This is both a fantastic topic and a very difficult topic – difficult because I’ve read so many great books of many sorts of diversity and it was hard to narrow down to a top ten! I debated between choosing the top ten of a particular type of diversity versus many types, and decided to go with the latter. In no particular order:

1. Between Mom and Jo by Julie Anne Peters – brilliant, heartwrenching YA about a boy whose moms are splitting

2. Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa – looking at the Palestinian/Israeli conflict from the Palestinian side

3. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet – nonfiction memoir by an autistic gay man with synesthesia

4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck – generational classic about a Chinese family

5. Sold by Patricia McCormick – poignant YA about the underage sex trade in Asia

6. The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon – YA that focuses on US civil rights in the mid-1900s

7. The Untelling by Tayari Jones – one of the best books I’ve ever read portraying the realities of urban poverty

8. Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb – European-born, African-raised refugee narrator with a mixed Muslim-and-traditional-folk faith

9. the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy by Rae Carson – shows that fantasy can explore diversity as well!

10. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi – nonfiction about oppressed women and religious minorities in Iran

What’s on your list?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.