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Lounge II (The Lounge Strikes Back)


kais

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How much are these kids books and how much YA?

I'll second Nnedi Okorafor's Binti books. I really enjoyed them, but they are a little slow. They do deal with some adult themes and are only sort of YA if you squint.

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark is really good and has a young POC female character. Has some scary themes, but very good.

Sanderson's Skyward series is definitely YA material with a heroine

The Girl with all the Gifts is a zombie story, but is technically from a young female's POV...

Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath would be an awesome book - It's a collection of something like 100+ mini-histories about bass-This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules women in history.

You could also always suggest a little book called Journey to the Top of the Nether ;-). But seriously, it does have a young female (alien) protagonist and I wrote it to be MG/YA.

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Oh, and many Trudi Canavan books have heroines.

I read some historical fiction recently, 'The Taming of the Queen'  by Phillipa Gregory about Catherine Parr (Henry VIII's sixth and final wife).

When I was younger I really enjoyed 'Runemarks' by Joanne Harris. It's about a young girl born with a runemark who interacts with the Norse gods and the fair folk.

Robinski is right about Katniss, though I always found her a bit flat - personal preference I'm guessing ;)

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Oh, oh. I've got another one. Dan Wells' Partials books are pretty decent and have a female protagonist. They are post-apocalyptic, so tend towards being a bit dark, but not quite so much as Hunger Games.

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1 hour ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

Robinski is right about Katniss, though I always found her a bit flat - personal preference I'm guessing ;)

I chose to believe she was emotionally 'damaged' as a result of her situation, the state of society, the world, etc., and I gave her a pass for that. Jennifer Lawrence had nothing whatever to do with it. (FYI, and apropos of nothing at all, I saw the first movie, then read the first book, then read the second and third books before the second and third movies came out.)

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11 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

If you happen to think of any books, please let me know. Nothing too political/controversial/dark, since this is for a business. Thanks, y'all. 

Here's where I stall. I have lists, oh how I have lists of great books with female leads, most of which are either queer or PoC or both. But those kinds of books are inherently political, as those bodies are political. Black people can no more leave racial injustice from their books than lesbians can leave the patriarchy. The only books that get to be nonpolitical are white books, since white straight cis people are the only ones who can pretend politics don't affect them.

So I can list, but they will all be strong books that tackle strong themes with strong women

Unrelated - OMG that kitten is adorable!!

Edited by kais
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27 minutes ago, kais said:

But those kinds of books are inherently political, as those bodies are political.

See, this is what is driving me nuts, because there are some books that I would love to recommend, but would have too many parents clutching their pearls. I mean, I put Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness with hesitation because it mentions sex. I feel like the only PoC representation I had that wasn't preschool is Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. More than half of my preschool recommendations are PoC, with my favorite Ada Twist, Scientist, right on top. 

30 minutes ago, kais said:

So I can list, but they will all be strong books that tackle strong themes with strong women

I'll still take that list, for my own enjoyment at the very least. If it is something that I can add to the list, I will. 

@TheDwarfyOne @Mandamon @Robinski Thank you so much for your recommendations! So many of them I was like, I can't believe I didn't think of that! Especially the Binti books, because I thoroughly enjoyed them when I read them last year. I'm happily updating the list. 

Thank you all!!!

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@Snakenaps

I have more. So, so many more. Let me know how much more you want. These are all spec fiction, mostly SFF, but I have contemporary lists, too. I can also do an entire list just on POC if you'd like.

 

Adult

The Tiger's Daughter by K Arsenault Rivera

Safety Protocols for Human Holidays by Angel Martinez

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones

Starless by Jacqueline Carey

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Compass Rose by Anna Burke

Velveteen vs. The Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire

Shell Game by Benny Lawrence

The Solstice Pudding by Angel Martinez

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Yule Planet by Angel Martinez

An Accident of Stars by Fox Meadows

The Adventures of the Incognita Countess by Cynthia Ward

The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt

Love Beyond Body, Space & Time edited by Hope Nicholson

The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang

The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns

Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel by Jacqueline Koyanagi

City of Brass (trilogy) by Shannon Chakabotry 

Moonshine by Jasmine Gower

The Exile and the Sorcerer by Jane Fletcher

The Ardulum Series by J.S. Fields (oh look, this is me. HELLOOOOO)

YA

Tarnished are the Stars by Rosiee Thor

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

Every Heart a Doorway (long series, all applicable) by Seanan McGuire

Keeper of the Dawn by Dianna Gunn

Crier's War by Nina Varela

Adaptation by Malinda Lo

The Rampant by Julie C. Day

Santa Oliva by Jacqueline Carey

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Princesless. Raven: The Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller

Dreadnought by April Daniels

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurts

Lunav by Jenn Polish

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Magnifique Noir by Briana Lawrence

MG

Not Your Sidekick (the whole series) by C.B. Lee

Edited by kais
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48 minutes ago, kais said:

I have more. So, so many more. Let me know how much more you want. These are all spec fiction, mostly SFF, but I have contemporary lists, too. I can also do an entire list just on POC if you'd like.

Booooooks, glorious booooooks!!!

This is amazing!!! Thank you!!! I'll take whatever you'll give me, as I know a lot of these titles may be difficult for me to track down on Libby or at the library. Hopefully I'll be able to scrounge up some funds and add some to my bookshelves. 

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Goodreads lists for more, especially with intersecting identities

 

Asian + queer (Ash by Malinda Lo is BEAUTIFUL, and MG/YA, with likely nothing at all objectionable)

General WoC + queer 

Fantasy novels by women of color

Speculative fiction by women of color (Octavia Butler IS A MUST)

Queer women of color

My own list, constantly updated, for books featuring wlw (women love women) or f/f speculative fiction, mostly all adult, broken out by genre. If I've read it there's a review so you can check for content.

I have a crap ton of middle grade I can dig up too if you want? Also do you want contemporary??

 

Edited by kais
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23 minutes ago, kais said:

I have a crap ton of middle grade I can dig up too if you want? Also do you want contemporary??

You have middle school??? Yeeeeees... I'm not as familiar with contemporary, so, yes, toss me a few of your favorites. I love widening my own perspectives through the lenses of books. 

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@Snakenaps I'll throw in a few of my own book recommendations, as long as we're doing this:

Leviathan Trilogy, Scott Westerfeld - Technically, only one of the two protagonists is female, and given that this is set in an alternate history + steampunk WWI, 1) she's very British, not upper-class British mind you, but British all the same, and 2) she dresses as a boy for the vast majority of the series because she wants to fight in the war and given that this is the late 1910s, women were not allowed to fight and certainly not allowed to become crewmen aboard the airship Leviathan. It's still one of my favorite steampunk series (mostly for the setting, not the story) and I will recommend it all the same. Suitable for YA.

The Hungry City Chronicles or Mortal Engines Quintet, Phillip Reeve - The first book does have a male protagonist, but the true protagonist of the series as a whole is, in my opinion, Hester Shaw. It's a very good steampunk series (one of the first ones), and do not let the movie mislead you - that isn't how Hester Shaw looks. Her face is hideously scarred and she's repeatedly described in the books as being awful to look at, so the movie casting decided to just recast her to look appealing to audiences. A shame, really - the vast majority of the human population isn't as photogenic as your average protagonist. I think we should have more ugly protagonists. Suitable for YA.

Footnote: Same author also wrote the Fever Crumb series, which also features a female protagonist (the titular Fever Crumb)  but it's not as good as Mortal Engines. Consequently, I'd never start off recommending it, I'd just recommend Mortal Engines and if I was asked for more like it, than I'd direct to Fever Crumb.

Animorphs, K. A. Applegate - Has no one mentioned this yet? True, the main leader is your standard white male lead, but the rest of the supporting cast isn't, and given that the books are written from a different member's perspective every time, there are a fair number of books from the perspective of Cassie and Rachel. As far as plot goes, it's kind of like Gregor the Overlander in that it's a war story in disguise. Suitable for younger readers.

A Winkle In Time, Madeline L'Engle - The original book doesn't have quite the same representation the movie does, and it's somewhat dated to modern readers, but it's still a masterpiece and I will brook no arguments otherwise. Suitable for young readers, but it's also a good read so everyone should just read it.

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov - Dr. Susan Calvin, the original robopsychologist, is the protagonist of some, but not all, of Asimov's robot short stories and she's a hard-as-nails scientist who has no problem constantly scrapping her wits and understanding against whatever robot challenge has been presented. Great for YA readers interested in sci-fi, though not suitable for anyone else.

Running With The Demon, Terry Brooks. - This is part of a larger series called The Word and the Void, but it can be read as a standalone. Or you can read the rest of the series which ties it into Shannara and then the greater Shannara series as a whole. Running With The Demon is YA fantasy which hearkens back to classic chaos vs order fantasy staples and features protagonist (and witch) Nest Freemark in her attempt to get away from both Demons and Knights of the Word.  Suitable for those who love classic fantasy.

Edited by aeromancer
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43 minutes ago, aeromancer said:

Leviathan Trilogy, Scott Westerfeld

As soon as I saw this, I slapped my forehead. This series is awesome and illustrations are GORGEOUS!!! 

Thank you so much for the recommendations!!! I need to read I, Robot, because I know it's a classic. 

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21 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

I'm white. I have no problem with white protagonists. But when children read books, so many of them are about boys. Are girls not allowed to go on adventures? Then most of them are white. How is a child supposed to believe they can do anything too, when all they see is white people having the adventures? How are they supposed to find representations of themselves?

 

Ghost Squad by Claribel Ortega is great if you are looking for something middle grade. The mc is a hispanic girl. Her family is from Dominican Republic. 

A Song Below Water by Bethany Morrow is a new YA contemporary fantasy with a black female lead.

A Blade So Black by L. L. McKinney is a black urban fantasy retelling of Alice in Wonderland. 

I also loved Once and Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy. There is a lot of LGBTQIA rep in this book. It's a YA science fantasy King Arthur retelling, where King Arthur is a girl. 

Edit: Some of the chapters in Once and Future are told through Merlin's  POV, and he is a guy.

Katherine Arden (white author) great at writing strong heroines, both YA and MG. I liked her Winternight Trilogy, a YA historical fantasy that drew on Russian history and folklore.  My only complaint was that I kept thinking a cishet character was queer and then getting disappointed when I realized she was straight and cis. 

Any of Holly Black's (white author) female led books are awesome. However, the lead in her newest YA series, Folk of Air, is probably one of the toughest ladies she's written

 

 

Edited by shatteredsmooth
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MG

Dealing with Dragons series by Patricia C. Wrede (four books)

Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede

Huntress by Malinda Lo (prequel to Ash, by the same author)

Secret of the Princess  by Milk Morinaga (we could go down the manga hole here...)

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Jackaroo by Cynthia Voight

Homecoming series by Cynthia Voight

I'd need time to dig more, these are what are on the front of my kiddo's bookshelf.

 

YA (again)

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Rule by Ellen Goodlett

The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar (recent name change there though due to transition)

The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix (starting with Sabriel)

The Girl from Everywhere duology by Heidi Heilig 

For a Muse of Fire duology by Heidi Heilig

I have an endless supply of YA I think...

 

And you DO want contemporary? Like, contemporary romance? I have a bunch under contemporary YA romance for sure, with diverse casts by diverse authors.

 

edit: I left out a critical adult book! Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse! Native ownvoices with kick butt female lead!

Edited by kais
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21 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

Nothing too political/controversial/dark, since this is for a business.

One of my recs, A Song Below Water, could be considered political because it delves very deeply into how racism affects Black women. However, I don't think that would be a reason to exclude it. 

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11 minutes ago, kais said:

Like, contemporary romance?

If it's good romance, I'll always read it, no matter the time period, no matter the pairing (or pairings. I'll happily read romances with poly relationships. That only means there is more to love).

9 minutes ago, shatteredsmooth said:

Hi, this is Snakenaps, I'm on mobile, accidentally put this here, and now I can't delete it :/ 

 

Admittedly, most of the romance I've been reading lately has been webcomics, but that's because I've never had a lot of people to recommend me good romances. Sorry to the very popular Jude Deveraux, but I can't read her stuff after the nearly rape scene between the love interests in The Raider, or the disgusting way she handled obesity in Wishes. 

So, so many romances are bad. I tend to read them on a suggested basis from the simple fact I'm not patient enough to dig through all the heaps of Hallmark-level romances. 

For me, romance comes first over sex. I'll happily read books with plenty of fun between the sheets, but if the romance isn't believable, *yawn* I'm out. 

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13 minutes ago, shatteredsmooth said:

One of my recs, A Song Below Water, could be considered political because it delves very deeply into how racism affects Black women. However, I don't think that would be a reason to exclude it. 

I'm actually going to quote you where I want you now. 

I'll give it a read and see if it fits the guidelines. I put Chains and The Help in there because I do think that one of the best ways of tackling racism is by cutting at the roots with understanding and sympathy. Books have an amazing ability to toss you into another person's shoes and make you think outside of your own limited life. 

Edited by Snakenaps
What is spelling
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1 hour ago, Snakenaps said:

now. 

I'll give it a read and see if it fits the guidelines. I put Chains and The Help

Noooooo to The Help! It’s white savior crap. Not a good example at all and there are SO MANY better books out there, especially by Black authors, that tackle the same subject matter without it being all ‘oh the poor Black people who need white people to stick up for them’ and 'I need to see Black people being denigrated in order to feel sympathy’ 

Edited by kais
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16 minutes ago, kais said:

Noooooo to The Help! It’s white savior crap. Not a good example at all and there are SO MANY better books out there,

I read The Help freshman year of college (so, five years ago), and I'm admittedly rusty on it. I pulled it off my bookshelf because I went "Hey, I remember strong women in this, especially the pie scene." Now that I'm looking back...you're very much right. It's all about Skeeter playing the benevolent liberator. 

I'd much rather switch it out for something that doesn't have the...poisonous literary stereotypes. I'd like to get away from white saviors, wise old Native Americans, "here's my one black/gay/insert any minority here friend which makes me woke" and that such jazz.

This is good for me two fold: it helps me promote quality literature, and helps me eradicate the misconceptions I know I still carry. I feel very aware of the mistakes I make here (I mean @kais you caught me white defaulting just this last submitted chapter, which I have now fixed), but I think that's good for me. Makes me grow. Hopefully reading these suggestions and adding them to the recommended reading list will help. 

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@Snakenaps, I'm temporarily going to ignore what you said about it being appropriate, and I'll tell you why in a moment. Here's some that haven't been mentioned

Rook, by somebody or other. it was recommended by writing excuses at some point. (Sorry that isn't any more vague.)

Poppy War

Broken Earth Trilogy

Ninth house

Red Queen

those are the first three that popped into my head. As for why it doesn't matter about appropriate, is because a) I can't remember enough books with female protagonists that I can present any books at all, let alone a list. Second, sometimes books can be edited with a pen or sharpie (in my case, I skip over a page or so when I think a scene is coming up). On the other hand, some people have a hard time with censoring at all.

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3 hours ago, kais said:

The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix (starting with Sabriel)

Seconded. I cannot believe I forgot the Abhorsen Trilogy in my list. It's highly underrated, as one of the greatest fantasy trilogies ever written. (And it wasn't even supposed to be a trilogy - it was originally just intended to be two books, Sabriel and Abhorsen, but Abhorsen got so large the front half got split off it to become Lirael.) Also, it has Mogget. Everyone loves Mogget.

Also, I'm not sure if you want to go down the manga hole (and if you do, I can't help), but I have a decent knowledge of American comics, so I could offer a few suggestion if you're looking for that. (Hint: Kamala Khan as the new Ms. Marvel is probably your best bet.)

Edited by aeromancer
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6 hours ago, Snakenaps said:
  6 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

Hi, this is Snakenaps, I'm on mobile, accidentally put this here, and now I can't delete it :/ 

If you have a blank line above and below the quote box, or say two blank lines, drag a selection over the quote box, both sides, and hit delete, it should be deleted :) 

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9 hours ago, aeromancer said:

It's highly underrated, as one of the greatest fantasy trilogies ever written.

HARD agree. It is hands down the best in YA fantasy. In my top three of overall fantasy series ever. 
 

@aeromancer you know Nix has done a few more, right? Goldenhand and one other. Not quite as amazing but still excellent. 

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