Friday, January 1, 2010

TBR FOR 2010: What's on your to-be-read list?

Bye-bye 2009. Glad you were here. Reading for the year was good and I'm looking forward to reading even more good reads in 2010. This year I'm going to be a little more deliberate in my reading. I've joined reading challenges, written out my lists and I confess I've cheated. Who could wait to start reading? Hey, smack me with a wet noodle. This weekend I'm working on my first reviews for 2010.

What's on your TBR for 2010? Did you join any challenges? If you're hesitant to join a challenge formally, follow along here for Social Justice and Women Unbound. Once a month I'll post a book for each challenge for a group read. Anytime you review a book for a challenge leave us a link to your review in the book of the month challenge post.

January Books:

Women Unbound: Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice.
Social Justice: Many Windows: Six Kids, Five Faiths, One Community by Rukhsana Khan.

Social Justice has a theme each month. This month it is religious freedom.

Look for discussion threads the first Friday every month.

Lastly, if you have a suggestion for a group read for either challenge, drop me an e-mail. Happy reading and Happy New Year!

16 comments:

Eva said...

Ohhh-if I can get Children of the Waters from the library in time, I'm so in for your read-a-long! :)

Leslie @ This is the Refrain said...

Happy 2010, Susan! Thanks for everything you do!

Anonymous said...

Still doing 50books_poc, of course (FAQ here), but I run my count from Blog Against Racism Week to Blog Against Racism Week, so I'm actually at mid-year on that challenge. (Lots of other people run it from New Year to New Year, or whatever other date matters to them). I'm not joining any additional challenges (although I should note that one could make one's 50books_poc list do double-duty with quite a lot of other challenges), but I'm gonna keep an eye on recs coming out of some of those challenges.

TBR for 2010: my TBR stack has about one hundred books on it. Literally. (It's a dedicated bookcase in my dining room, and not a stack at all.) I can't really imagine deciding in advance what I'm going to read this year, because that's not really the way my reading-life operates. That said, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow is coming up very soon. ;-)

Beverly said...

Happy New Year!
I too have joined some reading challenges to help make my reading more focused and will start to plan out my reading lists today.

Some books I am looking forward to reading this year:
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky - Heidi Darrow
The Long Song - Andrea Levy
Island Beneath the Sea - Isabel Allende
Segu - Maryse Conde

susan said...

Eva, I hope folks are able to join. We have the entire month to read and I'll leave a link open to the discussion.

Thanks, Lu.

Sanguinity, It's hard for me to read books in any real order and I purposely joined challenges where my reads would crossover otherwise I couldn't successfully completely. I can't wait to see your review and 50 Book was a joy to read in 2009. Looking forward to what you share this year.

Beverly, I read and enjoyed Small Island by Levy.

Gavin said...

Happy New Year, Susan. As you know, I have way too many challenges. In January I hope to read Massacre River by Rene Philoctete and Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o for my New Authors and Global challenges.

Thank you for the immense amount of work you do for literacy and diversity!

Ohima is ... said...

Happy 2010 to everyone. My resolution for this year will be to learn more about writers like Ngugi wa Thiango, Aidoo, the Harlem Renaissance artist and many more. I wish to network more with the fans of Color Online. Happy New year again.

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

Hello:

I have been a life time bookworm, thank you for sharing these beautiful sources with us,
sharing is caring,
Happy New Year.


http://www.jingleyanqiu.wordpress.com
welcome.

Jeannine said...

Here are a couple of books from my TBR stack.

The Darkest Child
Does My Head Look Big In This?
Do They Hear You When You Cry?
8th Grade Superzero (coming out soon!!)

susan said...

Hi Jeannine,

Darkest Child is on my tbr as 8th Grade. I've read and enjoyed the other two.

Now, if you haven't already, jump in the discussion about black lit at Black-Eyed Susan's.

Unknown said...

I tend to read as I go, but I am currently reading Angela Davis's autobiography and plan to read The Diary of Anne Frank as well as Sherri Shepherd and Jenna Jameson's books--all for Women Unbound. I also want to check out Living Oprah and Sex for One.

There are SO MANY. It can get overwhelming.

Mardel said...

Sometimes when I read what others are reading through Color Onlin I feel a little ashamed that I'm not reading to expand my mind, rather I'm reading for my own pleasure. After raising four children and going to college (for only a few years) at this point in my life, when I want to read it's for enjoyments only. Now my father - he's the type that reads heavy duty books, magazines etc for fun.

I did look up Children of the Waters, and think at somepoint I would like to read it (I usually only read urban fantasy).

A while on someone's blog, it was mentioned that there are NO poc's on any covers or as main characters. Someone else mentions L. Banks Huntress series. I do realize that in scific and fantasy there aren't any obvious poc's - however in scifi we often have other life forms as characters. And I always thought (by judging the cover) that the main character of Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series was hispanic. She's definitely not lily-white. As a reader I don't usually pay attention to ethnicities unless it's pointed out to me. This brings me to a new release that's coming out January 5 called Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass. The cover model is a poc. I looked up the book, and was able to read an excerpt which was pretty good, so I'm going to buy the book.

The fact that the excerpt was good has more bearing with me, than whatever the main character's race is. That's how it should be. I wish that the publishing companies would put more of a variety of races on their covers, to give us readers a chance to read a variety of books by a variety of authors.

This is the first Obviously non-caucasion cover model I've seen on an urban fantasy. I'm glad the book promises to be a good book. (Now I forgot about L Banks' Night Huntress series - but I tried the first two books and wasn't too into them)

New to my TBR pile will be Shadow Blade. All my other tbr books are strictly candy for my brain.

I did join some challenges - mainly things like the 2010 Countdown challenge, 2010 speculative fiction challenge and the 2010 Young Adult reading challenge, I'm going for 12 YA books- a stretch for me, since I mainly read adult books - and primary grade picture books for the school library. :)

susan said...

Akilah,

Sex for One is good. I wish we could convince girls that masturbation is normal and healthy. You can't get AIDS, STDs or pregnant. You don't have to fall into desperate sexual situations with men when you can provide yourself with sexual release.

I'll stop. Let me know what you think of the book.

Unknown said...

I put it on my list based on your recommendation! So I'm looking forward to it.

Mary Ann Scheuer said...

I'm really looking forward to reading
* 8th Grade Superzero, and
* One Crazy Summer

both come out this month, and are for ages 9 - 12.

I just finished reading The Rock and The River and loved, loved it. So powerful and gripping.

My daughter loved the Michelle Obama fashion book - it was a perfect find for her. Thanks so much for sharing it.

Jessie Carty said...

no specific challenges but i am shooting for 50 books this year and i am going to try and buy more diversely. plan to talk about the graphic novel "aya from yop city" next week on my blog or video review :)