Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
2017 Challenge prompts
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A book by a person of color
I can't recommend Jhumpa Lahiri enough. The Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies, The Lowland, Unaccustomed Earth. All great.
Katie wrote: "I'm on a crusade to get everyone everywhere to read Homegoing, which was recently released. It definitely fits for this category and it's AMAZING!"I love this recommendation. That is my pick for this prompt and I am looking forward to reading it.
I would recommend as well Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
I've just started reading Resistance by Samir Basu. I loved the first one, Turbulence, so am looking forward to this one :-)
Heidi wrote: "I would recommend as well Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie."This is a book club pick at the library this month, so I might do this one.
Mod
No, this category is a book written by a person of color. In other words, the author is not white.
Just read white tiger for this and I cannot recommend it enough!!
I've started reading Americanah, and I'm enjoying it.
I read Americanah last year, and I'd say it was the best book I've read in the last several years.
I'm planning to listen to Trevor Noah's autobiography, Born a Crime. He's from So. Africa so could also work for author from country you haven't visited for this of us not that well traveled.Hidden Figures is also in my wish list, but also for movie in 2017.
Mod
Hidd..."
I just finished his book - great story! I used it for country I've never visited.
I'm planning to listen to the audiobook of Born a Crime, Trevor Noah's autobiography about growing up in South Africa. In my case it also works for the topic "A book by an author from a country you've never visited" or "A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you."
As a person of color, I mostly read books by other people of color anyway. If the intention was diversification, then I'll need to choose a book by a white author for this prompt. tuh...But so my post isn't wasted, I've heard Cutting for Stone is pretty good. Now that I think about it, it actually crosses at least four prompts.
Bianca wrote: "I"m not a sure I like this prompt because it's assuming all the other books you read will be by white people "Statistically speaking, most English language books are by white people, and are published, marketed and reviewed by white people. Prompts such as this remind all of us readers as a whole to intentionally pay attention to underrepresented storytellers, because it is so much harder for their voices to be heard.
Mod
...But so my..."
Same thing has happened to me in past challenges when the category was "a book written by a woman" or "a book from the library" - I just see those categories as "gimmes" and read something from my tbr list that fits. I think they try to make the challenge diverse, and inevitably we will all find a category or two that's for a type of book we read all the time anyway. "A book by a person of color" wasn't really a stretch for me, but I'm glad to read one anyway.
Nadine wrote: "Same thing has happened to me in past challenges when the category was "a book written by a woman" or "a book from the library""For me a "translated book" is like that, the majority of the books I read are translated, and probably so would anything I read for this be, too.
I just had a "discussion" elsewhere about a similar subject. The person was angry about the fact that Ben Affleck had played a "hispanic" person. (He actually doesn't identify as hispanic, doesn't speak Spanish and only his father's ancestors were from Mexico, so calling him a Mexican-American is a bit of a strech..) For a European the whole thing is pretty much a non-issue (they didn't even look that different). Hispanics can be of any colour, many of them are quite blond because most of their ancestors came from Europe, and the Spanish ARE Europeans. So the idea that the possibility that some may have some Native or African-American blood in them makes them "people of colour", sounds pretty racist to me. In a way they only become "hispanics" or POC when they are in the US, in other countries they are Mexicans, Cubans, Chileans etc. And actually I think that Native peoples have their own language and culture, they are not hispanic, even if they do live in a Spanish speaking country. OTOH, I can't really think of Asians as POC, either, and in Africa they are the majority, so no need for that label.
So basically that would leave me with African-American, maybe Native, authors. I'm not sure if I will read any this year because I try to read more books from cultures that are not so familiar to me and the Anglo-American culture is. But next year it will be a monthly theme in my group, because it's going to be 50 years from the assassination of Martin Luther King, jr.
Btw, recently I watched a Russian TV series called "Dark Side of the Moon". (Very good one, I recommend it. It is a remake of the British series "Life on Mars". The life in the USSR is just more interesting to watch than the life in the 1970's Britain.) In it something had happened and the police questioned people and they said that they had look Caucasians. I am pretty sure the people in Moscow can recognise what people from Caucasus often look like, at least I am pretty sure they don't look like Swedes. I just think that highlights the problems with these labels. I am not sure how many people think of Gisele Bündchen as a latina... and I remember meeting Brazilians who looked Asian, simply because they had Japanese ancestors, so...
I actually finished this prompt a few days ago, for this I read Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. It was fantastic!
Erin wrote: "The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Though its not for everybody."YES. Just blazed through the audiobook. Five stars! Definitely not for everybody though!
I will be reading Never Let Me Go
for this prompt. I took the wording of the prompt to mean 'any author whose skin colour is different to mine (whatever that colour might be)', I'm Caucasian so I would consider a Japanese author to have different coloured skin to mine. This is another book that I came to own via my library's ex-library book sale for no more than $0.50 and has been waiting for me to get to it for some years now.
I'm reading Swing time by Zadie Smith for this prompt.
I read Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
Kai wrote: "I actually finished this prompt a few days ago, for this I read Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. It was fantastic!"Sounds very interesting. Gonna check this one out. Thanks
Noughts and Crosses was fantastic! I couldn't put it down
i'm reading one book of an angolan author - o Assobiador(Ondjaki), and also filling the pseudonymon prompt.
I'm so happy to see all the positive buzz about Noughts & Crosses! I've been meaning to read this for ages!
Ashley wrote: "I'm so happy to see all the positive buzz about Noughts & Crosses! I've been meaning to read this for ages!"I read it last year, and I really enjoyed it. I have the second book in the series in my challenges for this year somewhere.
This is a perfect occasion to read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. I've been meaning to read it for a while, as I think it's important to read first-person historical accounts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery several years ago.
I've decided to read The Swan Book by Alexis Wright. It's odd to search for a book by checking the author's ethnicity, but I appreciated the challenge once I realised I could choose something a little closer to home. Apart from biographies and historical non-fiction books about Aboriginal people, I'm not sure I've read many novels by an aboriginal author.
My library hold for The Underground Railroad came through and I checked out the book today. I have two weeks to read it.
I read Certain Dark Things for this challenge. Also Kickboxing Geishas: How Modern Japanese Women Are Changing Their Nation is a great one for this challenge. While I do have some issues with the writing, is overall a good book about a black woman's experience in Japan as well as her view on Japanese women and the culture of Japan.
For this prompt, I read the book Second House from the Corner: A Novel. I really enjoyed this novel, although I did find it strange to look for a book based off a person's race.
Excited that Kindred is on sale through Kindle today! I'm looking forward to reading The Underground Railroad but Kindred had been my vote. Broke down and bought both books today since Kindred isn't available through my e-Library and I'm #88 on the waitlist for the other. I've spent $16 on worse things than books before!
Read The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon for this one. Though I preferred Everything, Everything, this one is wonderful too!If anyone wants to read about the refugee experience, it's good for that also.
The author (and one of the characters) is from Jamaica.
I read The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle. It was set in a NYC asylum, so I was not sure if I wanted to include it in my person of color category or in "an Unreliable Narrator." It was a good book. My review is here (no spoilers)
Is Chilean considered a POC? I've got a book by Isabel Allende in mind for this prompt
Mod
Most people consider Isabel Allende to be white. This is a personal challenge, of course, so you do what feels right for you.
Nadine wrote: "Camilla wrote: "Is Chilean considered a POC? I've got a book by Isabel Allende in mind for this prompt"Most people consider Isabel Allende to be white. This is a personal challenge, of course, so..."
Ok thanks... it's not like I can't find something else for this one
If anyone is still looking for something for this prompt, I stumbled across this article from CBC Radio: http://www.cbc.ca/books/2017/02/black...
Just finished hidden figures, however I'm also finishing Unravel Me, which is written by an Iranian-American. I'm using Unravel Me, since the ethnicity of Juliette, the main character has never been explicitly stated. The cool thing I learned about Tahereh Mafi, is that we live in the same county in California! Btw that's why I've been MIA, I just got settled from my cross country driving extravaganza and haven't been making time for reading. Now playing catch up
I read Open City by Teju Cole. It was really beautiful, but its slice of life style made it hard for me to stay focused on the theme.
I read Queen Sugar, because I liked the TV series, but not enough to follow it consistently. The book was just okay. Very different from the TV series, though.
I just finished Everything I Never Told You for this prompt, and it was amazing! I definitely put off reading that book for far too long.
I read Lazaretto. Can't say I loved it. Any opinions?
Linda wrote: "My library hold for The Underground Railroad came through and I checked out the book today. I have two weeks to read it."I'm interested to hear folks' reviews of '...Railroad' I finished it two weeks ago.
I found out about this cool app today that helps you find books by African American authors: http://www.afropunk.com/m/blogpost?id...
I finally finished the Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It was very good but made me sad. I think it is an important book for people to read because slavery is something that really did happen and we should never forget.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Bad Feminist (other topics)Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (other topics)
Ignite Me (other topics)
The Fire Next Time (other topics)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Tahereh Mafi (other topics)Tahereh Mafi (other topics)
Héctor Tobar (other topics)
Marcus Samuelsson (other topics)
Victor LaValle (other topics)
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Yeah, the wording of this prompt is not very tactful, to say the least. I'm guessing it just means "non-white", which would have been a bit less hypocritical. Plus, having two ethnicity-related prompt in the challenge is a bit too much in my opinion.
Anyway, while this is a very flawed prompt, and I wish it would have been edited out, I'll make do with it, and take up the opportunity to read an African author. Probably Ahmadou Kourouma, or maybe Ben Okri - which I might also use for the "country you've never visited" prompt.