Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers share their own bookish top ten lists based on the topic of the week.  You can check out Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Books That Celebrate Diversity

Reading more diversely has been one of my goals for this year (and it’s going really well), so this list was really fun (and easy) to do!  These are my favorites so far.

1. Ash by Malinda Lo.  I really liked it!  The easiest way to describe Ash is that it’s a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella, but it’s an awesome re-telling of Cinderella in general.
2. Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince.  Taking Flight is DePrince’s memoir about how she became a ballerina, after becoming an orphan in Sierra Leone, and it’s really inspiring.
3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  I really need to read her other books, because I’m really impressed with her after reading Purple Hibiscus.  I really liked seeing Kambili see the way the world changed around her, and there were so many things that I take for granted, and didn’t even realize until I read this book.
4. Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah.  I think this is a good book for people who love The Princess Diaries!  I was so angry at some of the characters for the things they said to Amal, but I also loved that she had her beliefs and stuck to them.  I thought she dealt with the stupid comments really well, and I found myself realizing that I don’t know anything about Islam.  (I also realized I want to learn more about Islam, because I find religion and belief systems to be fascinating.  If you have any good recommendations, leave them in the comments!)
5. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor.  It’s fantasy/magical realism based off of Nigerian mythology and folklore, and now it makes me want to read those stories.
6. Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee.  It’s set on the Oregon Trail, which is totally awesome.  And two girls (Samantha and Annamae) become great friends.  I especially love that Samantha, who’s Chinese, and Annamae, who’s African-American, share part of their lives and culture throughout the book.
7. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley.  I really liked seeing two girls, on opposite sides of the civil rights movement, become friends and even fall for each other.
8. My Best Friend, Maybe by Caela Carter.  I liked seeing how a friendship fell apart, and how they started to put it back together.  I was so angry at Colette’s mom- she didn’t want Colette to go to Greece with Sadie just because Sadie’s lesbian, but it also made their friendship really interesting too.  It’s a really thoughtful look at friendship, and all of the other things that can make friendship more complicated.
9. A Moment Comes by Jennifer Bradbury.  I didn’t even know that the partition of India was a thing until I read this book- I also liked that you saw three very different sides to the British leaving India, and figuring out the borders for India and Pakistan.
10. The Collected Autobiographies Of Maya Angelou.  She has quite a few biographies, and they’re all really good!  She’s such a fascinating person, and I’m really glad that she told her story.
11. None Of The Above by I.W. Gregorio.  This is such a great book about a girl who learns that she’s intersex!  It’s a new favorite, and it’s heartbreaking at times but also really hopeful and inspiring, and it totally made me think.