Over the years it has become important for me to read books that allow me to better understand the experiences of people whose backgrounds differ from my own. I have come to appreciate the wealth of voices that are available in both the fiction and non-fiction spaces. I am fascinated by what I can learn about people from other cultures, other nationalities, with other abilities by simply picking up a book and immersing myself in their world view.
Each year I try to read at least a few books with characters who have disabilities, or that are written by authors with disabilities. I gain insights into disabilities I am less familiar with in this way and even learn more about blindness through what I read. Below are books I’ve read this year with links to disability.
Fiction:
- Cronshaw, Jon – Blind Gambit02 Blind Reset (blindness)
- Fell, Blair – The Sign for Home (deaf-blindness)
- Novic, Sara – Girl at War (deafness)
- Novic, Sara – True Biz (deafness)
Non-fiction and Memoir
- Kaschak, Ellyn – Sight Unseen: Gender and Race Through Blind Eyes (blindness)
- Khan, Saffura – A Mosaic of Memories (blindness)
- Lowe, Cary – On Two Legs and Three Wheels (mobility)
- Paz, Kat – Trailblazing and Transforming – Success: Stories from Entrepreneurs with Disabilities (diverse)
- Roberts, Jason – A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler (blindness)
- Seirlis, Ari – Wheels of Fire – A Story of Courage, Triumph over Adversity and Civil Action (mobility)
Then there are books written by people from different ethnic or cultural groups from my own, which I again feel are valuable to help me gain a greater appreciation of people and experiences that are different from those I’ve had. Below are the books I’ve read this year by authors with diverse voices, some of them in translation, almost all of which are fiction.
- Alvarez, Julia – Garcia02: Yo (Dominican Republic)
- Batuman, Elif – The Idiot (Turkish)
- Bradley, Kaliane – The Ministry of Time (Cambodian)
- Bulgakob, Mikhail – The Master and Margarita (Russian)
- Cervantes, Miguel – Don Quiote de La Mancha(Spanish)
- Davis, Viola – Finding Me (African American)
- Gonzalez, Xochitl – Olga Dies Dreaming (Puerto Rican)
- Ishiguro, Kazuo – Never Let Me Go (Japanese)
- Jonasson,Jonas – The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Swedish)
- Leroux, Gaston – The Phantom of the Opera (French)
- Miller, Kei – The Same Earth (Jamaican)
- Novic, Sara – Girl at War (Croatian)
- Rushdie, Salman – Quichotte (Indian)
- Sanchez, Julian – The Antiquarian (Spanish)
- Whitehead, Colsen – The Underground Railroad (African American)
- Yagisawa, Satori – Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Japanese)
Next time I’ll be reviewing the non-fiction books I’ve read this year. There will obviously be a little duplication as some books fall into more than a single category of reading. Please excuse me if you see titles you’ve already been introduced to in my previous posts.
