#DiverseAThon is a week long readathon (12th -19th September) that aims to celebrate diversity in books. It was created by booktubers: Monica, Joce, Christina and Whitney. This was in response to a very negative video about diversity in books. These four ladies got together and thought, let's not add to the hate, instead let's take something shitty and create something great. And so, the #DiverseAThon was born!
This readathon was planned not that long ago so I have only what is on my shelves to choose from. I do have quite a few books on hold at the library (I'm still in a queue for them) that are about various topics related to this readathon. Because I still have a couple of weeks left until the new uni term starts, I have decided to continue focusing on reading diversely for the following week too (and obviously forever afterwards). There's a list of diverse book recommendations here and you can add to it yourself here. With so many recs that I'm interested in, I really want to get the most out of #DiverseAThon which is why I'm extending it to two weeks (maybe longer)!
So on with the books!
The first two books deal with LGBTQ+ relationships as well as the reactions to them by others. I've seen the film adaptation of 'Brokeback Mountain' and I thought it was really well done. I'm very interested to see how this original source compares, especially as it's such a short story.
I believe 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' is a sort of fictional account of Winterson's own experience growing up and discovering her sexuality. I've heard so many good reviews and it has been recommended to me on several occasions too so I'm really looking forward to this one.
The next two are own voice stories. Yakuza Moon is a memoir and one that was recommended to me by my brother and I've been meaning to get around to this one for a couple of years now! I'm not sure what to expect as I know very little about gangsters or Japanese culture, but it sounds like a riveting read.
I picked up Human Acts as soon as it hit the shelves in England after reading Kang's 'The Vegetarian' which is one of my favourite reads of the year so far, but for some reason I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. 'Human Acts' is a fictionalised account of the civil uprising of 1980 against the dictatorship in South Korea. I think that each chapter explores a different person's perspective of these events so I'm sure I'll get a lot out of it.
Finally I've borrowed 'The Walking Dead' from Noah as I know that it's well loved for it's diverse cast of characters. I loved the first few series of the TV show so I'm intrigued to see if I'll enjoy the story in a different format.
Will you be taking part in #DiversAThon this week? If so, I'd love to know what you'll be reading :)
Bicks x
