‘We Have Always Been Here’ | 6 SF books written by diverse authors on my TBR

It is the second week of SciFiMonth 2019. Ship systems are running nominally and the journey is now well underway. Home sickness is likely to be setting in for some of our fellow traveler’s so I wanted to spend this week talking about something Earth related – SF books written by diverse authors who are on my TBR. As a diverse book blogger, I am unsurprisingly here for all of the diverse fiction but SF written by diverse authors (which include authors of marginalized genders, authors of colour, queer and disabled authors for example) have a special place in my heart not only because I love the genre so much but also because diverse authors have been continuously erased from the genre. Diverse authors writing SF is not a new phenomena, they have always been there though they have been systematically erased and obscured by straight white able-bodied cis men. There is a wonderful array of diverse SF out there which deserve to be read, discussed and celebrated.

Whenever I usually talk about diverse SF, I find myself often bringing up the same examples over and over again either as books I have read (eg: Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers and Kaia Sønderby’s Failure to Communicate) or SF books on my TBR (such as poor Everfair by Nisi Shawl which has been waiting forever to be read as well as An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon). To avoid playing the same records (even if they are are wonderful records) to many times, I thought it would be fun to share with you all some books on my TBR that I’m excited to read that I don’t often give space for on my blog. Hope you enjoy.

9 Favorite Themes & Features in SF

For those who might have missed my launch post, this month I am on a very exciting voyage into space with my fellow SciFiMonth travelers. Whilst onboard we will be reading, playing and discussing all things Sci-Fi for the entire month of November! In honor of this journey, I will be sharing some lists throughout the month of some of my favorite SF-themed things.

Today’s edition is: Favourite Themes and Features in SF. In case you didn’t already know, SF is my favorite genre so it should come as no surprise that there are lots of recurring themes and features within the genre that make me love it so much. Here I’ll be sharing some of my favorite themes and features with you. In addition to telling you a bit about each theme or feature, I’ve listed some recommendations of books, films and/or video games which deal with them. These are a mixture of books, films and video games which I’ve read/watched/played with some that I haven’t gotten around to yet. Those that I haven’t engaged with will be marked with a *. (Also fair warning there are a lot of repeats because my knowledge is still limited!) Make sure you drop a comment letting me know what yours are too!

Goodreads Choice Awards 2018 Winners

Every year I look forward to the Goodreads Choice Awards and this year was no different. Even long before I started book blogging, the GR Choice Awards provided the perfect opportunity to show my love for my favourite books and (of course) increase my TBR by adding some of the biggest book names of the year.

How I Met the Genre | The Science Fiction Edition

We all find our own unique paths into the genres that we love and wind up there for many different reasons. We could have discovered a favourite genre when staying up late one night and found ourselves absorbed in a strange film that we just couldn’t stop watching. Maybe we came to a genre through a relative, mentor, or friend who recommended a book that we just *had* to read. Sometimes the genres we come to love are ones that we disliked so much as children and teenagers because we were forced to read books, watch films, and act out plays that we found boring at the time but grew to love later on in life.

In this series, I want to share with you my journey into my favourite genres. As it’s Science Fiction & Fantasy week on Goodreads, I thought there would be no better way to kick off the series than with one of my all-time favourite genres – Science Fiction!

What is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month?

At the beginning of the month, I spoke about May being Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM) and there were some people who didn’t know what it was – that’s okay! A year ago when I first started book blogging I had never heard of AAPIHM either. It’s thanks to a really great awareness raising post by Pasifika blogger Anjulie Te Pohe in her post about the erasure of Pacific Islander books during AAPIHM that I started learning more about this erasure and AAPIHM more generally.

To kick off my AAPI Heritage Month themed posts I wanted to start off with a basic question – What is Asian American & Pacific Island Heritage Month?