[TSS] A More Diverse Universe, Revisited

Exactly one year ago, the A More Diverse Universe blog tour began!  A More Diverse Universe celebrates diversity in speculative fiction by encouraging people to read books in the fantasy or science fiction genres that were written by people of color.  It is so very important to read diversely, to read books by and about and for people who have different life experiences than you.  The fantasy and science fiction genres are especially poorly represented by authors of color.  The fantasy shelf at libraries and bookstore is stocked full of epic fantasy series that take place in quasi-Medieval settings where Winter is Coming or massive castles climb to the clouds or peasant girls have godmothers and all the rest of the tropes.  As much as fantasy is about magic and other worlds and quests, it's also heavily influenced by our own experiences.  But most authors in fantasy have the same experience.  What about the rest of the world, with different cultural norms, societal structures, religions, traditions, and yes, skin color?  If you went to a library and saw no books on the shelf that spoke to you and your own life experience, do you think you would have become such a voracious reader?

The world deserves library bookshelves filled with books that can speak to many different people.  And that's what #Diversiverse is all about.  It's weird and self-aggrandizing to quote myself, I know, but I wrote a very impassioned post last year to introduce the event, and I what I said then still rings true today:

I know your TBR list is huge.  I know your commitments are many.  I know that there are so many things on which you must take a stand, and it can be exhausting to make reading a political activity.  But this is so important to me, and I really think it should be important to you, too.  None of us lives in a monochromatic world, and yet the fact that terrifying hate crimes still occur makes it clear that we do not fully understand or trust each other.  And maybe part of the reason is because the media we consume does not accurately reflect the diversity of our society.  And books are such a massive part of the media we consume that we should demand and fight for those that do represent minorities and those that do present the world from a different perspective than the one we are used to.  So please - participate.  You may just discover a character or an author or a setting or a story that will completely change your life.

I tried to get a head start on A More Diverse Universe this year.  It didn't work out.  The group of us who planned and executed last year just don't have the bandwidth to plan and execute such a large event this year.  There's no way we can take sign-ups, send out email assignments, pull together a schedule, and then update with links every day.

That said, I really believe that #Diversiverse is a very valuable event in blogopshere and I want it to happen again.  And I want it to be a massive success and for dozens or even hundreds of readers to participate.  But I don't think the only way for that to happen is to have a very organized and structured week-long event.  I think we can do it a bit on the fly.  As in, I create a Mr. Linky on a blog post in say, seven weeks - November 15th-17th - and then everyone who participates just puts a link on that blog post with their blog name and the name of the book being reviewed.  Simple, right?

I hope it's a small enough ask that you can fit it into your reading schedule without a blip.  I hope it's an impactful enough weekend that you will think critically about your reading going forward.  If we vote with our dollars (or euros or yen or rupees), then think about the votes we are casting.  As book bloggers and book readers and book advocates and book evangelists, we truly do have the ability to influence others' reading choices, and I urge you to urge others to read a brilliant book they might never have come across if not for your influence.

So what should you read?  The kick-off post last year had some links that may be of use.  I put up some suggestions last year.  Here is a list of all the titles that people read and reviewed for the event last year.  I also created a #diversiverse label on my blog for the books that I've read and identified as qualifying for the challenge.  And here's a list specifically for YA authors of color.  And I'm sure people will start populating the comments with their recommendations as well!

Please note:  Books only qualify for this challenge if they were written by a person of color, not if they are about a person of color.  They also only qualify if they are in the speculative fiction genre:  that includes fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, superhero comics - anything is game.  If you aren't sure, just ask!

Alright, that's all!  If you want to be reminded in a few weeks of the event occurring, just sign up via the Mr. Linky below and I promise to post on your blog reminding you to pick a book and start reading!  I'll keep talking about the event over the next several weeks, too, so don't worry - I won't let you forget!  Please sign up and tell all your friends!  And keep telling them!

Reading Suggestions: A More Diverse Universe

 
So many of you have signed up to participate in the A More Diverse Universe blog tour, which has been the highlight of my week.  How many of you?  FIFTY!  That is a seriously amazing number.  And if each one of you can get one more person to participate - well, I think you know that if you do the math, that makes 100.  I can't even tell you how glorious it would be to get a century's worth of people reading and reviewing books.  I'm going to aim high, but I'm already so, so happy!

I understand, though, that people are having trouble finding books to read.  This is part of the reason why this blog tour is so important!  It is so difficult just to find books that qualify for the tour, and there are only two requirements for the tour:  POC Author, Speculative Fiction genre.

So I thought I'd help you out a little bit with a list of authors and books that might strike your fancy.

Salman Rushdie - I feel like Rushdie is one of those authors who is offended when people say his novels are "fantasy," but the fact remains that Rushdie's work is often steeped in magical realism.  The Enchantress of Florence is about the Emperor Akbar of Mughal India fame and his beloved and beautiful wife, Jodha - who may or may not have existed.  Beautifully written, with a strong and flawed central character, and wonderfully evocative of India.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a young adult novel that Rushdie wrote for his son about a young boy and his storyteller father and their fantastical journey together.

Sarwat Chadda's new young adult novel The Savage Fortress is about an Indian-English boy who returns to India and sees elements of the Ramayana come to life.  I haven't read the book yet, but there is an excellent review of it over at The Book Smugglers!

Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon has been on my wish list for a long time.  Based on the mythology and history of North Africa and the Middle East, this is a welcome, fresh take on the traditional epic fantasy novel.

And speaking of the Middle East, it's hard to mention it without thinking of the Arabian Nights!  If you want a traditional take on these timeless tales, check out Husain Haddawy's "authoritative text."  For a more modern take on the novel, try Rabih Alameddine's absolutely wonderful  novel, The Hakawati. 

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a similar story by Grace Lin about the power of storytelling in a young Chinese girl's life.  If you are looking for something quick but engaging, or want to read a book with beautiful illustrations, this one's for you!

If you want a different spin on Asian fiction, give When Fox is a Thousand a try.  It's described as combining "Chinese mythology, the sexual politics of medieval China, and modern-day Vancouver to masterfully revise the myth of the Fox (a figure who can inhibit women’s bodies in order to cause mischief)."  Sounds good to me!

Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King is one of my top reads for 2012.  An amazing story about Native Americans trying to make it in the modern world - I loved the narrative style of this one, alternating between the characters and the narrators and sharing so many lessons along the way.  This is a book I plan to purchase in hardcover very soon.

And it's hard to mention Native American fiction without mentioning Sherman Alexie!  Flight is not my favorite book by Alexie, but it is a very powerful look the modern foster care system and the children that are so impacted by it, for better or for worse.

Further south in the Americas are the magical realists of South America.  I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude in high school and still remember some of its most vivid scenes.  I've had The House of the Spirits on my shelf for years, but have still yet to read one book by Isabel Allende.

One of the books I have out of the library and plan to read for this event is Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa's Nobel Prize-winning semi-autobiographical novel about a young man, his affair with an older aunt, and a man who writes soap operas.


Octavia Butler - I don't think there's much I need to say about her!  She's the most popular author on this blog tour by far.  I found Kindred very moving and have heard many positive things about the rest of her books, too!

Nalo Hopkinson - A Jamaican Canadian who draws on the Caribbean traditions of oral storytelling to create vivid stories

N. K. Jemisin - Hit the fantasy world by storm a few years ago with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, an epic fantasy novel about racism, classism, interfering gods, and being true to yourself.  She's in the midst of writing a new series as well.

Nnedi Okorafor - A Nigerian American author who has won a lot of awards, including the World Fantasy Award for her novel Who Fears Death, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic Africa.  She also writes young adult fiction that features Nigerian culture.

Samuel R. Delany - This author is most famous for his novel The Einstein Intersection, which won the Nebula award when it was published.  His book Tales of Neveryon takes on the topic of slavery in an Eastern setting.


Graphic novels more your style?  Then you have a TON of options!  The entire manga genre is open to you :-)  Or try Hiromi Goto's Half World, which Jill of Fizzy Thoughts tells me is really, really great!  It's about a girl who must go to the Half World to save her mother from a creeptastic villain.  Goto has written other novels, too - find her on GoodReads!


Don't have enough time for a full novel and want to read a short story instead?  Check out one of these amazing anthologies and pick one that grabs you at the first line!
Dark Matter:  A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora
The Apex Book of World Science Fiction
So Long Been Dreaming:  Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy

WHEW!  That was a lot, and not even the tip of the iceberg!  I hope that sends you out on a highly enjoyable search for books and authors and that you find even more that you can recommend and share with us, too.  I can't wait to see what you choose!

Review: A Hat Full of Sky

A Hat Full of Sky is the sequel to The Wee Free Men.  After reading Emma Donoghue's Room, I really needed something light and fun!  Of course, Terry Pratchett is perfect for just such occasions.

A Hat Full of Sky picks up some time after The Wee Free Men left off, with Tiffany packing up to go be an apprentice to Miss Level, a witch who lives in a forest.  While at Miss Level's, Tiffany does a magic trick that involves leaving her own body; when she does this, a hiver takes residence in her body and Tiffany must it for control of herself and her thoughts.  And, of course, she has the Nac Mac Feegles to help her.  This book also features a cameo by my favorite Discworld character, DEATH.

Review: Burma Chronicles

B

Guy Delisle's Burma Chronicles is a fantastic travelogue and political commentary memoir told in graphic novel form.  As an added bonus, it makes what must have been a very difficult and tense time seem humorous and fun.

Burma Chronicles details the year that Delisle, his wife (a physician working for Doctors Without Borders) and their baby Louis spent in Burma.  Burma is ruled by a totalitarian regime, and Delisle's humorous anecdotes about cultural differences are set side-by-side with commentary about the ways by which the regime oppresses the Burmese people.  Delisle lives in relative safety with the expats, but gets to know some locals well enough to realize that life can be a harrowing experience for the Burmese.
I am not sure if Delisle is the only person who does graphi
c travelogues.  He is the only person I know of, though that doesn't really mean much.  I would say, though, with my limited experience, that Delisle has a great idea, and does very well with it.  Why aren't more travelogues told in graphic novel format?  It's genius!

Review: Bone (the complete series)

Bone is a graphic novel series (9 books in all) by Jeff Smith.  It is epic in scope, but I don't think you get a sense of just how epic until about halfway through the series.  Therefore, I'm glad I grabbed the one-volume epic when I saw it, because to be honest, if I had these books separately, I don't think I would have had much motivation to continue past the second book.  Luckily for me, though, I had all nine stories handily in one volume, so finishing the series was not difficult for me! 

The story centers on three cousins- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley- who were kicked out of their hometown, Boneville.  They come to a valley that is both beautiful and fraught with danger.  Strange rat-creatures try to capture them, seeming particularly interested in Phoney.  Fone befriends a young lady named Thorn who lives on a farm with her Grandma Ben.  But there is unease in the valley- rumors of sleeping dragons, a large tiger and locusts abound, in addition to the rat-creatures. 

And, of course, there is Moby Dick.

Review: The Arrival

It is fitting that I can think of no words to adequately describe The Arrival because the book has no words.  It is told entirely in beautiful drawings by Shaun Tan that are reminiscent of the silent film era.  The Arrival tells the story of a man who leaves his home to make a new life for himself and his family on a distant shore.  He arrives in the foreign country with no knowledge of the language, the culture, or the people.  His loneliness is tangible, until he slowly makes friends and assimilates and learns that his new home holds friends and stories and enchantments, just as his old home did.

I loved this story.  I have begun to enjoy graphic novels more recently, but none of them made so clear to me until this one just how much depth and emotion can be conveyed through drawings.  It seems silly, really.  I enjoy visual art and paintings and think that they can convey great feeling.  And I didn't doubt that graphic novels could.  After all, I adored Blankets.  But the drawings in this book are much more traditional and perhaps because they weren't sketches or only in black and white, they made a greater impression on me.  I was enthralled by the pictures in this book as I don't think I have been since I was a child.

Review: A Man Lay Dead

The Classics Circuit is back!  This time, it's the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and I used the opportunity to dust off a copy of A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh that was given to me three years ago by one of my closest friends who lives in Australia.  Talk about taking a long time to get around to reading a book!

A Man Lay Dead is the first book in the Inspector Alleyn series.  It was written in 1934, and from what I can gather, it is a book contemporary to the period.  I can't be sure because oddly, WWI was not mentioned even once, even in passing.  Often, I find that you can't read much that takes place during the 1930s without at least brushing on the subject of the Great War.  This book managed to do so; however, there was certainly commentary about Russia and a Russian character with a fairly bizarre accent, and that seems true to the period.

Anyway, onto the story!  Sir Hubert Handesley is famous for his country house parties, at which he provides fabulous cocktails and arranges parlor games for his guests.  This time, the game is (surprise!) Murder.  The light-hearted fun takes a turn for the macabre when one of the guests is found dead in the hall, killed by his own knife.  Everyone becomes a suspect and Inspector Alleyn of the Scotland Yard is called in to investigate the possible involvement of a Russian secret society.  He also gets to meet and befriend some of the house guests, two of whom find the detective life quite exciting.

Review: Shortcomings

My goodness, could any cover more properly describe my reactions to a book than this one?!  Ah, Shortcomings.  Two people separated (via pretty flower-like snowflakes) by the same culture. Both people look quite angsty and depressed.  They used to be close, but alas, they have found themselves on opposite sides of a snow drift.

Adrian Tomine's graphic novel is about Ben, a sarcastic and vastly unhappy movie theater manager in Berkeley who is tired of the Asian scene.  He doesn't like discussing race or racism or being Asian.  His girlfriend Miko, on the other hand, fully embraces her Asian culture and is proud of who she is.  She worries, though, that all Ben really wants is a white girl.  Ben's best friend Alice wants any girl.  Yup, she's an Asian PhD candidate who has an eye for a pretty younger girl and seems to have wreaked havoc amongst the lesbian population of her school.  When Miko tells Ben she wants a break and goes to New York to pursue an internship, their relationship is tested to its limits.

Review: Bone - Out From Boneville

Jeff Smith's series of graphic novels begins with this one, Bone:  Out From Boneville.  In it, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone have been kicked out of Boneville after a mayoral race picnic gone wrong.  They get lost in the desert, and after a herd of locusts separate them, Fone Bone is left on his own in a lush green valley that is home to talking bugs, a giant dragon and very ugly and stupid rat creatures that want to cook him into a quiche.  Fone Bone makes friends easily, though, and soon is at home in the valley, though he still wants to find his cousins and he misses Boneville (a city that, strangely, no one else has heard of).  But he's always on the lookout for his cousins, and he's always just one step ahead of trouble.

I read this as my second book for the Graphic Novel Challenge.  To me, Bone is the traditional graphic novel story.  It's aimed at a younger audience, combines fantasy and realism, is fun and full of adventure.  While I have really enjoyed the two graphic memoirs I've read previously, it was fun to read something that was more what I think "normal" (yes, I know that's a loaded term to use, Ana!) in terms of graphic novels.

Review: The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett, is about Tiffany Aching, a nine-year-old girl with a flair for making dairy products whose family mostly doesn't notice her.  She has a toddler brother, Wentworth, who always wants "sweeties" or to go to "toy-let."  One day, Tiffany and Wentworth are warned by little blue men with red hair that there is a monster in the river by their house.  Tiffany gets rid of the monster with a frying pan, setting of a series of events including her becoming the kelda of the Nac Mac Feegle (the little blue men from the river), learning a great deal about her fabulous grandmother, sharing tales of sheep and dogs, defeating a fairy queen and, of course, coming into her own.

I love Terry Pratchett for many reasons, but one of the biggest is because I have always loved the main female characters in his story.  They are strong, witty, sensible and intelligent women.  I adore Pratchett for his ability to consistently write such excellent characters.  Tiffany Aching is no exception.  I love her.  She's the sort of nine-year-old I wish I had been.  She's the sort of girl I wish that I were now.

Bloggiesta Wrap-Up [TSS]

Gosh, the weekend is already almost over!  I know that Bloggiesta doesn't end for some hours yet, but my Sunday will be focused on looking at other participants' blogs and commenting on them, rather than working on my own.  So, what did I accomplish during my first ever Bloggiesta Fiesta?

A lot, as it turns out!  It's funny, I signed up for Bloggiesta just on a whim and didn't even think I'd really do much to participate.  But then I saw everyone else's ideas and then got my own ideas and just wanted to make sure I wasn't slacking on my poor blog, so I got to doing one thing and then that thing led to another, and another and now... well, BookLust is quite different!

I now have tabs at the top of my blog.  This is probably the improvement I'm most thrilled about as it gives me so much more room and maneuverability with my sidebars.  Because of it, I was able to return to a two-column format, which is much appreciated.  I also think the blog looks a lot cleaner and sleeker now than it did before but I may be biased.  I also like that now I can keep track of all the books I read going forward in my "2010 Books" tab.

I cleaned up my labels.  There are many fewer labels now, and I don't think anyone notices that but me, but I feel blog clean-up is more for the blog administrator than for anyone else, anyway.

I graded my blog and it went up from an 85% in mid-December to a 93% earlier today.  That is exciting!  It seems to have gone up in rating solely because I added meta tags and alt descriptions to the most recent entries.  I am not sure how I feel about the website grader.  I don't know if what it grades on is actually important, or is more archaic or maybe is just an opinion.  It didn't really hurt to put meta tags on the blog, and I admit that I'm glad that now Google search results show a blog description instead of the first sentence of the most recent post.  Other than that... I don't know if anything really makes that much of a difference.  I don't think that is going to change my Google page rank that much, or bring so much more traffic to my blog.  But it didn't take too much effort to do, so I'm happy with it.

I also participated in some challenges.  I did the Farm Lane Books back-up challenge and the Bookalicous copyright challenge (thanks to a tip from Marg for help on how to do this).  I also accidentally participated in some challenges from the last Bloggiesta, but they helped improve my blog, too, right?!

I did a pretty minimal Google Reader update by removing all the blogs I subscribe to that haven't updated in several months.  That's about all I did on that goal!  I didn't make a Favicon, either.  I am not sure how to deal with that mostly because I got specific permission from an artist (the fabulous Canadian artist Oliver Ray) to use his painting "Girl Reading" in my header.  I love the painting and hope to buy a copy for myself as a present for getting into graduate school but I feel bad using it too much for my own "branding."  This led to my goal of wanting to rebrand my blog by using a different image set, but that is a bit out of my price range right now and I don't know what I want to do, exactly.

Overall, I'm really happy with my Bloggiesta accomplishments.  I did a lot of things I didn't even consider doing before I started (like re-formatting the entire blog).  I thought I'd just focus all my time on labels, but I didn't.  I hope I can keep up my organization with the image tagging and including all books read in my 2010 Reads tab!

Thank you so much to Natasha at Maw Books for hosting Bloggiesta!  And thanks to everyone who was so nice and supportive about my blog changes.  It's great to start 2010 off on such a hopeful note, full of resolutions on reading, and a new look for the blog.

Now I'm off to read my first book for the Flashback Challenge, The Phantom Tollbooth, my favorite book from childhood.  I'm so excited!!

Bloggiesta: Goals

I don't really like posting more than once in on day, but it's Bloggiesta and I forgot that I should list my goals for what I'm doing this weekend!

Bloggiesta is kind of a blog spring cleaning, if you will.  It's a weekend over which you try to accomplish all those niggling blog maintenance things you always want to do, but never get around to.  Here's my list of hoped-for accomplishments.  I will cross them out as I achieve them:

• Write a review policy
• Write an About Me post
• Make tabs under my header so that I can clean up my sidebars.  Tabs for:  About Me, Review Policy, Rosie's Riveters, With Reverent Hands, Reviews by Year (Only starting in 2010)
• Update Blogroll
• Update & Organize Google Reader
• Make a Favicon?
• Research consulting costs for "branding" blog with a very clean new look, gravatar, favicon, columns, etc.
• Figure out how to make my sidebar background images slimmer to jive with the actual width being used (N/A as I unexpectedly and completely changed my blog layout)
  
• Figure out how to properly use the break-up post thing on Blogger so that I can do the "Read More" thing on posts and de-clutter the site.  This didn't work last time I tried it due to sidebar issues.
• Prepare meme questions for With Reverent Hands series
• Can I import really old posts from LiveJournal into Blogger?
• Backup Blogger and LiveJournal posts to both computer and new backup blog on Wordpress
• Add Meta tags
• Clean up and possibly decrease number of labels
• DECLUTTER
• Figure out what "Alt" images are and improve mine. It is far too onerous for me to go back through all my posts and add ALT tags, so I did it through mid-November and will try to make sure I keep it in mind going forward, too.
  
• Should I add "Digg" and "Delicious" links to each post?

Update:
As of Saturday, just before noon, I have spent about seven hours on the blog.  The last hour has been spent doing the ALT tags, which seem to make a big difference on the "Website Grader" since my score went up 3% to a 93 after I went through my most recent posts and added image tags.  However, I don't know how objective/subjective website graders are, so who really knows?  Anyway, "alt" tags are ways for you to define and describe any images you have on your blog.  Here's a site with information on adding alt tags.

I backed up my blog to Wordpress and to my computer, which meets the Farm Lane Books mini-challenge.

Flashback Challenge Reading List

I have been trying to think of a list of books for the Flashback Challenge, but I have no idea what to choose!  It's a matter of far too many books to fill the list.  With other challenges, it is somewhat easier to choose because there are some guidelines as to what to choose, and you kind of pick books that sound good or have been recommended to you or have been sitting on your shelves for a while.  With the Flashback Challenge, you already know the book.  You know whether you like it or not.  You know what happens at the end.  You know what impact it had on your life.  And there are so many books that I want to reread, to recapture that response I had upon first reading them.  So it's very hard to pick.

Should I read a book I read when much younger?  That I loved and has a place in my heart that I cherish?  Or is it too scary to read a book from then, in case it is tarnished?  For example, will I find The Phantom Tollbooth as witty and clever now as I did at age seven?  Or will I even see my favorite characters of Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables in the same way, now that I'm a somewhat cynical adult, compared to when I was an idealistic girl?  I don't know!

Should I read a classic from high school that I really enjoyed, or one that I didn't like at all?  Or one that I didn't really "get"?  I really loved To Kill a Mockingbird and All Quiet on the Western Front when I read them for class.  I absolutely hated Lord of the Flies.  But maybe that was because I was younger and just thought it was odd.  And I think there were many aspects of A Tale of Two Cities that I missed that I might pick up on a reread.  Plus, that book takes place during one of my favorite periods, the French Revolution.

And then the list of books from adulthood... my goodness, there are too many!  Spanning all genres.  I certainly want to reread Persuasion.  I should remind myself of why it's my favorite Jane Austen book.  I also want to reread The Shadow of the Wind, mostly because I don't remember what happened in that story, except that I loved it.  And then there's Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, which I've been talking up a lot recently but don't really remember.  And I'd love to reread The Lions of Al-Rassan because it's been so long since I've read Guy Gavriel Kay and I'd like to brush up a bit.  And I seriously want to reread some Georgette Heyer (more on my FABULOUS Georgette Heyer find tomorrow!).

So... what to do?  I have no idea!  I am just going to make a huge list of possible titles below and see what happens... I am hoping for the Literati level myself!


1.  The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (a book from childhood)
2.  A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (a book from high school)
3.  All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque (a book from high school)
4.  To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (a book from high school)
5.  The Lions of Al-Rassan, by Guy Gavriel Kay (a book from adulthood)
6.  The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas (a book from adulthood)
7.  Any number of books by Georgette Heyer (a book from adulthood)
8.  Any number of books by Terry Pratchett (a book from adulthood)
9.  Persuasion, by Jane Austen (a book from adulthood)
10.  Goblin Moon, by Teresa Edgerton (a book from adulthood)
11.  Rilla of Ingleside, by L. M. Montgomery (a book from childhood)
12.  The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede (a book from childhood)

Ok.. that is where I am going to end that list!  So many books, so many options, so many difficulties choosing!  Do you suggest any of the above over another?  Or do you think I may have missed one that "everyone" read when they were younger?

Flashback Challenge!!

A truly great book should be read in youth,

again in maturity and once more in old age,

as a fine building should be seen by morning light,

at noon and by moonlight. 

~ Robertson Davies ~

Last month (I think), I volunteered to host a Re-Read Challenge, and Kristen M volunteered to co-host.  We have been emailing each other back and forth about the logistics, and we plan to have the challenge officially start in January.  Though if you decide to reread a book before then and want it to count, that is fine, too.  I am not sure if we should set up an entirely new site to link to people's reviews.  I personally have no desire to maintain another website, so I'm going to see what happens with Kristen and I hosting on our blogs.  If it seems that, based on sign-ups, we should set up a separate site for the challenge, then maybe we'll do that, too.  But at this point, I think we can just make monthly posts with Mr. Linkys set up so that everyone can see other people's reviews.

We still don't have any buttons.  As Eva can attest, I have seriously abysmal button-making skills.  We all have different skill sets, I suppose, and Microsoft Paint is not one of mine.  Really, anything involving artistry or coordination of any sort is not really my forte.  I have equilibrium issues.  It's risky for me to drink red wine on white carpet.  But I do it anyway because I like to live dangerously.

So, this is the part where I beg people to make us buttons.  PLEASE!  Nothing flashy (haha- even though it's the Flashback Challenge!), just serviceable.  Maybe a picture of a little kid reading a book?  Or an older person reading a book?  A flashlight and a book?  Or something retro?  Something with a quote such as Holbrook Johnson's, "Books worth reading are worth re-reading"?

I don't know. Go crazy.  It would be much appreciated :-)

Onto the particulars!

The Flashback Challenge will run from January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2010.  If you're super-excited and want to reread a book before that, feel free, and let me know.  If many people do so, then I'll do a December challenge linky post and you can all link to it here.  Otherwise, we can hold them over to January.

You can sign up for the following levels:
Bookworm - Up to three books
Scholar - Four to six books
Literati - Over six books

Within these levels, we have mini-challenges!  These are:

1. Re-read a favorite book from your childhood

2. Re-read a book assigned to you in high school

3. Re-read a book you loved as an adult

Thus, if you sign up for the Bookworm level, you could ostensibly choose to read one book from each mini-challenge.  Or you could choose to do none of the above (though, granted, not sure what you could have possibly read that does not fit into either childhood, high school or adulthood).

Also, would just like to make clear that this isn't specifically limited to books you loved reading previously and want to reread.  It could also be a book you don't remember enjoying.  Or just don't remember reading.  It might be interesting to see how your perceptions may have changed.

***************
And now, courtesy of Sheila from Bookjourney, Wendy from A Novel Challenge and Katy from A Few More Pages, we have buttons for the challenge!  Thanks, ladies- much, much appreciated :-)

Ok, that's all.  Here's Mr. Linky for everyone to sign up (with or without their reading lists).  I'll post mine tomorrow!

Women Unbound: Reading List & Meme

I have a reading list for Full Suffragette Status on the Women Unbound Challenge!  To be a Suffragette, you must read eight challenge books, three of which must be non-fiction.  So here's my (tentative and totally likely to be changed) list:

Ladies of the Grand Tour:  British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in 18th Century Europe, by Brian Dolan

The Road from Coorain, by Jill Ker Conway

Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, Susan Nagel

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Mistress of the Sun, by Sandra Gulland

The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood

The Firebrand, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Stress of Her Regard, by Tim Powers

As I've never read any of the above books, I can't be sure that they all really qualify as being "feminist-ish."  So if they are not, and I read them, I will take them off the list.  And if I read other books, and they qualify, then I will just use those.  It's all about flexibility, right?  :-)

And now, for the meme!

WOMEN UNBOUND Start of Challenge Meme

1. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to do with the work sphere? The social sphere? How you dress? How you act?

It's funny, as I'm the one who came up with these questions for the meme, and I have no idea how to answer any of them!  Feminism to me is more a feeling than anything else.  I think a woman has the right to feel welcome, safe and equal in a work or social situation.  To me, it's all about comfort- feeling comfortable in a variety of different situations, and feeling confident enough to share your ideas and thoughts (politely, of course!).


2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

I don't think I'm actively feminist, but I do believe strongly in making the most I can of the opportunities I am given.  I also, though, think that I judge women more harshly than men (I certainly do in literature!), and I like to think that is because I hold females up to a high standard.  But why don't I hold men up to the same standards?  Or do I just notice annoying things more in women than men?


3. What do you consider the biggest obstacle women face in the world today? Has that obstacle changed over time, or does it basically remain the same?

I think that women are treated more fairly now in many places than they used to be.  But I also think their roles have become more complicated.  Previously (and I'll stick with the western world for now), women didn't have the right to vote or to keep property or to initiate divorce proceedings.  Now, they have the right to do all those things, but they're also expected to play so many roles.  Women, more than men, I think, want to do everything.  They want to be brilliantly successful in their careers and then pick their kids up from school and cook their husbands three-course meals.  If they're not married, they think there's something wrong with them.  If they don't want to be a careerwoman, then they think there's something wrong with them.  If they don't want to be a mother, they think there's something wrong with them.
Really, I think the biggest obstacle women face is their own insecurity.  We've come a long way in a short amount of time to being treated as equals from a legal standpoint.  But I don't think "society" has caught up to the law yet, and I don't think we as women are comfortable yet with making decisions and prioritizing, which we'll have to do eventually to keep our sanity!

And he doesn't read this blog, but happy birthday to my dad :-) 

Women Unbound Reading Challenge

Well, I'm definitely late to the game in posting this.  Or at least, I feel late to the game in posting, even though this whole challenge only came about yesterday.  On Twitter (it's a whole new world on there, I tell ya), Eva mentioned that she would like someone to host a Women's Studies Challenge.  Care said she thought that sounded like a good idea, I mentioned that Rosie the Riveter would be proud of all participants, and somehow the three of us ended up co-hosting this challenge.

Whatever it means to host a challenge (I don't know; I never have and yet am planning on doing another one in addition to this.  Go big or go home, I say), this was a huge community effort.  So many people contributed to making the Women Unbound challenge what it is, between coming up with the name (I had no part in that), the buttons (I had no part in that), the time frame (I had no part in that), the commitment levels (I had no part in that), the website (I had no part in that), suggested reading lists (guess what part I had in that), etc., etc.

So really, everyone else did all the work and I'm just taking the credit :-)  Works for me!

Anyway, the Women Unbound Challenge goes from November 1, 2009 - November 30, 2010.  That gives you 13 months to read books that center around "the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between power and gender."  This is a fairly broad definition and encompasses both  fiction and non-fiction books.  The three levels are:

• Philogynist: read at least two books, including at least one nonfiction one.
• Bluestocking: read at least five books, including at least two nonfiction ones.
• Suffragette: read at least eight books, including at least three nonfiction ones.

Generally, my approach to challenges is to bite off more than I can chew and then fail miserably to meet my goals.  As I am a creature of habit, I will be sticking with this somewhat misguided system and am signing up to be a Suffragette!  I have so many history books on women on my shelves that it's time to get them down and get them read.  I will post my reading list once I determine which of those books interest me the most at the moment, and then after posting that list, I'm sure I'll promptly lose all interest in reading any of them.  But at least I'll have shown initiative!

In any case, if you are interested in participating in the Women Unbound challenge, please go to our challenge website here and sign up!  You don't need to have a blog- you can sign up and just challenge yourself to do the reading and then send any reactions you might have to me and I will ensure that they are posted on our website.  The site also gives suggested women's studies reading, and Eva has a great list up at her website here, too.  Hope you all participate- it will be fun and feminine and awesome :-)

Review: Poison Study

Title: Poison Study

Author: Maria V. Snyder

Publisher: Luna

# of Pages: 425

This is the first book in the Study trilogy.  See my review of the second and third books here.

This book qualifies for the Clear Off Your Shelves Challenge.

Plot Summary:

On the day of her execution for murdering her benefactor, Yelena is offered a bargan: she can either die by the noose or she can become the Commander’s food taster, testing for poisons. She opts for the latter, and immediately begins a series of lessons with the tall, dark and mysterious (and, I must say, quite fascinating) Valek. Being a food taster means that Yelena is in the same room as the Commander during some fairly important meetings and conversations and as time goes on, she gets more involved in court politics. The strict, regimental life that exists under the Commander’s firm leadership is endangered, though, when it becomes clear that someone has access to the Commander’s thoughts. Yelena and Valek must try to save the commander, with the help of their fabulous friends Ari and Janco. Along the way, Yelena learns a great deal about herself, her powers and what motivates her.

My Thoughts:

That is a pretty simplified plot summary - this book actually has a wide array of characters (some of whom don’t show up in the summary above) and a plot that promises to get more intricate as the series continues. But, well, I don’t want to give too much away!

I really enjoyed this book. I thought there were some really strong female characters in it, including Yelena. I was a bit leery at first, when she came across Valek in the first ten pages. “Oh, of course her poison teacher is a hunky assassin who is pure ice on the outside but really just a troubled soul looking for love on the inside,” I thought. And I don’t think I was too off the mark in my assessment of Valek, or of Yelena’s relationship with him. But that doesn’t mean that the two aren’t interesting characters on their own. I tend to gravitate more towards male characters in stories because they are made more complex. But Yelena is complex, too. She faced a great deal of hardship in her past, but she doesn’t ever come off as being morose or self-pitying. She sticks to her guns and charts her own path- or, as much of her path as she can, under the circumstances. And when she needs help, she asks for it, instead of being an idiot who messes everything up by trying to do things her way.

I think, however, that in the books to come, it would be very easy to make Yelena into a Mary Sue character. Everyone who meets her seems to love her (except, granted, for those that want her dead) and she somehow overcomes some serious psychological drama in a fairly short amount of time. In fact, in the Mary Sue Litmus Test referenced above, Yelena already gets a pretty high score. I can see that skyrocketing as the series continues, especially with the clues we get about her towards the end of the book. But hey, if the series can hold my attention like the first book did, I’m not going to complain overly much J Well, frankly, I will complain, but it will be hard to be taken seriously if I read the other two books in this series as quickly as I did the first.

My favorite character in the book was Janco. He was a secondary character, but he’s smart, powerful and has a wicked sense of humor. If he were to exist in this world and ask me to marry him, I would not be averse to the prospect.

In addition to the characters, I thought the plot developed in an interesting way and it was definitely fast-paced. The book reads quickly- I could go through 100 pages an hour, once I got into it. So now, like Blodeudd, I have finished this book and am impatiently waiting for its sequels to arrive! I want to know what happens next. If that isn’t the mark of quality writing, I’m not sure what is.

And the world Snyder creates is great. It’s not fully developed in this book, but there are hints of things to come. This is one of those fantasy books that focuses more on political intrigue and power struggles than on magic and mayhem and epic journeys or wars. I appreciated that, and I think Snyder developed the world very well for what she seems to want to accomplish in it. I’m excited to see where the series leads me.

Any Interest in a Possible Re-Read Challenge?

In looking over my bookshelves and my staggering, intimidating TBR list, I often feel a bit guilty about wanting to re-read some old favorite books. This is a bit ridiculous as I read for pleasure, and obviously, if I like a book, reading it again should give me pleasure. But I so rarely do it because I feel like I'm wasting time that should be spent reading books that are new to me. I have a feeling I'm not the only person who feels this way. Well, I hope I am not the only person who feels this way!

I had an idea, based on this, of hosting a challenge (my first one ever, so please be gentle with me!) in 2010 for the first six months or, if people are interested in a full year challenge (and have twelve golden favorites), the full twelve months. It would just involve splurging a little and allowing yourself the happy and comfortable feeling of settling in with a well-beloved book or author. Once a month. Or how ever many you want to sign up to read, I guess. It could be flexible, as I don't want the challenge itself to stress anyone out! Would anyone else be interested in taking part? I think it could be a lot of fun as many of us read our favorite books before we started blogging, and so re-reading them and refreshing our memory on them might allow us to make a review and spread the love. It also might help us see nuances that we missed the first time. It could be a great experiment!

Let me know if you'd be interested in taking part. You don't need to have a blog to do it- it can be open to readers of all sorts! Also, please let me know how long you'd like the challenge to be. Thanks, all!

The Dewey 24-Hour Read-a-Thon

So, everyone and their monkey's uncle in the book blogging world is talking about the Read-a-Thon! It's being held this Saturday, October 24th. For me, being in the Central Time Zone, it starts at 5am. I have signed up to be a cheerleader, but I figured, just in case, that I should also have a list of books to read. I won't be reading for 24 straight hours, mostly because... well, if I do anything for 24 hours at this point in my life, it should be graduate school applications. And that's not happening. So I can't quite justify spending 24 hours reading. But hopefully by April, I'll be able to!

Anyway, so here's my pseudo-pile of books for the read-a-thon, since I'm not actually a reader:

1. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba
2. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey
3. Any one or several of all the Georgette Heyer novels I have on my bookshelf
4. A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray
5. I, Coriander, by Sally Gardner

I think that's enough! Knowing me and my rebellious streak, none of the above will appeal to me come October 24th, but hey... I will try :-)

New Zealand Challenge Wrap-Up

I'm pretty impressed with myself because I've finished my first ever challenge! And I finished it EARLY, too. Maree at Just add books... is hosting this very laid-back and thus thoroughly appealing challenge in honor of New Zealand Book Month. I read and reviewed Potiki, by Patricia Grace here, and I also watched the film Once Were Warriors.

Gosh, what a depressing movie! It was one of those movies that is very powerful in a disturbing way. The movie is based on a book, and revolves around a Maori woman, Beth, who is in an abusive marriage and is trying very hard to keep her family together. However, her husband drinks too much, her eldest son is joining a street gang, her middle son gets in trouble with the law, and she hardly has time for her youngest two. The only child who is really a spark of light in this dreary life is her daughter, Grace, who is quiet and shy and writes stories in her notebook. The movie really highlights the love-hate relationship between Beth and her husband, and her fierce determination to protect her children from his violent outbursts. It doesn't make anything easy; there are some horrific scenes, and it can be very, very painful to watch. But it was a deeply moving portrayal of a family struggling to get by, and of a culture that is trying so hard to stay proud, but is drowning.

Really, every time I see a movie or read a book or visit a country in which native people were displaced by others- in the US, New Zealand, Australia, Africa, and countless other regions around the world- I just feel an aching sadness for those cultures. They never recover. Often, the people descend into alcoholism or gambling addiction or some other vice because there is nowhere to go. They have no home, as it was taken away from them. They can't pursue their traditional vocations. The culture that lasted so many generations was almost erased, if not by people dying out, then by the "white man's burden" of instilling European cultural ideals. And now, most of these people live in out-of-the-way places on reservations or somewhere where they can't really be seen or heard. And so people forget about them, or ignore them, or wonder why they don't assimilate properly into the dominant culture. This movie really highlights this situation. Beth knows that her husband is bad news, and that her children are in trouble. She knows that they will always struggle between two worlds and how to be proud of their heritage while also surviving in a world in which they are second-rate citizens. It's a deeply sensitive film that doesn't give you any answers or resolutions- it just presents the situation as it is, and asks you to notice.

Here's a scene in the movie where one of the characters is trying to impart the pride of Maori culture into young boys in juvenile detention through teaching them how to do the famed Haka dance.