Welcome to Armchair BEA 2015. The first post is the intro questions.
Tell us a bit about yourself: How long have you been blogging? Where are you from?
I’m Heather and I’m from Ohio. I’ve been blogging since 2005.
What is your theme song?
Is it weird that actually I have thought about this before and have a song picked out? My theme song is that ode to laziness, warmth, and chocolate – Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? from My Fair Lady.
What does diversity mean to you?
I’m a big fan of deliberately looking for books written by and about people who live in different places than you and who are different races and ages than you. This opens your eyes to points of views that you may not have considered before.
I track the settings of books I read on a map each year to see if I’m getting a good distribution. This is my 2015 map so far.
Green stars are nonfiction. Purple circles are fiction books in translation or fiction written by people who live in that area. Purple drops are other fiction.
My favorite book in translation so far this year was The Rabbit Back Literature Society from Finland.
If you are looking for some more diverse books I’ve liked this ones this year.
A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is set in contemporary India by an Indian author. It is about a classical dancer who loses a leg in an accident and tries to learn to dance again. My review.
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is sci fi set in future Brazil. My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a contemporary book about a teenager whose life is turned upside when her best friend who was kidnapped four years ago is suddenly found. My review
What is your favorite genre and why?
I read a little bit of everything. I don’t understand limiting myself to one genre. The most common fiction genres I read are sci-fi/fantasy and historical fiction. I also like narrative nonfiction and history.
I love your diversity map! I should make one for my books. I bet I haven’t been as diverse this year as I wanted to be.
The map helped me see that I almost never read anything South American so I focused on that this year.
I love the map idea! I may have to “steal” it and start my own!
I learned about it during a readathon last year. Go ahead and make your own map!
I adore your idea with a map! I just might steal it. Although I will probably make another one where I will track book settings also. 🙂
Such a great idea to track your read books on a map. I’ve never thought of that before! Have a great ABEA. x
I love the book map, what a cool idea! Happy ABEA!
Hi, Heather. Happy ABEA week. It is nice to get to know you. I love the way that you track on a map. That is such a great idea!
Pointe sounds like something I could get into. Thanks for the suggestion.
Had to add Rabbit Back to my wish list! Thank you.
http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2015/05/armchair-bea.html