Nowadays, I feel the urge to read more diverse books. I learn more about other nationalities, ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations, gender identities or even their beliefs. Reading diverse books open my eyes to these certain topics as well as respect them even more and sometimes can change my perspective in a good way too. It's clear to me that diverse books are something that everyone should read about.
Here's a list of 2017's new diverse books that you need to get your hands on:
FLAME IN THE MIST BY RENEE AHDIEH
Goodreads Rating: 4.04
This novel is about Mariko, the only daughter of a prominent samurai in Japan. Since she wasn't a boy, her destiny had been set since she was born, which was only to marry. At seventeen years old, on her way to meet her betrothed, the convoy was attacked by a group of bandits called The Black Clan. She survived the attack and found herself escaped to the wood where she planned her revenge. She then aimed to infiltrate The Black Clan dressed as a peasant boy. But when she was in, she found herself appreciated for her intellect and abilities. She even found herself falling in love—a love that will force her to question everything she’s ever known about her family, her purpose, and her deepest desires.
SAINTS AND MISFITS BY S.K. ALI
Goodreads Rating: 4.06
Janna Yusuf knows a lot of people can’t figure out what to make of her…an Arab Indian-American hijabi teenager who is a Flannery O’Connor obsessed book nerd, aspiring photographer, and sometimes graphic novelist is not exactly easy to put into a box.And Janna suddenly finds herself caring what people think. Or at least what a certain boy named Jeremy thinks. Not that she would ever date him—Muslim girls don’t date. Or they shouldn’t date. Or won’t? Janna is still working all this out.While her heart might be leading her in one direction, her mind is spinning in others. She is trying to decide what kind of person she wants to be, and what it means to be a saint, a misfit, or a monster. Except she knows a monster…one who happens to be parading around as a saint…Will she be the one to call him out on it? What will people in her tight-knit Muslim community think of her then?
THE HATE U GIVE BY ANGIE THOMAS
Goodreads Rating: 4.64
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord trying to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
YOU'RE WELCOME, UNIVERSE BY WHITNEY GARDNER
Goodreads Rating: 3.79
When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural. Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up. Out in the ’burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off—and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.
QUEENS OF GEEK BY JEN WILDE
Goodreads Rating: 4.07
When BFFs Charlie, Taylor and Jamie go to SupaCon, they know it’s going to be a blast. What they don’t expect is for it to change their lives forever. Charlie likes to stand out. SupaCon is her chance to show fans she’s over her public breakup with co-star, Reese Ryan. When Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie’s long-time crush on her isn’t as one-sided as she thought. While Charlie dodges questions about her personal life, Taylor starts asking questions about her own. Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there’s one thing in her life she knows will never change her friendship with Jamie—no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about the Queen Firestone SupaFan Contest, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.
WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI BY SANDHYA MENON
Goodreads Rating: 3.96
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself. The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not? Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
You can read my spoiler free review about this book here .
