It’s Tuesday once again and that means it’s time for another Top ten Tuesday post! Today’s topic is Books to get you out of a reading slump, but I am a mood reader at heart, so there’s not one particular book that puts me out of such a situation. I therefore decided to go ahead with a topic I have been teasing a few weeks ago, Books to diversify your reading. I’m trying my best to list ten books as diverse as possible. However, representation is different for everyone, because not everyone is having the same experiences in any situation. So, please consider carefully if you feel comfortable reading said books. If you want to dive deeper into the representation, please check different reviews for each book. Without further ado, let’s diversify our shelves! I already know I have to do a part 2 of this topic, because it was SO hard to pick just 10 books and cover everything possible.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

1. The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi – I finally read this one recently and this is a solid debut about women in Afghanistan, who are kept into their shells because culture and tradition dictates so.
2. Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa – I hope to read this as soon as possible, but I have the feeling I need to be ready for it. This story is set in Jenin, one of Palestine’s largest refugee camps. Please note that this is an older book, published in 2006.
3. Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad – Another one that’s still on my TBR, but I hope to read as soon as possible. This book is about a theatre company that wants to perform Hamlet on the West Bank but faces plenty of obstacles. This book is published more recently. The author has Palestinian roots herself.
4. The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr – A beast of a book that I hope to pick up in my summer holidays in September. The author is the first Sub-Saharan African author who has been awarded France’s prestigious Prix Doncourt. In other words, one of France’s most important awards for literature.
5. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong – This book is pretty diverse as it tackles gender, race, mental health and several more topics. It’s not easy, but worth it.
6. The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken – This novel provides more insight into the history of Ukraine. Again, not easy to digest, but I flew through it in a breeze as I was so invested.
7. The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai – This book might be triggering and hard to read for many, but this makes it outstanding to me. I love such novels because they bring depth to the reading table. My mom had to put it down countless times though because it was to graphic and heavy. It explores Vietnamese history and its impact on multiple generations of one family.
8. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey Mcquiston – It feels a bit weird to go from such heavy-themed books to this lighter romcom, but I want to be as diverse as possible. This novel was a bit confusing for me as it might be “too American” for non-Americans, but I learnt to appreciate it in the end. Some moments are so funny. It’s queer, if you wonder why it is on this list.
9. The Million Pieces of Neena Gill by Emma Smith Barton – This book addresses mental health, and the main character is bicultural. It’s an underrated one that has flown under the radar very quickly.
10. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender – I was not the biggest fan of this novel myself, especially not of the behaviour off the main characters. But it’s black, queer and explores identity and gender really well. I read the first print from 2020, but in reprints some changes have been made. One has to do with a side character, but the other one is a bit bigger. This book is first published in May 2020, and JKR’s transphobia saw the light of day in June 2020. There were Harry Potter references in this book which all have been removed. I read the 2020 version of this book as it had been sitting on my TBR for that long. So, if you don’t want to have HP references in your literature, get yourself a later copy. I’m not sure from which print the changes have been made.

Well, this was tough. There are so many books, and I just picked 10! There’s so much to cover and I didn’t get to a lot. So… a part 2 is coming sometime soon!

Which books do you want to read or have you read?