Expanding My Horizons

Melissa is hosting the Expanding Horizons Challenge from January through April. The purpose of the challenge is to read works by authors of ethnicities other than your own. I'm always looking for ways to expand my horizons, so I can't pass up this opportunity. (I also fell in love with the challenge graphics; there are two more besides the one I chose to use.)

There are two ways to approach this challenge: either read four books by authors in one of the six categories, or read six books, one from each of the six categories. The categories are as follows:

1. African/African-American


2. Asian/Asian-American


3. Hispanic/Latin American


4. Indian/Indian-American


5. Middle Eastern


6. Native Peoples

After looking at a lot of books - and at a map to help me understand what is considered "Asia" and what is considered "Middle East" - I've finally decided that I'm going to attempt the first option, focusing on Asian/Asian-American authors. These are my four books:

1. Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki (Pakistani raised in Britain)


2. Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies) by Justina Chen Headley (Asian-American)


3. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Korean-American)


4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistani-American)

Books I considered in some of the other categories - and which are now on my to-read list - are as follows:

1. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson (African-American)


2. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Mexican-American)


3. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Indian-American)


4. The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (Maori)

Links to other participants' lists can be found here.