The Sunday Salon - Returns, Bookshelves and Diversity

Hello everyone! I'm back. Even though I missed you all, these past two weeks were relaxing and productive. I managed to reshelf my books and put my new place (mostly) in order. And I read! There are many books I just can't wait to tell you about: The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson, Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley, The Savage by David Almond & Dave McKean (I had no idea they'd collaborated until very recently), Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs, etc.

Let me start by showing you pictures of some of my rearranged shelves. I was going to take some pictures that showed what my new place looks like a little better, but my camera's battery died and I have no idea where the recharger is. (Hey, I said "mostly" in order!)

Inspired by Chris, the Neil Gaiman shelf:


Comics!

This is going to be the shelf where my YA books that don't belong on the fantasy/fairy tales/Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett/Diana Wynne Jones/Ursula Le Guin shelves go. I'd call it the YA - realistic fiction shelf, but Hero, Life as We Knew It and The Book Thief defy that notion. Ah well, who cares about labels anyway.


My new reading chair:


& then the battery died, I'm afraid.

---

Stolen from Joanna, Iliana, Renay, Paperback Reader and probably others, a Diversity Reading Meme:

1. Name the last book by a female author that you’ve read.
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson

2. Name the last book by an African or African-American author that you’ve read.
None so far this year. This will have to change. The last was Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston in September 2008.

3. Name one from a Latino/a author.
Human Diastrophism by Gilbert Hernandez. So good!

4. How about one from an Asian country or Asian-American?
There's Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley, who is a Canadian author of Korean descent, and Emma Vol 8 by Kaoru Mori, who is Japanese.

5. What about a GLBT writer?
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I won't tell you yet again how much I loved it, though it seems I just did.

6. Why not name an Israeli/Arab/Turk/Persian writer, if you’re feeling lucky?
I read Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi, who is Iranian, in December 2008. In April I read The Tygrine Cat by Inbali Iserles, who is Israeli.

7. Any other “marginalized” authors you’ve read lately?
I read quite a few books by First Nations writers in early 2008, but nothing since then.

A brief note on why I think this matters: First, because I want to read books by minority writers. This for several reasons, like the fact that I want to try and expand my understanding of the world, and having access to different perspectives through literature helps with that. Secondly, these books are often underexposed, so if I don't go out of my way to seek minority writers deliberately, I'm sadly not very likely to come across them.

---

And finally, time to wrap up Maree's Catch Up on Challenges Mini-Challenge. I feel like a bit of a cheat: I signed up for this, forgot about it, and then completed it accidentally. I'm so sorry, Maree! The books I read that qualify are:

1. Skellig by David Almond (Herding Cats Challenge)
   
2. The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson (Once Upon a Time III)
   
3. An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks (Science Books Challenge)
   
4. Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess (Dream King Challenge)
   

You know, it saddens me to say this, but I think reading challenges are starting to lose some of their hold on me. I still love a good reading list, but I find myself not paying all that much attention to them this year. Maybe it's just a phase. Does anyone else feel the same?

It's good to be back. Off to catch up on blog reading!