Back in January, I discovered Year of the Asian Reading Challenge on another book blog. Obviously, the idea was to promote Asian authors, whether they live in Asia or are of Asian descent. I’d been trying to make my reading more racially/ethnically diverse, so I signed up. How hard can this be?

In addition, I tried to keep track of all the racial/gender demographics of the authors I’ve read this year. I created a chart with columns for white male, white female, POC (person of color) male, POC female. In the few cases when I didn’t know the person’s gender or racial/ethnic background, I had a column for Unknown.

Most of the books were fiction. No surprise there. (82 fiction, 4 non-fiction)

I’ve done this for several years, while there’s been steady improvement in the diversity of authors, I still have a long way to go.

Here’s the list of books read and reviewed for YARC 2019:

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Historical mystery.

Set in early 20th century Bombay, the novel centers on Perveen Mistry, a female solicitor in India. She has joined her father’s law firm. Though she has a legal education at Oxford, she can’t argue cases in court. But when a recently-deceased client’s three widows sign all their assets over to a charity, Perveen’s the only one who can talk to these secluded women.

Rasputin’s Shadow by Raymond Khoury

Thriller.

A murder thrusts FBI agent Sean Reilly into an investigation that uncovers technology linked to Rasputin and that could give limitless power to anyone.

Beijing Payback by Daniel Nieh

Thriller.

College student Victor Li‘s father has been murdered. Overwhelmed by grief, he and his sister Jules are stunned to learn that their father wasn’t only a restaurateur: he was linked with a crime syndicate in China.

No Place of Refuge by Ausma Zehanat Khan 

Mystery.

“The Syrian refugee crisis just became personal for Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty. NGO worker Audrey Clare, sister of a childhood friend, is missing. In her wake, two people are found dead at the Greek refugee camp where she worked. (…)

Khattak and Getty travel to Greece to trace Audrey’s last movements in a desperate attempt to find her. In doing so, they learn that her work in Greece had strayed well beyond the remit of her NGO…”

Red Oblivion by Leslie Shimotakahara

Literary Mystery.

“Family secrets surface when two sisters travel to Hong Kong to care for their ill father.”

Neon Empire by Drew Minh

SF/fantasy/thriller.

“Bold, colorful, and dangerously seductive, Eutopia is a new breed of hi-tech city. Rising out of the American desert, it’s a real-world manifestation of a social media network where fame-hungry desperados compete for likes and followers. But in Eutopia, the bloodier and more daring posts pay off the most. As crime rises, no one stands to gain more than Eutopia’s architects―and, of course, the shareholders who make the place possible.”

The Beijing Conspiracy by Shamini Flint

Spy thriller

“When ex-Marine Jake receives a letter from a former lover about a daughter he never knew he had, he travels to China, a country he hasn’t visited since 1989 when, as a young American spy, he fell in love with a beautiful student activist and found himself caught up in the horrors of the Tiananmen Square massacre. (…) On arrival in Beijing, Jack finds himself accidentally in possession of an explosive piece of information both the Chinese and American governments are desperate to get their hands on.”

A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee

Historical mystery.

India, 1920. Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant “Surrender-Not” Banerjee witness the murder of the heir of the throne of Sambalpore, a tiny but wealthy kingdom. The two police investigators go there to discover the reason for the assassination. As you might imagine, it’s complicated. As you also might imagine–it seems to happen a lot in police novels–upper management wants the investigation finished yesterday (and probably under budget, too.) The case is officially closed. But Wyndham’s not one to give up without a fight. He has to find the killer.

Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee

Historical mystery.

The follow-up to A Necessary Evil. Sam stumbles across a mutilated corpse in an opium den during a police raid. No one reports a dead body, and Sam hesitates to investigate. Then another murder happens. Sam is horrified to find that this victim shows the same mutilations as the first corpse. As he and his sergeant Surrender-Not investigate the killing, Sam struggles to keep his addiction a secret. He knows there’s a link between the two murders, but how can he investigate both when he can’t admit he was in the opium den that night?

Razia by Abda Khan

Suspense.

Farah Jilani, a British lawyer of Pakistani heritage, attends a social gathering for one of her firm’s richest clients and learns that his housekeeper, Razia, is a slave. Appalled, Farah decides to free Razia. But the client is a powerful man both in the UK and Pakistan. She travels to Pakistan and teams up with a human rights attorney. One thing’s clear: she can’t walk away from this fight unchanged.

IQ, by Joe Ide

Mystery.

He’s a high school dropout. Lives in East Long Beach. Seems unassuming and mild-mannered. But don’t underestimate him: Isaiah Quintabe’s not called IQ for nothing. His old roommate (and former partner in crime) Dodson gets him to investigate the case of a rap star whose life is in danger. But who’s after him? There’s a long line of possible culprits. No one, including his pal Dodson, expects Isaiah to be able to solve this one. But don’t worry, IQ’s on the case.

The Incendiaries, by R.O. Kwon

Literary, with a lot of suspense and mystery

Will pretends to be a wealthy college student at an elite university, hiding his real identity as a broke-as-hell Bible-college dropout who’s lost his faith. He meets Phoebe Lin, a bright party girl with her own secret: she feels responsible for her mother’s tragic death. Will falls in love with her, and as his love grows obsessive, Phoebe joins a religious cult whose leader, John Leal, has ties to her Korean family. The group bombs several abortion clinics, killing five people, and disappears. Will wants to find answers: could his beloved Phoebe have killed other people? Where is she?

So why didn’t I read more Asian authors?

This year, one of the issues was that almost all my reading came from ARCs, either from Netgalley or from authors. While I did request certain books by certain minority authors, my request wasn’t always accepted; I’m a small blogger, so it makes sense for some of the big publishing houses to deny my request. It was still frustrating, though.

I also made the mistake of requesting too many titles and ended up with a long to-be-read list. Trying to read and review two novels a week tended to crowd out the time I had for other reading, when I might’ve searched harder for more minority authors.

(This was also a work-life balance issue. I’m changing some things up for 2020 to be able to have more time for my own writing and to allow for possible migraine-related issues.)

My totals (for authors):

Females, POC: 9

Males, POC: 8

Females, white: 26

Males, white: 38

Total number of authors read: 82 different authors

Total books read: 86 books

There were a few books by the same author, and one had two authors, a male and a female.

Would I do this challenge again? Yes!

Do you try reading challenges?