Hi, I’m Rachel, and I love books.

In fact, as a books contributor here, a librarian, and someone who works for book festivals, you might say books are my life. Which is why it surprises some people when I tell them that I only read one-twentieth of the books I was assigned in high school from start to finish (unless you are one of my four high school English teachers — in which case, I clearly read everything I was supposed to). 

It’s not that I wasn’t a reader; I definitely was (I know for a fact City of Bones was circulating through my friend group). Most of the books assigned were from the 19th century or first half of the 20th century, with just a single book published in my lifetime (and that was just barely — I’m less than three months older than it). Twelve were written by white men, two-thirds of whom died before I existed, and 17 of 20 were written by white authors. Not a single book was written by a Black or Indigenous author.