Armchair BookExpo Day #3 Delving Into Diversity & Dining with Authors

Image created by Boquilla's Window of Big Bend Productions

• Delving Into Diversity:  Book Expo sparked quite the controversy a couple years ago regarding diversity in books and authors. Where are we now? OR, let's take a different direction and explore the diversity of the format of a book. Do we judge a book by its cover and/or content (e.g.,, audio, digital, graphic, etc.)? 

While I think the number of books by diverse authors or with diverse characters is improving, I think it still has lots of room to grow.  My goal is to seek out those diverse authors and their books and explore new things.  It's not only fun to read books that reflect my own experiences, but I also enjoy reading about other cultures and seeing someone else's experiences, perspective.  Having a child, I want my kiddo to experience more than just what is around us, but to develop empathy and learn new things too.  I try really hard not to judge a book by its cover and give the book an opportunity to grab me.  That being said, if a cover is really poorly done I'm going to do a bit more flipping through the pages to see if it's a fit for me.  Otherwise, I'll never make it through the TBR.   Content to me matters in the sense that I don't want graphic detailed depictions of death or anything, but I'll take some swear words if it fits with the characters.    

• Dining With the Authors: Every year at Book Expo, children and adult authors are featured during breakfast. Who would you dream of enjoying a meal with? Would it be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or simply coffee? What would your meal be? What would you discuss? 

I did a post for Top Ten Tuesday of all the authors that I want to meet, but hands down, top of the list would be J. K Rowling.   I've imagined this in many different ways, but definitely in England over tea with biscuits.  Even over a meal would be grand.  Maybe even at Universal Studio, chat about how it feels to have your book come to life in that way.  I'd love to discuss all things Harry Potter, developing her story, how she feels about the movies, favorite stories growing up.  Talk about the craft of writing, even just about daily life. You name it, and for as long as she has patience with me.