50 Books POC Reading Poll

[rachelmanija]

Help me prioritize my to-read stacks! Please comment to tell me which I should read first and why, and if there's anything I should avoid and why.

Note: This is just the first poll.

Other note: I have already read and enjoyed other books by Butler, Myers, Johnson, and Liu.

[Poll #1342964]

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The Jenkins and the Bollywood so that I know if I want to read them. The Lius for obvious reasons.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Not The Gilda Stories. It was BOOOOOOOORING.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

That is so sad. Lesbian vampires should not be boring!

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I will push back and say the I love The Gilda Stories greatly. Boring for some but for me, I waited years (since the first short story, "No Day Too Long", was published in the book, Lesbian Fiction<) to have more.

You can find an additional Gilda themed story in the anthology, Swords of the Rainbow.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all the recs! I just put up part II of the poll, by the way.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I just put up part II of the poll, by the way.

Curses! Sucking me in with another poll!

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I remember liking it (I didn't think it was boring), but not loving it, so I did not vote for it. I quite liked The Fledgling, but it is not Butler at her best, so I didn't vote for that either.

But The Intuitionist is awesome, about two competing theories of elevators. So entertaining and inventive!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

You should read:

a) The Intuitionist because it is MADE OF AWESOME
b) the Beverly Jenkins because I want to know if her other books are better than the one I tried

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

The Intuitionist because it is MADE OF AWESOME
I think it was just a few months ago when I was trying to remember the name of "that cool book about elevators" I read once. I don't remember many details now, but I remember liking it.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Did you read one of Jenkins' historicals or a contemporary?

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Historical.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I didn't think the one I read was the best romance ever, but I did enjoy the historical details. It was a long time ago.

[pene.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed "Always and Forever" for the refreshing competence of the women in it, the historical detail and the focus of it. The romance didn't stop my breath or anything and the hero was a bit too... muscular... for me. But basically it made me happy.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Oh oh oh! I read The Intuitionist a few years ago for Buffista Book Club! It's very good and interesting. I see that other people agree, as it's winning the poll.

Oh man, it was 2004 when I read it. I appear to have "really liked" it. It led to a lot of discussion. And it was funny. Thumbs up!

[heyoka.livejournal.com]

I'm most of the way through Iron Hunt right now, so I'd be interested to see your review of it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Are you enjoying it so far? (Do you read Liu in general?)

[heyoka.livejournal.com]

Not to crib from oracene, but: it's a bit murky. I *haven't* read the prequel novella, and found myself at a loss for the first few chapters. The relationship between the MC and the tattoo-demons is really interesting, and is probably the main hook for me.

This is the first novel by Liu I've read, I think.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Fledgling is so good. It made me really sad when I read it, because I knew she must have had sequels planned that she never got a chance to write. Really, it's an amazing book.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I am still saving FLEDGLING to read, because right now it would make me too sad. Mine is signed.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed A TASTE OF CRIMSON.

THE IRON HUNT had some cool ideas, but was a little murky; I think if I hadn't read the prequel novella, I might have been much more confused by it. I'm curious to see where she'll go with the sequel.

BOLLYWOOD NIGHTS sounds fun, and I want to know if I want to read it!

I liked the Jenkins historical I read years ago a lot more than the contemporary/suspense of hers I read more recently, and it was also a Western [ALWAYS AND FOREVER], so WILD SWEET LOVE could be good. I remember thinking it wasn't the best romance I'd ever read, but I liked the historical detail about the black settlers. If you end up liking it, I have TOPAZ which I can lend.

I've read a Tananarive Due and it was really creepy so I haven't tried her again. I am not a horror/creepy book reader, though, and her writing is really good.

I remember a college friend of mine really liked Jewelle Gomez, though I have not read her.

Others:
Do you have any Nalo Hopklinson on your list? She has a new one out soon, I believe.

For YA, Barbara Caridad Ferrer's ADIOS TO MY OLD LIFE is a lot of fun--heroine is a guitarist on a "Latin Idol" show. Can lend if I can pry it away from person I lent it to already.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Fascinating, reasonably well-written, and thought-provoking. I enjoyed this so much that I convinced my father to read it before my brother left because my brother was going to borrow it. This was over winter vacation; once I got back home, I decided I couldn't wait for my brother to bring my copy back to me, so I bought another copy.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I loved Blink, and thought The Tipping Point was interesting but a bit glib. His magazine articles are fantastic. I'm definitely going to read Outliers eventually.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

After reading Outliers, I decided I had to buy and read his other two books. I didn't like The Tipping Point as much. I've started Blink. I am pretty sure Outliers is going to remain my favorite. I started reading a chapter in a bookstore, thinking that it might be glib and something to wait for in paperback, but I ended up buying it then and there.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I decided I couldn't read Outliers after an Asian-American blog I read (maybe AAM?) tore into it because of the bit about rice paddies. Seriously: rice paddies!

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

That was actually the chapter that I read in the bookstore that made me buy the book. Do you remember what the criticism was? A few points I got out of that chapter and related in the rest of the book:

• More education = better scores, as reflected in how poorer kids tend to not learn things over the summer because they don't go to summer school or similar activities.
  
• Crops in the Western world often strip soil of nutrients and thus the soil needs time to rest and recover, plus farming, while hard, often involves periods of just waiting around. With rice paddies, it tends to involve work year around, and extra effort invested tends to have clearly demonstrable improvement in yield. Now look at school schedules, which apparently take farming as a metaphor for cultivating knowledge in students. Western countries have huge summer vacations; Asian countries have summer classes.
  
• Effort pays off in math (well, if given problems appropriately selected to build upon past topics). So maybe (and yeah, it's not clear how seriously you can take this) Asian test scores in math are so much higher because they are used to working and seeing it pay off, and possibly this somehow even extends to Asian Americans.
  

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Link (http://www.angryasianman.com/2008/12/ancient-asian-math-secret-rice-farming.html).

Like AAM, I am inclined to see this as crackpot theories plus cultural stereotypes masquerading as social science. I've liked Gladwell's previous books, but I'm taking a pass at that one.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

When I have more spoons I will make a post about this theory and reply with its link here. I'll just say for now that Tipping Point seemed more crackpotty to me than Outliers, and I am concerned that Blink will strike me as even shakier, but I haven't gotten too far into the latter, and so far it seems reasonable.

[sleepfighter.livejournal.com]

I admit that I am superbiased because I have helped interview Jewelle, and she is an awesome human being. So, you know. Bias.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Cool! Is it online? Did she ever write any more fiction?

[sleepfighter.livejournal.com]

She did write some more stuff, and has some novellas in progress. Some of it is lesbian erotica, some kids books. This (http://www.jewellegomez.com/books.html) is pretty complete. Sadly, I don't think I've ever seen it online?

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend Jewelle's short story, Lynx and Strand in the book, Don't Explain. Published by Firebrand

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Voting for Gomez, Due, and Mosley, because I've read a handful of the individual "Gilda" tales, and several books by the other authors, and liked them all; so I'd love to hear about the ones I've not yet gotten around to reading!

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Read the Mosley and tell me it's good so I'll get around to reading the copy I have.

(I'm the one downer who didn't like The Intuitionist; it was ambitious, but it didn't really work for me.)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Which Mosley? I read Monster, which was excellent.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

417 is the Mosley on the list (and my to-read pile). Monster is by Myers, and I... am pretty sure I read it when it came out, about a decade ago, but I don't remember much about it except the weird half-slipcover in which it was sold.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

...and I fail at the letter M. The only Mosely I've read is The Man in My Basement. I'm still not quite sure what I thought of it.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I see I'm not the only person who really, really does not want you to read 'three generations of women,' no matter how worthy the author. I'm more in the mood for Watching Shit Happen.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Angela Johnson has the worst back cover copy ever.

[oyceter]

I voted for Intuitionist because I got 3/4 of the way through it and then forgot to finish for some reason and now need to reread. And Marjorie Liu because I like Taste of Crimson a lot and want to hear someone's opinion of Last Twilight when they haven't mainlined the past five books in the series or so (like me). And Tananarive Due because I keep meaning to read her but haven't. And the last Angela Johnson because I want to know how it is.

I think I got halfway through the Jenkins and didn't finish... nothing was wrong with it, but it also felt like there was no tension in the romance.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I think The Intuitionist is brilliant: it's one of those rare books that I am glad I had to read in class because I am pretty sure I got a lot more out of it because of that.

I still need to read Whitehead's other work...

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

If you can, see if you can find the piece he wrote after 9/11 about the New York that everyone carries in their minds. It was awesome.

[rydra_wong]

Add me to the list of Intuitionist fans.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I think you are Reader Zero in my circle of Intuitionist fans.

[keilexandra]

I've heard good things about the Butler, and I've never heard of the Mosley but selfishly want you to read it sooner because I have a special kink for power dynamics in specfic.