BookOwl

    5/5 stars    *Spoiler alert!* “In creating this miscellany, our goal is for you to find at least ten new-to-you and irresistible books by authors of backgrounds different from your own...that you'll read in the next year...The idea is to keep seeking out and reading diverse stories.”   Challenge accepted! (I ended up adding 23 books from Bibliophiles, if anyone was curious, although I may come back and add more during a re-read.)    “It is our small offering to the world, sparked by social injustices and racial reckonings, and inspired by many years of reading diversely and realizing what magic can happen when people leave their comfort zones.”   Pretty much all of the books recommended in this gorgeously illustrated volume center the stories of marginalized groups, like women, BIPOC, and those in the LGBTQAI community. A fair number of them I had read, which had me pointing to the book covers in miniature like I was in a bookstore each time and saying, “I read that” out loud—

    4/5 stars   *Spoiler alert!*   “This book is a genderspu n retelling of a Chinese classic novel Water Margin , in which antiheroic bandits rise up agains t a tyrannical government on behalf of the people. I’v e reimagined it as a melding of epic fantasy and wuxia, an action-packed battle against patriarchy that’ s rife with indecorous women and fantastical sword fights.”   Okay, S.L. Huang, I’m sold! The Water Outlaws is quite the action-packed and poignant romp through the Empire of Song during a rebellion. Although it started off a bit slow, I recognized the love and care S.L. Huang was putting into the worldbuilding and unique magic system.   One of my favorite characters of the whole novel was Lin Chong, who was introduced in the beginning as an unassuming, yet no-nonsense master arms instructor of the Imperial Guard. One of a few high-ranked women, who has largely kept her head down as she’s ascended the Imperial Guard hierarchy .   “The class was always well atte