Random Book Love: Aya of Yop City, James Tiptree, Jr.

I read. A lot. Mostly science fiction, but some non-SF, some fantasy, some nonfiction, some graphic novels. Generally 1-4 books per week.

Some books (comics and non) I've read (or reread) and loved lately:

Aya of Yop City (pictured above) by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie. The second graphic novel in a light-hearted series about the adventures of three young women growing up in 1970s Ivory Coast. Abouet's writing and characters are a delight and I could stare at Oubrerie's lovely line- and colorwork in envy all day.

James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips. I read this amazing, dense, beautifully-written 400+-page biography in a several day fever-dream ending in eyestrain and tears. Publisher blurb:

James Tiptree, Jr., burst onto the science fiction scene in the late 1960s with a series of hard-edged, provocative stories. He redefined the genre with such classics as Houston, Houston, Do You Read? and The Women Men Don't See. For nearly ten years he wrote and carried on intimate correspondences with other writers--Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, and Ursula K. Le Guin, though none of them knew his true identity. Then the cover was blown on his alter ego: "he" was actually a sixty-one-year-old woman named Alice Bradley Sheldon. A feminist, she took a male name as a joke--and found the voice to write her stories."

Thanks to journalist Beth Schwartzapfel for the tip about the biography--she's not even a science fiction fan at all and she loved this book!

By the way, Sheldon inspired the annual James Tiptree, Jr. Award for the best gender-exploring science fiction.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Wonderful young adult book about kids in a dystopian far-future who are forced to compete in a brutal battle-to-the-death reality show for the amusement of the rich. (Yes, it's similar in plot to Battle Royale and The Long Walk, but totally original in execution).

The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick. The life of a changeling girl in a brutal post-industrial have-and-have-not fairyland. I have read this book four or five times and I never get sick of it. I can't believe it's out of print!

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Another beloved reread. Science-fiction classic about a complex planet called Winter, whose people are genderless except during their mating cycle.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; illustrations by cartoonist extraordinaire Ellen Forney. Alexie's first YA book is the story of Junior, a wouldbe cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

And a few of the 170+ books on my urgent to-read list:

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy. Anthology edited by one of my all-time favorite SF writers, Nalo Hopkinson.

The City & the City by China Miéville.

Nation by Terry Pratchett. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.

Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel.

Filter House Tiptree-Award-winning short story collection by Nisi Shawl.

P.S. Sadly, Masheka and I were unable to attend the always-awesome East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention this year, but I plan to check out many of the books nominated for Glyph Awards (Aya of Yop City being one).