Today’s Armchair Book Expo topics cover diversity in the book industry and the always fun dinner party question. I thought I’d quickly tackle both:

Delving into Diversity: Book Expo sparked quite the controversy a couple years ago regarding diversity in books and authors. Where are we now? OR, let’s take a different direction and explore the diversity of the format of a book. Do we judge a book by its cover and/or content (e.g.,, audio, digital, graphic, etc.)? Or, combine the two topics and discuss diversity found in alternative content (e.g., representation in graphic novels). Get creative and maybe even controversial!

It’s obvious when you look at any article that gives statistics about the book industry that while we may have made progress in addressing issues relating to diversity, that we’ve got a long way to go. Book reviews in many major publications still cover more men than women and while an effort has been made to cover more #ownvoices authors, they are not represented at percentages remotely near what their populations merit. Partially this is due to who the gatekeepers are: publishers and reviewers often cover what they and their friends want to read, and if they’re predominantly middle-class white people, it is not surprising that that’s mostly what’s going to be put out or covered. So those businesses need to be more mindful in their hiring practices to address a lack of diversity at that base level in order to give a broader picture of the books that are out there.

That said, we as readers need to be better, too. I know personally that while I’ve been aware for a few years about the need to read more diversely that I’m inclined to over-inflate my success if I don’t actually check in on the numbers with some frequency. That’s partially why I’m trying to look at my statistics on a monthly basis this year, rather than waiting until the end of the year to reckon with my choices and feel bad about falling short of my expectations.

I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty. Reading is a personal choice and if you’re only interested in reading cozies set in the Cotswalds, then by all means do that. You’ll get no hate from me. But I live in a city that is half comprised of people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds to mine, and it feels irresponsible for me to only read books about people who look or grew up like me. As is often said, books can be a mirror to let people see themselves reflected back in the greater world, but they can also be a window to let them peek in on the lives of others, much the way I do when walking around D.C. And in this new horror show of a country we’re living in this year, it feels imperative that I personally do better than I have been at meeting my neighbors, at least in the pages of books.

Dining with the Authors: Every year at Book Expo, children and adult authors are featured during breakfast. Who would you dream of enjoying a meal with? Would it be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or simply coffee? What would your meal be? What would you discuss?

I’m a little shy in real life, so the idea of spending hours with strangers is daunting, even if these strangers have given me characters who are part of me. So, first off, we’re meeting up for tea (or coffee or cocoa) and baked goods at some kind of coffeehouse because that takes the pressure off having to spend hours together. It makes it more casual, and we can all feel like it’s acceptable to run off after half an hour if we’re feeling panicky.

Second, my BFF Karen will be there, because I cannot imagine inviting authors to tea and having to explain to her afterwards that I didn’t ask her, as well.

Third, I’d ask Rainbow Rowell, because she’s funny in real life; Jo Rowling, because Harry Potter; and Roxane Gay, because while I haven’t read any of her books (which clearly I’d fix before asking her out on a friend date), I enjoyed the pieces she wrote for The Toast back in the day and her books are on my TBR list.

As to what we’d discuss, first I assume we’ll talk about politics, because that’s what every sane person I know does initially these days. And then I’d want to see what they’ve been reading and what I should request from the library. And maybe we can all gush about Wonder Woman, but after that I’ll need the conversation to go where it will. Or, maybe we’ll all run off on our own separate, introverted ways at that point…

Today’s Armchair Book Expo topic is about collaboration and listening:

The online book community has changed so much over the years. How do we keep up within our own book-sphere as well as within the community as a whole (i.e., libraries, bookstores, authors, publishers, etc.)?

Keeping up? What’s that?

Seriously, though, I’m not sure how much of a collaborator I am. I’m a participant, sure, a community member, but I’m not really sure if that’s really what this topic is asking.

However, much like on a college exam essay, if you don’t know the answer to the question asked, offer the answer to a question closely related that you do know!

So, how do I remain active in the online book community?

First, here on my blog: While I’ve been haphazard over the years about reviewing the books I read, I do try to share what I’m reading every couple weeks or so. After Ginny decided to retire from Yarn Along, Kat took up the mantle and has been bringing us Unraveled on Wednesdays. It’s a chance to check in on what everyone is knitting and reading and is where I stumbled across the Book Bingo game. I also share some of the bookish community things I get into here. And I’m remarkably grateful to my commenters from …

The blogging community at large: I use an RSS reader to pull in posts from a large number of blogs, and many of you are readers who like to share the books you’re into. Some of you have blogs specifically relating to books, others have a more general focus, and a few share links to news articles on topics like best books of a month or recommended summer reading or year-end best-of lists. (As a side note about how I’m not collaborating, I don’t really follow Bookstagram or BookTube accounts or listen to podcasts.) I always take note of titles that interest me and add them to my to-be-read list at …

Goodreads: I admit that while I’m not great at participating in the groups I belong to, I do log every single book I read there and keep an impossibly long list of what I’d like to do when I no longer have to work to support myself or sleep. Titles that I particularly want to read, I request from …

My local library: Washington, D.C., has a great library system with wonderful librarians at branches around the city. They have a huge collection (which I like to browse both online and in person through the stacks), a generous renewal policy, and a lot of events, ranging from sign language classes to knitting circles to author appearances. They also hold book groups both in person and on …

Twitter: The one I like best meets Wednesdays at noon with the hashtag #brownbagdc, and everyone is welcome to attend, even if you aren’t local. I also follow a number of authors and bookish accounts, which keep me up to date on new books, as well as overarching themes I should be aware of, such as the move from #WeNeedDiverseBooks to #OwnVoices, so as to make the bookish community a more inclusive, welcoming one. (Although I see plenty of drama there, so that may be more of a goal than an actuality.) Between Twitter and book blogs, I’ve gotten to take part in a number of …

Bookish Community Events, such as Armchair Book Expo. Other community events I’ve taken part in over the years include The Broke and the Bookish Top Ten Tuesday, Ninja Book Swap, Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, the Cybils, Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, the TBR Takedown, and Bout of Books.

And last, but only because I couldn’t make them flow with the rest of the post, would be my local bookstores. D.C. is home to five independent book shops (as well as a couple socially conscious restaurants that also sell books, at least two toy stores that sell kids’ books, and two new shops that hope to open later this year) and eight used bookstores. Each has its strength and helpful booksellers, and I’ve purchased from nearly all of them and attended events at many, including author signings and book launch parties. (Oh! and Little Free Libraries in a bunch of places around the city, which add literary serendipity to my life.)

This feels long and rambling, so my apologies for not being more concise…

Today is the first day of Armchair Book Expo (formerly Armchair BEA) and I’m excited to participate once again. I’ll be sharing book-related topics here and on Twitter over the next few days.

Read on to learn a little about me and my bookish life:

I am sprite. I live in Washington, D.C., with my partner Rudi and our three cats.

My favorite authors include Jasper Fforde, J.K. Rowling, Rainbow Rowell, Jane Austen, Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth Bishop, Brian Selznick, Madeleine L’Engle, and Kwame Alexander.

Currently, I’m reading Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science by Jeannine Atkins. Since I expect to finish it by the weekend (and since I finished two of the other books I’ve been reading), I’m starting a bunch of new things: Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree (I loved her Fly by Night back when it first came out), Zoraida Córdova’s Labyrinth Lost (a Cybils shortlisted title recommended by a local bookworm), and Kids of Appetite (which a book club member liked) by David Arnold (an author my parents liked). Also, I’m listening to Taraji P. Henson’s Around the Way Girl. On my needles is this Points of Light baby blanket, which I really need to get a move on, since our friends’ baby is due in just over a month. (Want to see others’ book-knitting combos? Visit As Kat Knits on Wednesdays for her Unraveled link-up.)

My summer plans include baseball games, Friday night concerts by the river, and lots of reading. I’ve got tickets to see Roxane Gay next month, my library’s summer reading program kicks off tomorrow, and Book Bingo began over the weekend. (It’s not too late to join in!)

Here’s my card:

Thanks for stopping by!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and the Bookish asks about our most anticipated releases for the rest of 2017:

1. First and foremost and most doubtful to appear in 2017 is Jasper Fforde’s Early Riser, about a society where everyone hibernates like bears. His website says it’s coming out this year, but there hasn’t been an update in a while and no one has a release date as of yet, so while I will drop everything when this book hits my hands, I will not hold my breath until its appearance.
2. Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford will arrive in time for the holidays, just like the first book in the series did. I loved the original and hope the magic of that book will carry over to the sequel.
3. Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo combines the mythology of Diana of the Amazons with Helen of Troy.
4. Rachel Joyce’s The Music Shop is a romance set in a record shop at the advent of the cd boom.
5. Kwame Alexander’s Solo. Alexander’s verse novels are rapidly becoming favorites of mine. I expect nothing short of brilliance in this book that moves the main topic covered from sports to music.
6. Things That Happened before the Earthquake by Chiara Barziniis a Y.A. novel set in L.A. in 1992, just before the riots.
7. Tumble & Blue by Cassie Beasley. From the author of Circus Mirandus comes a new magical novel set in the Okeefenokee Swamp.
8. Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee is the follow-up to the book I just wrote about, Not Your Sidekick.
9. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera has been getting lots of great buzz in my Twitter feed, although I understand the promise of the title means I’m going to be ugly crying my way through this one.
10. Whichwood by Tahereh Mafiis a companion novel to Furthermore, which I read earlier in February (and which I’ll review soon). It’s about a girl who washes the bodies of the dead, based, as I understand it, on a Persian fairy tale.

Bonus: Should Robert Galbraith’s Lethal White be released this year, obviously that vaults to the top of the list over everything except Jasper Fforde.

At last! A full month’s worth of books done!

Here are the final three books I read in January:

Juana and Lucas, by Juana Medina
In this illustrated chapter book for early elementary school readers, Juana is a chatty young Colombian girl who enjoys having adventures with her dog, Lucas. They love playing soccer, reading, and the comic book superhero Astroman. But when her new school year begins with the announcement that Juana’s class is going to start learning English, she objects. Her life is already pretty awesome, she posits, and anything that tickles her tongue like English does is bound to take away some of its joy. She complains to Lucas, of course, but also to her neighbors, to the guys who own the local bodega, and to her abuela and abuelo, all of whom she expects to sympathize. But instead each offers their unique perspective on maybe why it’s not such a bad idea. Will any of them prove convincing?

Adorably illustrated, this first in a planned series of books intersperses Spanish into the English text, making this an excellent stepping stone for a kid who’s grown up loving Dora and other English-Spanish tv shows. Charming.

Pages: 96. Library copy. (more…)

I love sharing books with you! Honest! It’s just … slow …. writing about them!

I’ve only shared four (!) of the 27 books I’ve read thus far this year with you. Let’s see if we can at least cross the remainder of January’s books off the to-do list, shall we? Here are three of them, and I’ll share the other three later in the week:

Black Panther: A Nation under Our Feet, Book 1, by Ta-Nahisi Coates with artwork by Brian Stelfreeze

If you watched the last Avengers movie, you may be aware of Black Panther, a comic book character first created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in 1966 as the first black superhero in mainstream comics. T’Challa (Black Panther’s day-to-day identity) is a genius and the leader of the fictitious African nation, Wakanda, a country rich in the mineral vibranium, which allows its people access to advanced technology.

My forays into the Marvel universe have mostly been limited to the Avengers solo and group films, The Agents of SHIELD tv show, and the Ms. Marvel comics, so I had little exposure to this character prior to encountering him in the last Avengers film. When I heard Ta-nehisi Coates was going to write the story for the latest comics arc, I decided that I was sufficiently intrigued to follow up. What I failed to realize, though, was that because this character had 50 years of history before this arc that I should have boned up on the world into which I was walking. At the very least, I should have consulted a wiki to give me a basic understanding of the setting and characters, because this story arc is not an introduction to them. There is an assumption you have a certain amount of knowledge, which I failed to gain before reading the book, and it affected both my comprehension and enjoyment of the book.

Critics of the comic industry often point out that while there has been some effort to represent women and people of color in their work, nearly all of them have been written and drawn by white guys. Since this is both written and drawn by Black men, I do think this iteration of Black Panther is a worthy place to jump into a superhero comic. However, I’d suggest doing a little reading prior to cracking the spine.

Pages: 144. Library copy.

A cute YA romance about a teen girl, Jessie, whose father suddenly and without her knowledge remarries and moves her from Chicago to Los Angeles, where her new step-mother enrolls her in the fancy private school her son attends. She is having an utterly crappy first day at school when she gets an anonymous email from someone at school (signed Somebody Nobody) who offers to guide her through things, so long as she’s willing to keep things anonymous.

While trying to navigate a new living situation and process the anger she has toward her father for not even telling her he was dating, let alone getting married, Jessie also continues to grieve the death of her mother, cope with the physical and emotional distance with her best friend back home, and deal with classmates who seem far more image- and income-conscious than she’s used to. Being able to share her life with Somebody Nobody becomes cathartic, and she finds herself predictably falling in love with this anonymous schoolmate, who also seems to be opening up to her, but not so far as to give away his identity.

The plot is nothing new in this YA contemporary romance, but the added storyline of a parent acting irrationally in the face of grief and causing lasting repercussions for his daughter gave it layers. Sweet. Recommended to those who like Stephanie Perkins, David Levithan, and Jennifer E. Smith.

Pages: 328. Library audiobook copy, listened to via Overdrive.

The Sun Is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon

One hot summer day in New York City in the summer of their junior year, Natasha, a science-loving Jamaican immigrant trying to save her family from deportation, and Daniel, the poetic son of Korean immigrants who are counting on his becoming a successful doctor, meet. He immediately falls in love; she’s not even sure she believes in love, but certainly not at first sight. With the help of a security guard or two, karaoke, and a jerk of a brother, Daniel sets out to prove Natasha wrong. The clock is against them, but it isn’t known as a New York minute for nothing.

Highly praised when it came out late last year, the book is deserving of its praise. Told from alternating perspectives (mostly by our two protagonists, but also, occasionally, from more peripheral characters), the story explores parental letdowns, art vs. science, and race relations, as well as putting a human face on a topic of current political interest — illegal immigration. With nearly the whole story taking place in a single day, the action is taut, and short chapters and frequent narrative shifts remind at least this reader of the pace of New York. And the final five pages may be my favorite of any book.

One of my favorite books of the year (still). Highly recommended to everyone.

Pages: 348. Library copy.