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juliana_aldous's review
5.0
Book Lust is an excellent resource for what to read next. Lots of themes and good books to choose from.
compass_rose's review
2.0
It wasn't as fun as I'd expected. I did find a few things in there to add to my "to read" list. A good reference in the future if I'm looking for something in particular.
barkylee15's review
3.0
This guide is both comprehensive and narrow. A lot of great titles, especially ones I've never heard of - but incredibly time-sensitive. Many authors who I'd never heard of, or books that just aren't popular (haven't stood the test of time) today, over 10 years later. I'd be interested to read an updated copy of this though!
shawcrit's review
2.0
I read this for the BookRiot Read Harder Challenge category "read a book about books." This book is fun to peruse, but certain patterns in her recommendations got tedious pretty quickly. She has specific chapters dedicated to different countries, ethnicities, and races, but the genre recommendations ("mysteries," "spy fiction," "cyberpunk," "fantasy," etc.) are all dominated by white Western authors, and in particular, white men. This suggests that POC write "special interest" books, and effectively excludes non-white writers from other literary canons. It is exclusionary, limiting, and problematic to place "African American Writers" in their own category, and exclude them from categories like "Boys Come of Age" "Women's Friendships," etc., as though they are not also engaging with these themes. It positions white Western authors and experiences as central, definitive, and authoritative, and marginalizes POC experiences. I understand that these are her personal recommendations, and that the literary canon is predominantly white, so of course the books easiest to access, and the books that will be given the most praise, are those of white authors. But I think that, if you are going to write a book of recommendations, you should maybe think about the politics of how you categorize authors and try to branch out from the traditional Western canon.
This book is a great resource if you are new to reading, or if you are interested in a new genre and want to find out about the big name books in that category. I definitely added a few mysteries to my to-read list. The problem, however, is that if you voraciously read a particular genre, once you come upon that section, you will, of course, be thinking: "why didn't you include this??" This happened to me when I came upon the "Cyberspace.com" section (the title made me cringe a bit, because, hey! 2003!), and the "Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror" section (because, seriously, you had to lump them in together??). Pearl's kind of pedestrian and obvious selections for sf made me then question her selections in the rest of this book. In the latter section, Ursula LeGuin is a quick footnote (?!) in a list of selections that is predominantly white dudes. How can you not include Octavia Butler, Tiptree, or Samuel Delany, but include Pohl? Obviously, no one person can read all the things, I get it. But it seems like her reading choices are very circumscribed, so it made it difficult for me to get excited about the rest of her recommendations. I mean, if you are going to write recommendations for a genre, shouldn't you be well-versed in that genre?
Ultimately, this book just made me want to write a more diverse book of book recommendations for these categories that you maybe wouldn't get if you just did a google search. But, kudos to Pearl, because I am a long way off from being near qualified to do so.
This book is a great resource if you are new to reading, or if you are interested in a new genre and want to find out about the big name books in that category. I definitely added a few mysteries to my to-read list. The problem, however, is that if you voraciously read a particular genre, once you come upon that section, you will, of course, be thinking: "why didn't you include this??" This happened to me when I came upon the "Cyberspace.com" section (the title made me cringe a bit, because, hey! 2003!), and the "Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror" section (because, seriously, you had to lump them in together??). Pearl's kind of pedestrian and obvious selections for sf made me then question her selections in the rest of this book. In the latter section, Ursula LeGuin is a quick footnote (?!) in a list of selections that is predominantly white dudes. How can you not include Octavia Butler, Tiptree, or Samuel Delany, but include Pohl? Obviously, no one person can read all the things, I get it. But it seems like her reading choices are very circumscribed, so it made it difficult for me to get excited about the rest of her recommendations. I mean, if you are going to write recommendations for a genre, shouldn't you be well-versed in that genre?
Ultimately, this book just made me want to write a more diverse book of book recommendations for these categories that you maybe wouldn't get if you just did a google search. But, kudos to Pearl, because I am a long way off from being near qualified to do so.
damsorrow's review
5.0
found this little guy on a desk while patiently waiting for my high school english teacher to come back to his classroom today. he didn't show, but i mined its cleverly and whimsically constructed lists of book recommendations for solid gold.
kristinaray717's review
I honestly don't remember this well, but I know I read at least most of it when I lived in NC. I think it was 2008, it could have been the year before or after. It didn't leave a big impression obviously.