Shelf Awareness for Readers: Books About China

Today's Shelf Awareness for Readers newsletter included a Further Reading section that focuses on books about China. Click here to see the suggestions!

And if you haven't signed up for Shelf Awareness for Readers (which is a free e-mail newsletter that arrives Tuesdays and Fridays), click here to do so!

Recent Links of Interest

I have come across some fabulous links in my Google Reader recently and I wanted to share them with you.

First, our very own Ari at Reading In Color has organized C.O.L.O.R. (Coalition Of Librarians and Online Readers), a program to donate books to libraries.

The end goal being to donate at least 25 books in two months to a library that could use a little extra TLC. I have four libraries as of right now and depending on the success of the project, more librarians and libraries will be added. . . . The ideal scenario is to send books about Asians/Black people/Latinos and Native Americans to the library, but to have the majority of the books match the ethnicity of the students.

So click here to check out her post and to help out this special project.

Author Zetta Elliott put together a fantastic list of 32 Speculative Fiction titles by US-based authors of African descent. Click here to take a look at the list, which is located at her blog, Fledgling.

Author Neesha Meminger guest posted at The YA YA YAs about the need for fun books that feature people of color, not just books featuring "marginalized people suffering nobly or weathering hardship, to the exclusion of other types of stories." Click here to read the post, called "An Equal Place at the Table."

And Kirkus Reviews featured an article by Amy Pattee of YA or STFU on February 7 called "It's time for more YA for people of color," and provided a list of YA books featuring teens of color. Click here to read the article, and click here to see the book list.

Did you recently come across any interesting links you'd like to share? Leave them in the comments! :)

Diversify Your Reading blog

Just a quick blog note to bring some attention to a great site called Diversify Your Reading. It is a place to find "blog reviews of books by authors underrepresented in English-language publishing today." The site has a list of categories on the right side that includes "Indigenous Authors," "African Authors," "Asian Authors," and more.

I bring up this site because it is not only a great resource for participants in this challenge who are looking for some book recommendations, but also because it is another place where you can link up your reviews of books by authors of color that you have read for this challenge.

Happy reading!

(And another quick reminder: if you participated in the 2010 POC Reading Challenge, you must write up a wrap-up post and link it up here by January 14th 11:59 PM CT to be eligible for the grand prize gift cards!).

Looking for more challenge books?

There is a new book tour site starting up that I thought I'd mention because I noticed they have several books available that you could use for this reading challenge.

Crazy Book Tours is a one-book tour site, in which one book is mailed around through the reviewer list, with each recipient reading the book within a given number of days and then mailing it to the next reviewer on the list. Here are several books currently available that would apply to this reading challenge:

• Crossing by Andrew Xia Fukada
• The Eyes of Willie McGee by Alex Heard
• Goodbye to All That by Margo Candela
• Patches of Grey by Roy L. Pickering Jr.
• Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

If you want to participate in a tour there, you have to fill out a participating blogger sign-up form first. The POC Reading Challenge blog isn't associated with this book tour site (and neither are Pam, Ari, or myself), but I just wanted to provide the information in case anyone is interested or looking for some new books to read. :-)

The Bluest Eye Roundtable at The Bottom of Heaven

The Bottom of Heaven is hosting a Roundtable event in honor of the 40th anniversary of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye from June 28 through July 9. There will be discussion and posts from some wonderful bloggers and commentators. Here's a quote from the announcement post:

Is The Bluest Eye still relevant after four decades, does it still have something left to teach us in the Obama era? What moments in the story continue to touch and trouble you as you read? What scenes, characters, and passages have the most lasting impact? How would a little girl like Pecola fare in today’s society? We’d love to heard your thoughts on our posts and if you haven’t read the novel, perhaps now is a good time to start.

If you've read the book or are interested in learning more about it, go on over to The Bottom of Heaven to learn about who will be posting, and subscribe there so you can keep updated on each day's posts.

February Winner + A Link of Interest

Time to announce the February winner who is *DRUMROLL*



The Cazzy Librarian!

Cazzy reviewed Pemba's Song which was the review picked by random.org

Congrats Cazzy :) You have 48 hours to email me with your mailing address and your book choice from the prize list.

And for everyone else, we have a lot of prizes so even if you don't when one during the monthly giveaway, you could win one at the end.

Also do check out this post by author Justin Allen. it's funny, informative and it talks about books and their covers (specifically, whitewashing).

Here's an excerpt.

The New York Times Book Review Hates YOU, but I Don’t;
Or… Why Where Your Book Gets Shelved Determines Your Intelligence,
Work-Ethic and Value to Society

That’s a longish title I’ll admit, and while I generally don’t go in for
such larded vessels, in this case I’m willing to make an exception.
Monstrous though it may seem (and most assuredly is), the above title
sums up pretty much everything I have to say on the subjects of writing
and publishing. The first line ought to be read as a word of warning to
struggling writers. The second explains - in as much as an explanation of
the unintelligible is even possible - why the publishing industry behaves
as it does. And the third highlights our common enemy, which turns out to
be ourselves.
Really - if I must say so myself - that title is a wonder of economy,
precision and restraint. But maybe you’d like me to elaborate? Normally
I’d refuse - principally on the grounds that my arguments tend to be
weakened by exploration - but as I have been contracted to provide a
minimum of fifteen minutes of reading diversion, I will betray myself and
attempt to explain…

Why Where Your Book Gets Shelved Determines Your Intelligence, Work-Ethic
and Value to Society.

POC Challenge Non-Review Links of Interest (2010)

Color Online had a really good suggestion that we have a dedicated post where we could link-up non-review items of interest, like book discussions, articles, and essays. So, here we have one!

POC Reading Challenge Items of Interest

 

1.	Color Online Group Read Discussion: Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice
2.	Second Post: The POC Challenge (by Debbie Reese @ American Indians in Children\'s Literature)
3.	Bookslut: Kids of Color and the New American Whitewashing
4.	Chasing Ray: What I Learned While Researching Diversity
5.	Reading In Color: February=Time to Show We Love and Understand Black People.
6.	Zetta Elliott and Francine Thomas Howard: Black History and Historical Fiction (@ Omnivoracious)
7.	A Reader\'s Response: Black History Month (@ Black Eyed Susan\'s)
8.	Writers Against Racism: Revisiting A \"Slippery Slope\"
9.	Whiteness is Not the Default Experience: Why White Readers and Publishers Have Got to Think in Color
10.	Guest Post at Justine Larbalestier\'s blog: Ah Yuan on the Importance of Diversity
11.	Whitewashing: Where Are The Minority Authors?
12.	Elizabeth Bird\'s survey of Top 100 Children\'s Novels (@ American Indians in Children\'s Literature)
13.	Should Publishers Get Rid of African-American Imprints? by Cecelia Dowdy
14.	A Letter... @ The Story Siren
15.	mitali\'s fire escape - Faces and YA Book Covers: A Proposal
16.	\"Seg-Book-Gation\" - Discussion with Bernice McFadden (@ Drumtide)
17.	Writing White? Crossing Over--Mirror vs. Window (@ TwoMindsFull)
18.	On Reading: Whitewashed - guest post by Zetta Elliott @ 5 Minutes for Books
19.	Demanding Diversity in Publishing by Zetta Elliott (@ Huffington Post)
20.	Cover Matters: On Whitewashing (@ The Book Smugglers)
21.	Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book @ The Bottom of Heaven
22.	Why Book Industry Sees the World Split by Race (Pittsburg Post-Gazette)
23.	Zetta Elliott on Race & Reviews (@ Justine Larbalastier\'s blog)
24.	Hood Passes and Home Invasions by Neesha Meminger
25.	A Manifesto of Imaginative Literature by Justin Allen
26.	Black Writers Ponder Role and Seek Wider Attention (NY Times)
27.	Black Eyed Susans Girl Power List: Celebrating Women\'s History Month
28.	Fairy Tales: Zero Tolerance? @ American Indians in Children\'s Literature
29.	Alisa Vades-Rodriguez diary: Bridges burned, crossed and built
30.	Guest Post From Author Tinisha Nicole Johnson: White-Washing Book Covers (@ Cajun Book Lady)
31.	James Welch on the Native American Renaissance (@ Ken Lopez Bookseller)
32.	Skinwhite Lotion-Incredible Prime Time Commercial Now Being show in Manila
33.	Shelf Talker (Publishers Weekly): The Elephant in the Room
34.	Ask Racialicious: How to Read and Respond to Literature of Colour
35.	Teens Do Judge a Book by the Cover by Mitali Perkins (@ HungerMountain)
36.	Reflected Faces by Tanita Davis (@ HungerMountain)
37.	Black Writers in a Ghetto of the Publishing Industry\'s Making by Bernice McFadden (@The Washington P
38.	Color Online: Inside the Story Circle by Linda Boyden
39.	Black Literature: Dead or Alive by Roy L. Pickering
40.	Hunger Mountain: Color Me Perplexed by Nikki Grimes
41.	PW Shelftalker: Selling Color to Customers: A Bookseller\'s Guide

(Collection closed)

Link tool by inlinkz.com