Hello all!!

Following the sunsetting of the seasonal readalongs and special events, myself and a few others have felt inspired to still carry on unofficial community wide readalongs! If you choose to participate, these would come without badges, but they would still come with unique reads and wonderful discussion. Nothing is yet set in stone, I 1). want to see if there's interest in something unofficial like this and 2). want to brainstorm ideas for reads.

My initial thought is that the unofficial readalong could feature six picks (three fiction and three non fiction) (also want to give credit where it's due to another user for this idea)! I found that the seasonal readalongs were fun, but I found the special event readalongs to be incredibly beneficial to highlight different voices/perspectives/cultures. With both of those things being said, what I think could be fun is choosing three voices/perspectives/cultures to highlight each season and then have a fiction and nonfiction pick to go with it.

I've started to brainstorm a few ideas on what a "Winter Unofficial Readalong" could look like. I am by no means an expert, my knowledge for this is entirely Google University (so I do encourage thoughts and ideas). Additionally, I tried to find books that had less than 1,500 ratings on Pagebound, but still had positive reviews.

DECEMBER

World AIDS Day (December 1st)

• My Government Means to Kill Me (fiction)
• Angels in America (play) (thanks Sara!!)
• The Normal Heart (play) (thanks Sara!!)
• Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York (nonfiction)

International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3rd)

• True Biz (YA fiction)
• Disability Visibility (nonfiction)
• Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space (I think this leans more nonfiction, but is labeled as fiction??)

International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime (December 9th)

• Small Country (historical fiction)
• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (nonfiction)

JANUARY

Poverty Awareness Month

• Shuggie Bain
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (nonfiction)
• Poverty, By America (nonfiction)
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (nonfiction)

FEBRUARY

I know February is Black History Month, and I'm sure there are wonderful recommendations to celebrate this community. I haven't gotten time to research some recommendations here, but wanted to throw this out as an idea!

OTHER IDEA

I think it would be neat to feature our Southern Hemisphere friends!

Again, this is by no means a complete list, just wanted to get people brainstorming. Also, I recognize that a lot of these recommendations are probably US centric, so I encourage folks to chime in with NON US centric titles.

If you're interested in joining or have any thoughts/comments/recommendations, please chime in! If there looks to be a solid amount of interest, I'll look through the thread to see what the top recommendations are and can post a more official looking post later.

Lastly, I do 100% intend for this to be in the spirit of Pagebound. While I do make this post out of good intentions to create community and to have people read diversely, I am still human and can make mistakes. If this doesn't feel appropriate, I sincerely apologize and I'm happy to table this effort!

Edit: I think there are other efforts under way for a community seasonal readalong, so I'm changing this to be more geared towards a seasonal Special Event Readalong.