I’ve signed up for back-to-back summer readathons for the last two weekends this month. The first is the 24 in 48 Readathon from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, July 21, until 11:59 a.m. Sunday, July 22 (reading for 24 out of any of the 48 hours, Eastern Standard Time); the second, a reverse Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, from 8 p.m. Friday night, July 27, until Saturday night, July 28, at 8 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time).

In the past, both readathons have encouraged reading diversely, but the 24 in 48 Readathon organizers this year are putting a special emphasis on it (see their post here). To that end, for the two readathons, I plan on focusing on diverse authors, not only authors of colors (although I will admit my list is lopsided toward them) as the organizers mention, but also also authors and books that represent “LGBTQIA+, disabilities, neurodiversity, geographic diversity, and more.”

I already have a few books selected for the readathon, but will add more to the potential reading list. Here is the list so far:

1. We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
3. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie
4. Bluebird, Bluebird: A Novel by Attica Locke
5. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie
6. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
7. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
8. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli.

I own the first six and have been meaning to get to all of them for a while and I borrowed Children of Blood and Bone from our library after seeing a lot of book bloggers mentioning it. I am hoping to borrow the last one from our library too. I think we just got it, but it hasn’t been processed yet. Once it is, I’ll scoop it up.

Are you planning on participating in either or both readathons? Even if not, do you have any recommendations of diverse authors or books that I might want to add to my potential reading list for the upcoming readathons?