Global Diversity Awareness Month

Oct 2, 2025 | Announcements, Library

By Research Librarian Jessica Zaricki

Global Diversity Awareness Month gives us the opportunity to recognize and honor the vast range of cultures, ethnicities, abilities, and perspectives making up our communities. This diversity brings a positive impact to society—fostering environments that are more innovative, inclusive, and understanding. Join us as we focus on some of the varied groups that add to the richness of our global—and local—community.

Members, find the listed titles on display in the Sawtelle Reading Room through the month of October.

Swift River: A Novel
FICTION

Set during the summer of 1987 in the town of Swift River, this story follows Diamond Newberry and centers on the relationships between mothers and daughters, the disappearance of her father, and the hidden history of the declining New England mill town they inhabit. It focuses on first friendships, family secrets, and the ways in which the past can change one’s future.

Chambers, Essie. Swift River: A Novel. PS3603 .H3538 S95 2024

Bride of the Sea: A Novel

FICTION

A tale of family, identity, and what it means to become American. It centers around the divorce of young Saudi couple living in Cleveland, their separation, and the parental abduction of their child. This story beautifully and compassionately ties the dissolution and reconstruction of a single family together with the histories of both the United States and Saudi Arabia from the 1973 oil embargo to post September 11, 2001.

Quotah, Eman. Bride of the Sea: A Novel. PS3617 .U68 B75 2021

The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight

BIOGRAPHY

This personal narrative explores the author’s transition from sightedness to blindness and his exploration of blindness as its own, unique culture. It discusses his life with retinitis pigmentosa, his changing relationships within his family and community, and his sense of self as he moves from a “typical” life to one increasingly defined by disability. Leland’s memoir was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Leland, Andrew. The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. HV1792 .L453 A3 2023

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism

NON-FICTION

Applewhite’s manifesto surveys and debunks the myths and prejudices that contribute to an agist mentality and resulting age discrimination. She explores the historical roots of agism, exposes the costs surrounding the ideal of American independence, and imagines a world friendly to those of all ages.

Applewhite, Ashton. This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. BF724.85 .S45 A77 2016

Not Like Us: Immigrants and Minorities in America, 1890-1924

NON-FICTION

Daniels examines the condition of immigrants, Native Americans, and Black Americans focusing on the Progressive Era, World War I, and the first half of the 1920s. In an era remembered as a period of advancement for minority groups, he finds a much regression as progress detailed in the historical record.

Daniels, Roger. Not Like Us: Immigrants and Minorities in America, 1890-1924. JV6465 .D26 1997

The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle

NON-FICTION

This comprehensive history of the American Gay Rights movement takes the reader from the 1950s and its condemnation and criminalization of gay and lesbian lifestyles, through the protests of the 1960s, reactionary movements of the 1970s and early 80s, the crucible forged in the decimation brought about during the AIDS epidemic, and struggles for marriage equality. Faderman presents a nuanced, readable, and well-researched portrait of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement

Faderman, Lillian. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle. HQ76.8 .U5 F33 2015

Different Roots, Common Dreams: New Hampshire’s Cultural Diversity

NON-FICTION

Between 2012 and 2015, photographer Becky Field documented the lives of immigrants and refugees living in New Hampshire. This book contains six stories from NH immigrants, over 100 documentary photographs, and reminds us that we all dream of financial security, safety, and freedom, regardless of our cultural roots.

Field, Becky. Different Roots, Common Dreams: New Hampshire’s Cultural Diversity. HM1271 .F54 2015

Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and Gay History from the Puritans to Playland

NON-FICTION

This book documents over 300 years of LGBTQ+ life in Boston, including examples from the colonial era and carrying through the mid-20th century. Using a variety of sources including newspaper accounts, private archives, and advertisements, we learn about unconventional and unapologetic men and women, and the cost at which ignoring tradition and protocol came. The text is fun, often surprising, and magnificently illustrated—containing over 200 images.

History Project. Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and Gay History from the Puritans to Playland. HQ76.3 .U52 M45 1998

Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meaning

NON-FICTION

Painter gives us an African-American history created for Black Americans. She incorporates stories and lessons from a pre-slavery African experience through the modern age of hip-hop. Throughout this history she focuses on black success against extraordinary odds—especially in the creation of schools and businesses, as well as laying foundations that remain in American popular culture. The work includes over 150 works of art, many in color, that engage with Black history and offers a form of witness to the passive and creativity central to the Black American experience.

Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and its Meaning, 1619 to the Present. E185 .P15 2006

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

NON-FICTION

In this text, we explore a secret history of autism, investigate reasons for the rise in diagnoses, and examine the concept of neurodiversity as well as far-reaching social implications. Special consideration is given to the idea that neurological differences such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD are not errors of nature or products of the toxic modern world, but the result of natural variations in the human genome. Silberman’s text upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for the neurodiverse.

Silberman, Steve. NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. RC553 .A88 S54 2015

IMAGE: [CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT] Wheelchair user Maureen Cummings and her daughter make their way down the sidewalk on Congress Street in December 1988, Portsmouth Press Photo Collection, P0031_0672; snapshot of the first annual Portsmouth Pride Day on June 27, 2015, photo by James Smith; Zacarias Chavez enjoys the late afternoon sun on his stoop at 191 Profile Avenue, Mariner’s Village in April 1992, photo by Jane Tyska, Portsmouth Press Photo Collection, P0031_0259; Rabbi David Hartley Mark reading the Torah at Temple Israel on State Street on Oct. 5, 1989, Portsmouth Press Photo Collection, P0031_0931.