhaps
have a person of colour as the main character, actually write on the synopsis: “this
book has a black character”, so I don’t think I really know if a book’s diverse
or not unless I actually dive in. In LGBT books, the theme is pretty much
obvious.
The other
diverse reads that I have read that contained people of colour as the mains,
would have to be Everything, Everything, which contained a mixed girl who had a
rare illness, and My Name is Parvana, which was an incredible series involving
a Afghan girl. These books were both done really well, but I do think that more
could be done on the racial diversity front.
I guess that’s
all of my thoughts down! If you have any racially diverse book or even LGBT
book recommendation's, please let me know as I’d love to check them out! Thank
to Geraldine and Joan for creating this meme, and I can’t wait for the next
topic!
Emily @ Paperback Princess
