book group picks

[boxofdelights]

It's time for my SF book group to pick books again. Our fearless leader has chosen:

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin,
The Power by Naomi Alderman,
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon,
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse,
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, and
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones.

She sorts her other picks into categories, and we get to vote for one from each category.

1. All of these books imagine an alteration in how our world works and people working within or without to change the system.

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow,
An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King,
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz,
Infomocracy by Malka Ann Older

I liked Walkaway, but more for the ideas than the story. I want to read Autonomous and Infomocracy. I think An Excess Male is on the Tiptree honors list.

2. These books take place on alien worlds that work very differently than ours does.

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill,
Amatka by Karin Tidbeck,
Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells

Am leaning towards Hunger Makes the Wolf.

3. YA Asian American or Pacific Islander authors

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig,
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina,
Warcross by Marie Lu,
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

I don't think Australians are Pacific Islanders.

4. Urban Fairy Tales

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert,
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black,
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng,
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

The Hazel Wood is really good. Strange the Dreamer is still on my to-read list.

5. The New Penny Dreadfuls

The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr,
The Dark Days Club by Allison Goodman,
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss,
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

Want to read all of these.

6. Here are some of our group’s favorite reads from last year.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman,
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller,
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders,
We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor

I don't want to read Lincoln in the Bardo. I have the impression that it is the kind of literary fiction that uses SF as a metaphor.

I love my SF book group! Have you read any of these? Thumbs up or down?

Comments

[isis]

I hated both The Song of Achilles and Lincoln in the Bardo (DNF). (Links go to my Goodreads reviews.)

The Girl from Everywhere irritated me because it combined a lot of elements I love into a boring narrative - I felt like I wanted to read the non-YA version of this book, not this one.

[silveradept]

The only one I have read is The Dispossessed, and it's Ursula LeGuin imagining what a functional anarchist society would be like, and having one of those anarchists invent FTL communication and have to go deal with the fallout of that, because the rest of the world is decidedly not anarchist.

[lcohen]

i, too, have only read the dispossessed out of all of these but the theodora goss book leapt out at me because just showed up on the want-to-read goodreads list of a friend of mine with good taste. (our tastes don't always coincide perfectly but if she says something is no good, it would be highly unusual that i would think it was good.)

[bibliofile]

I thought the Goss was brilliant and fun.

I reread The Dispossessed a few years ago and found it very dry, but I think it may make for a good discussion.

[sovay]

I love my SF book group! Have you read any of these? Thumbs up or down?

I have good memories of The Dispossessed, but unlike a lot of Le Guin's other work I have not actually re-read it since grad school, and will be fascinated to hear what your book group thinks of it.

I enjoyed Strange Practice.

Every single person I know who has attempted Lincoln in the Bardo has bounced off it.

[bibliofile]

1. Of these, I've read Autonomous. It's a very WisCon kind of book, dealing with ideas and ethics and a trans protagonist and stuff. I enjoyed it, but I can't tell if everyone/anyone else will (or better
yet, how).

2. I've read only Amatka and Sea of Rust. Both were okay. I think Amatka might make a better discussion book. And now I want to check out the hunger wolf book.

3. I enjoyed Ashala Wolf! And Australia is in the Pacific, right?

[ranunculus]

Ok this is a late reply:
Hunger Makes the Wolf made me want to read more. I recommended it to my partner who reads as slowly as I read fast and he is enjoying it as well.
Just started the Alchemists Daughter. Enjoyed the first 30 pages enough to laugh several times. Liked her previous book a good deal.