#Diversiverse Sign-Up Post!

It's time to sign up to participate in A More Diverse Universe!  Thanks to the glorious talents of Sandstone78, we have loads of buttons and banners for you to use wherever you would like.  Use any of the ones you see on this post and go crazy!

For those who have not heard about #Diversiverse before, it's a very simple challenge.  For those of you who have participated in the past, it's even easier this year.  The criteria are as follows:

• Read and review one book
• Written by a person of color
• During the last two weeks of September (September 14th - 27th) 

 That's all!

I have talked at length before about why reading diversely is important.  But in case you are one of those people who doesn't like to click through to other posts, I'll just quote myself below (that's ok, right?):

 I know your TBR list is huge.  I know your commitments are many.  I know that there are so many things on which you must take a stand, and it can be exhausting to make reading a political activity.  But this is so important to me, and I really think it should be important to you, too.  None of us lives in a monochromatic world, and yet the fact that terrifying hate crimes still occur makes it clear that we do not fully understand or trust each other.  And maybe part of the reason is because the media we consume does not accurately reflect the diversity of our society.  And books are such a massive part of the media we consume that we should demand and fight for those that do represent minorities and those that do present the world from a different perspective than the one we are used to.  So please - participate.  You may just discover a character or an author or a setting or a story that will completely change your life.

 
So!  I urge you to sign up and read just ONE book.  Well, I hope you read WAY more than one book, but perhaps #diversiverse will help you dip your toe into the water before you cannon ball completely in.  Read a book, change the world - that's a good deal, right? 

And it's really not that hard, I PROMISE you!

To quote myself one more time: You may have to change your book-finding habits to include POC authors in your reading rotation.  You absolutely do not need to change your book-reading habits. 

In the past few weeks, I have posted book suggestions for people who are interested in reading non-fiction and historical fiction for this challenge.  Posts from prior years have many, many, many suggestions for books in the science fiction and fantasy genres.   And if you'd prefer not to focus on just a genre but choose your reading based on other criteria, here's a post with resources you can use to read diversely across all genres.

So what are you waiting for?  In my opinion, I have left you with NO EXCUSES not to participate in this challenge ;-) 

Sign-ups are on the Mr. Linky below.  Please participate and help create the bookshelves we all want to see!  Convince your friends to sign up!  And your followers!  And see you in mid-September, when the link-up post will be up!