2023 Know Thy Shelf Challenge

[Eva]

Ah, I should have guessed you already knew! But still, since it’s so rare to find an English language book about Sami, maybe some other people who’d like to read around the world will find it helpful.

[CBRetriever]

Finished for Countries/Translated works
:

Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir from Iceland = Translated

Started
for Young (under 35):

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson = 33 years old

and
for Countries/Translated works

The Moose Paradox by Antti Tuomainen = Finland

[Kaia]

I finished one book for this challenge in January - The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras. (My goal was to read some books by authors from the western hemisphere who are not from the US or Canada (and possibly from other parts of the world that I don't have much representation from).)

This book was a choice in the Book Cup, so it was already on my TBR list. To my surprise, it turned out to be nonfiction. It was an interesting weave of personal memoir, family history, and examination of the impacts of colonialism on Colombia, as well as inter-generational trauma. The author points out toward the beginning that what others call "magical realism" is just realism in Colombia. The audiobook narrator was also quite good.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Awesome!

I've read a few, too

13 books by people of Hispanic or Latin descent

Bug - funny, but also sad, and lots of amazingly well done representation!

8 books by Black/African authors

The Queue - I never know where to put Middle-eastern when dividing by continents, but I'm going to put this here because Egypt is in Africa. Sad, contemplative, bleak.

4 books by Asian authors


1 book by a Native author

Shutter - reading this now!

[DivaDiane]

Oh Shutter sounds interesting!

[CBRetriever]

it sounds good to me too as I read a lot of mystery books

[CBRetriever]

I just finished The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia. The author is a Persian-American: Naseem Jamnia is the author of The Bruising of Qilwa, a novella introducing their queernormative, Persian-inspired universe.

This was part of one the latest Humble Bundles offered and I really enjoyed reading the story. The use of They/Their for the main character flowed smoothly and didn't feel forced, the magic system was a seamless part of the story. Plus I learned a new word: aromantic.

ETA: that makes 3 out of the 26 I'm trying to add to the diversity side of my Read side.

[Elisa]

Rebecca (Adventurer) wrote: "Question... how do you find percentages without a pen and pencil? Is there a way to see those percentages on GR?"

To find the percentages, take the number you want to read and divide it by the total number of books. Example: for % of men, divide # of male authors (12) by total number of books (60) to get 20%.

Hope this helps!

[CBRetriever]

I keep adding to mine too:

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia = Persian-Chicagoan, former scientist, and nonbinary trans author who writes very queer and very brown books.

and one that was on my list:

The Kingdom by Jo Nesbø which was written in Norwegian and translated. It's more of a thriller but I enjoyed it.

and I'm over 50% through two from the under 35 crowd:

The First Binding by R.R. Virdi who is 32
and
The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson who is 35

so I'm doing pretty good with this one, but I'd like to find some authors under 30 to add to my list

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

you're doing great! trying to think of authors I know under 30. Does it need to be current or at the time a certain book was written?

[CBRetriever]

I'm trying to stick with current because then I'd be reading fresh, young authors. I know I could pick up some with the "at the time" option, and if I run out of books to read for all my challenges I might look back and see if any of them meet that criteria (like Christopher Paolini).

[CBRetriever]

finally slogged my way through this one:

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson = 33

it may have ended on a cliffhanger, but I have no desire to purchase book 3 to find out what happens

[Dj]

Well, I have listed about 75 in a spreadsheet only worrying about the nation and sex of the authors and I am unsurprised by the fact that all of the books so far are written by Western authors, although I had always considered Zelasny to be English, turns out he is from Ohio. Most are from the US or the UK, but I do have a couple from Germany, a number that will likely increase as we go along. Even one from the Netherlands.

The only real surprise (at least for me) so far is that a third of them are Women. Although that number may change a bit going forward as well.

[CBRetriever]

Added another one:

The First Binding by R.R. Virdi = 32 years old so he fits in the young category plus he's Indian-American which doesn't exactly fit my non-American category but comes close

[John]

Another challenge that I am trying to resist. But can I borrow on some of the research? Heading to Jordan/Egypt for a trip and usually find some non-fiction for the area we are traveling. Was not able to find any.

Anyone have any suggestions as my current plan, part of getting rid of physical books, is the Harry Hole series The Bat. Not sure that fits :).

[Kaa]

Any particular kind of nonfiction you like, John? History, biography, something else?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

That sounds great, John, but can you set up a thread for it? Want to make sure you get lots of picks!

[CBRetriever]

John wrote: "Another challenge that I am trying to resist. But can I borrow on some of the research? Heading to Jordan/Egypt for a trip and usually find some non-fiction for the area we are traveling. Was not a..."

yes, start a thread - there's quite a few SF&F books in Egypt not to mention the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters

[John]

thanks for response. will start a new thread and with the right topic.

Meant fiction, particularly SF&F. My programmer brain used to not logic had the sentence as "not non-fiction" and I've been told (chastised, scolded, beaten...) to write like normal people. so I did and messed up the sentence.

[John]

CBRetriever wrote: "yes, start a thread - there's quite a few SF&F books in Egypt not to mention the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters."

thanks! just looked up Amelia Peabody series and looks perfect. Jo Nesbo will have to wait.

[John]

Kaa wrote: "Any particular kind of nonfiction you like, John? History, biography, something else?"

Made a mistake in editing my post and meant fiction. But if you have some non-fiction to recommend I started a new thread in the Recommendations section and my wife likes non-fiction. We checked out the Listopia lists and Egypt genre and she found a few from it.

https://www.goodreads.com/genres/egypt

[CBRetriever]

That recently price dropped, The Big Book of Science Fiction edited by Ann VanderMeer will give me a lot of options country options here including filling in some Latin American authors:

Argentina = 4
Australia = 2
Austria = 1
Bangladesh = 1
Brazil = 1
China = 2
Ecuador = 1
Finland = 2
France = 4
French-Canadian = 1
Germany = 1
Ghana = 1
India = 1
Japan = 3
Mexico = 1
Norway = 1
Poland = 1
Russia = 7
Scotland = 1
Spain = 1

so far I've read one short story each from

Bangladesh
Austria
Germany
France

all from the early 1900s and the only one that I didn't really enjoy was the French one.

[CBRetriever]

just finished

the authors on my shelf are old, so I'm going to add some youthful (under 35) writers here:

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger = 35

[CBRetriever]

just finished:

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord = author is from Barbados

from the grouping of translated books and books from other countries

[Dj]

CBRetriever wrote: "just finished:

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord = author is from Barbados

from the grouping of translated books and books from other countries"


Nice find. Considering the population size of the country I wouldn't think that there were a lot of books coming out of Barbados.

[CBRetriever]

Dj wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "just finished:

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord = author is from Barbados

from the grouping of translated books and books from..."

I had read another one by her Redemption in Indigo for the Circadian Challenge last year, so I knew about her. That book was set in Africa and was more of a fantasy while this book was more of a Science Fiction Romance. I did a lot of research for that Circadian Challenge...

[CBRetriever]

and I have one coming up from Trinidad: Lex Talionis by R.S.A. Garcia

R. S. A. Garcia lives and works on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean with a large family and too many dogs–though only one belongs to her.

This book was part of a StoryBundle purchase

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Good way to get a group read knocked out, too! A two fer!

[CBRetriever]

actually that book will be a threefer as it fits a prompt in a challenge on another forum

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

ooo, ya love to see it!!

[CBRetriever]

and I have finished one with an author from Trinidad: Lex Talionis by R.S.A. Garcia

R. S. A. Garcia lives and works on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean with a large family and too many dogs–though only one belongs to her.

This book was part of a StoryBundle purchase - not a bad read and makes it 10 for this challenge:

5 different countries (non English speaking)
4 for under 35 (one is also in the category above
2 from Them/Pan/LBGTQ+

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Dang Chessie! Super impressed with your results so far

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

My Q1 update:

13 books by people of Hispanic or Latin descent

Bug - funny, but also sad, and lots of amazingly well done representation!

8 books by Black/African authors

The Queue - I never know where to put Middle-eastern when dividing by continents, but I'm going to put this here because Egypt is in Africa. Sad, contemplative, bleak.

Beloved - a classic for a reason

The Map of Salt and Stars - this was heeeeaaavy

4 books by Asian authors
The Housekeeper and the Professor - an absolute delight. If you like A Gentleman in Moscow, try a housekeeper in Japan!

Spirits Abroad - a re-read, not sure if I'll end up counting this, but a good 'un?


1 book by a Native author

Shutter - very gory!

Green Grass, Running Water - too literary for me

[CBRetriever]

not bad - so you liked Shutter? I'm on the fence about that one and may wait for the price to go down

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I read it on Scribd audio. I liked it...It was very grim and gory, but if you like urban fantasy, this one felt more "real" in ways I appreciated.

[CBRetriever]

sounds like it might be similar to the Mercy Thompson books which I like, it's just a tad bit pricey now @ $14.99.

[CBRetriever]

added another one:

The Cabinet by Kim Un-su = Translated from Korean

I liked this book quite a bit

[CBRetriever]

and one translated from Japanese:

Automatic Eve by Rokurō Inui = Translated from Japanese

this one was a pretty good SF (kinda steampunkish) book. Each section was from a different point of view but all came together at the end.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

My Q2 update:

13 books by people of Hispanic or Latin descent

Bug - funny, but also sad, and lots of amazingly well done representation!

Labyrinth Lost - This was a ton of fun. Just a great UF romp

This Thing Between Us - probably the saddest horror I've ever read.

The Murmur of Bees - I thought this was excellent. Yeah, sure kinda centered on the haves in a time of have-nots, but I think we got to see more of the world from the privileged eyes, and therefore more of the impact of the not-having.

Bindle Punk Bruja - this was cheesy with a weird emphasis on sex and shame.

8 books by Black/African authors

The Queue - I never know where to put Middle-eastern when dividing by continents, but I'm going to put this here because Egypt is in Africa. Sad, contemplative, bleak.

Beloved - a classic for a reason

The Map of Salt and Stars - this was heeeeaaavy

4 books by Asian authors
The Housekeeper and the Professor - an absolute delight. If you like A Gentleman in Moscow, try a housekeeper in Japan!

Spirits Abroad - a re-read, not sure if I'll end up counting this, but a good 'un?

Zero Sum Game - so there's urban fantasy which has its own tropes, and then there's this, which is urban scifi? Pretty interesting, actually.

The Enchantress of Florence - also not the right place to put this, but I'll fix it later. Very fun alt-folktale, too many sexual organs.



1 book by a Native author

Shutter - very gory!

Green Grass, Running Water - too literary for me

I'm really enjoying how much this is forcing me to consider, and which areas I'm finding hardest to pull books for. Still wondering where those hang ups lie in me, and what, if anything, I should consider to address them. So far, happy to keep questing for the next book!

[CBRetriever]

I'm doing pretty good with this one too but not as well as you have:

7 books from non-English speaking countries or non UK/US/Canadian countries

Automatic Eve by Inui, Rokuro = Translated
The Cabinet by Un-Su Kim = Translated
The Kingdom by Nesbo, Jo = Translated
Night Shadows (Forbidden Iceland #3) by Ægisdóttir, Eva Björg = Translated
Lex Talionis by Garcia, R.S.A. = Trinidad
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Lord, Karen = Barbados
The Moose Paradox (The Rabbit Factor series Book 2) by Tuomainen, Antti = Finland

4 from 35 and under authors

Elatsoe by Little Badger, Darcie = 35
The Monster Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade, #2) by Dickinson, Seth = 33
The First Binding (Tales of Tremaine, #1) by Virdi, R.R. = 32
Night Shadows (Forbidden Iceland #3) by Ægisdóttir, Eva Björg = 34

2 from LGBTQ+ authors

Upright Women Wanted by Gailey, Sarah
The Bruising of Qilwa by Jamnia, Naseem

[Hanne G]

So I’m a latecomer (heh story of my life), but being a longtime gender nonconforming feminist woman I’ve always been somewhat disappointed to realise reading hard sf generally meant reading men’s stories and writing, with all that entails. So my deliberate going into female SF authors lead me to Lois McMaster Bujold whose books I had neglected - and they sat balefully glaring at me from my bookshelf. A revelation to go literally from the un-alive feeling of Ben Bova’s Mars to the sparkling life of Bujold’s writing! Sadly / wonderfully I then bunged *everything* she has written last year. And yes, its ironic her biggest series is about a man. One could do an interesting analysis of the ways in which he was both stereotypically masculine and also feminist. I suspect getting published with a central female character still holds it challenges. Grr.

I started out this year well with Martha Well’s Murderbot books, but for one reason or another here I am reading Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Paolini’s Inheritance, and Reynold’s Revelation Space. Trained habits, eh?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

It's pretty crazy how easy it is to flow into mainstream without realizing it or realizing what that does to what we're reading!

[Jessica]

Hanne G wrote: "So I’m a latecomer (heh story of my life), but being a longtime gender nonconforming feminist woman I’ve always been somewhat disappointed to realise reading hard sf generally meant reading men’s stories..." ---- Bujold is great, good that you have discovered her! For other female-authored sci fi with some gender-bending or gender-related themes, you might also enjoy CJ Cherryh's Chanur series, Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, Mary Robinette Kowal's Calculating Stars, or Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series.

[Kaa]

Mid-year check in! I am doing much better than last year (18% of my reading, or 7 books so far) have been by Latinx authors, which is *almost* representative of the US population. Given my other reading patterns right now, I think 20% seems like a reasonable goal for the rest of the year.

[CBRetriever]

Added another one

The Widow Queen by Elżbieta Cherezińska which was one of the Free Tor books last year.

Hmmm, there haven't been any this year other than the one I asked the Goodreads Librarians to add which, I asked them to add back on June 12th with no response so far:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Anyway, the book was originally in Polish, published by Tor and was quite and interesting historical novel. I just found out there's a sequel and I plan to read this sometime in the future.

[CBRetriever]

semi mid year results

LGBTQ is lacking with only 7 on the shelf, so I will read those to bring the percentage up to 1.3% and will be on the lookout for more as the year goes by with the hope of taking it up to at least 2%. I'm thinking some of the authors are not listing that information on their bios. Here is what I have right now:

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan
The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
Flotsam by R.J. Theodore
The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

Next I looked at translated books and books from other countries and decided I had far too many American, UK, Canadian and other writers in English so I added these given that the US has a large percentage of people originally from these countries as well as the ones aforementioned

The Widow Queen by Elżbieta Cherezińska = Translated from Polish
Automatic Eve by Rokurō Inui = Translated from Japanese
The Cabinet by Kim Un-su = Translated from Korean
Love. an Archaeology by Fábio Fernandes = Translated from Brazilian Portuguese
The Kingdom by Jo Nesbø = Translated from Norwegian
Incomplete Solutions by Wole Talabi = Nigeria
Bloodbusters by Francesco Verso = Translated from Italian
To the Sky Kingdom by Tang Qi Gong Zi = Translated from Chinese
Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir = Translated from Icelandic
Lex Talionis by R.S.A. Garcia. = Trinidad
Northern Wrath by Thilde Kold Holdt = Denmark
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord = Barbados
The Moose Paradox by Antti Tuomainen = Translated from Finish

Then to the last category: I found to my dismay that a lot of the authors on my shelf are old, so I'm going to add some youthful (under 35) writers here:

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger = 35
The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson = 33
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow = 33
The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen = 31
The First Binding by R.R. Virdi = 32
Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir = 34

8 for Translated/Non-English speaking countries
5 for Young but one is in the above category
2 for LGBTQ+ so I need to readd more that I've identified as being in this category

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

excellent progress

[Kaa]

Darcie Little Badger is an LGBTQ author also!

[CBRetriever]

Kaa wrote: "Darcie Little Badger is an LGBTQ author also!"

thanks I add that to my spreadsheet. It's difficult finding that information and the age information

[Kaia]

I thought I should check in on my progress with this challenge. My goal was to read more books by authors from the western hemisphere who are not from the US or Canada and more authors from other parts of the world outside of the UK or Australia. So far, I have six for this year:

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria)
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (Philippines)
Central Station and Neom by Lavie Tidhar (Israel)
Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed (Egypt)
Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi (Nigeria)
The Man Who Could Move Clouds Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Colombia)

Since only one of these authors is from the western hemisphere (outside of US and Canada), I need to do better in that department. I'm about to start Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean, and I am waiting for Lex Talionis by RSA Garcia to come in for me at my library. (I read a story by her in Uncanny recently that I loved.) If anyone has a favorite book or author from that region, I'd love recommendations - doesn't have to be SFF, but that is a plus.