Tell me of books!

[sholio]

After writing my last (f'locked) post and then feeling kind of useless and whingey and basically like I was just derailing things onto my own whining, I thought: For pete's sake, I could do something useful instead.

So! What have you read lately by PoC creators that was cool or fun or interesting or otherwise worthy of a rec? Books? Comics? Manga? (I'm sure some of you can chime in on that one. :D)

I am currently reading a book called Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang, about the exodus from village to factory towns in China, and the young women who make up the bulk of the work force. There is a more personal tone to this book than you tend to get with a lot of news-reporting-type nonfiction; the author, who is an American of Chinese descent, is also exploring her own history and telling her own story as much as that of the girls that she is interviewing.

(And, damn it, I *will* finish that Kindred write-up when I get a chance!)

What have you read lately? What do you recommend? coffeeandink asked for people to leave recommendations for books by PoC authors here in the comments to her post explaining the fail -- I'm not trying to trump her, and I do recommend looking through her comments for cool stuff to read, also. Things that you recommend here, you can also recommend there if you are comfortable doing so. Or vice versa.

Basically I just want to talk about books rather than fail for a while, damn it.

Edits: livrelibre has lotsa linkies here and rydra_wong reminded me of 50books_poc, which is an awesome resource for book reviews and recs.

Comments

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Cough...well, not as a book, but I think it's been collected:

http://www.weregeek.com/2006/11/27/

Weregeek webcomic. Guy whose always been a geek at heart, inside, but never had anybody to geek out *with* makes some friends who roleplay and LARP.

And the same artist's new autobiographical webcomic:

http://www.mooseheadstew.com/2009/02/02/

about being a Cree girl from Saskatchewan.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks! That second one in particular looks quite interesting to me; I'm always on the lookout for stuff that has to do with the north.

[zillah975]

Bayou! It's a webcomic, annoyingly done in Flash which makes my mouse go all wonky if I'm trying to do anything else, but I shouldn't be because it is freakin' addictive and very awesome. It's also a WIP, but I'm really impressed:

Bayou
http://www.zudacomics.com/node/112

It's going to be published in print and I'll definitely be buying it.

Also, the flash thing can't be blamed on the creator but on Zuda Comics, which I suspect does it in order to minimize downloading.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Bayou! You know, I started reading that back when the first installment came out, but I couldn't get the flash to work right, and it was so annoyingly slow and buggy that I quit. It looked good, though, and I'm delighted to hear there will be a print version!

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I do find the interface really annoying, yeah. But the art is beautiful and I'm enjoying the story. I tend to go back every month or two so there's a good chunk of new stuff to read.

[less-star.livejournal.com]

20 fragments of a ravenous youth by Xiaolu Guo. Young girl moves from the countryside to Beijing in the mid-nineties. Works as an extra in movies, writes a script. (Not exactly autobiographical, but mirrors the authors life rather closely.) I thought it was fascinating to see modern-day China from the inside, and the main character really struck a chord with me.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

That sounds interesting! You might want to try the book I rec'd above as a companion to that one -- totally different part of the country and industry, but she talks a lot about how China has changed over the previous 10-15 years; apparently the rate of social and technological change right now is just breathtaking.

[less-star.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought when I read your post, actually. It sounds fascinating.

[altyronsmaker.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I just finished People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. It's about the Sarajevo Haggadah - a famous Jewish prayer book for seter. I have a post about it here in my journal (http://altyronsmaker.livejournal.com/303488.html). The novel traces the journey of the haggadah from it's origins in 1480 as a gift to wealthy Jewish son on his Bar Mitzvah through all the trials and tribulations of the Jewish community in Europe. I LOVED it and HIGHLY recommend it. You said 'persons of color' and while I don't necessarily believe the Jewish people in the novel are 'of color," they are, historically, an oppressed minority so I thought it relevant.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Hmm, sounds interesting! *makes note* :)

[naye]

(About the previous link: Ugh, ugh, ugh. Those are some reprehensible levels of fail.)

And I can't even bring recs, really, because I haven't read a single book since coming to Japan. It's quite possibly the longest I have ever gone without reading books (though I think I went book-less for about this long last time I headed over here) and it feels weird. I don't even miss it! It's like my brain is already too full...?

I am reading manga! But I think most of my favorite manga is already fairly well known and well recced, while the odd titles I'm enjoying are so obscure that they'll probably never be translated. ^^;;

Maybe I should make a post about it or something, though? Most people might not have the same take on "well known" as I do.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

... and that reminds me that I ought to -- well, I was going to say "get caught up on One Piece" but there is SO MUCH OF IT, OMG. But I'd at least like to revisit it -- I should pull out the 2 or 3 years' worth of English language Shonen Jumps that I have, and figure out where I stopped so that I can buy more! ^_^

[naye]

You should!! ♥ It's an amazing story in so many ways, and if you get an urge to discuss any of it, you know where to find me - and others beside! The OP fandom that I knew was fairly tiny, but cool and friendly and given to lots and lots of discussion in the wait between chapters every week. *g*

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Obama's Dreams from my Father now, finding it an interesting meditation on race in America...or is that too mainstream, these days? ^^;

[naye]

Randomly, and because I think friendshipper will be amused: you'd mentioned that the Japanese were using Obama's speeches as "background music" in dentists' offices and such? Well, last time I went to my local bookstore, guess what they were playing in the loudspeakers?

Yep. I'm in a bookstore in Saiin, Japan, and what I hear is the President of the US speaking. It's a cool world, after all. ♥

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Hee! It's a small world. :D :D :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Considering his translated speeches are some of the top bestsellers here right now, it's not surprising you'd hear them in a bookstore! ^^

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

You know, I haven't read that -- I've honestly never been interested in reading celebrity books, but this one might be worth picking up, do you think ...?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

It's not exactly what one would call a celebrity book - it was published in 1995, written before he'd run for political office. So it's not like a ghost-written autobiography trying to cash in on fame. And Obama's a fine writer, a bit given to the grandiose, but eloquent - he writes like he speaks.

I haven't read that many biographies, auto or otherwise (I hadn't realized I was interested in them until recently) but I'm finding it interesting, anyway?

[rydra_wong]

*points you at 50books_poc, where you can read my incoherent babblings about Andrea Hairston's Mindscape, along with many other recs*

Seriously, the comm is an awesome resource. You don't have to commit to 50 in order to read it for recs and reviews, and we've got over a year's worth (which are mostly tagged).

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Ahh, thank you for the reminder! I just edited my post to add a link and I added this too while I was at it. :)

I did know about it and I do browse it for reviews -- although, honestly, I've got such a total backlog of things to read right now that it's mostly browsing to see what other people thought of books that I've already read. That's the main reason why I haven't signed up to read the 50 books, too -- because I'm trying to make a dent in my backlog of unread books before I go buying more. (Though my resolve is not working so well, due to my tendency to impulse buy ...)

[dunv-i.livejournal.com]

I've barely read in the past year, and I don't know what sorts of things you like, but I liked the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. I thought it was really intriguing. (I was also really annoyed while reading it because some kids in my class were really astonishingly oblivious in some ways (pretty much the white male kids who spoke a lot, too. The ones of other ethnicities tended to be more quiet, only speaking when they had something of extreme significance to say). They meant well, but... I'll shut up now

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I'll read pretty much anything, actually! And that does sound interesting (although, blech, it's too bad that people couldn't discuss it reasonably; that must have been uncomfortable).

[dunv-i.livejournal.com]

That was the worst part; they were trying to discuss it reasonably, but they kept on getting caught up on how "Not all Americans are like that!" (this part will make sense as soon as you start reading) and how they felt uncomfortable and unable to "connect" to the protag. I kept on trying to explain that they're supposed to be made uncomfortable with it, and that you don't necessarily have to be just like the character to feel like the character and sympathize and follow - this last part especially I feel is connected to the whole white male thing - you get pretty good at connecting with characters you aren't anything like when there aren't any other choices.

Wow, that's been on my chest since last fall. Sorry. It's a good book.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*blinks* THAT'S what their problem was? I ... just ... dude. Don't get out much, do they?

And I have no idea what the situation in the book was, but I've run into plenty of uncomplimentary outsider depictions of Americans/Westerners in media and books, usually pretty spot-on; what an utterly silly thing to get worked up over.

[dunv-i.livejournal.com]

(Boarding school. The bubble's walls are astonishing sometimes.)

And the depiction isn't even uncomplimentary! The whole experience was just so... frustrating! *flail flail flail*

(okay, I'm done. THAT GRUDGE IS GONE. srly.)

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not sure I actually recommend this (since I'm not enjoying it all that much) but by assignment at uni I'm reading Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. She's native american, the book came out in the late seventies, and you'll have probably already heard of it as it's considered a 'great classic'. The writing is interesting, especially the parts where it delves more into ancient culture, but I'm halfway through and I haven't been able to make a connection with the main character (who's a deeply traumatized vietnam vet). All and all, if it weren't an assignment, I don't think I'd finish it.
(other books of the course-work, which deals with minority american writers, are Their eyes were watching god by Zora Neale Hurston, and The house on Mango street by Sandra Cisneros)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I've never read Silko except for some assigned short stories in school; she's not particularly high on my list of writers to read, either. (Sherman Alexie, though -- speaking of Native American writers, a ton of people have recommended him to me, and I need to remember to put some of his books on my next Amazon order.)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Natasha Trethewey, Native Guard.

My rec of the Pulitzer-Prize winner for 2007 in poetry is HERE (http://lunabee34.livejournal.com/207508.html).

Book Recs

[b7-kerravon.livejournal.com]

I'm currently reading "Deathwish", the fourth book in the Cal Leandros urban fantasy series (that started with "Nightlife") - it hit number 26 on the NY Times bestseller list this week! How can you go wrong with a real troll living under the Brooklyn Bridge and Robin Goodfellow (aka Puck) selling used cars? I love the writing style, too. Thurman has a riveting way with words.