A while ago, a reader kindly pointed out that I wasn’t reading many books written by people of color. At first, my immediate reaction was to say, “Umm, of course I do!” But I quickly realized that the books I read were largely dominated by white, female authors. I’ve been really trying to up my game in diversifying the types of books I read in genre and perspective. It’s been a great exercise and I realized just how much I was missing out by having such a narrow focus, whether or not that was my intention.
Just like any book I read, regardless of who wrote it or what it’s about, I have had books I’ve loved and books that didn’t quite work for me. Since February is Black History Month, I had my friends at Libro.fm put together a playlist of some of my favorite books I’ve read/listened. I think it’s a really great list, even if you’re not planning on doing audiobooks to choose your next book from.
(Every book except the Henrietta Lacks one is written by a black author– I wanted to include it still because of Henrietta’s unknowing role in research but it sheds light on important issues regarding race, privacy laws, and science.)
