In desperate need of fiction
Aug. 12th, 2012 05:58 pmTrying to finish up the "pre-approved reading choices" list for next year's Asian Arts and Humanities before school starts next year. I am currently having trouble finding fiction by authors from the following countries:
Saudi Arabia
Iraq
Cambodia (I already have Life Under the Banyan but I really would like to find more.)
Malaysia (I have Tash Aw, Preeta Samarasan, and Shirley Geok-lin Lim tentatively on the list, but I would REALLY like to find some more young adult-oriented and less "literary" authors. Not all of my students have the patience for Grownup Books and I think that they can still learn a whole heckuva lot from reading contemporary young adult fiction from foreign countries instead.)
So I guess it's time for me to ask for help. Does anybody have any suggestions?
Guidelines:
1. Any work of fiction - novel, short story collection, or graphic novel - is okay. I love trashy young adult novels as much as I love literary fiction, and I'm trying to get a good balance of both on the reading list.
2. Books MUST be by an author from one of the countries listed, but do not necessarily have to be set *in* that country. Speculative fiction is a-okay, too.
3. English or Spanish recommendations only, please. Books that have been written in a different language and then translated into English or Spanish are perfectly fine.
4. I do teach in the Bible Belt, so please, nothing with excessive, graphic sexual content. LGBT themes and characters are totally fine, and I'm willing to risk parental disapproval to stand by those books. Just don't give me anything that might border on softcore porn, okay? Helpful examples: Seba al-Herz's The Others is way too racy to go on a reading list for high school students (and it also portrays lesbians as evil and deviant so uh NO THANK YOU), but something like Ping Wang's The Last Communist Virgin - which has a little bit of sex, really nothing more graphic than you would find in whatever books these kids are reading for their English classes - is totally fine. Also, The Great Singapore Penis Panic is on the non-fiction reading list for the class, so it's not as if any mention of genitals is automatically taboo here. But you get my drift.
Wow okay I guess this whole list sounds really demanding and nitpicky. Er. But I'm still throwing this out there just in case anybody reading this has some awesome book suggestions that would fit the requirements for being on my reading list.
Saudi Arabia
Iraq
Cambodia (I already have Life Under the Banyan but I really would like to find more.)
Malaysia (I have Tash Aw, Preeta Samarasan, and Shirley Geok-lin Lim tentatively on the list, but I would REALLY like to find some more young adult-oriented and less "literary" authors. Not all of my students have the patience for Grownup Books and I think that they can still learn a whole heckuva lot from reading contemporary young adult fiction from foreign countries instead.)
So I guess it's time for me to ask for help. Does anybody have any suggestions?
Guidelines:
1. Any work of fiction - novel, short story collection, or graphic novel - is okay. I love trashy young adult novels as much as I love literary fiction, and I'm trying to get a good balance of both on the reading list.
2. Books MUST be by an author from one of the countries listed, but do not necessarily have to be set *in* that country. Speculative fiction is a-okay, too.
3. English or Spanish recommendations only, please. Books that have been written in a different language and then translated into English or Spanish are perfectly fine.
4. I do teach in the Bible Belt, so please, nothing with excessive, graphic sexual content. LGBT themes and characters are totally fine, and I'm willing to risk parental disapproval to stand by those books. Just don't give me anything that might border on softcore porn, okay? Helpful examples: Seba al-Herz's The Others is way too racy to go on a reading list for high school students (and it also portrays lesbians as evil and deviant so uh NO THANK YOU), but something like Ping Wang's The Last Communist Virgin - which has a little bit of sex, really nothing more graphic than you would find in whatever books these kids are reading for their English classes - is totally fine. Also, The Great Singapore Penis Panic is on the non-fiction reading list for the class, so it's not as if any mention of genitals is automatically taboo here. But you get my drift.
Wow okay I guess this whole list sounds really demanding and nitpicky. Er. But I'm still throwing this out there just in case anybody reading this has some awesome book suggestions that would fit the requirements for being on my reading list.
