Diverse Recommendations Pt. 1

Diversity has become a huge topic in the world today especially in the book community. I totally support diversity being a Chinese born American and thought I would recommend some of my favorite diverse reads. These are only some of them since I have so many more. Yes there will be a part two coming who knows when, but it will come.


The two books I am recommending are both by the same author and those books are Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and the Upside of Unrequited both by Becky Albertalli. Simon is becoming a movie called Love, Simon, which I am extremely excited to watch. Simon follows a boy name Simon who is not openly gay and the only person who knows is a boy he calls blue and they email each other constantly. This is such a cute book and I love it so much. The Upside of Unrequited follows a girl name Molly who has many unrequited crushes. This book is full of diversity and the main character has two moms. Both of these feature characters from the LGBTQ+ community and Upside has a Korean American or half Korean character. I don't remember but I do remember she is pansexual.


The next book I am recommending is George by Alex Gino and this book is a middle grade novel and it features a main character who is transgender. This book is about George and her school is having a play of Charlotte web and she wants to play Charlotte. The teacher however says she can't try out for the part because she is a boy. I love this book mainly for the fact that so many people respect George or who she is and it is such a cute book and super easy to read as well. If you are looking for a quick diverse read definitely pick this one up. I have not seen many people talk about it online and it is one of my must read .


The next book is one of my all time favorites and that is Warcross by Marie Lu. I need the next book since the day I finished Warcross. The main character is Asian american and most of the story takes place in Japan. We follow a girl name Emika and she is a bounty hunter tracking those who use the game Warcross illegally. When she is is a tough spot for money she hacks into the Warcross opening games trying to make herself some quick cash and accidentally glitches herself into the game. Instead of being arrested, she is contacted by the creator of the game and offered a trip to Japan to meet him as well as a job for finding someone who may be trying to ruin and destroy the Warcross games. This book is often compared to Ready Player One and I personally did not like that book, but I still love this one so if you are not a fan of Ready Player One still pick this one up. I love the characters and the story so much and even though it was predictable I still have no idea what is going to happen next in the second book.



A really underrated diverse book is Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed. This book took me by surprise on how much I liked it. This book own voices following a girl who is an Indian American Muslim teen. The main character, Maya, wants to attend film school in New York while he parents want he to attend school near home, have a "practical" job, and marry a Muslim boy. One day there is a terrorist attack and Maya shares the last name with the main suspect. She is treated differently even though she never knew or saw him in her entire life. This book does deal with the topic of Islamophobia which is very relevant, sadly, in today's society. This book is own voices and talks about an important subject that more people should be educated on. I highly recommend it.


The next book is also an own voices book and I am an own voices reviewer for it and that is American Panda by Gloria Chao. Both the main character and I are a Taiwanese American. We follow Mei who is attending MIT, studying to be a doctor. She does not like anything with germs which is a big problem if she is going to be a doctor. Her parents are very strict and want the best for her, making sure she has a "practical" job and marries another Taiwanese man. Mei however has a crush on someone who is not Taiwanese. She does not want to disappoint he family as well. This book teaches a lot of people about the Taiwanese culture for those unfamiliar. I personally did not really learn that much, but I had a lot of I know what that is moments which I loved.

Those are only some diverse recommendations I have to share. There are so many more that I want to recommend but this post will be super long if I put every one of them on here. There will be a part 2 and maybe a part 3 and 4 since there are so many diverse books I need to read and so many new ones coming out! Thank you so much for reading. Hopefully you all found a new diverse book to add to your TBR.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns [ Spoiler Free Review ]

Title: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
Author: Julie C. Dao
Series: Rise of the Empress #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 12/3/18

I was lucky to hear Julie C. Dao talk about her book on a panel a few months ago and thought it sounded very cool so I finally picked it up and I did enjoy it.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is an East Asian inspired retelling of the evil queen. That was all I needed to know to before going into this book. That was all I think you really need to know before diving into the book since I think that it is best to go into this book not knowing to much about the story before hand.

Before reading this book, it is important to know that the main character is not really likable and if you are a person who only likes books with likable main characters, you probably would not enjoy it. I also did not like the main character at all but still enjoyed the overall story.

The beginning of the book was very slow and boring for me. I got very bored and thought I was not going to like it. After pushing through about 100 pages, the story picked up and then I was hooked and basically binge read the second half of the book in one night when I was suppose to be sleeping.

If you are a fan of reading villain origin stories, you would probably love this book. I would also recommend this book for fans of retellings and duologies since this is a duology and the second book just came out.

I absolutely love the world and it is evident that the author knew about the East Asian culture. I do believe that the author is Vietnamese which is part of East Asia.

Overall I do recommend this book and will read the sequel and Julie Dao's future books!

Read for tistheseasonathon [ read a book while listening to holiday music ]

View all my reviews

Unpopular Opinions Book tag

Today I will be doing the unpopular opinions book tag. I love seeing other people's unpopular opinions and thought doing this tag is a great way to share some of mine. I will say that if I mention that I am not a fan of your favorite book, ship, etc, please do not be offended. You are entitled to your own opinion. I will probably do a part two since

Original creator:  The Book Archer


1. A Popular Book or series that you didn't like.
A popular book I did not like. There are a couple but the one I am sharing today is Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I wanted to love this but this book is just not for me. I read Illuminae physically and did not like it. I tried picking up the audiobook several times but DNFed it each time. It could also be because that I am personally not a fan of audiobooks. I wanted to love it so badly but it is not for me.





2. A Popular Book or series that every one else seems to hate but you love.
Looking through the books I read, I have not read and enjoyed a book that everyone seems to hate, but I have read books with mixed reviews and liked them. So I am changing the question a little to a book with mixed reviews that you enjoyed and for this one I am choosing Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I really liked Red Queen and the story. Yes it is not the most original book ever, but I love the concept and really enjoyed the story. I sadly did not like book two though.



3. A Love Triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did NOT want them to end up with OR an OTP that you don't like. 
ACOWAR SPOILERS

I have a few. Not saying the one in the Girsha Trilogy because so many people talk about it so I will be going with Elide and Azriel from the ACOTAR series. I feel like it is to convenient how Feyre, Nesta, and Elide could possibly be with all the inner circle men. It seems unrealistic to me and I really do not like it. Elide is also shipped with Lucien  and her and Azriel together are not confirmed although it seems very possible and is a very popular ship.



4. A popular book Genre that you hardly reach for. 
I rarely reach for mystery and thrillers since I am a scaredy cat. I have read a couple mystery and thrillers before but I rarely reach for them. I do want to read more of them since the ones that I have read I really enjoyed.



5. A popular or beloved character that you do not like.
Rowan from Throne of Glass. I am not the biggest fan of Rowan. I did not like him in Heir of Fire, and I did like him more as the series went on (still need to read the last 2 books) but I do not like him as much as many other Throne of Glass fans. I heard so many people say he is swoon worthy and the best but I do not see that. He is a mediocre character that I do not hate but do not love. I am also not the biggest fan of Rhysand but I will save that for the next time I do this tag.




6. A popular author that you can't seem to get into. 
For me that is Leigh Bardugo. Everyone seems to love Leigh Bardugo's books but I just find them okay. The Girsha trilogy is about a 3 star series. I did not like the ending at all but overall the series was enjoyable but I did not like it as much as most. Do I plan on giving it another chance. Yes because I am very interested in King of Scars because of the current hype. I also am that person who was not a big fan of Six of Crows and DNFed Crooked Kingdom. I was in a slump when reading Six of Crows and the hype did not help. I do plan on giving Six of Crows a second chance as well, in fact I plan on rereading it soon in hopes of enjoying it more.




7. A popular book trope that you're tired of seeing. (examples "lost princess", corrupt ruler, love triangles, etc.)
If a certain trope is done right, I am usually okay with it. The one that I like the least are usually love triangles. Most love triangles I have read annoyed me so much, especially if it seems very unnecessary. I have read love triangles before and enjoyed it if it is done right such as the one in The Infernal Devices trilogy.



8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading.
A popular series I have little interest in reading is Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. I will not say I will never read Nevernight because I have been convinced in reading books that I had no interest in reading before. The main reason I have little interest in reading Nevernight is that I hate footnotes. I heard this book has footnotes and I absolutely cannot stand footnotes when reading. I also did read and was very disappointed with Illuminae, which he did co write, which is also a factor to why I am not that interested in this book.



9. The saying goes "The book is always better than the movie", but what movie or T.V. show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?
This question is hard. I may of enjoyed The Lord of the Rings movies more than the books? I did love both of them so much though. I also try to avoid watching book to screen adaptations although I have failed many times if people keep taking about it.


That is it! Thank you so much for reading. If you want to do this tag feel free to do it. Since this tag is an older tag, I will not be tagging anyone. I will definitely do a part II in the future.