It has been over a year since this blog went on hiatus due to the impending arrival of my second child. So needless to say, it has been a busy year, despite the quiet here. But it has a been a really important year of reflection. Having time away from the blog and the continued pressure to read and review has allowed me to see what changes I want to make as I plan my return.
In today’s political climate, more than ever, I want to make sure that the books I feature will show a wide variety of characters and highlight authors from many different backgrounds. I want to make sure that I am not contributing to the promotion of works with harmful or negative representation and that if they appear here (because of their popularity) that the issues with the content are made clear.
In the past, like many other bloggers of privilege, I have made mistakes. I have given books positive reviews when members of one of the marginalized groups depicted have asked loud and clear for people to acknowledge the problems. (e.g.: Eleanor & Park, Lies We Tell Ourselves, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime). I have unintentionally used ableist language. I have sometimes written up content in a manner that that could lead readers to believe that I consider content with characters that are not allocishet to be concerning. It is not! (Unless of course, it’s bad rep!)
It will take me awhile to go back through all my old posts to fix past errors, but as I move forward I will do my best to avoid making the same mistakes.
Thanks for bearing with me! I hope we can share lots more books together!
Can’t wait to see what you come up with moving forward and hope all is well with the new family member!
I don’t know that it’s necessary to go back and “fix” everything. We change, we grow, we all move on as we learn new things.