More Bookstagrammers to Follow
We enjoyed introducing you to some fabulous Bookstagrammers earlier this year. We also want to continue the discussion on decolonizing our bookshelves, so we decided we wanted to share even more great bookstagram accounts that are helping us broaden our horizons and find incredible books. Instagram is so great for discovering new ideas, and it’s not any different with books – it’s a treasure trove of diverse individuals who have the most astoundingly varied taste in authors and the stories that are rarely told.
For this edition of our Bookstagrammer series, we decided to expand our reaches beyond the U.S. The world is big, and casting our net wider allowed us to discover the plethora of amazing book-related content that international Bookstagrammers are creating. It’s always so fascinating to look at literature through a different lens (as we have been trying to do), and it’s even more fascinating to be exposed to the books and stories we could possibly miss, just by virtue of living here. The more diverse our sources of information, the more we learn – just as we hope you learn and discover new stories and perspectives by checking out these Bookstagrammers!
@safiyareads
Safiya is based in Scotland, and writes delightful, succinct reviews on her account. She focuses on BIPOC authors, and does a great job highlighting several South Asian and Muslim authors, many of whom we may not readily come across here in the US. She also has her own blog where she posts her reviews. One of our favorite features on her feed is her recommendation posts She posts small collections of recommendations on different topics from the books she’s read, and they’re so enjoyable to scroll through. One recommendation post we’ve loved lately is “Generational Stories; Family sagas, stories that explore history through several generations of one family”; it introduced us to fascinating titles like So Vast the Prison by Assia Djebar and Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi.
@bookofcinz
Cindy is Jamaican, and living in Trinidad and Tobago, and her account makes us want to jump on a plane and go say hi! She does such a brilliant job introducing her followers to works from Caribbean authors, and she also hosts an in-person and online book club. It’s so rare that we come across Caribbean authors here in the US, so her account is a feast for our bookish senses. By following her “#ReadCarribbean” hashtag, we’ve been introduced to so many wonderful new authors like Kaiama L. Glover, Cherie Jones, Naima Coster and N.G Peltier (amongst so many others!)
@the_diaspora_reader
Vuma is an Australian blogger, who is also co-curator of the AfroHeritage Bookclub (we’re loving just how many virtual book clubs we’re discovering!). Her feed is a love letter to authors from Africa, and following her feed has introduced us to some amazing titles that we’ve immediately added to our TBR list! Her recent review of The Hate Race was so eloquent and powerful – it gave us an intimate window into the lived experiences of Black Australians.
@pagesofelly
Elly is a Singaporean blogger and Bookstagrammer, and she writes about books as well as social justice issues relevant to South Asia and South East Asia. Her feed features books from various genres and authors, with a focus on South/South East Asian stories. Her recent review of Riverrun by Filipino author Danton Remoto was one we loved – a book about childhood trauma is never easy to review but she did a wonderful job of it. We’ve added this to our TBR list, as well as It’s Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan, which Elly reviewed and wrote a stirring and intimate piece about for her blog. She also runs a book club (!) called the No Readgrets Book Club – we’re loving the play on words!!
@talksbooksandmore
Chitra lives in New Delhi, India, and is a self-proclaimed book junkie. We like this – for we too, are all book junkies! Like so many of the Bookstagrammers above, Chitra also runs a book club called Book Club Manipur. She posts about a variety of books, many of which we will have seen stateside, but she also focuses a lot on literature from South Asia and the subcontinent. For example, she recently wrote about The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles, followed by a review of Eating Wasps by Anita Nair. Her reviews are elegant and insightful, giving us a well fleshed out summary of the story in a few paragraphs, along with her honest thoughts about it.
Loving these book suggestions already - here’s where you can purchase them and support local independently owned bookstores.
Tanya Roy-White is a career changer and decided her mid 30’s was a great time to go back to university to get her Masters in Mental Health. She’s very excited to be a contributor for JUGS and write about the many musings knocking about in her head. She spends an inordinate amount of time thinking about food and books and would be happiest in a hobbit home with tea galore and a never-ending library (and a kitchen with an AGA stove, because, food, but make it fashion).
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