Introducing My Own 2015 reading Challenge

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I wanted to use today's free topic post to talk to you guys about something.

For the past 2 or so years, I have participated in the GoodReads reading challenge, the Where are you Reading Challenge (hosted by Book Journey) and the Sequel Challenge (hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads). This year also joined other monthly events. But this has also been the year where the talk about reading more diversely has been all over my radar. I joined the A More Diverse Universe challenge (Diversiverse for short), hosted by Booklust and I tried to incorporate more diverse reading by the end of the year. It was good, but it can be better.

So I have decided to hold my first ever challenge! I will call it: Diversifying 2015. My goal is to read at least one diverse author every month. Diversifying can also be applied to reading more LGBTQ authors or POCs off course. Every month I will do a wrap up post, and I would love it if you can add on those posts your own Diverse readings of the month! That way we are all exposed to more diverse reading and get the wheels turning!

But I want to also give a tiny incentive. So here is the deal, every entry every month will give you a registration and at the end of the year I will randomly select a lucky winner for a 20$ gift card from Book Outlet! (If the winner leaves in a country that is not covered by them we will figure something out :D)

So here is the registration form and as I said every month there will be a wrap up post. I hope you guys join me on this!!

The Isolation Door by Anish Majumdar

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for the book. The expected publishing date is November 25.

First impression

The first novel of this author, inspired by her owns experience with a mother with schizophrenia, the book’s description really felt like what I was looking for; something different, a drama and even better, one inspired by real events. While in this sense the story certainly gives you a unique point of view it felt to me that there was a lack of flow, and certain event just felt abrupt and some characters were underdeveloped, even though they would at first seem quite relevant. I think this are all “problems” due to the fact that it is a first novel but the potential is definitely there and I believe we will have more news from Mr. Majumdar.

Final thoughts

Neil Kappor is the main voice in this story; at 23 he is just starting drama school and he is trying to start this new life without the influence that her mother’s schizophrenia has had on anything else. He doesn’t count with the full support of his father, a university professor, who is afraid that going into drama school will only affect Neil in negative way and even push him to be develop the same illness as his wife. Neil will go to school determined to show him different and in this path he will also fall in love with Emily. As the story advances Neil will have to learn that everybody has problems in their lives and that hiding them doesn’t solve them.

The book started great, very touching and compelling. However, as Neil goes to school and meets new people and gets into “the college life” it began to feel like any other story about a boy getting to college. At certain points it even felt like the schizophrenia story was forgotten. And then you have Emily and the other “friends” Neil gets. They all seemed so messed up and yet could be oh so very boring and predictable. While I believe the idea was to exactly show that everyone has something to deal with, throwing a bunch of broken characters but only showing the cracks seemed superfluous and at times unnecessary. I would’ve preferred less characters and more development of the main ones. I barely got to know the father, or Auntie or for that matter Neil or his mother.

I haven’t been exposed directly to someone with a mental illness such as schizophrenia; when I approached the book I was not expecting to learn about the illness, but rather what it is to live with it or with someone with it. Unfortunately by the end of the book I didn’t get that. Very little family dynamics, only presented as memories, and even then they were very sporadic. I wish we would’ve had chapters about the mother, before and during her stay at the hospital, which by the way, seemed terrifying.

Towards the end it read more like a coming of age story, which is not bad, but again, I approached the book expecting it to be more about the mental illness and less about Neil finding himself through drama school. I would’ve also liked a bit more of the Bengali culture.

Nonfiction November: Diversity and Nonfiction

Week 3: Becca from Lost in Books asks: What does diversity in nonfiction mean to you? Is it about the topic or theme of the book? Or is it the race or ethnicity of the author? Do you have any recommendations for diverse nonfiction books? Are there any topics that you’d like to see written about and/or read more widely?

Guys, I am so ashamed, so so ashamed. I've spend several minutes looking at my nonfiction reads, fro the last 3 years (say since I started blogging regularly and actually having reviews) and you know what I found? Out of 28 books (which is already very low mind you) only 2 books was written by a non white person, and that is if we count the one that I haven't read yet.

Gender wise things are more even, but boy oh boy, it is a huge black star over my head to realize that I read so little diverse nonfiction. Is not even that I could compensate by saying that the subjects are a bit more diverse, because I don't feel right down so. 

Here is the thing. I have made a decision, an early new year resolution if you may: 2015 will be my year of reading diversely, both in fiction (where I am happy to tell you guys, I am doing much, much better) and in nonfiction. I am lucky to have discovered this event, because so many of you guys are giving a lot of fantastic recommendations. I had already thought about the fact that, since it might be my last year of PhD and hence I will have to actually start writing my thesis, the amount of books I will be able to read for leisure will go down, compared to later years. But I think as long as the quality and the spectrum of what I read improves I can't be sad about it, right?

So I am asking you guys to leave me a comment with the book you think I HAVE to read next year in diverse nonfiction. I can't promise I will read them all, but it would be nice to start with a strong list.

Thank you!!!!