Diversity Book Club's Recent Titles

Contributed by Sophia Cotton

The Diversity Book Club has been working through several amazing stories throughout the 2nd Quarter. We started the quarter off by talking about our first book, Love From Mecca to Medina, by S.K. Ali. This romance story was about two young adults in a long-distance relationship; Zayneb is going to school in Chicago, while Adam is working as an artist in Qatar. Then Adam gets the opportunity for him and Zayneb to perform Umrah, a pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims can take, and the two are together in-person again. However, after a long time apart, they’ve been struggling with miscommunication, and they must work through what they’ve been keeping from each other while on Umrah. 

We then moved on to reading our next book, The Heretic Queen, by Michelle Moran. This historical fiction novel, set in Ancient Egypt, follows the story of Nefertari, a young Egyptian princess shunned for her familial ties to the Heretic Queen Nefertiti, her aunt who banished Egypt’s gods. If Nefertiti wants to keep her position in Egypt’s royalty as an adult, she has to find a way to become the Chief Wife of the new pharaoh, Ramesses II, and convince Egypt that she is a loyal follower of the gods. This book gives great focus to the importance of the Ancient Egyptian religion thousands of years ago, and an insight into the life, not death, of Egyptian royalty.

Finally, we moved on to our most recent book, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, by Crystal Maldonado. This coming of age story follows Charlie Vega, a girl who struggles with her appearance due to feeling shamed for not following the beauty standards of a white Connecticut suburb. Her rocky relationship with her mother, who often shames her for her weight, and how she is used by boys to get to her best friend, Amelia, who perfectly follows beauty standards, leaves her feeling insecure about her body. She finally finds a boy who likes her for who she is, Brian Park, and her world feels like it’s on the upturn; until it isn’t. We’ll be discussing this book on February 10th. I hope you enjoyed learning about the wonderful book club we have here at CHS!