Hello, fellow readers! 2024 is well and truly underway, which means there are many, many new reasons to expand our #tbr piles. Here’s my contribution to helping you keep those piles diverse!
- I used to be a regular attendee at the Seoul Book and Culture Club, a monthly chance for English speakers in Korea to meet and engage with Korean writers, some of them quite legendary. The literary brains behind the club, Barry Welsh, has started a YouTube channel where he reviews English translations of Korean literature. [YouTube]
- Why do y’all like this rant about Trans Batgirl that really isn’t about Trans Batgirl so much? That’s a serious question–that post has the second most views of all time, and it’s the most popular post of the year so far. I’m glad you like it, but why? [Equal Opportunity Reader]
- Black-owned, Black-focused Oakland bookstore Sistah Sci-Fi is sponsoring the West Coast book tour for new YA graphic novel Ghost Roast, penned by sisters Shawnee and Shawnelle Gibbs. This means that book is about to be good. [Big News Network]
- This is surprising and vaguely alarming, but makes a certain sort of sense — Salman Rushdie’s attacker’s trial may be delayed so that the attacker’s lawyer can read the book Rushdie wrote about the incident. [The Guardian]
- So many lists of books to anticipate in 2024 and I…frankly don’t have the bandwidth to create one of my own. Here’s a few of interest from Lit Hub, for fantasy and across genres, though. [LitHub]
- African Book Addict has also given us a list of books to anticipate from the entire African diaspora, across all genres [African Book Addict]
- The stats on Korean-American novel releases are interesting. In 2022 there were 5 novels by Korean-American writers published. In 2023, there were 18! Minsoo Kang, whose debut novel The Melancholy of Untold History comes out this summer, rounded up the best of a happily expanding bookstore section for us. [Best of Korea]
- Last thing for this week, fellow readers; I’m teaching another class! If you’re a Black woman who is surprised every time Luke Skywalker finds out who his real father is, fights the air whenever Rue dies in The Hunger Games, and wonders out loud why Frodo never met a Black elf, come join me this May as I give you a crash course on Black women in speculative fiction and how to learn from their work to create our own hopeful, joyful written worlds. Hope to see you there! [midnight & indigo]
As always, fellow readers, have a wonderful week. Don’t forget that if you purchase anything from a link on this site, we use the affiliate commission to stick it to the man. Now, go read something good! Peace!
Equal Opportunity Reader 