We need to talk about diverse books.
I’m seriously glad that’s not an out of place sentence on my blog — I do talk about diverse books a lot here and I so fiercely love championing and recommending and supporting them. You know I love #ownvoices authors and intersectional rep. You know if you dare begin the sentence “can you recommend me your favourite book–” I will be piling The Wicker King into your arms. When I write up new release blog posts, I softly laugh when I realise all the highlighted ones are queer.
But I could do better. I love what I’ve been doing, but there are still some big gaps in how I advocate for diverse and marginalised authors.
The world has been hurting for a long, long time, but it’s loud right now. Your newsfeeds and daily lives are likely flooded with it too (no matter your country) because people across the world are rising up to say enough to police brutality, systematic racism, and the murders of innocent BIPOC people. A lot of us don’t know what to say or do (I’m an anxious bookworm, I barely even leave my house and I’m not american?) but it’s not the time to be silent.
One thing I can do (well, all of we bookworms can) is take a look at our reading, our TBR piles, the books we feature on twitter and bookstagram, and do better with supporting Black authors. But also POC and disabled and neurodiverse and queer authors too. Not just stories about racism, but also Black authors writing their joy and magic and wonder too. Not just issue books, but disabled authors writing fantasy and fairy tales too. Not just romances, but queer authors writing adventures and thrillers too.
I thought it could be helpful to give some tips on how to keep the momentum alive of supporting marginalised authors! Even after the Black Lives Matter protests lessen and even when it’s not Pride month anymore. Even the smallest things can really help!
Publishing is not built to support marginalised authors. Let’s be real, when everyone talks about the “queens of YA”, what do we see? A list of white authors. Until marginalised authors get the same publicity and opportunities, we have to help lift them up too 🥺🙌🏻We have to make a conscious effort to diversify our TBR piles.
And seriously!! I could do better with this too. I get the bulk of my books sent to me from publishers or book boxes I work with and most of the time I’m not being piled with diverse titles. I do my best to buy diverse books… but afjdksald I wish I was rich (or just employed 😂) and could support everyone.
So look. We can’t do it all. But we can do something.
What Kind of Things Can We Do?
❤️ When you feature book stacks on social media or in photos, include diverse authors! Usually I go for colours when I’m doing a book stack, so sometimes it’s not intentional when I’ve got a pile of white or abled authors. But often times I’ve not gone the extra mile, you know? I’m working on this for me!! (Also when you’re doing rainbow book stacks for Pride, do seriously try to make sure there are queer authors on that stack. I know it’s not always easy if you don’t own the right books though. But we can be aware!)
🧡 Make a conscious effort to have your monthly TBR including diverse books. Even if you only read about 3 books a month, hey just make sure one of those books is by a diverse author! (Ex: we love Cassandra Clare to BITS and she writes fantastic diverse books. Buuut she isn’t a diverse author.) No one is saying you-can-only-read-diverse-authors-forever-more…but your world is so much smaller and bereft if you’re not taking in the world views of diverse authors. We change the world faster by supporting people who challenge the status quo.
💛 Recommend diverse books to other bookworms! Whenever I get a book rec request, I always say The Raven Cycle. It’s my heart favourite, okay!!! I am predictable and happy about it. But you know….I could expand that too. I could make sure I’m rattling off The Wicker King, Felix Ever After, Wicked Fox or Wild Beauty too. I love them! I just need to get into the habit of mentioning them.
💙 When I do book lists on my blog — add in diverse authors. It’s easy to go for the big famous books in hopes readers will recognise them and relate. But I can mix it up!? This also helps the underrated diverse books get seen. You want magical fantasy? Ok read Shadowhunters…and then A Song Below Water (sirens! gargoyles! mythology!) and then pick up Blanca & Roja (fairy tale retelling! shape shifting! siblings!).
💜 Be vigilant as we write reviews of marginalised books. Are we calling a Black book too unrelatable or too sad? Did we call a book with a queer lead too cliche? Did we call the neurodiverse character too unlikeable? It’s time to take a breath and think about this. Just because the narrative isn’t what you’re used to, doesn’t mean it necessarily needs that 3 star rating and “meh” review. NO ONE is saying you have to love every diverse book. Not all books are good, sure. But if you’re white/cis/straight/abled there is room to be careful how you diminish diverse books in reviews.
❤️ Buy diverse books. Lots of us can’t afford to buy a ton of books (I usually can get 3 per month and I feel RICH doing that 😂but I definitely couldn’t as a teen), but if you can afford to buy some…sometimes branch out and make sure you’re picking up something #ownvoices. Also pro tip: ask your library to buy books.
🧡 Review diverse ARCs when you get them! If you have the funds, consider passing them on to a smaller POC or queer blogger too. That’s not possible for everyone, but could be nice if you can afford it! And if you requested a diverse ARC? Prioritise it 🥰 This can help a diverse author who isn’t getting a push from their publisher so so much.
This isn’t saying you shouldn’t read your fave white authors. I have many, many I love. I adore a lot of books that might be diverse while the authors writing them aren’t. (Though to be real…so many of my favourites are by marginalised authors?! Diverse books are good books, my friend.) But we can do so much if we made an effort to diversify our shelves, our monthly reading, our buying (or librarying). It seriously improves your life too by the way. You know how powerful knowledge is? Books are just pockets of magic and knowledge and I love that about them.
Don’t burn yourself out by doing EVERYTHING all at ONCE. If we are here to be sturdy and strong allies, a good way to start is just by changing the everyday things in our bookish lives.
And hey, there. You’re doing a pretty good job loving books. 😚
talk to me about some diverse books you’ve loved this year!! (let’s try and talk about diverse or #ownvoices authors too!!) and which ones are coming up on your tbr pile?
Great post! I totally agree. I teach history, and I’m quite diverse in my teaching. I do this on purpos and it often takes a lot of planning and research to incorporate this into the curriculum. But I realized, for all the hard work I put in my teaching, I don’t put the same effort in my tbr. I saw so many books pass by on insta by BIPOC authors and I never picked them up… You know who did? My 54 year old mother. In December, she told me she wanted to read more books out of her comfort zone. And she did. She put in the time, did her research and started to compile lists of new releases written from different persectives.
If my 54-year-old mother can do it, can put in the work, so can I. So can a lot of people. We need to do better. Felix Ever After is on it’s way to me, and I’m ordering You should See Me in a crown, A Song Of Wraith and Ruin, the vanishing half, riot baby and Take a hint, Dani Brown. I’m following more diverse accounts and some of these recommendations are amazing. So yeah. I’m trying to do better
I’m glad you go the extra mile, Sara!! It’s so important and I’m sure you’re building so wonderfully into your kids lives. I also love the list you’ve got here 😍 Felix Ever After is an absolute favourite of mine!!
Love this post Cait ❤️❤️ you’re so right and I’m so excited to see how much more we’re all making an effort. I’ve always admired your efforts to promote and talk about diverse books when it comes to the LGBT+ and disabled/abled groups. There are certainly a lot of books you’ve brought to my attention and im grateful for it! Can’t wait to open my eyes some more and match your energy 💪🏻
thanks Kirstie!! I really appreciate this 🥺 there are so many epic marginalised creators out there doing such talented work, and I’m excited to read more of it!
I recently read The Gilded Wolves and really, really loved it, one of my favourite books from this year so far! My TBR for this month is almost entirely books by AOC and that’s definitely something I’d like to do more often as I know I can do much better in diversifying my reading. Books I have coming up: I’m reading Girl, Serpent, Thorn at the moment (the author is of Persian heritage I think and the book is based off Persian mythology), I’m also looking forward to reading A Court of Miracles and I’m currently reading Kingdom of Copper and cannot wait to get to Empire of Gold once I’m done (City of Brass is one of my favourite books I’ve read this year).
It’s so good to make sure our tbrs are reflecting the diversity of the real world 💛
Such a great and timely reminder of being thoughtful in the books we are reading and reviewing!
thanks so much for reading it 💛💛
I love your point about making sure to recommend diverse books–such a simple thing to do, but so, so important! Great post!
It is such a simple thing to do! I know I could do better in my list posts.
I had pre-ordered Felix Ever After back in December when I heard about it having a demiboy MC (i’m a demiboy-well demiman because i’m 31) and have not seen that rep before, at all! So when it came out last month I devoured it and haven’t been able to stop talking about it! While I mentioned it was by and about a black queer trans person, I feel bad that the only reason I picked it up was because “queer trans” like me, because i’m white. By and about a black person was like a nice bonus but wasn’t why I picked it up, and I can say that about so many other books. I’m also disabled. I’m decent with picking up books I can relate to because I never got to see myself in terms of disability, queerness and being trans (I grew up confused about my gender because I didn’t even have the words back then) growing up. But I could do better, well everywhere but especially by black authors and other poc authors. I’m excited though to diversify my book reading even more!
I totally get this too…I’ll often zone in on books that are queer or have mental health rep, because that’s where I relate to. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with us finding the books we need for our marginalisations too. (Because there’s obviously not enough trans or demiboy rep out there, right?!) But yeah it’s so important to stretch ourselves further. (Also Felix Ever After is AMAZING and one of my new favourites!)
So many great tips! Thank you for sharing and for thinking about this. I also found that once I started following more diverse bloggers/bookstagrammers/readers on Twitter, my TBR naturally became more diverse, because they were all hyping books that my normal circle wasn’t talking about!
That’s such a good start too! I should’ve had that on my list ahhhh, but supporting marginalised creators is crucial too.
Ahh yes this was so helpful! I’ve been really thinking about this lately (I’m not American either) and I will be keeping these tips in mind for the future. Thank you <3
I feel like there’s lots to address with racism in every country, but definitely seeing the particular horrors in america right now is sobering.
This is such a great post! We all need to put more of a focus on diverse povs and reading and sharing diverse books is definitely one of the best ways to do so. Some diverse reads on top of my tbr that I plan to read this month are, Little And Lion by Brandy Colbert, Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley, and Pet by Akwaeke Emezi. One of my favorite own voices books this year was Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams.
Pet is definitely one on my tbr too! I’ve heard it’s super brilliant.
Let me just say Cait, though we can all do better, there’s been so many diverse books that I never would have heard of if it wasn’t for your blog, so you’re doing a great job 🙂
A recent good diverse read for me was Pride (can’t remember the author right now). It’s a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, so I wasn’t a huge fan of the storyline (not really my thing) but I loved the characters and the insight into Black American culture.
I am really glad to hear this 😭💛 (And I loved Pride!! I just was posting about it on instagram last week!)
I LOVE this post. I’ve been realizing the past few weeks that while I read some diverse books, I need to read more. And I need to be better at TALKING about all the books I’m reading (I tend to highlight just a few and that means that some of the diverse books I’ve read haven’t been highlighted, but that’s changing now!)
Yes me too!! It’s also the talking? Like I gave Let Me Hear A Rhyme 5 stars this year but I don’t think i’ve ever even mentioned it here?! That’s just 😭 massive fail on my part. I need to do better!
I absolutely adored Get a Life, Chloe Brown this year which is diverse on so many levels since it features a Black, plus-sized main character with a chronic illness! I also just listened to Long Way Down this month and it was absolutely FANTASTIC!
I had always thought that I read diversely, but now that I actually stopped and took the time to crunch the numbers, that’s not actually the case. I read some diverse books, yes, but I definitely haven’t been prioritizing them. And that’s bad because publishers then think that there’s not an interest in those stories.
Now that I recognized this mistake I definitely plan on doing better, in hopefully a more sustained fashion. I have plan for reading and buying more Black authors, and other diverse authors in a sustainable fashion in the future. I’m making it a priority, and I’m going to be more mindful of what I’m reading and buying. I even have a plan in place to make sure there are diverse authors on my TBR each month. I’m just sad that it took me this long to realize how acting passively about diverse voices in publishing just isn’t good enough.
And of course, I hope to include more diversity in the posts that I share and in my recommendations. Reading more diversely will help me find more diverse favorites, which I’ll then make sure to promote on my blog. So for me it all starts with what I’m reading.
Thank you so much for this post. It was such a great reminder of all the ways I could be doing better.
I see the Chloe Brown one EVERYWHERE which means I’m going to break and get it soon 😂 it’s not my typical genre but I really love good chronic illness rep.
And me too for all these types of changes. I thought I did pretty well, but it’s easy to do a little bit and think that’s enough? I mean, we can’t do it all, and no one is expecting us too. But I def want to do my part with supporting diverse and marginalised authors.
Cait you are so awesome for being an always supporter of diverse books <3 I really appreciate this post!
thanks, Jeann 😭💛 I definitely should do better
This is a great post! So many of those things are so simple, but they’re good reminders for those who may not have even considered it could be helpful. I loooove queer books/authors/stories/characters/etc., so I’m always hyping those books, but I could do better to seek out more queer books by and about POC. Thank you for the reminders!
I definitely need the reminders myself too!! It’s easy to just get into a rut of reading what’s biggest and shiniest, and it’s hard when publishers are very biased about promoting books that will “do well”. So sigh. Yeah, it’s important to remind ourselves to go the extra mile!
So well written! I know for sure that I need to get better at reading diverse books 🥰
thank you so much!!
Yes there is so much more we can do. When I make lists I don’t always ask myself when I am making a list of f/f pairings if I’m also adding in those by black authors for instance. That is however important to consider. And otherwise I clearly have more reading to do. 😉
This is a great post! I definitely could be doing more and just following more blogs over the last few years has exposed me to so many good diverse reads. Unfortunately my library still isn’t that diverse but I’m trying to make a habit out of requesting diverse books and buying them when I can!
What a lovely post and filled with wonderful advice, too, thank you for sharing this <3 I'm always doing my very best to include diverse books in every kind of list I make and am trying to pay attention to my bookstagram and the books I put on my pictures every time, too, I think these little things can already go a long, long way. And there are so many little diverse gems we can hype up!! 🙂
Great post, Cait! You’re right, these tensions have been building to this point a long, long time. And it exists just about anywhere there are populations of white folk. Sadly… It’s time we as a world stood up for these marginalised cultures/peoples. Long past, actually.
I totally agree!! We definitely should be reading more and more diverse books and diverse authors! Also, I’m so glad I finally picked up The Wicker King and read it after seeing you recommend it again and again because it’s so so good!
I love going onto Bookstagram and seeing diverse books in book stacks. It’s such a great feeling – especially if I’ve read that book and know how good it is.