Library sale Sunday

[oyceter]

I ended up in the city for the $1/book day of the Friends of the San Francisco Library Sale, whoo! The sale was HUGE; it was the third day and there were still tons of books. It's probably five or six times the size of my local library sale. Next year, I may be insane and attempt to go two days, but only if there are friends driving like this year.

The best part was standing at the SF/F table scanning titles, looking up, and seeing coniraya right next to me! I think we'd both been there for about a minute before we even realized!

The worst part was that there was no table out for romance. People! Stop shafting romance readers! I say this not just because I am one, but because you have tables out for SF/F and mystery and all the thrillers are out there, and if you're going to be snobby about genre, be freaking snobby about all of them and not, say, just the one specifically targeted to women! I am so annoyed by this. I'm so sick of walking into used bookstores and finding they have no romance section either (not specialty bookstores, but general ones that have sections for everything). When I worked at a used bookstore, people there were so snobby about the romances -- they were snobby about bestsellers in general, but romances always got that special dose of scorn. And I am very tired of it. Also, it makes no sense from a financial point of view! Argh!

People! Pander to me! I will throw money at you for books, really!

Book loot:

• Elizabeth A. Lynn's Watchtower, The Dancers of Arun, and The Northern Girl, for the Joanna Russ blurb and because Mely recced a short story collection of Lynn's to me


• CJ Cherryh, Exile's Gate, so I don't keep borrowing it from the library and not reading it and then returning it, because I know I will want to read this eventually. Morgaine! Cold immortal not-really-assassin-but-still-kickass woman! I sicced the omnibus of the original trilogy on coniraya.


• Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword. I didn't like it as much as most people, but I still liked it, and definitely worth getting for a dollar.


• Nalo Hopkinson, Midnight Robber. Another book I bought so I don't keep borrowing it from the library and not reading it even though I know eventually I will want to read it.


• Julia Ross, Games of Pleasure. Courtesan! Also, I hadn't realized Ross has been putting out books after The Wicked Lover; I should find her others. Except my local library does very poorly with the romance. ARGH.


• Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown, because I wanted the trade paper version with the prettier cover.


• Nancy Farmer, A Girl Name Disaster. Nancy Farmer!


• Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, Point of Dreams. I vaguely remember oracne writing this (or another book by the authors) up and saying it was Elizabethan fantasy! It's not the first in the series, but the back says I don't have to read the other first to read this.


• Megan Lindholm, Harpy's Flight. WHOO! My find of the day. I was scared I already owned this; I basically buy all Megan Lindholm books I ever see in hopes of getting the entire Ki and Vandien series. Thankfully, I do not own this! So I am one book closer to the whole thing! And this is the first one, and I checked and found I have the second one, and I can finally read this! WHOO! (I have been hunting for these for a couple years now.)


• Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters. I vaguely remember her being pimped. Also, my shelves are too white (this reason will apply to a lot of the books below, as I don't usually read much non-SF/F, non-YA fiction, so I use library sales to get interesting-looking books for cheap to hopefully expand reading horizons).


• Fumiko Enchi, The Waiting Years, because Mely recs her.


• Larissa Lai, When Fox Is a Thousand. Chinese foxes! Intertwined stories of three different periods including a Chinese woman poet!


• Bapsi Sidhwa, Cracking India. Again with the "my shelves are too white!" Also, I liked the Washington Post blurb: "[S]he has concocted a girlishly romantic love story which is driven by the most militant feminism."


• Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters. I was really not sure about this, given the title, but the author blurb said she was born and raised in the Philippines, and the review blurbs and the cover blurbs and scanning the book make me feel as though the title's ironic and will be looking at things critically.


• Zhu Hong, ed. and trans., The Serenity of Whiteness. Stories by and about women in contemporary China. Because I am woefully undereducated, and I am sick of reading secondary works on Asian women and not reading things by Asian women.


• Asian Women United of California, ed., Making Waves. Anthology of writing by and about Asian-American women, because I am woefully undereducated (this is going to be a refrain) and should know about writers who are not Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston.


• Ann Allen Shockley, ed., Afro-American Women Writers 1746-1933, which includes historical and critical introductions to different periods, bought because I am woefully undereducated.


• Mari Evans, ed., Black Women Writers 1950-1980, which has selected short pieces by writers accompanied by critical essays, yay! Again, bought because I am woefully undereducated.

I swear, I culled from my stack too! I didn't let myself get any hardcovers, and I made myself prioritize stuff I couldn't get at the library and stuff by women of color. And, um, stuff I could get at the library but wanted anyway. And stuff I already had but wanted a nicer version of. But I did cull! And I shoved The Secret Country and The Hidden Land next to each other because SOMEONE should buy them even though I shouldn't because I already have them. I probably should have tried siccing China Mountain Zhang on a friend as well (coniraya already had it).

I feel if I can't buy the book (or, uh, already own it), someone should!

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved WHEN FOX IS A THOUSAND. Also, I read POINT OF DREAMS but can't remember a lot about it.

Tell us what you think of THE SALT EATERS; I couldn't get through it/couldn't make head nor tails of it when I tried to read it last, but I might do better now.

[oyceter]

Ooo, now I'm curious about the Bambara. I'll have to see how it goes!

[habiliments.livejournal.com]

Wow! Harpy's Flight for a dollar is a find indeed - you ought to see what they go for at Powell's. I'm still miffed that I found totally ordinary, in-print Aussie editions of them when I was in Melbourne a few years ago but couldn't find room to bring them back with me. Grr.

Though it does make hunting them down kind of fun.

[oyceter]

Ooooo! I just checked and I am chuffed! Whoo!

I mean, I could just get it as a UK PB from a local SF/F store, but then it would be $14 and I like the thrill of the hunt, so to speak.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Which cover of The Hero and the Crown (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%22the+hero+and+the+crown%22&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2) did you get? I have the one second from the left on the top row in schoolbinding because that's the library version I originally read and loved, but I haven't seen others.

[oyceter]

I got this one. I think the HC one you have is the one I originally read, but then I reread it a lot with this cover, which is the one I currently have. And I don't like it.

Also, I'm less attached to the covers I first read stuff because I am a sucker for teh pretty.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty sweet haul!

[oyceter]

Yay! I am so excited about the Lindholm!

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, very nice!

I am intrigued by many of these, but perhaps most by Cracking India. Quite a blurb!

[oyceter]

I know! And it's about Pakistan and the 1940s!

[cryptoxin.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I really liked Dogeaters when I read it ages ago, though was less crazy about a later novel of Hagedorn's whose name escapes me.

[oyceter]

Oh good! I mean, I figured no one would put a book out titled "Dogeaters" unless it was smart and critical and etc., but given how people seem to think blackface ads are still ok, you never know!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTT.

Our library sidewalk sale is this month. I fear my haul won't be as fabulous as yours, going on the last sale, but who knows?

[oyceter]

Yaaaaay!

My library hauls usually aren't this great either, even though my local library actually gets a fair amount of good stuff because the used bookstore is nearby and people end up donating what they can't sell.

BOOKS!!

[(Anonymous)]

The Watchtower series gets better as it goes along, I promise.

Scott&Barnett have the two Points books, which are inspired by Elizabethean England but not really set there (haven't read), and Armor of Light, an AU fantasy about Kit Marlowe and Philip Sydney, which I love.

Toni Cade Bambara - I haven't read her novels yet, but I am really excited about this one because it is sf. At least, she says it isn't sf, but it's the way feminism isn't womanism, so I bet I will think it's sf. I've read all her short fiction, which is just gorgeous--great, great voice, and gorgeous prose, and politics done as aesthetics. Start with Gorilla, My Love.

In concluson: BOOKS!!

Yay Fumiko Enchi!

I am sorry to say When Fox Was A Thousand didn't really work for me, but maybe it will work better for you. Review back up when LJ is.

Jessica Hagedorn is very good and I used her for background reading for my Wild Adapter story. She's also edited two anthologies on Asian American writing, Charlie Chan Is Dead I & II.

Re: BOOKS!!

[(Anonymous)]

Er, that was me. If you couldn't tell. Also, "In conclusion" was supposed to be the last line.

Sheepishly,

Mely

Re: BOOKS!!

[edonohana.livejournal.com]

I stalled out on When Fox Was a Thousand, but keep meaning to try again because the premise is so great.

[the_rck]

I love book sales. I stopped by our local Friends of the Library sale yesterday (every weekend during the school year!).

Our sale has a romance section which pleases me mightily even though I can rarely remember the names of the romances I'm interested in picking up. It's not a genre I read widely enough to be good at identifying books that I'll like with much accuracy.

Our sale has mass market paperbacks for fifty cents (twenty-five if they're YA or children's books). Most kids' hardcovers are also fifty cents. Everything else is two dollars or specially priced higher. I tend only to buy paperbacks, but I also buy things I've already read and liked so that I can list them on BookMooch. I enjoy sending books that I had fun reading to someone else, especially when I can keep a copy.

I'm getting better at knowing which books I can buy and then give away fast on BookMooch.

[oyceter]

I love book sales too! My local library has two a year, I think... the fall's should come up soon, I hope!

Romance section! I'm jealous. I'm pretty sure none of my librarians read romance, given the (lack of) selection.

The local one usually has paperbacks (trade and MMPB) for fifty cents and hardcovers for a dollar, and then the third day they have a bag sale for $3 a bag, put anything in. But I am trying to be pickier now to save bookshelf space.

I've been giving away stuff on Bookmooch too! I was so happy when someone grabbed my extra Megan Chance! I think I have to cut back, though, because I like being able to send internationally, but financially it is getting hard.

[littlebutfierce]

Whoa, amazing haul!!

There was an essay in Home Girls about how difficult to read The Salt Eaters was--it made me a little scared to ever read it myself. So I will await your review, whenever you read it, w/curiosity!

I can't even remember if I've read Dogeaters, ha. I read Hagedorn's The Gangster of Love & was like, meh. I think some folks begrudge her being The Face of Filipino-American Lit, but that's not really all (@ all?) her fault.

I got Making Waves off Bookmooch--no, wait, I bought it, but I got the sequel, Making More Waves off Bookmooch. I haven't read either of them yet tho'. ^^;;;

Oh, & I totally would've been anxious for the Dean books to find a home too! I always try & wrack my brain to see if there's anyone I know I can foist them on, heh. @ the Strand they have several copies of Zahrah the Windseeker & every time I go I try to find one of them a home.

[oyceter]

Oh, interesting! I will have to find that essay after I read The Salt Eaters!

I think some folks begrudge her being The Face of Filipino-American Lit, but that's not really all (@ all?) her fault.

Now feeling completely embarrassed about not having known about her before! Sigh, must get more educated! Also, yeah... that's the reaction I have to Amy Tan a lot, and... it's not her fault that people take her depictions of Chinese-American life as THE depiction, but it's difficult to suppress that reaction when I'm reading her books.

Ooo Zahrah! Yay! More people should read it!

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Also, my shelves are too white

Seriously. Out of my 1100+ books, a whopping 46 are by PoC. I'm methodically increasing the numbers of books I own by PoC because it is so tragic.

[oyceter]

I know! I haven't counted mine yet, but I'm pretty sure it's ugly. Especially my fiction shelves -- I think my non-fiction ups the number because of all my East Asian studies books, but still not by much.

[chomiji]

The Elizabeth Lynn trilogy isn't bad, but the final volume, The Northern Girl, is the only one I re-read regularly. I love the politics and festivals and other everyday life of the city depicted there.

[oyceter]

Ooooo. I was tempted mostly by the description of warriors as dancers or something. Well, that and the Russ quote.

[edonohana.livejournal.com]

I hope I didn't over-sell the Lindholm, thus making it disappointing. I do really like it though.

I read the Lynn books ages ago and found them kind of flat and unmemorable. However, since I was in high school at the time, maybe they just went over my head.

I've read some of Bambara's short stories and liked them quite a bit-- slice of life with lively voices.

Read Cracking India ASAP! I never even heard of it, so I'm really curious.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Megan Lindholm = Robin Hobb, which is already a good recommendation.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

Toni Cade Bambara = crucially important theorist + writer.

[oyceter]

Thanks! Sigh, I should know that.

[keilexandra]

I am oh so jealous. Our local library sale has maybe a yard's worth of table space for science fiction and fantasy. That's it.

[keilexandra]

And yay, you got your hands on MAKING WAVES!

[coniraya.livejournal.com]

It was great running into you but I must say I'm jealous that you got the Lynn trilogy. I remember as a young kid searching out Dancers of Arun because I had heard it had queer representation in it. I had to have our library borrow a copy from another library but I loved it. I've never read the whole trilogy and don't know if it'll hold up but I think I might just go ahead and order all three books from half.com right now.

I'm also jealous of a few other books you scored but the Lynn trilogy was the only one on the list that made me gasp out loud. *off to order the trilogy*

[coniraya.livejournal.com]

Just ordered them!