As January ends and we head into February, I was issued a reading challenge.  For African-American History Month, I must read and review one novel from an African-American Male author and one novel from an African-American Female author.  I have chosen for my male author, Steven Barnes’ Lion’s Blood, an interesting alternate history novel that looks at what happens if slavery happened in reverse and I chose for my female author, Bebe Moore Campbell’s Brothers and Sisters, a novel in set in post Los Angeles riots, and tells the story of an African American female trying to climb the corporate ladder and learns about what connects us all, regardless of ethnicity.

I will admit that I have never been this explicit in reading diversely.  But, I feel for 2017 that I (as an African American author and book reviewer) make a better effort to read diverse authors and broadened my horizons beyond what I read and review.  I will be doing this same challenge during Hispanic Heritage Month in mid-September. I hope through this challenge that encourages other readers to do same and read a little more outside of their comfort zone. In closing, please add recommendations in the comments from other diverse authors.  I will post both reviews of these books by the end of February.