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Welcome to the BlogClan Bookshelf!
Here, you can talk about books that aren’t Warrior Cats! You can ask for and give recommendations on what to read! You can also talk about those books!
[a ginger tabby cat with white socks squeezes into the space above books lined up on a shelf]
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One thing I don’t understand is buying books because they’re ‘diverse’ or written by ‘lgbtq+ or black authors.’
Yes, I’m all for representation, but if there’s a book I want to read, I’m going to read it, regardless of whether or not a black author wrote it. Like, it’s not a selling point for me, or even an “I might check this out” point for me.
Am I alone?
Not at all ^^ I don’t tend to buy books very often, especially not books I haven’t read and thus not sure if I’d actually want to have a copy. I made very frequent use of my library card back when I was actively reading, and only a handful of books I read would end up on my list of books that I’d want to own.
The mentality (or perhaps it’s more accurately described as encouragement) to buy books that feature diverse characters or are written by diverse authors mainly stems from wanting to show publishers that there is a worthwhile market here. There can be a lot of talk about diversity in books, but publishing companies (especially older and well-established ones) really start to pay attention when there is concrete proof of interest like financial success/support, much like how it works in other media industries. East Asian representation in Hollywood was limited mostly to kungfu movies for years because it had been a hit and only a few standout actors led the way for representation (Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, etc), and then in recent years we had massive successes in the form of movies like Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi that really opened the door for directors to take a chance on East Asian actors.
In all forms of media, public support drives the industries because they are fundamentally tied to public opinion. We’re still in the middle of the turning point for literature, where publishers still need that external show of approval to take chances on diversity in books and authors. Obviously, people aren’t obligated to buy books if they haven’t read them yet or aren’t in a financial position where they have money to spare on buying books, but maybe someone else they talk to might, so it’s important to keep conversations going. If you’ve read a recently-published book that is great representation for a minority or has a minority author and you really liked it, pass along the recommendation 🙂 Simple as that.
Woah, that’s a paragraph! Thank you for that. That makes sense, in a way 🙂
I think the reason that they promote books with diverse characters of different backgrounds as well as books written by black or LGBTQIA+ authors is so people who are black, LGBTQIA+ or with any other minority identity can see themselves represented in the stories they read, which makes them relate to and identify with the characters more.
Also, seeing black and LGBTQIA+ authors become successful in the writing industry and creating bestselling books makes those who are Black and/or LGBTQIA+ and who are considering a career path in the book writing/publishing industry (or any other creative sector) believe that it is possible for them to share their stories and experiences and become successful in what they enjoy doing. 🙂
Nope, you’re not alone in this. I never really understood it either. I’m also not in the target demographic for those kinds of books either so that probably is a factor as well. 🙂
Nope, not at all! And exactly, if there’s a book I want to read, nothing’ll stop me from reading it… Other than a boring plot…
I’m pretty sure that it’s because people will have characters that they can relate to in those books, but I myself don’t buy books based off that alone
Like Embix, I like never buy books, and I don’t care whether diverse authors rote them because I feel like my interests shouldn’t be limited by today’s political beliefs.
Can someone recommend some good greek mythology books(beside Percy Jackson)?
My ELA class is starting a greek mythology unit, and I want to get ahead of the class.
madeline miller’s books achilles and circe are very good! however they are targeted towards an older audience so some of the language is harder to understand c: and also you could just read the old classics, the odyssey and the iliad :p
Do you want books of actual Greek mythology or stories based on Greek mythology? I’m currently reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey which is very good. She’s translated it on a line-for-line basis (which other modern translators don’t commonly do) which gives it a very lively pace. Note: there is graphic violence, but you can’t really escape that in Greek mythology. The Iliad is a lot more violent than The Odyssey, as it has many scenes of battle in the Trojan war.
Other primary sources for Greek myths are the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
If Birchy is reading this, they might have some good suggestions, as that is one of their areas of study.
I meant actual greek books. So, not really fantasy or stories based on it.
If you want to read actual texts from the ancients, I love tragedy. some of my favourite works ever have been Greek tragedies. the Agamemnon and the Bacchae are a couple of my favourites – because they’re ancient, there should be copies online of various translations. Some are easier to understand than others. Medea is also great
the problem is there aren’t a lot of surviving long, self-contained narratives. the iliad and the odyssey are the longest, and they are parts of what was a longer epic tradition, but the rest of the epics are lost. a lot of what we know about greek mythology comes cobbled together from plays and poetry
if you’re looking for shorter works, try some of the homeric hymns. these weren’t written by homer, but that’s what they’re called lol. The hymn to Demeter is where you’ll get the myth of Hades and Persephone, while you’ll get the birth of Hermes in his hymn, etc
Just for good measure, I’ll throw in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Although Ovid was a Roman and wrote in Latin, most of the stories in this collection of poems are Greek in origin
Thank you, all of you! I found a good pdf of the Illiad and Odyssey, and have begun to read it. I have my eyes on Metamorphoses too now, after WhiteWhisker’s comment.
If you want an actual Greek story from actual Ancient Greece, I would recommend the Iliad by Homer, which is basically the entire Trogan War 😀
If you want ALL the myths, though, I would 100% recommend Gods and Mortals: Ancient Greek Myths for Modern Readers by Sarah Johnston. It has every single Greek myth to exist, all compiled in one book 😀 I’m reading it right now and it is soooooooooo good!!!!
sadly, the iliad is only a few weeks of the 10-year conflict 🙁 there were likely other works that covered other aspects of the conflict, but they are now lost! I would highly recommend reading the Iliad; Hektor and Andromache are incredibly compelling characters (sorry, Achilles enjoyers) and it’s a tough examination of the horrors of war. What it won’t tell you, sadly, is how the war ended – you won’t get any wooden horse or anything there!
To fill in some gaps, you could try reading Philoctetes and the Trojan Women, both tragedies that deal with other events near the end of the war. you could also read Euripides’ interpretation of Helen
Another mythic narrative that has been preserved intact is the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes. It’s fairly late (3rd century BCE) but it’s written in the then-antique style of the Homeric poems. It’s the story of the hero Jason and his crew of other heroes who sail to Colchis on the Black Sea in search of the Golden Fleece. In addition to the fleece, Jason returns with the king’s daughter, the priestess Medea, precipitating the action in the play.
I do like the Argonautica, that’s a good one. his characterization of medea is very interesting
And let’s not forget Hesiod’s Theogony (birth of the Gods).
The Flame of Olympus by Kate O’Hearn is a good one!
Hola peoplez. I honestly recommend the Shadow and Bone series for older kits, apprentices and warriors because, ahem, it has a lot of violence and *cough* make out scenes *cough* which i nearly threw up at um- but yeaaa if u want, u can try it! BUT guys i haven’t read much of it so im sorry if i say smth wrong 🙂
I’ve read that series! It’s a very good one, but yeah, definitely for older kids, I’d say seventh grade/11 and up
I love Shadow and Bone!!!!! Who’s your favourite character??? 😀
Shadow and Bone is neat! I’d recommend that kits steer clear of it though.
Putting it on my read list!
It sounds cool! Never heard of it tho
Ooh, I’ve been wondering whether to read that! It tbh doesn’t really seem like my style, but I might read it because everyone recommends it.
Repost – Page flop
Anyone read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline?
It’s a dystopian sci-fi (YA) that does include sexual content, violence, profanity (no n-word) and death. (I love heavy books like this)
Pretty sure I’ve heard some people around here mention it!
I watched the movie and it was great! However, I haven’t read the book.
I’ve been meaning to read it for a while, but haven’t gotten around to it yet unfortunately :[
I’ve watched it!
If there’s any The Buried and the Bound fans here, let me know! I’m just starting the second book and I’m super psyched 🙂
I am reading Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus, which is the sequel to Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. It’s pretty good but it’s making me mad too. One of the characters pretended to be nice but he turned out to be a complete jerk.
Understandably… those characters pretending to be nice but actually being jerks are so annoying… reminds me of Squid Game…
I haven’t, but it sounds really good!
Oh ive read the first book in that series. That’s the second one you mentioned.
Was it Joshua? It must have been Joshua because who else 😡
I recently read Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, which was decent! It was a pretty quick read. It was my first time reading a “cozy” mystery, which I was a little skeptical about, but I ended up enjoying myself. I did spot the murderer pretty early on though 😛
I would recommend it for apprentices and up, since it discusses of emotional and domestic abuse.
That sounds interesting! What’s the main plot?
Vera finds a dead man in her tea shop. The police think he died of an allergic reaction, but Vera is certain there was fowl play. So, when four potential suspects return to the scene of the crime, she takes them under her wing and begins to help them put their lives back together, all while trying to determine which of the four is the murderer.
AAAAAAAAHHH I NEED TO READ THIS >:<
Anybody else read A Street Dog Named Pup? It’s really good, but also really sad
Oh, and one more thing.Anybody ever read Bob:No ordinary cat
Nope, but I’ve heard of it! I’ll prob buy it soon if i can get my hands on it
I haven’t read the book, but I watched the movie: “A Street Cat Named Bob.”
The book’s definitely worth a read! The film actually deviated from it a surprising amount
I finished Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus and I HIGHLY recommend it. I recommend both Cactus books. They may be my favorite reads of 2024 so far.
THE SEQUEL IS SO GOOOOD YESSSSS :DDDD Who was your favorite character from either book?
I liked Zion and Lando. But I relate to nerds so… 😅
I loved Lando :00 I didn’t really like Connor and Amanda tho >:(
Amanda was kinda annoying. Connor was meh. I did learn a lot about Tourette’s through Connor though.
hi creamypaw, I dunno if you’re reading this, but I got the testing and I have a feeling I’m gonna like it >:3 let’s talk about it after I read it!
WhiteWhiskers Recommends: Books by Philip Pullman
If you are a fan of fantasy/science fiction, I strongly recommend his trilogy His Dark Materials. The three volumes are The Golden Compass (in the UK, Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. This series of books is set in a number of alternate universes. The central character is a girl named Lyra, who is about eleven when the story opens. She is a ward of a college in Oxford, England, but the Oxford where Lyra lives is not the one in our world. Things in her world are different than in ours, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly.
People in Lyra’s world have “daemons,” which are something between animal companions and external souls. People and their daemons are inextricably bound. In this world, there are witches, who are exclusively female and live in the forests on the shores of the Baltic. On the island of Svalbard, in the Arctic Ocean, there is a kingdom ruled by Polar Bears. The Bears are master smiths and wear armor that they forge from meteoric iron. And there are the Gyptians, who are rather like Romany in our world, but live on boats. The villains in the story are members of an authoritarian religion called The Magisterium.
At the opening of the story, Lyra’s uncle Lord Asriel, a scientist-adventurer, has just returned from an expedition to the Arctic, where he has discovered evidence that other worlds exist and that it might be possible to reach them. The Magisterium considers the mere mention of other worlds to be heresy. Everyone is interested in a substance called Dust, which is not the stuff you find behind the sofa.
If you are more interested in mystery than science fantasy, you might want to check out Pullman’s “Sally Lockhart Quartet”: The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well, and The Tin Princess. The series is set in Victorian England. Sally is a young woman of 16 when her father, a shipping agent, dies in mysterious circumstances on a voyage in the South China Sea. None of the adults involved seem willing to tell her the truth about her father’s death, so she begins investigating on her own. In the process she meets other imaginative, independent young people who make up her team. Needless to say, she and her friends regularly thwart the forces of evil, though sometimes at great personal cost.
I second this!!
I have read all of the His Dark Materials trilogy and the Sally Lockhart quartet! 😀
The BBC have also made a fantastic TV adaptation of His Dark Materials!
Who’s your favourite character? For me I love Mrs Coulter, not because she’s likeable but because of how interesting she is.
Yes, Mrs Coulter is a great character. She’s not a cookie-cutter villain (which she might have been in the hands of a lesser writer). She’s a complex character with complex and shifting motives. And her actions are central to the plot.
Leaving aside Lyra and Will, who are the main protagonists, there are lots of interesting and well written secondary characters: Lee Scorsby, the Texan Aeronaut (played by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the TV series, for you Hamilton fanatics), Iorek Byrnison, the bear king, Serafina Pekkala, the witch queen, and may others.
OMG HDM DISCUSSION i didnt know lee was played by lin manuel miranda!!! that fits very well :p serafina is such a queen she’s so cool
I’m seeing my comment above as “awaiting moderation,” yet people are responding to it. How does that work?
Great question! I have no clue. It’s not in spam nor is it in the bin by accident. I have no idea where that comment that Pineblossom has replied to has gone, which… is a little worrying 😛 I do hope the blog isn’t breaking…
EDIT: I realized what it was about two seconds afterwards. Pineblossom is a mod, which means that she has the ability to unapprove a comment after approving it. On our dashboards, we can simultaneously approve a comment and reply to it. She replied to it with her reaction and then, because your comment itself had been a reply to Aquila (who most likely wants to see said comment), she unapproved it so that Aquila could see it in the pending list. No breaking, just a silly old me thinking that the other comment was not the one you were referring to 😛
I heard a) Lin-Manuel Miranda and b) Hamilton so I know I have been summoned :0
I love both of these series too! (Altho I was a bit miffed when I found out the last Sally Lockhart book doesn’t even feature her)
It’s true that Sally wasn’t featured prominently in The Tin Princess, but I enjoyed seeing Jim featured as a fully adult character and man-of-action.
He definitely makes for a good protagonist! And I agree, it was great to see him develop across each book =D The 4th one was solid, it just didn’t feel like part of the same series (in my opinion!). It seemed a bit like a spin-off haha
I’ve read His Dark Materials a few years ago! I don’t remember much except that it was really good, I definitely think I should give it a re-read
Same!!
Yes, I was recommended His Dark Materials by Jeri, I think? I was looking at reading it…
I’m gonna read this series as soon as I can!!!! 😀
Those of you who have already read HDM, are you aware that Pullman has started a second trilogy set in Lyra’s world? It is called “The Book of Dust.” Two volumes are already published: La Belle Sauvage, about the time and circumstances of Lyra’s birth, and The Secret Commonwealth, in which Lyra, now a college student, struggles with new evils and her own identity. The third volume, as yet untitled, is supposed to be published this year.
I’ve read the two that have been released! Been waiting on the third one for a while (I’ll have to see it be released to believe it…). I’m eager to see where it goes, although I might have to reread The Secret Commonwealth to refresh my memory haha. La Belle Sauvage is my favourite by far of the ones he’s written. I love how hazy and confusing it is and how they jump from place to place trying to escape Bonneville. I’ve reread it loads =D
someone talk to me about kim’s convenience
If you’re talking abt the show, I LOVE IT!!! ITS SO FUNNY
i was talking about the play (specifically the script 🙂 ) but the show is good too! a lot of the actors are the same
Idk about that, sorry Birchy!
all good 🙂