Carissa Taylor: Book Recommendation

Showing posts with label Book Recommendation. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Read Authors of Color - A Resource List

Need to find books written by Writers of Color and Native Authors? This is a set of resources for you!

Apologies in advance -- most of these links will be heavily weighted toward authors of YA / MG, because that is what I gravitate toward. However, I will keep expanding to include others! This is a work in progress and I'd love your input if you know of resources I've missed.

Also note that while I've tried to keep this collection as strictly focused on POC & Native Authors as possible, a few resources may also list a few books with POC / Native main characters too. I will try to note those.

Table of Contents
(Click to jump to a particular section)

General / Mixed Lists

African-American / Black Authors

Asian-American / Pacific Islander Authors

Latinx Authors

Muslim & Middle Eastern-American Authors

Native Authors

General / Mixed Authors of Color Lists:
(back to top)

New Releases by Writers of Color

10 YA Must Reads by Authors of Color in 2017 - Teen Vogue
We're the People : Summer 2017 Reading List
POC 2016 / 2017 Release List - CrazyQuiltEdi
YA Authors of Color 2014-15 releases - CrazyQuiltEdi
Upcoming 2016/2017 YA Books by Authors of Color - DailyDahlia
Goodreads List: SFF By Authors of Color: in 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016

Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Picture Book Authors of Color

Other / General Writers of Color Lists

Sci-Fi and Fantasy POC Authors

YA Fantasy by Women of Color - YA Interrobang
Goodreads List: Fantasy Novels By Women of Color
Goodreads List: Speculative Fiction by Authors of Color
Goodreads List: Adult Spec Fic by POC
Goodreads List: YA, MG Spec Fic by Authors of Color
Goodreads List: MG & YA SFF by Writers of Color
Goodreads List: SFF By Authors of Color: in 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016
All Our Worlds - Diverse Fantastic Fiction
Urban Fantasy Writers of Color - DanielJoseOlder
List: Non-White Protagonists in SFF -- IllustratedPage
(note: not all are authors of color - scroll halfway down the page to view POC authors)

Hashtags: #OwnVoices || #Diverseathon || #RamadanReads || #RamadanReadathon || #AsianLitChat || #AsianLitBingo || #ReadAsianOz || #ReadDiverse2017 ||

African-American / Black Authors
(back to top)

New Releases by Black Authors

Young Adult & Middle Grade Black Authors

Adult Black Authors

PB & Children's Book Black Authors

Other Black Author Lists

Twinja's Black Book Bloggers List || Black Nerd Girls || African Book Addict ||

Asian-American / Asian / Pacific Islander Authors
(back to top)

East Asian / East Asian - American / Authors

Filipino, Malaysian & Other Southeast Asian Authors

Indian / Indian-American / Sri-Lankan Authors

Other Asian Author Lists

Native Hawaiian #Ownvoices -- Reading for SJ || Hapa Booklist || 8 Books for Asian-Pacific Heritage Month - RichInColor || Asian-Australian Kidlit || Read Asian Oz ||

See also: #AsianLitChat and #AsianLitBingo and #ReadAsianOz

Pacific Islander / Pasifika & Native Hawaiian Authors

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Top Ten Underrated Books on Goodreads (under 2000 ratings)

So I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and the Bookish in AGES, but I just had to jump in on this week's topic, which is:

Top 10 Books that have under 2000 ratings in Goodreads

If you'd like to participate in this bloghop, jump on over to The Broke and the Bookish and link up!

NOTE: Okay full disclosure, I may have cheated and a few of these have just slightly over 2K ratings, but not by much!

Also this is more like 20 books, but oh well!

Middle Grade

I have been on a middle grade kick lately. Anyone else know of some great underrated MG reads?

Words With Wings - Nikki Grimes
I loved this novella-in-verse so much that I had to name-drop it a few times in my latest WIP. :oD

Heaven - Angela Johnson

Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond - Brenda Woods

Mia's Optiscope - Natalie Rose

Honorable Mentions (these were "classics" in my house growing up):
The Fairy Rebel - Lynne Reid Banks
The Search for Delicious - Natalie Babbit

Memoir

For fans of Eat, Pray, Love and Wild: some people have normal "midlife crises" some might even might pick up a new hobby like sailing. Most people don't put their life on the line and their new hobby to the test by sailing halfway across the world! I loved this trans-Pacific sailing adventure complete with close-calls and bonus tropical marine biology tidbits for the marine bio geeks like me.

Call Me Captain - Susan Scott

Science Fiction

All of these are really gorgeous and thought-provoking and well, sci-fi FTW!

Ardulum - J.S. Fields
This is probably my favorite sci-fi book of all time! Neek is an exile from her home planet -- shunned because of her rejection of her people's religion. When she meets a child strangely reminiscent of her people's gods, her whole world (and the rest of the galaxy) is thrown into chaos.

Beyond the Red - Ava Jae
(okay kind of cheating because it's a pretty new release, which would account for fewer ratings. But I'm putting it on there anyway because it's one of my favorite reads of 2016)

Bounders - Monica Tesler
(ditto above comment)

Starglass - Phoebe North

Salvage - Alexandra Duncan

Tin Star - Cecil Castelucci

The Galaxy Game - Karen Lord

Young Adult / New Adult --- Fantasy & Realistic

Umm... so the only reason I can think that these don't have more ratings is that they are relatively new?? Here we have gorgeous historical of Malcolm X's days before the X, an incredibly immersive and artistic urban fantasy, a super hottt ballet/post-ballet story, a fantastically creepy yet fun Australian fantasy, a high fantasy with a beautifully wrought magic system, and a contemporary about a mixed-race school club that launches a movement.

X - Ilyasah Shabazz & Kekla Magoon

Second Position - Katherine Locke

Shadowshaper - Daniel José Older

Isla's Inheritance - Cassandra Page

Magic's Stealing - Stephanie Flint

The Latte Rebellion - Sarah Jamila Stevenson

Terrifying Reads

Okay. I'm going to go ahead and admit that I am a COMPLETE scaredy-cat and I can't really handle books like this that are incredibly terrfying. BUT it was a really good book. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly:

Damage Done - Amanda Panitch

And a couple others in my Soon-To-Read Stack that I've heard GREAT things about but don't have many ratings yet:

This Side of Home - Renee Watson

All American Boys - Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely

What about you? What are some of your favorite, yet underrated books?

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Previously in April ...

"Previously..." is a Bloghop recapping the previous month's goals and accomplishments. It's hosted by the lovely Miss Cole on the last Wednesday of every month. For more details on how to participate visit the Previously page!

Previously in Writing

This month (and in March), spurned on by an amazing brainstorming Skype session with my agent, I ended up re-visiting my YA sci-fi WIP after a long hiatus and added two new threads to the story that I'm SUPER excited about. Squee! It's so nice to be excited about this project again after so long feeling a bit stuck with it. Now my agent's reading it and we shall see what he thinks. Eeep!

I sent out my my NaNoWriMo MG novel #IslandGirlWIP in March to a second wave of readers to get more of my target audience's thoughts on the manuscript and am still waiting on that feedback.

In April I also participated in #CampNaNoWriMo -- like National Novel Writing Month, but where you set your own goals. I set a goal of 40K for my new WIP -- a YA Contemporary about a Teen Journalist (#TeenJournalistWIP) and *fingers crossed* I will meet that goal!! Right now I'm sitting at 32K -- well, 54K total ... I had some written beforehand. Unfortunately, due to a new plot thread I just invented *whoops!* it looks like I won't technically "finish" the novel by the end of April. That's okay. I might actually just skip a few scenes and write the end ones I know and then go back and fill in the other ones in May. It is a SUPER research heavy MS. The most researchy I've ever attempted. May is going to be filled with non-fic books and journal articles to do some serious fact-checking and adding of technical details I glossed over!

Previously in Reading

This month, I did a LOT of critting for #DVPit entries so I haven't done quite as much novel reading as usual. Right now I am reading Sarah Jamila Stevenson's THE LATTE REBELLION ... which is super fun so far. It pairs well with #TeenJournalistWIP thematically, so that's good! I started I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson, which was flat out gorgeous (as I expected) but alas the library stole it back from me before I had a chance to finish :oO I also started THE BLOSSOMING UNIVERSE OF VIOLET DIAMOND, which I was loving, but set it aside because I think it will pair better for me reading at a time when I'm working on my MG book again.

(I'm so matchy-matchy like that!)

Next Time in Goals

Next month, I hope to be finished with a round of additions and first-round edits on #TeenJournalistWIP and hopefully done outlining my next book, which is going to be an MG Steampunky-Victorianesque Fantasy ... it also needs a hashtag. Hmm ... she helps solve arson cases so ... #FiregirlWIP ? Right now I have two chapters and a very loose idea, but I need the key plot points. It's actually a story that's been in my head way back from the very beginning of time { aka five years ago when I realized I wanted to be an author ;o) }

In May I hope to read A LOT for #TeenJounalistWIP research. Like A LOT A LOT. But maybe not fiction. Which makes me kind of sad. Except I guess I will actually be reading fiction too because I have a big beta backlog!!! Whee!!!

A Word of Advice

Moral of the story? There's no better motivator for getting work done than an impending 2nd child!!! o.O

Is that advice? No, not really. Don't try this at home. Or do. But not because you want to get a lot of projects done. Although that aspect of it HAS worked in my favor.

... I'm just sayin'

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Previously ...

Previously... is a Bloghop recapping the previous month's goals and accomplishments. It's hosted by the lovely Miss Cole on the last Wednesday of every month. For more details on how to participate visit the Previously page!

Previously in Writing

This month, I've continued editing my NaNoWriMo novel #IslandGirlWIP -- an MG Contemporary reimagining of one of my favorite childhood books. I finished a round of edits at the end of January, and am now editing based on feedback from my first round of betas. My babysitter is still on summer break so I don't have much time for writing, writing, but hopefully next month!

Previously in Reading

This month, I did a lot of beta-reading so I haven't done quite as much novel reading as usual. However. I did get a chance to read BOUNDERS -- an MG Sci-Fi by Monica Tesler, and absolutely loved it! Seriously, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book. It's like Enders Game but somehow more lighthearted without sacrificing suspense, and way funnier. Plus? It's got a neurodiverse cast! Full of win.

I'm now halfway through Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, which is something that the MC in the novel I'm editing would probably be reading! I really like trying to pair my reading with my writing/editing in that way, because it totally helps me stay in the groove even during those hours I'm not writing.

Next Time in Goals

Next month, I hope to be finished with the next round of edits on #IslandGirlWIP and hopefully 50% done with my new book #TeenJournalistWIP! Right now it's at about 30%, but it's a super research-heavy book, so we shall see! I also hope to read at least two or three new books. It will definitely help to have my babysitter back!

A Word of Advice

When in doubt, have a dance party!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

It's Here!! MAGIC'S STEALING - by Stephanie Flint { + Giveaway!!! }

As you know, I don't often post book release news on this blog.

But.

I had the pleasure of being a reader for Stephanie in an earlier incarnation of Magic's Stealing, and I'm thrilled to be able to share in the excitement of its release!!

Now. Stephanie contacted me and, being the sweet person she is, offered me a free copy of the ebook in all its final glory. However, I'd already pre-ordered it, and so, because she's totally awesome, she's letting me pass on my free copy to one lucky winner!!

~~The Rafflecopter Entry for the Giveaway is below.~~

Update: The Giveaway is over!! Stephanie has emailed the winner!

You can read more about MAGIC'S STEALING and Stephanie's other works on her website.
Or purchase it from Amazon || Smashwords || Barnes & Noble || Kobo

The Goodreads Summary is below:

Magic's Stealing

By Stephanie Flint

Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 151

Goodreads Summary:

For centuries, ribbons of magic have provided the kingdom of Cirena with light, healing, and protection. Then, in a span of minutes, those ribbons fly from their masters, stolen, save for the magic of a few chosen mages. One of these mages is Toranih, a young noblewoman who would rather have a sword in her hand than use her powers to heal or throw fireballs. As a result, her magic skills are lacking. But with former mages dying from magic withdrawal, and the looming threat of an army of shadows who are impervious to mortal weapons, she must either embrace the responsibilities of a mage or watch her home perish.

You can read more about Magic's Stealing and Stephanie's other works on her website.
Or purchase it from Amazon || Smashwords || Barnes & Noble || Kobo

Magic's Stealing ebook Giveaway Entry:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Review-cipes: Contemporary & Historical YA

Here are some tasty teasers of a few contemporaries I've read over the past few months. I know I mostly focus on YA sci-fi and fantasy on this blog, but I love realistic too, and in fact my next WIP is a MG contemporary!

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - by Becky Albertalli

You may have heard me and 5 million other people fangirling over this 2015 debut author's book on Twitter. Yes it is really that good.

The recipe ... for an adorable disaster:

2 not-so-openly-gay boys meet via Tumblr (but not in person) and fall in crush
... Someone finds out
Add: Blackmail + Oreos + Waffle House = Gah!
Twist: They go to the. same. High. School.

It was love at first reblog,
...but will they ever find each other in real life?

Brown Girl Dreaming - by Jacqueline Woodson

In case you can't tell by all the awards on the cover, this is a really, really, really good book. It's a semi-autobiographical MG novel-in-verse. It's hard to explain it and do it any justice. You really must read it.

The recipe ... for an imagination loosed:

Girl born just removed from the time of struggle
Memories flowing through bloodlines, through places.
Ohio. South Carolina. Brooklyn, New York.
A poem of life.
A journey to be free ... to dream.
And to write.

Speak - by Laurie Halse Anderson

This book is more than a decade old now, but I've just gotten around to reading it, and wow. It deals with tough subject matter (the after-effects of rape) in a very compelling and thought-provoking way.

The recipe ... for voice:

Loud, silent tangle of thoughts/feelings/emotions.
Ostracism.
Loss.
Friends both false and true.
Hands to art: pencil, brush, clay.
No one knows the hurt she's held inside, until she
Speaks.

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Any other recommendations for fans of these books?