Laura reflects on the universality of Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed.
All tagged Diversity
Guest Post: How Discovering Sandra Cisneros Helped Me Find My Own Path in Writing
Today we're happy to welcome Phillippe Diederich to Clear Eyes, Full Shelves, whose new novel, Playing for the Devil's Fire, is out now from the excellent Cinco Puntos Press (this is an outstanding independent press--seek out their books if you're looking for fresh voices).
I started reading seriously when I was in tenth grade. I had a great English teacher and we were reading Italian and Russian short stories. I really took to the Russians. It led me to read Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina. I didn't read that much for the rest of my high school days, but that was mostly because I didn't like the books I came across. We had to read Ordinary People and The Old Man and the Sea. Well, for a 16 year old boy who'd never gone fishing, I couldn't imagine more boring books.
Podcast Episode #29 (Season 3, Episode 3): Talking Cultural Appropriate, Diversity & Publishing with Nafiza (Part 2)
We couldn't be more excited to have the brilliant blogger Nafiza of Bibliographic Monologues and The Book Wars fame join us for the second in a two-part podcast series on diversity and cultural appropriation.
Nafiza is one of the smartest ladies in the bookish blogosphere, complete with a Masters in Children's Literature, and we're so happy to have her join us for this discussion. If you'd like to hear more from Nafiza (and you really should), visit her online at Bibliographic Monologues and The Book Wars and check out all her smarty pants tweets at @Nafizaa.
Recommendation Tuesday: Trade Me by Courtney Milan
Recommendation Tuesday started as a joke and is now an official thing. Basically, this is my way of making Tuesday a little more awesome. If you've got a book to recommend on this or any Tuesday, tweet me at @FullShelves and I'll help spread the word.
View all of the past recommendations over here.
Have I ever told you guys what prompted me to pick up my first Courtney Milan book?
Obviously I'd heard of her, but I didn't decide to read one of her novels until one date I was screwing around on Tumblr (as one does) and accidentally tapped on the notes link on the bottom of a Tumblr post from one of the many Australian Shepherd Tumblrs I follow and noticed that the person who'd like the post of a cute Aussie puppy was Courtney Milan. Obviously, this was important information! A quite look at Courtney's Twitter feed told me that yes indeed she shares her life with one of these wacky dogs too. So, I picked up one of her books, even though historicals set in England aren't usually my cup of tea and enjoyed it.
And this, my friends, is why book marketing is such a tough nut to crack.
Friendship, Diversity and Adventure in Stacey Lee's Under a Painted Sky
A fantastic historical novel is a special thing--and I sometimes feel like it's a unicorn situation. The last historical novel I loved (that wasn't a verse novel) was Jennifer Donnelly's luminous A Northern Light and that was quite awhile ago.
Fortunately, Stacey Lee's debut young adult historical novel about two girls on the Oregon Trail in the early 1800s, Under a Painted Sky, landed in my mailbox at just the right time, as it was the historical novel I've been looking for for ages and ages.
Father always said, If you cannot be brave, then imagine you are someone else who who is. So I imagine myself as him, my optimistic father, whose steps never wavered, whose face never hid in shadows. Lifting my chin, I march after Andy as if my cares were few and my outlook, golden.
Under a Painted Sky starts off with a bang, with narrator Samantha--a skilled violinist of Chinese descent--being left with no choice but to flee her Missouri town. Dashed are her dreams of moving back to New York and pursuing a music career.
Recommendation Tuesday: Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson
Recommendation Tuesday started as a joke and is now an official thing. Basically, this is my way of making Tuesday a little more awesome. If you've got a book to recommend on this or any Tuesday, tweet me at @FullShelves and I'll help spread the word.
View all of the past recommendations over here.
Ms. Marvel, G. Willow Wilson's comic about teen superhero Kamala Khan, came highly recommended by many, many people. I usually don't care for the big comic publishers (Marvel, DC), largely because they're too slick for me, but the glowing recommendations from friends, plus the ridiculous controversy around meant my interest was piqued--and I pretty much loved it.
Recommendation Tuesday: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Recommendation Tuesday started as a joke and is now an official thing. Basically, this is my way of making Tuesday a little more awesome. If you've got a book to recommend on this or any Tuesday, tweet me at @FullShelves and I'll help spread the word.
View all of the past recommendations over here.
It's not often I find a work on literary fiction that has a story as compelling as its prose--hence, I don't recommend it very often. Sparkling, thoughtful writing is wonderful, but it feels awfully vapid when the story falters. Or it's filled with dull Middle Aged Man Angst.
Discovering Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You was an unexpected surprise, as result. While imperfect (as all novels are), it hits so many notes that make worth checking out, even if you normally avoid literary fiction. It's a historical novel, though the 1970s time period is one of the book's less-developed aspects, but more than anything it's a story of family and marriage.
Stream-It Saturday: The Fosters (TV)
In my continuing selfless service to the world (ahem), I'm always looking for the next awesome thing to stream. And, of course, I must share my finds with you fabulous folks. Hence, Stream-It Saturday.
Check out all my previous recommendations over here.
Apparently, I am the target demographic for ABC Family--who knew? Between the show I'm spotlighting today, The Fosters, and my new binge-watching addition, Switched at Birth, I am a fan of the network, apparently.
Recommendation Roundup: June 2014
I don't know about you, but reading has been weird for me lately. Between summer and a stressful couple of work projects, I'm finding myself in a bit of a funk.
I keep starting books and then they lose my attention. However, Nafiza's wonderful graphic novel recommendation list came to my rescue and it's been just what the doctor ordered. I've gone way down the Saga rabbit hole and am official obsessed.
I also picked up a couple of fabulous middle grade verse novels I'd been meaning to read and that was a pretty solid life decision. I got Kwame Alexander's beautiful and moving The Crossover from the library and I'll definitely be buying a copy for my own shelves. It's one of my favorite reads of 2014 for sure. I want everyone to read it so that I can nerd out about it with other people!
Onward to the recommendations!
Recommendation Tuesday: Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols
Recommendation Tuesday started as a joke and is now an official thing. Basically, this is my way of making Tuesday a little more awesome. If you've got a book to recommend on this or any Tuesday, tweet me at @FullShelves and I'll help spread the word.
View all of the past recommendations over here.
Jennifer Echols is another relatively well-known author with a book I'm happy to include in my Recommendation Tuesday series. While Jennifer is well-loved by readers, she's generally under-recognized by gatekeeper types, despite having embraced positive depictions of teen girl sexuality and identity in her novels for many years.
Her latest, Biggest Flirts--the first in a new series of connected novels, is no different.
Tia, the first person narrator of Biggest Flirts, is a senior at her Florida high school, drummer in the marching band and notorious flirt. She unashamedly prefers casual hookups, eschewing boyfriends, and even has a regular hookup buddy (Sawyer, who's going to be a main character in the third book in the Superlatives series).
diVERSEity: Verse Novels with People of Color as Main Characters, by Skila Brown (Guest Post)
As we celebrate verse novels all this week, let’s take a moment to highlight those stories that feature a person of color as the main character. This is not a complete list, but a list of some of the best.
If you have favorites not listed below, tell us about them in the comments!
The Good Braider by Terry Farish
Viola leaves war-torn Sudan for a new life in the United States. Such a great story of strength and loss of innocence. Beautiful cover! Beautiful writing!
Recommendation Tuesday: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Recommendation Tuesday started as a joke and is now an official thing. If you've got a book to recommend on this or any Tuesday, tweet me at @FullShelves and I'll help spread the word.
This week's Recommendation Tuesday is part of our Verse Novel Week celebration! View all of the past recommendations over here.
And the pomegranates,
like memories, are bittersweet
as we huddle together,
remembering just how good
life used to be.
— Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
When I get ready to put together Verse Novel Week each year, I always try to (rather foolishly) get caught up on verse novels I've missed and check out as many as I can find from the library. This year, my pile reached fairly ridiculous proportions, but at the top was Guadalupe Garcia McCall's Under the Mesquite, which came highly recommended by Nafiza, who has excellent taste.
Under the Mesquite is one of those books that will just suck you into its words and rhythm, and the verse format adds so much to that feeling as Garcia McCall weaves together Mexican American immigrant Lupita's story of family, loss and hope.
Review: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, Guest Post by Allie of In Bed with Books
Kwame Alexander's newest novel, THE CROSSOVER, is a verse tour de force. It's told through poems by the main character, Josh Bell a.k.a. Filthy McNasty. He and his twin brother Jordan (JB) are talented basketball players, but jealousy threatens to split them apart when JB gets a girlfriend.
I love how many levels of story are woven into this novel.
THE CROSSOVER is the kind of book I never would've picked up when I was younger because I didn't like sports. There is the sports story promised by the cover, all leading up to a big championship game, but it is far from the only plotline. Nor is it the most important plotline. That's reserved for all the family stuff.
Reflections on Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection
A couple of years ago, Sarah and I spent a long weekend in Washington, DC. She lived there for several years during and after college, and I always enjoyed visiting the city. Returning to the nation’s capital was a real treat, since a number of new attractions opened since my last visit. While we intended to hit many of them, we instead visited the National Museum of the American Indian several times.
In the gift shop, I came upon a graphic story collection Native American tales, Trickster: Native American Tales. Leafing through it evoked memories of my own childhood, memories of beauty, memories of sunshine filled days, and memories of a gentle man, Larry of the Klickitat Indian tribe, who lifted me upon his shoulders carrying me about and speaking to me, telling me stories. He gave me beautiful memories of a singing, sparkling river, of dry pine covered mountains, of compassion, and love—all memories I hold sacred.
Links & Things: Angry Girls, Feminism, Diversity & More Cheapo Books
I'm back with another semi-regular roundup of interestingness on the web. Make sure to scroll down for some good deals on good books I've found for y'all.
Required Reading
Blogger Reynje wrote the best review of Elizabeth Scott's brilliant Heartbeat and digs into who much some readers have hated the main character.
If Emma’s character is divisive then I’m stating right now that I’m firmly on her side. I want to see more of this: more honesty, more difficulty, more discomfort. Sometimes teenage girls are angry, or sad, or complicated. And that’s okay.
Podcast #20: Diversifying the Shelves (Part 2) with Author Sarah Ockler & Blogger Racquel of The Book Barbies
We're super-thrilled to publish the second half of our discussion with author Sarah Ockler and Racquel, blogger from The Book Barbies, about diversifying our bookshelves, how writers can work to authentically represent people of color in their fiction and recommendations for books and authors that do this successfully. You can find the first half over here.
In this half, we get down to the nitty-gritty and recommend some novels that really, in our eyes, get it right, and why. It's important to emphasize that this is most definitely not a comprehensive conversation--if anything, it's framing questions and talking about our personal experiences. We hope to continue to explore this topic in future episodes. If you'd like to be involved in a future podcast discussion on this subject, get in touch and let's talk.
Podcast #19: Diversifying the Shelves (Part 1) with Guests Author Sarah Ockler & Blogger Racquel of the Book Barbies
In episode 19 of the Clear Eyes, Full Shelves we are joined by author Sarah Ockler and welcome back blogger Racquel of The Book Barbies. This is the first in a two-part conversation about diversifying our bookshelves, how writers can work to authentically represent people of color in their fiction and recommendations for books and authors that do this successfully.
It's important to emphasize that this is most definitely not a comprehensive conversation--if anything, it's framing questions and talking about our personal experiences. We have a second part of this podcast coming soon and hope to continue to explore this topic in future episodes.
Links & Things: Friday the 13th Edition
I haven't posted a slew of interesting links in awhile, but I've been saving up a bunch to share with y'all.
Onward ho!
Video of Awesome
There's a special place in movie hell for Prometheus, quite possibly the worst "film" I've ever seen. Awhile back, Laura sent me this fabulous video about everything that's wrong with that movie. Enjoy.
Required Reading
Jillian Cantor’s ‘Margot’: Stop Writing Anne Frank Fan-Fiction (Flavorwire)
“ She could have created an original character, but she chose the dead sister of one of history’s most famous murdered children as her subject, and there is something horrifically exploitative about that. Margot’s story in Cantor’s novel is unspecific enough that it could have been about any survivor, but the usage of the Frank name rings of gimmickry. ”
When I saw Jillian Cantor's Margot up on Netgalley, it certainly gave me pause. As a human being, there's something that just doesn't sit right with me about this premise (and apparently, there are other titles of this ilk). Jason Diamond of Flavorwire wrote a succinct discussion of why this needs to stop.