Hey you guys! How are you doing today? Did Monday treat you guys well? Mine definitely did! After barely any sleep leading into Sunday due to feeling sick, I finally caught up on some of that missed sleep (even though you apparently can’t actually catch up on sleep) and am feeling so much better! And I actually feel like writing a new blog post which is fantastic too because I didn’t feel like doing anything all weekend. #ooops
Today’s post is a mix of a post I was going to do anyways sometime in the next few days and the realization that this week’s Top 10 Tuesday topic kind of went along with it perfectly! I get a chance to talk about the books I was going to talk about anyways and can also feature so many more books!
Dear Martin, Love, Hate & Other Filters, Tyler Johnson Was Here And Ghost Boys
Ever since I finished reading The Hate U Give earlier this year, I’ve been on the lookout for books also dealing with racial issues and I’ve added quite a few to my TBR already – hopefully I’ll be able to add and read more in the future too! On my TBR right now, I have Dear Martin (which is only on here because it’s not released yet. I’ve actually read it already), Love, Hate & Other Filters, Tyler Johnson Was Here (thank god for Twitter, because I’m not sure I would’ve stumbled upon this book if it wasn’t for the community sharing their excitement about the fantastic cover reveal!) and Ghost Boys!
Click on the covers to be directed to the book’s Goodreads page!
Born A Crime
Trevor Noah caught my attention about a year ago with everything he said about the (then) upcoming election and the state of the US at the time and I just couldn’t help myself. I had to look more into what else he had to say which is how I stumbled upon a couple of interviews about the book he had written about his life in a country under an apartheid and everything after. I might actually go for the audiobook of this because Trevor actually narrates it and I love hearing him talk.
American Street
This book came out at the beginning of 2017 and I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet. I remember being so excited about it but somehow other books always seemed to demand my attention more. But I really, really want to get to this soon. I don’t think I’ve read a single negative word about this book since it’s release so I have high hopes! We’re following a Haitian immigrant, whose mother is detained upon entry into the US while Fabiola is sent to live with family in Detroit.
The Library Of Fates
With this one, I am actually quite angry with myself. I was lucky enough to get the chance to read the German edition of this early and I still haven’t read it??? And I was really excited about the US release and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it fast enough. And now it’s been in my possession for almost two months and I haven’t touched it yet. Someone, please make me read this already.

Shadowshaper
I don’t even have an explanation for why I haven’t read this book yet. This is apparently The Mortal Instruments meets Carribean legends. We all know I really enjoyed TMI, so why have I not picked this up yet? Who knows. Definitely not me. But the second book to this either just came out or is about to come out so it might be the perfect time to finally get to this series. Have you guys read this?
Children Of Blood And Bone
Another book that caught my attention thanks to Twitter! I saw the cover reveal for this one and I was so excited, I had to check it out! The synopsis sounded great and the sampler on NetGalley basically sealed the deal for me with this one! The writing was awesome and the sampler was already so action-packed that I didn’t want to stop reading! Too bad it doesn’t come out until March of 2018. I need this book right now.
Whichwood
This is going to be my third full-length book by Tahereh Mafi that I’m going to read and I honestly cannot wait? I mean, this is about a girl who washes dead bodies for a living??? Like, that alone sounds quite intriguing to me. And people love Tahereh, there has to be a reason for it! I want to find out for myself. But I need to read Furthermore first because it seems like some of the characters from it might appear in Whichwood too.
Warcross
Yes, you might yell at me right now for not having read Warcross yet. I’ll be doing it too. As someone who has been anticipating this book for months now, you’d think I would drop everything the second this was released to read it. But no. I mainly blame Netflix for this because I got sucked into their Marvel shows and only just got out of that hole. So, I’ll hopefully read this soon. It’s Marie Lu. I loved her Legend trilogy and I have heard nothing but praise for this book. I need to know what the hype is all about. Seriously.
For a quick second I was worried I wouldn’t have enough books to talk about because my brain was so set on the first four books I mentioned in this post (as I was going to dedicate a separate post to them) but then once I had a look at my TBR I realized that I had so many more and I actually had to cut some books because I didn’t want this post to get too long. We all know I love to ramble and we’re already at 970+ words at this point.
What are some books you guys have on your TBR that feature people of color?
Have you read any of the books mentioned above and can give me a recommendation as to where I should start? Let’s chat in the comments!
I have an ARC of Dear Martin that I’m really hoping to read soon; I’ve heard so many good things about it! ❤️ I also got Love, Hate, And Other Filters, which I’m excited to read! I’m going to do everything to get my hands on Tyler Johnson Was Here! 😍
I really want to read Children of Blood and Bone and Whichwood (but I don’t want to read Furthermore, so hopefully it doesn’t matter lol). I’m on the fence about Shadowshaper since I haven’t really heard anything about it among reviewers I trust, but we’ll see! And Warcross is amazing! ❤️
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You should 100% get to Dear Martin soon! It’s also such a quick read, you’ll be able to finish it in one sitting! If NetGalley has ARCs of Tyler Johnson, I will request it FOR SURE. I really hope it won’t be restricted to US residents only!
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I really want to read Born a Crime and Dear Martin. I own They Both Die at the End and I hope to read that one soon – both of the main characters are POC.
-Lauren
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I just recently finished reading They Both Die At The End! I love that Adam writes about POC and m/m relationships! I Can’t wait to read more of his work!
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What a great list!! The Library of Fates has been on my list forever, I just haven’t had a chance to get my hands on it!
A friend of mine mentioned Tyler Johnson Was Here the other day, and I just pre-ordered it! I hadn’t heard of Ghost Boys, but it’s on my TBR list now!
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I heard of Ghost Boy in the same article where they talked about the release of Tyler Johnson and I HAD to add it to my TBR immediately!
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I haven’t read Warcross yet either and I’m so desperate to get a copy of it myself, but it might be a while before that happens 😅
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Same here! I am currently trying to decide which book I am allowing myself to get next month and there are just too many I want! Thankfully my birthday is coming up in November so I might get my parents and siblings to give me books for it! I hope we both end up enjoying Warcross though! I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t enjoy it.
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Great list! I have heard fantastic things about Dear, Martin, I have yet to read it but I can’t wait. I also really want to read Library of Fates so, if you have it, PLEASE READ IT? Just to let me know how you like it, I’m really, reaaally curious, especially since I have read mixed reviews of this book so far 🙂 I can’t WAIT for you to read Warcross, it was so, so good! 🙂
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I have very, very high hopes that now that I’ve actually started reading again after weeks of no reading, that I’ll finally get around to reading it! I feel so bad because I was supposed to upload a review three weeks after I had gotten in the mail… and it’s been at least twice as long already.
See, there’s my problem. I want to read Warcross RIGHT NOW, but I also want to read Wonder Woman RIGHT NOW and then there is the new SJM book that I need to read RIGHT NOW. I don’t know where to start! And there’s so much more still not released! :O
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Hahaha, SO many books we want to read RIGHT NOW, I get that feeling so much. We need to try and find the books we are the MOST excited about, and read in that very order ahah 🙂
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This is such a great and important list! I haven’t read Warcross yet either, oops. And The Library of Fates looks so pretty.
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There is just simply no way to read all the books we want to read. We would probably have to ignore everyone and everything for a couple of years to get all caught up with our TBRs.
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I’m so excited for Children of Blood and Bone, it sounds amazing! Library of Fates sounds wonderful but I haven’t got to it yet either!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/top-ten-tuesday-126/
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I can’t believe we have to wait until 2018 to finally read Children Of Blood And Bone! That is simply too long to wait!
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Me either! I know, 2018 needs to hurry up.
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These are amazing choices! I’m also excited to read Dear Martin and Tyler Johnson Was Here, especially after reading THUG. Books like these are so important in this era, especially when I think about the teens who will encounter these books. I just finished reading American Street recently and LOVED it so much! I hope you get a chance to read that one soon. I loved Shadowshaper too. I’m not usually a fantasy reader at all, but I loved the inclusion of the fantasy elements in the urban setting.
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Thank you, Christine! 🙂
That sounds fantastic! I am quite the fantasy reader (though not so much high fantasy), so I have high hopes that I might enjoy Shadowshaper too!
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WARCROSSSSS. Omg it was so so good, Swetlana, you HAVE to pick it up soon!! And yess I’m so excited to read Love, Hate, and Other Filters, and Tyler Johnson! Children of Blood and Bone sounds really awesome as well, but I’m probably gonna end up confusing it with other titles. 😂 Great post!!
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Everyone says how great that book is!!! I seriously need to get my act together and read it already. And I will. Soon!
Thank you, May! And welcome back to blogging! 😀
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It is a GREAT book and I hope you get to read it soon! And thank yooou! ❤
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Shadowshaper is such a unique novel. I hope you get a chance to read it. American Street is a really good one as well. I am so stoked for Children of Blood and Bone. I go back and forth about whether to preorder it right now. Too early?
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I don’t think there is such a thing as pre-ordering a book too early, you should 100% go for it!
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Awesome post! I’d never heard of the Tyler Johnson book before… looks really good. I’ll check it out!
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Thank you, Naty! I saw it talked about on Twitter and just HAD to add it to my TBR. I figured with how much I loved THUG, the chances of me enjoying a book with similar themes were quite high!
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Same!! I hope it’s good ❤
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Pretty much all of these books are on my TBR, too. I’m really hoping I’ll be able to fit Warcross in soon, considering I was able to take it out from the library last week. I really need more hours in the day so I can get more reading done! 😛
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Great choices and great topic, Swetlana! I haven’t read any of these either and I’m super excited for Whichwood and Warcross, especially. They just sound so great ❤
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Thank you, Sophie! I hope you end up enjoying them whenever you finally get around to them! 😀
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*chants* WHICHWOOD WHICHWOOD WHICHWOOD. I’ll read /anything/ Tahereh publishes omg she’s my literal Queen <33333333
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AS YOU SAW I AM CURRENTLY READING FURTHERMORE SO I’M PRETTY SURE I’LL READ WHICHWOOD TOO. I AM QUITE IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD TAHEREH CREATED.
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DID YOU FINISH FURTHERMORE? WILL YOU WRITE A REVIEW ON IT? IF NOT WHAT DID YOU THINK? I haven’t read it yet but I need to before Whichwood comes out!
AND YAYAYYAYYYY TAHEREH IS AMAZING ISN’T SHE
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LOVED IT. I FINISHED IT IN A DAY. THE WRITING WAS AWESOME, THE NARRATOR WAS GREAT AND NOW I AM 109% READY FOR WHICHWOOD.
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YAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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