Posted This Week
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan – A Victorian romance with a feminist heroine
The Mapmaker’s Children by Sarah McCoy – The story of John Brown’s daughter’s work on with the Underground Railroad intertwined with the story of a modern day woman trying to find a purpose in life
May in Review
I ended up reading 13 books in May. Two were non-fiction. Three were audiobooks. One was a graphic novel. Three and a half were written by men (the 1/2 was a coauthor with a woman). It was an overwhelmingly white month — only 2.5 books were written by women of color (again the half was the cowritten book).
The books were set in The United States, England, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and fantasy worlds.
So far I’ve read 75 books this year according to Goodreads. That’s on track to read more books than last year.
Coming Up
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I just picked up my copy from the library yesterday.
Around The Internet
TonyaLee talks about fitting into the book blogging community
Juli wrote about the lack of books translated into English
A great post about the problems of trying to classify books as diverse. Is it author? Is it setting?
In non-book news, Nigeria’s President signed a ban on genital mutilation. Does it mean anything?
In Chechnya there are calls for women to be banned from social media.
In Indonesia you have to be a virgin to join the army — only if you are a woman of course.
Currently Reading
“Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she’s albino. She’s a terrific athlete, but can’t go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits. And then she discovers something amazing—she is a “free agent,†with latent magical power. Soon she’s part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be enough to help them when they are asked to catch a career criminal who knows magic too?” from Goodreads
The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks by Sam Maggs
“Fanfic, cosplay, cons, books, memes, podcasts, vlogs, OTPs and RPGs and MMOs and more—it’s never been a better time to be a girl geek. The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy is the ultimate handbook for ladies living the nerdy life, a fun and feminist take on the often male-dominated world of geekdom. With delightful illustrations and an unabashed love for all the in(ternet)s and outs of geek culture, this book is packed with tips, playthroughs, and cheat codes for everything from starting an online fan community to planning a convention visit to supporting fellow female geeks in the wild.” from Goodreads
I don’t do a good job keeping track of the diversity in my books or authors. That could be a goal for the second 1/2 of 2015, but I know it would be primarily white, female authors writing about white females in English speaking countries. Kind of sad that I don’t put more effort into finding diverse books/authors.
If I’m not conscious of it I read white female authors all the time too. Once you start looking around though you can find loads of great books. I’ve found lots of authors I really like now that I’ve expanded my searching. My favorite list for finding books set in other countries is this one from goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1152745-where-we-ve-been-previous-years-master-list
Thanks for the list! Looking it over I’ve read a number of these. I joined the group also, to keep up.