top ten books that celebrate diversity

Hello, all! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted every week by The Broke and the Bookish, and this week, we're talking diversity. It's no secret that this particular topic has been huge in the bookish community recently, and for good reason. The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign has been making waves lately, and it's great so see how many authors and publishers are embracing differences in colour, ability, religion, race, sexuality... The list goes on. Here are the ten books I picked that celebrate diversity in all forms. 

1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling 

I feel like this series, especially for children who are reading it the first time, doesn't come across as particularly diverse right away. But it's not hard to see the commentary regarding race relations and cultural genocide in the issues between pure bloods, Muggle-borns, and Muggles. 

2. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz 

Here, we've got two separate strands of diversity - the two boys are Mexican American, making them racially diverse, as well as part of the gay community. What more could you ask for? 

3. April Raintree by Beatrice Culleton 

This is a book that I read for my YA Lit class last year (it's actually a revised edition of In Search of April Raintree). I think it's particularly important for Canadians, or anyone living in an area with a large Aboriginal population. It really captures the struggle of being othered in your own land in a beautiful and heartbreaking way. 

4. Eleanor & Park  by Rainbow Rowell

Both of the protagonists in this book are different in their own ways. Park comes from a Korean family and fills the role of a racially diverse character, while Eleanor reads as diverse to me because she's simply not the typical love interest in a YA novel. She's overweight and plain and doesn't really fit the teen girl stereotype, but we still see her as beautiful through Park's eyes, which is so important. 

5. What Night Brings by Carla Trujillo 

This book broke me, plain and simple. I read it for my Latina/o Lit class and I don't think any of the books I've read for school have ever hit me as hard as this one did. Marci is an eleven-year-old Latin American girl who wants God to turn her into a boy. Pretty much, we have a trifecta of diversity in here with the racial, religious, and gender-related contexts in this book. 

6. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan 

Tiny Cooper. End of story. 

7. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

I mean, just think about all the diversity between districts! We've got race, class... Even Katniss and Peeta become physically disabled by the end of the series. 

8. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

This is just a beautiful example of what it means to love someone who is othered. The dual perspective really works to give us a look at both sides, so we're not just learning what it's like for Noah (a gay character), we also see how it affects his twin, Jude, and how she deals. 

9. The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler

I'll admit right now - I'm not done this book yet, but already I'm loving it! The narrator is Elyse, a girl from Trinidad and Tobago, who lost her voice in a boating accident. She's one of the only POC's in the small town where the story takes place, and with her disability on top of that, she's definitely very different from those around her. 

10.  Everything, Everything  by Nicola Yoon

I don't want to give too much away because this book isn't out yet (thanks, Netgalley!) but I will tell you what you can find out from the synopsis: the narrator is an Afro-Asian teenager living with SCID, a disease that pretty much means she's allergic to the entire world. 

What diverse books are you loving?

the book fangirling blog award

Hello, all! I recently (like, a couple days ago) learned that the lovely Fiona from A Girl Between the Pages had nominated me for the BookFangirling Blog Award! Big hugs going her way for this. 

So, if you haven't heard of this particular award, here's a summary: It was created by Hannah over at BookFangirling (who is absolutely wonderful, I might add). To complete this tag, I have to answer the questions below, then tag 5-10 other bloggers who deserve the award and come up with my own questions for them! All of that information will be below, but first, here are my answers. 

1. What is your favorite thing about blogging?

My absolute favourite thing about it is the sense of community and support that I get from everyone. I'm by no means a popular blogger or anything like that, but people are still so nice to me! I love that this is a place where everyone has similar interests and we're all  just happy to talk about books for hours on end. 

2. Which books or series your book boyfriend/s came from?

Promise you won't judge me? Pinky swear? Because this is an embarrassing one. Did you promise? Okay, here we go. My most significant book boyfriend has to be Edward Cullen from the ever-so-famous Twilight series. We've been broken up for a good few years now, but back in '09 I was absolutely OBSESSED. We're just gonna let that stay in the past, though. 

3. What was the craziest thing you ever did because of fangirling?

See, this is going back to the whole Twilight thing. It's possible that my friend and I, when we were around 12 or 13, madetwilightthemedpuppetsofabunchofthecharacters. Again, in the past. 

4. If you were to choose one book or one series to read for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Harry Potter, duh. Speaking of which, if you missed my last post, I'm going to be doing a re-read of the whole series through August and into September! 

5. When was the last time you had a major book hangover, and what was that book/series?

Ou, this is a tough one. My last book hangover was probably last summer after I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. As I'm sure you know, that book is a complete mindfuck and I pretty much just had to hide under a blanket to recover from it. But other than that, I think my last real book hangover was after (you guessed it) Breaking Dawn was released. Promise you still love me? 

Now, it's time for me to nominate bloggers and post my own questions! If you decide to post this for yourself, please leave me a link in the comments so I can read your answers! :) 

Georgina @ Reads and Rambles

Amanda @ Stuck in YA Books 

Erin @ The Hardcover Lover

Sandra @ Sandra the Bookworm 

Jody @ A Spoonful of Happy Endings 

Kay @ It's a Book Life

Lea @ YA Book Queen

Lisa @ I'll Tumble for YA 

Here are your questions, ladies!

 

1. What is your number one, ride-or-die book/series to fangirl over? 

2. If you could pluck any character out of any book and have him or her in your life, who would it be? 

3. What book/series is a guilty pleasure that you secretly love? 

4. Do you listen to music while reading or prefer silence?

5. What was your gateway book into full-on addiction?

Now that you're nominated, here's what you do:

Create a post to accept your award 

Add the blog award button to your blog as a widget 

Answer the above questions

Nominate 5-10 bloggers you feel are deserving of this award 

Come up with 5 questions to ask your nominees (or steal them from someone else, who cares?) 

Comment on this post with a link to yours so I can see your answers! 

the great harry potter re-read 2015

Here's a little tidbit you probably already knew about me: I love Harry Potter. The series quite literally shaped my entire life from the moment I picked up the first book, and I owe my love of reading entirely to J.K. Rowling. 

With that in mind, I've been doing a lot of thinking about Harry Potter lately. This upcoming winter,  I will be taking a class at my school entitled Medieval Motifs in Harry Potter, which I'm obviously looking forward to. As it turns out, the professor who will be teaching that course recently did a podcast with  MuggleNet Academia which seems to be basically an overview of what she'll be teaching in the class. I just finished listening to the podcast (it's super interesting if you're into Harry Potter, here's a link to it) and decided that I want to embark upon an epic journey. 

So this summer, I'm going to be tackling the series once more, this time focusing on the inner workings of the plot (pretty much to give myself a head start in the class). I'm hoping to get through the series by the time school starts on September 14, and I'm planning to post updates throughout my reading that will talk about some of the cool things I notice along the way. I'm hoping that it'll be a little bit more academic and analytical in nature, so if you're interested in following along or even joining me, I'd love to have you! 

I'm going to start this upcoming Monday (July 20), so that gives me 8 weeks until school starts to finish the series. I'm hoping to post weekly updates but can't promise anything, so we'll see where it goes. 

last ten books that came into my possession

Hello, lovely people! Today is Tuesday, which means I'm going to make a list and you're going to read it. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and this week it's all about our most recent book finds. Since I haven't yet reached the level of superstardom that allows me to receive free books from publishers, all of these were purchased by myself. So, starting with the most recent and going from there... 

inside out book tag

If you haven't heard of Disney/Pixar's Inside Out, I honestly don't know where you've been the last couple of months. And if you've heard of it but haven't seen it, GO SEE IT. 

Kristina Horner , one of my favourite YouTubers, started this tag today that centres all around the five main emotions in the movie. Let's get started! 

Which book brings you the most joy? 
This one has to be Isla and the Happily Ever After. I'm trying to think back to last summer when I read this book, and I can honestly say I pretty much had a perma-smile on my face the whole time I read it. It's just such a fun and heartwarming story - I loved every single word. Isla also has a very special place in my heart since it was one of the first books I featured on this blog!

Which book grossed you out the most? 

The only book that I can think of that really made my stomach turn is The Merciless,  simply because  of how gory it got at times. The violence is quite graphic at times,  and it was one of my first  novels in the horror genre so that was definitely new to me! A couple parts were pretty gross to the unseasoned reader.  

Which book scared you more than anything? 

I don't tend to get super freaked out by books too often, but one that really stuck for me in terms of fear was Life As We Knew It. Some of the scariest things I've encountered in books are natural disaster stories, simply because they seem so realistic and are so incredibly believable. This one pretty much goes into what would happen if the moon somehow got knocked off its orbit (spoiler alert: everything would suck). Don't read this if you tend to worry about the end of the world, because I guarantee you will lose sleep. 

Which book made you cry the hardest?
Hands down, my pick for this one absolutely has to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I don't think there was a single point in time when I was reading this book where I wasn't sad, and my copy has literal tear stains all over it.  I was pretty much on a steady flow of tears the whole time I read it to the point that it's kind of a miracle I didn't get dehydrated. 

Which book pissed you off?

I actually had a pretty hard time narrowing this one down, but ultimately my decision was Seventeenth Summer. I kind of feel like a cheater because this was a required book for school, but it just pissed me off so much. Angie is quite possibly the stupidest and most annoying protagonist I've come across in my reading career, and I read the Twilight series. So, yeah. Granted, this book was written in the 1940s and things were obviously very different at that time, but damn. I just couldn't take it. Maybe I'm just mad at the '40s. 

Big thank you to Kristina for creating this awesome tag! If any of you do it as well, let me know. :) 

review: extraordinary means

From Goodreads: 

At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it's easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French.

There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times.

But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down. 

Told in alternating points of view, Extraordinary Means is a darkly funny story about doomed friendships, first love, and the rare miracle of second chances.

waiting on wednesday - carry on

Hi, guys! It's time for another Waiting on Wednesday, and this is one that I'm extremely excited for. Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This week's can't-wait pick is...