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Chatterbox: Blab About Books
book recs :3
hi hi hi!so...
hi hi hi!
so recently i've been having a lot of trouble finding books i actually like that are clean. it's not really about curse words or anything, i don't really care about that. but other things i guess.
i have nothing against middle grade novels, its just that they typically feature characters who are younger, and they tend to be shorter, so if you have any recomendations for clean ya books that would be great!
im a hugeeee romance fan, but like. lets be real. ya romance is not always clean so if you have any recs for that genre that would be great! but pretty much any genre is fine. im not a huge nonfiction fan though i do like historical fiction.
some books i love:
the sun is also a star
the inheritance games series
the hunger games series
the selection series
scythe series
and a lot more but hopefully that gives you an idea of what kinds of books i like! thank you! :3
submitted by Anastasia, age eons, my desk
(April 9, 2024 - 8:15 am)
(April 9, 2024 - 8:15 am)
Um ya, Tokyo Ever After is the BEST
(July 7, 2024 - 6:11 pm)
also I JUST FOUND OUT THERE'S A SECOND BOOK?!? how did i not know this i'm literally running to the library website rn omggg
(July 8, 2024 - 7:42 am)
NO WAY!!?? What's it called???
(July 8, 2024 - 5:19 pm)
it's called tokyo dreaming, it came out in 2022 apparently??!!? idk how i didn't find it lol
(July 9, 2024 - 9:39 am)
Just wanted to pop in and say that I've heard Eleanor and Park is supposed to be a good book, but it's also a bit racist... like, for example, the descriptions of Park and his family aren't super... great, and there's some controversy about Park's name, which isn't really a given name, rather a Korean surname (you can look up Rainbow Rowell's response to this -- apparently she was defending herself saying that's what lots of American families do, so... ://), taekwondo is misspelled taekwando, and apparently there's even an instance of taekwondo being used interchangeably with kung fu which is like, whaaa?? The former is Korean and the latter is Chinese. They're two totally different things?? And there's more stuff too (and I don't think it's just Asian stereotypes and such, there may also be stuff with Black stereotypes?)... idk it's Rainbow Rowell being intentionally racist, just her... not doing her research.
So just something important to keep in mind while reading the book :)
a note that I haven't read the book
(July 9, 2024 - 11:25 am)
Oh, also a note that I'm not Korean. I'm Chinese :)
(July 9, 2024 - 12:37 pm)
Right! I, honestly, didn't really like that book. It was rather... yeah. But. Just thought I should rec it just in case others seem to take a liking to it...?
(July 10, 2024 - 1:23 pm)
okay so i looked it up (the Elanor and Park thing) and it is disturbing. like from what I've read (I haven't read the actual book, but i read way too many reviews), Park's whole character is basically internalized racism, and like there's a whole thing about him wanting to look like his white passing brother that as far as i know never gets challenged?? Like i'm mixed and that's awful. also of course he has green eyes because brown eyes are ugly??? like idk?? why can we never have a mixed Asian and white character with dark brown eyes? like please i'm begging you? and like i've actually seen people say the depiction of his self-loathing was pretty acurate in how intense and such it was, but apparently it just never gets challenged, and it's a YA book, and people are going to read it and not ever get anything but self loathing from it. and also there's a whole thing about how Asians are small and feminine which is disgusting because, for instance, race can really affect how queer people are seen, and a bunch of stuff. Like having short Asians in books is totally cool - my grandma's like less than 5 feet probably! I'm short! even my dad, who's a bit taller than me, usually has to get his clothes tailored for them to fit! - but yeah that's disturbing. there's so much disturbing stuff if you look it up, it's truly disgusting. also if you're going to write something with a mixed character and the mixedness never comes in beyond parental backstory and an excuse to give them green eyes, just make them monoracial. like idk. there's much creepier stuff too, but that gets beyond CB restrictions pretty quickly XD
and it doesn't sound like anything other than internalized racism even comes into Park being Korean anyway??? like what about all the tasty food, or like having little Korean things around the house (an example of this, although this is Japanese not Korean, would be like having an old obi on the wall or such, or (though this is Hawaiian) having shell lei hanging on doorknobs or Hawaiian quilts)? Or like manners? (like, again this is Japanese though, saying itadakimasu before eating) Or Korean holidays?
anyway yeah it's pretty disturbing, i would recommend against reading it, and i haven't even read it. like maybe it's better than people are making it sound??? but even if it is, i think it's bad enough for that doesn't matter. because i've read quotes from the book. and it's just really really gross???
(July 12, 2024 - 6:55 pm)
I'd recomend Divergent! I agree with the cursing! (my religion dosen't curse) It's dystopian, romance, and very mild language. It's a bit like Hunger Games,too!
(July 8, 2024 - 2:39 pm)
Congrats, you found the Romantic Leaf! Post "To love or not to love, that is the question" on the Leaf Hunt thread.
(September 11, 2024 - 6:20 pm)
(September 11, 2024 - 6:20 pm)