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Writer's pictureAmanda Konnik

Want To Diversify Your Bookshelf? Black It!

Are you an avid reader?


Has it come to your attention that maybe it’s time to

include new voices to the books you’re reading?


A BOOK BINGO CHALLENGE is the perfect way to diversify your bookshelf.


Book Bingos are a great way to challenge yourself to get out there and try new categories like BIPOC authors. It gives you a way to check off the books you've read and allows you to mood-choose your next read. It also keeps you from getting stuck in a one voice genra when there’s so many incredible diasporas to choose from, fiction and non-fiction alike.


Depending on the challenge, book bingos look like traditional bingo cards and offer a different book category to read per square. Some book bingos might have a main theme with a variety of options to read like, Black History Month: top nine books everyone should read during BHM. Or you might see something like The Black Diaspora: Nine books to read by Black authors. Sometimes you’ll have a specific book included per bingo square, other times you might get a genra/author recommendation within a theme allowing you to choose your-own-adventure as it were.

In this article, I’ll be sharing a 'Diversify Your Bookshelf' themed book bingo challenge with assigned categories where you choose the book. Included, I’m going to give you a few recommendations based on books I’ve read, a few from my TBR (to be read) list.



From rom-com to the antebellum,

I hope you’ll enjoy exploring a diversity of books by authors that are new to you!


Bl@#k It! Book Bingo 2023

Right Click To Download

Let’s get reading!!


Black Canadian Authors

Fiction:

Book of Negros by Lawrence Hill ~ 5 Stars

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Non-Fiction:

Where Beauty Survived by George Elliot Clarke

Saga Boy by Antonio Michael Downing


Black Fiction Contemporary

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates



Historical Black Fitction

Roots by Alex Haley ~ 5 stars

Kindred by Octavia Butler


Black Romance

To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins

A Duke, the Lady And A Baby by Vanessa Riley


African Author

An Angel’s Demise by Sue Nyathi

Swallow by Ayodele Olofintuande


Caribbean Author

* BBD fav Resource: Follow BookofChinz for the latest in Caribbean biblio


The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter Other Essential Ghosts by Soraya Palmer

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer


Indigenous Author

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese


Black & Queer

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

by Marlon James ~ 5 Stars

Under the Udala Trees

by Chinelo Okparanta


Black & Banned

* Resource: Even More Beloved Black Banned Books You Must Read Now by Angela Johnson via The Root


Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

by Ibram X. Kendi

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston


Saviourism

To Kill A Mockingbird by Walter Lee

The Help by Kathryn Stockett


Black Resistence

The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson


Memoir

Angela Davis an Autobiography

Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis



My intention with this list is to build on it as I make my way through the Bl@#k It! Book Bingo. I’ll add links to reviews & resources as I go, keeping this post an ongoing resource of diverse classic and contemporary reads.


Don’t forget to join me on my IG bookstagr&&s you make your way through these books, with assigned categories where you choose the book. Included, I’m going to give you a few recommendations based on books I’ve read, a few from my TBR (to be read) list.

share your bookshelf handle, so we can be book buddies.



Happy reading, starLites

In them I Am


Amanda



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