Marie III Bookish

Adding more stories to 2019!

This year – 2019 – I’ve decided to challenge myself by making sure my book picks include literature from around the world. After watching the TED talk by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie – The danger of the single story – where she talks about how narratives are too one-sided, I knew I needed to add more views to my reading list.

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

Chimananda Ngozi Adichie

Read books from corners of the world were you’ve never been! Read books written by men, women, LGBTQ, young, old, high and low. Read about love, hate, struggles, journeys, wins, losses, friendships, family, creativity, learning and change.

I highly recommend everyone take a look at this, and think about what exactly it means, how it has affected you and how you can change it. I truly believe that being able to see more perspectives is the key to a better world, through compassion and understanding.

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

You can see my reading challenge and download a printable sheet here. 

 “Why did people ask “What is it about?” as if a novel had to be about only one thing.”

Chimananda Ngozi Adichie