Amazon Editors' YA Book Club discussion

Our book this month should be both touching and thought provoking (and I personally love a dual narrative). Looking forward to hearing from everyone along the way.

Looking forward! Trying to get my hands on a copy.

This book doesn't even release until August 9th.

Jenifer wrote: "This book doesn't even release until August 9th."

I know - I was wondering about that myself, this will be the first time we picked a book that is coming out in the month we are reading it. If it doesn't work out well then we'll shy away from doing that again in the future. We can always keep this one going into September to allow us all more time to read (which I can always use!).

I pre-ordered my copy! I'm excited to read it!

The book has arrived! Eager to start!

The publisher is doing a giveaway for the book - here's the link: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

I finished the book last night and I am emotionally drained. I'm not sure how far along folks are but I think we need to look at this novel intricately. It is indeed thought provoking.

I just now picked up the kindle version.

I read the first fourth of the book last night and found the beginning to be confusing because the first four sections/chapters are unrelated to each other and so many characters are introduced. I had to go back and slowly figure out what was going on.

I just finished reading our book and need to think about it.

I'm trying to think of the titles of fiction books where one of the characters just happens to be Muslim, or even Jewish. Far too often we assume they are Christians, even when religion is not mentioned. People of color are slowly being mainstreamed into fiction, are people of various religions mostly ignored?

Kathleen, what a great question! The first that came to my mind was The Golem and The Jinni. However, I draw a blank after that. Of course there are many books like The Book Thief that are centered around the persecution of Judaism.

I can't think of a book offhand, where the main characters were Buddhist? The Good Earth? It's been decades since I read that so I dunno if it did. Perhaps it's coming around and we are having more religious diversity. I saw an excerpt of a recent YA release that had an atheist or maybe agnostic main character, but I forgot the title of it.
:(

I did read The
Roundhouse by Erdich and i beleive it had some native american religious themes in it. Good question, Kathleen.

In American Dervish the young boy is Muslim and I've read almost all of the Jhumpa Lahiri books where most of the families are Hindu. But in what U.S. fiction books do the characters just happen to be non Christians and religion is not the focus of the book? We need more such books.

Kathleen wrote: "In American Dervish the young boy is Muslim and I've read almost all of the Jhumpa Lahiri books whewre most of the families are Hindu. But in what U.S. fiction books do..."

Good point. I wonder if it is included inthe We Need Diverse Books movement. I looked it up and it is within the guidelines of their mission statement. Maybe we'll get more authors to submit said books in the literary arena. And you're right, it would be nice to have religiously diverse books that do not focus on the religion for the crux of the book.

I've read with your interest your comments on ALL WE HAVE LEfT, and am so honored that you picked it as your August read! It felt risky, but so important, to include a Muslim perspective in this story. It was when I read a NYT article about how the Muslim workers of Windows on the World used cardboard boxes as prayer mats in the 106th stairwell that it really hit me that people of all faiths died that day. I knew it intellectually, of course, but this article brought it home to me in a very visceral way. I wanted to tell a story that showed how 9/11 affected all Americans, both then and now, and highlighted the necessity of courage and hope in our troubled world.