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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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? ^^;

[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).

[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

[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)

[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.