Weekend Reads #60: Other People’s Thoughts

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend.

Once again I’m forgoing a discussion topic but will instead feature two discussions, a review, and an article I recently read that really stood out to me. All of them touch on diversity topics in some way and are all interesting reads. I highly suggest that you visit the blogs to read the posts yourself.

First up is Whitney’s (Brown Books and Green Tea) wonderful review of Fresh Off the Boat, a memoir written by restauranteur Eddie Huang that was made into a TV sitcom earlier this year. I placed it on my TBR soon after the book was published in 2013, but moved it up my TBR list after reading Whitney’s review, which made me reflect on my experiences as an immigrant and as a child of immigrants. I’m curious to know more and would like to experience the book for myself. Whitney’s review mentions the abuse Huang experienced and pressure from his family to always do better.

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Diversebookbloggers Feature: Zezee with Books

I’m excited to share that I was featured in the DiverseBookBloggers Feature, a bi-weekly post on Brown Books and Green Tea that promotes diversity in the book blogging community. Check it out! 😀

brown books | green tea

It’s that time of the month again! Here’s yet another fantastic Diverse Book Blogger feature, this time featuring Anaïs from Zezee with Books! 

1. Tell us a little bit about your blog, Zezee with Books! Does it have a specific focus?
   Zezee with Books is simply a blog of my interests. It mostly focuses on books, but sometimes I feature artwork either by me or artists I like and sometimes I discuss TV shows I watch (if the show has upset me in some way). I publish a variety of posts including discussions and book reviews, which I often refer to as reflections because I use my blog as a journal for what I read.
2. There’s a “60 Classics in 5 Years“ challenge on your blog– which diverse classics are you reading, and how has reading diversely changed your idea of what a “classic” book really is?
   This…

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Picture This: Reflecting Diversity in Children’s Book Publishing

While on Facebook, I found a link to this great blog post that features an updated illustration of diversity in children’s books. It uses recent statistics from 2015.

박사라 Sarah Park Dahlen, Ph.D.

At the 2016 ALA Annual Conference, author Tameka Fryer Brown presented the Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s (CCBC) multicultural publishing statistics during the panel “Celebrating Diversity: The Brown Bookshelf Salutes Great Books for Kids.” She displayed Tina Kügler’s oft-cited 2012 infographic, with the comment that even though the numbers are now 4 years old, the image communicated inequity in publishing so well that she would use it at every opportunity.

Just before ALA Annual, St. Catherine University MLIS Program assistant professor Sarah Park Dahlen had posted to Facebook asking if anyone knew of an updated illustration, but Kügler’s was the only one anyone knew about. Friends said they would be happy to support an illustrator to create an update. Author/teacher Molly Beth Griffin saw Sarah’s post and queried her Twin Cities Picture Book Salon to see if anyone would be interested; David Huyck (pronounced “hike”) responded, and a…

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Diverse Books Tag

I enjoy doing tags because they are lighter, more fun posts to do. I usually type one up if I’m procrastinating on doing something else (like getting caught up on book reviews) or if I just want something fun to do that involves books. I also enjoy reading such posts because I usually discover books I’ve never heard of or learn something new about a novel or nonfiction book that I’ve overlooked.

To further promote diversifying one’s reading, Naz at Read Diverse Books created the Diverse Books Tag. I’ve been meaning to do it for some time now and have finally been able to. The tag is open to everyone and it basically asks you to find books that fit certain categories. The books can either be ones you’ve read or ones you would like to read. It’s a great way of learning about books you probably wouldn’t have heard of otherwise.

Find a book starring a lesbian character.

Weekend Reads #52: Thoughts, Emotions

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s question/topic/whatever:

Thoughts – Saturday, July 9, 2016 6:50AM

It’s hard to get me riled up about things but events over the past couple days have pushed my limit. My emotions were already high since reading Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. I was nearing the end of the book and the epilogue made me emotional. I get my news late so on Wednesday I learned of Alton Sterling’s death in Baton Rouge, La. With Thursday came news of Philando Castile’s death in Minnesota. Both are Black men and both were shot by police officers hours apart. Then on Friday morning I heard 5 officers died in a sniper shooting in Dallas, Tex. The news shocked me. The officers were targeted?

Weekend Reads #51: What Does It Mean to Read Diversely?

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s question:

What does the term “diverse” mean to you? And what does it mean to read diversely?

2016 Article Wrap-Up: First Quarter

I read a lot of articles and since this blog is about documenting what I read, I thought I’d share the most outstanding and thought-provoking ones here. I wasn’t sure at first how to go about doing this. I considered making a separate page for the articles, but then decided to include them in my quarterly wrap-ups. Now I’ve changed my mind again and have decided to give them their own wrap-up post. For now, the plan is to do these posts quarterly.

The list is kinda long so I’ll highlight their topics. Hopefully a few will interest you. Well then, here they are in no particular order:

The Harry Potter-verse

Those who’re tuned in to Harry Potter updates are probably aware of the new stories Rowling recently published on Pottermore that expands the Harry Potter universe to the Americas. Well, there has been a backlash as Rowling has excluded some key facts in her stories. I haven’t yet read those stories but I found this article on them interesting.

Well, This Was Never Going to Go Well: J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World Leaves Britain (ladygeekgirl.wordpress.com)