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Got any book recommendations for me? I love fun and am partial to fantasy, but I’m basically omnivorous. I’m always particularly on the look out for books written by women, POC (esp WOC) and LGBTQIA+ folks.
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Excellent! I haven’t read either. They go on my list.
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Have you read ‘It’s Ok to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too)’ by Nora McInerny Purmort?
I love her podcast ‘Terrible Thanks For Asking’ too, which is how I found the book. The podcast deals with life’s curveballs and how we respond. Equal parts hilarious and hopeful. The book follows suit.
Anyway I highly recommend both!
Nnedi Okorafor is fantastic! I have read the Binti series and Lagoon. Who Fears Death is on my list (I mean, I’ll read anything she writes at this point, so it’s all on my list, but Who Fears Death is the one of hers I want to tackle next).
It can be hard recommending books out of the blue for people. I’m just really interested in hearing people’s suggestions.
You’re like me with books – you need a TARDIS to fit them in (my bookcases are basically the floor of almost every room because the actual bookcases are full)!
I have several suggestions – a couple of which are indy authors who I happen to know.
Speak Its Name by Kathleen Jowitt: Kath’s a bisexual Christian who took her own struggle with her sexuality within the church environment and turned it into a quite powerful story that reflects further on the subject (I reviewed it for her; not being at all religious I expected to find it heavy going, but I absolutely couldn’t put it down).
Small Gods by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett: basically an angel and a demon have to grudgingly team up while on earth. Very funny, and there’s Queen’s Greatest Hits in it.
The Miss Peregrine series by Ransom Riggs: This is really YA fiction, but it’s actually fantastic and the books contain beautifully strange photos from the Victorian era.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: You’ll never want to leave London Below either, and one of the main characters is a delightfully flamboyant POC.
The Mythidria Chronicles by William Cash: Another indy author friend; sci-fi/fantasy with a love story in it. Filled with emotions, too – I laughed, I cried, and at one point I was so upset that I threw the book down, sobbed, and couldn’t pick it up for a week (but that was in the good sort of way).
Anything by Sir Terry Pratchett, especially the Discworld series.
I also enjoy Doctor Who novels, which comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody who knows me! If I think of anyhthing else, I’ll let you know :)
I absolutely love Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman! Thank you for all those suggestions! I’m aware of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, but I haven’t read it (yet). I’m not religious either, but Speak Its Name sounds interesting. I like tying out indie authors, so I’ll give the Mythidria book a shot sometime too!
I’m sure Kath would love to know what you think of Speak Its Name – she’s a good friend of mine (she and her husband were at my wedding) and I do try to promote her writing where I can. William is working on book two of Mythidria, and there’s me all “Come ON, I want to know what happens next!” lol.
You may also be interested in “The Long Lost Future” by another friend of mine – Ian Cattell. It’s rather Douglas Adams-ish and very funny :)
Out of curiosity, can I ask why you’re drawn to books with female/POC/LGBT etc authors? I try to read more from female authors because I know my book collection is predominantly by male authors (although some male authors write really good female protagonists), and I like reading stories based in other cultures because I reckon I could learn something from doing so. Is it something similar for you?
Pretty much the same reason you try to read more female authors. Those groups of people still tend to be underrepresented in the literary world (not so much women in genres such as romance or ‘chick lit’, of course, but then the those genres tend to get an undeserved reputation as sub-par). And there are still lots of people out there who flat out refuse to pick up a book by a woman or by a POC or which has LGBTQIA+ characters/themes. I noticed a couple of years ago that even though I didn’t think I harbored any conscious bias, I still had more white cis het men on my shelves than any other demographic. I’ve been trying to get more of a balance ever since.
And doing that has been great. I grew up as a boyish-girl, not really feeling represented or like I fit properly. Now I’m finding more and more books that I feel at home in.
Throw me the link and I’ll add it to my list!
No promises on *when* I’ll get round to it, though. I read quite a lot, but my To Read list is very big and constantly growing, and though I read memoirs from time to time they’re not my go-to thing.
(This applies to all suggestions made, of course, but since yours is personal I don’t want you to feel like I’m ignoring it if I don’t rush out and get your book today).
I have some good books I can highly recommend. I just read “The Beatiful Side of Everything” by Ashley Woodfolk, I should have a review up very soon, its an excellent read. “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline is badass. I’m in the middle of reading “Wintersong” by S. Jae Jones and its fantastic so far. Hows that?
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