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ladybusinessA few weeks ago, I went to Barnes & Noble to look around, because sometimes I can spy new to me nonfiction or YA I haven't heard of on the internet yet. While I was there, I snapped a photo of an end-cap that was...less than desirable.
Starting from the top row:
I have no idea whether the cursed algorithm that spit out this endcap presentation belongs to Tor or B&N. It's a "Best of Tor" list, but Tor might not have had anything to do with it. B&N has access to sales data and the publishers of those top books. Regardless of the origin, the whole thing makes me sad. Unregulated Capitalism and art aren't...compatible.
Unregulated Capitalism only sees the acquisition of funds in the short term and not the development of readers who will buy more books down the line by being drawn in by treasured bookstore finds. My B&N still keeps multiple shelves of Martin and Jordan, for example, instead of just having one shelf to sample and keeping overstock in the back for the people who apparently make a run on B&N every week for Game of Thrones boxsets. They could present a more diverse selection of books to keep people coming back to browse instead of just shrugging and getting their books on Amazon. But their selection hardly changes, and browsing in my B&N SFF section is like a circle of hell. For over a year they've been mixing new releases into the general shelves, too, so you can't even tell what's new without looking over all the depressing sameness and 20 copies of A Clash of Kings every Tuesday. October 2019 was when this cursed practice finally ended—now they have a full shelf at the front of the store full of new, genre-labeled releases, but whoever made the decision initially was misguided.
Anyway, back to the endcap: it's fine, but it's living somewhere that's not 2019. It's especially off-putting if you're a power reader looking for new and exciting books. Endcaps are built with data, but data is only one part of looking for new books. Data erases all the different interactions readers might have with cover art, size of book, name of the author (just what young women who've powered through YA SFF backlists want to see: A SEA OF CIS WHITE MEN.), any cover embellishments to denote awards, and the care taken with presentation. For example: do you really need multiple copies of a book by Brandon Sanderson? What, the algorithm spit out the endcap list but it didn't look complete so someone else shoved some extra books on there?
Book presentation is itself a complicated art, using data and knowledge of trends. It's why I love browsing indie bookstores, when I get to go somewhere with one (ha ha rural life is so dire). You can look at their endcaps and displays and see patterns, and if you're well read in a genre, you can also see those indie folks making jokes, critiquing, showing books in conversations with each other. This is the part that Unregulated Capitalism can never replicate. What I saw happening in this photo made my soul leak from my body to pool on the floor of B&N, defeated.
Then I thought: I could give this a shot and drag some friends along for the ride. I claim no expertise in building endcaps like the pros in indie bookstore culture. I just wanted to cheer myself up and create a dream endcap that would make me happy to see. So everyone gets a book tag!
1. A book you loved five years ago.
I read Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang when it was self-published by the author, but it was recently picked up by Tor. Cas Russell's skill in math allows her to use the world around her like a weapon by calculating trajectories mid-fight to take on large assailants. She's used her skills to build a kind of life for herself. But she's stymied when she realizes that there's someone she can't fight with her unique skills—because that person is able to mess with her head. This was a great thriller that I gobbled up immediately. I also liked all the relationships that Cas developed. She's very stubborn and prickly, and I liked watching her come to terms with her changing circumstances.
2. A book you loved three years ago.
People recced The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein to me over and over again, and when I took the plunge I was so pleasantly surprised I read the second half of the book again immediately after finishing the book for the pure pleasure of it. Our titular Steerswoman is a member of a group who are dedicated to discovering the cool things out in the world and telling everyone about them. I like to think of them as Wandering Librarians. There's a really clever twist to this book, but one of my favorite things about it is the relationship we get to watch grow between the two women who are from different cultures. It was so charming and thoughtful!
3. A book you loved last year.
If ever a book deserved an affordable hard copy, it's The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard. Aliette de Bodard has been writing in her Xuya universe for years now, with really wonderful stories, but here she uses that universe and mixes it with Sherlock Holmes to create a story with subtle, but lush worldbuilding about a ship with PTSD that brews tea to help humans survive in deep space, and the human who needs to solve a mystery who comes to her for help. I loved it and wish there was a way for me to buy physical copies to gift to people and so bookstores everywhere could put it on their shelves! Just look at it!.
4. A book you loved this year.
In Infomocracy by Malka Older, the democracy experiment has changed dramatically, and around the world, Centenals have replaced the boundaries of the governments that came before. But there are shenanigans afoot, and we follow several characters—governmental employees as well as political activists—as the next election approaches. It's a very human novel with excellent protagonists. They feel so real and familiar and care deeply about the whole world and democracy itself, which feels very refreshing in this time of fascism. It's also rare for me to find a science fiction novel that handles romance this deftly that I like this much. I will go into battle for Mishima.
5. A book you love by trans writer.
I'm breaking my own tag, because I didn't love Viscera by Gabrielle Squailia, but my feelings about it have changed pretty dramatically since I've read it for Fangirl Happy Hour with Ana, which I think is notable. It was a...moist...read. If you love Kameron Hurley's stuff but want more realistic grappling with queerness and trans issues, this is right up your alley. It's incredibly hard to summarize the novel because there's so much going on. It feels very much like a quest novel, but the quest isn't for any specific MacGuffin (except where it is, because drugs), but instead a quest for self and answers. I didn't love it initially, and took different things away from it than Ana did (due to the aforementioned moistness), but as time has passed I've come around to Ana's reading of the novel as a hopeful, optimistic one, about tough times and complicated cultures that people have to learn to navigate the contradictions of, but surviving through the hard parts as yourself.
Also, there's a smart-ass puppet.
6. A book you love by a woman writer.
I was recced Warchild by Karin Lowachee several times before reading it via my library (which has the last matching trilogy of this series in trade paperback in my state, as far as I can tell). I loved Warchild so much because it's no holds barred about the emotional and mental costs of war, and its central relationship is gutting and bittersweet and hopeful. I'm constantly bummed it's so hard to find physical copies of the book and that the ebook is still so expensive. If you can find a copy and give Warchild a try, it's very great military science fiction that really digs into the issues it raises.
7. A book you love by a woman of color.
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden is a bananas mashup of science fiction and fantasy, with an A.I. uprising (think: your smartphone become sentient and decides to treat you like you've treated it...good luck), vengeful old gods, a trans politician struggling to be themselves while also being in the public sphere, a struggling pop star, new gods learning their power, and some queer teens who just got caught up in all the shenanigans. And honestly, that's not all. There's so much going on in this novel and it's the old made new again by rooting the story in a near-future South Africa. If you don't finish the novel wanting to protect Nomvula with your bare hands against the forces of evil, I will eat my hat.
8. A book you love with beautiful cover art.
This was really hard for me, because I'm a sucker for cover art. I'm also going to cheat and choose two because it's legit impossible for me to decide between them. The first is Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, set in a world where if you kill another person, you receive a magical animal companion you must keep with you, but also gain a special skill. Zinzi December's animal is a sloth and her skill is finding lost things. She uses the skill as a way to survive, because the treatment of people with animals is dire, and making a living is incredibly hard. She stumbles into a missing persons case—which she hates to take—and the underworld of fame. The cover I love is by John Picacio, who is both a great artist and an incredibly generous dude. He was really able to capture the tone of the book.
The second is Company Town by Madeline Ashby, which is about Hwa, working for a company on a rig that's a mini-community. She gets a job with the company boss, training his son on self-defense, leaving behind her former co-workers. They see her as selling out, which complicates their relationships, and just as she's changing jobs and getting to know one of the other company employees, a serial killer is stalking her former community and killing people. Hwa is dealing with a lot of nonsense, but she really cares about the people around her. I loved her mentor relationship with the kid she trains. Also, this novel would be at the top of the list I am making in my head of "Collective Action is Great, Unions Slap, Eat the Rich". This cover art is by Erik Mohr.
9. A book you love you were recommended by a friend.
I was looking for a new book to read for my women writers challenge and Jenny, the majestic sea zebra, suggested Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter, where there was a terrible illness—requiring genetic modification to survive. But this created an entirely new class of humans called gems. After 100 years of being second-class citizens, they've finally won a chance to gain their rights. But the gemtechs don't want it because they'll lose the ability to experiment at will, the religious definitely don't want it, and the norms are confused by misinformation and propaganda. It's a very excellent social science fiction thriller and I loved it to bits. Jenny is great at recs.
10. A book you recommend to everyone when they ask you for recs.
If people ask me, with no qualifications, what SFF novel to check out, I generally rec The Android's Dream by John Scalzi. A few reasons—it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's very fast paced, and I love the protagonists a lot. It's also a good introduction to Scalzi without making people feel tied to a series, because his Old Man's War is good, but can feel daunting. Even though I want The Android's Dream to have a sequel, it's a standalone! Harry, the first main character, is tasked with finding a sheep, but not just any sheep—it has to be the Android's Dream. The sheep is necessary in a ceremony to maintain good relations between Earth and an alien race, the Nidu. Harry's search for the sheep takes him across the path of Robin, who has a mysterious connection to the sheep, and the Church of the Evolved Lamb. When the sheep is found—and it is—it's utterly ridiculous and a lot of fun.
11. A book you love that made you have extreme emotions.
A few years ago I read a book that did the thing I don't like in fiction, where one section is in first person and the other in third. But. The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer stuck with me and wouldn't go away. It was like that time I watched a goofy reboot of Teen Wolf and then fell down a Stiles/Derek hole for two years. Like, brain, this is what you want to imprint on? Okay, fine. Dev is a mountain climber and a smuggler who gets roped by unfortunate personal circumstances into a job transporting a noble across the mountains to another kingdom. But the noble, Kiran, has a secret, and both he and Dev must contend with the reality of having the unregulated magic used by the powerful in their home city of Ninavel—and what happens to the fledgling alliance when they're faced with hard choices during their journey. This is the first book in the Shattered Sigil series (which is complete), and one of the first series where the first person/third person thing couldn't overpower my love for Kiran's struggle to escape his abusers, and Dev's slow realization that he's—surprise—a good person.
12. A book you love from a favorite author.
Everyone is going to keel over from not surprise, because a book I love from a favorite author is Court of Fives by Kate Elliott. It launches a three book series about sports, colonialism, and love of family that I have gobbled up twice now. Jes is a mixed-race daughter of a famous military officer, which requires her to follow social rules of the upper class, but receive none of the benefits of being so, due to the fact that her mother is native born. All she wants to do is run the Fives, a physical tournament made up of obstacles that contestants have to master. Jes runs it once, secretly, and becomes tangled with another contestant, Kalliarkos, who is upper class and completely off limits. But Kal's uncle, seeing Jes's skill, puts into motion terrible plots that rip Jes's family apart. Jes is faced with a choice: live her dreams and run the Fives by giving up on her family—or find a way through the obstacles created by the rich and powerful to do both.
Why not take five minutes and throw things into Photoshop to see what this might look like?
I'm biased, but I'd be into seeing endcaps like this in my B&N.
I'm tagging Bree, Chelsea, Claire, Diana, Elizabeth, & KJ! And if Susan wanted to do a manga version....I wouldn't put up my nose at that.
Anyway, if your community has indie bookstores, let me live vicariously through you! Be sure to thank them for their work and shop there for all your bookish holiday gifts (to others...and let's be real, for yourself, too)! :)
1. A book you loved five years ago.
2. A book you loved three years ago.
3. A book you loved last year.
4. A book you loved this year.
5. A book you love by trans writer.
6. A book you love by a woman writer.
7. A book you love by a woman of color.
8. A book you love with the most dramatic cover.
9. A book you love you were recommended by a friend
10. A book you recommend to everyone when they ask you for recs.
11. A book you love that made you have extreme emotions.
12. A book you love from a favorite author.
Starting from the top row:
- Region of the Summer Stars by Stephen R. Lawhead
- The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt
- Child of a Mad God by R.A. Salvatore
- The House of the Four Winds by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
- The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
- Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber
- Willful Child by Steven Erikson
- Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
- Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine
- Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
- Deadmen Walking by Sherrilyn Kenyon
- Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
- Death's Mistress by Terry Goodkind
- Valiant Dust by Richard Baker
- Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
- A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
- Children of the Fleet by Orson Scott Card
- The Swarm by Orson Scott Card
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
- Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson
- Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
- The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
- The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
- The Black Company by Glen Cook
- The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
- Lock In by John Scalzi
- Old Man's War by John Scalzi
- Three Dune Books by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
I have no idea whether the cursed algorithm that spit out this endcap presentation belongs to Tor or B&N. It's a "Best of Tor" list, but Tor might not have had anything to do with it. B&N has access to sales data and the publishers of those top books. Regardless of the origin, the whole thing makes me sad. Unregulated Capitalism and art aren't...compatible.
Unregulated Capitalism only sees the acquisition of funds in the short term and not the development of readers who will buy more books down the line by being drawn in by treasured bookstore finds. My B&N still keeps multiple shelves of Martin and Jordan, for example, instead of just having one shelf to sample and keeping overstock in the back for the people who apparently make a run on B&N every week for Game of Thrones boxsets. They could present a more diverse selection of books to keep people coming back to browse instead of just shrugging and getting their books on Amazon. But their selection hardly changes, and browsing in my B&N SFF section is like a circle of hell. For over a year they've been mixing new releases into the general shelves, too, so you can't even tell what's new without looking over all the depressing sameness and 20 copies of A Clash of Kings every Tuesday. October 2019 was when this cursed practice finally ended—now they have a full shelf at the front of the store full of new, genre-labeled releases, but whoever made the decision initially was misguided.
Anyway, back to the endcap: it's fine, but it's living somewhere that's not 2019. It's especially off-putting if you're a power reader looking for new and exciting books. Endcaps are built with data, but data is only one part of looking for new books. Data erases all the different interactions readers might have with cover art, size of book, name of the author (just what young women who've powered through YA SFF backlists want to see: A SEA OF CIS WHITE MEN.), any cover embellishments to denote awards, and the care taken with presentation. For example: do you really need multiple copies of a book by Brandon Sanderson? What, the algorithm spit out the endcap list but it didn't look complete so someone else shoved some extra books on there?
Book presentation is itself a complicated art, using data and knowledge of trends. It's why I love browsing indie bookstores, when I get to go somewhere with one (ha ha rural life is so dire). You can look at their endcaps and displays and see patterns, and if you're well read in a genre, you can also see those indie folks making jokes, critiquing, showing books in conversations with each other. This is the part that Unregulated Capitalism can never replicate. What I saw happening in this photo made my soul leak from my body to pool on the floor of B&N, defeated.
Then I thought: I could give this a shot and drag some friends along for the ride. I claim no expertise in building endcaps like the pros in indie bookstore culture. I just wanted to cheer myself up and create a dream endcap that would make me happy to see. So everyone gets a book tag!
1. A book you loved five years ago.
I read Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang when it was self-published by the author, but it was recently picked up by Tor. Cas Russell's skill in math allows her to use the world around her like a weapon by calculating trajectories mid-fight to take on large assailants. She's used her skills to build a kind of life for herself. But she's stymied when she realizes that there's someone she can't fight with her unique skills—because that person is able to mess with her head. This was a great thriller that I gobbled up immediately. I also liked all the relationships that Cas developed. She's very stubborn and prickly, and I liked watching her come to terms with her changing circumstances.
2. A book you loved three years ago.
People recced The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein to me over and over again, and when I took the plunge I was so pleasantly surprised I read the second half of the book again immediately after finishing the book for the pure pleasure of it. Our titular Steerswoman is a member of a group who are dedicated to discovering the cool things out in the world and telling everyone about them. I like to think of them as Wandering Librarians. There's a really clever twist to this book, but one of my favorite things about it is the relationship we get to watch grow between the two women who are from different cultures. It was so charming and thoughtful!
3. A book you loved last year.
If ever a book deserved an affordable hard copy, it's The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard. Aliette de Bodard has been writing in her Xuya universe for years now, with really wonderful stories, but here she uses that universe and mixes it with Sherlock Holmes to create a story with subtle, but lush worldbuilding about a ship with PTSD that brews tea to help humans survive in deep space, and the human who needs to solve a mystery who comes to her for help. I loved it and wish there was a way for me to buy physical copies to gift to people and so bookstores everywhere could put it on their shelves! Just look at it!.
4. A book you loved this year.
In Infomocracy by Malka Older, the democracy experiment has changed dramatically, and around the world, Centenals have replaced the boundaries of the governments that came before. But there are shenanigans afoot, and we follow several characters—governmental employees as well as political activists—as the next election approaches. It's a very human novel with excellent protagonists. They feel so real and familiar and care deeply about the whole world and democracy itself, which feels very refreshing in this time of fascism. It's also rare for me to find a science fiction novel that handles romance this deftly that I like this much. I will go into battle for Mishima.
5. A book you love by trans writer.
I'm breaking my own tag, because I didn't love Viscera by Gabrielle Squailia, but my feelings about it have changed pretty dramatically since I've read it for Fangirl Happy Hour with Ana, which I think is notable. It was a...moist...read. If you love Kameron Hurley's stuff but want more realistic grappling with queerness and trans issues, this is right up your alley. It's incredibly hard to summarize the novel because there's so much going on. It feels very much like a quest novel, but the quest isn't for any specific MacGuffin (except where it is, because drugs), but instead a quest for self and answers. I didn't love it initially, and took different things away from it than Ana did (due to the aforementioned moistness), but as time has passed I've come around to Ana's reading of the novel as a hopeful, optimistic one, about tough times and complicated cultures that people have to learn to navigate the contradictions of, but surviving through the hard parts as yourself.
Also, there's a smart-ass puppet.
6. A book you love by a woman writer.
I was recced Warchild by Karin Lowachee several times before reading it via my library (which has the last matching trilogy of this series in trade paperback in my state, as far as I can tell). I loved Warchild so much because it's no holds barred about the emotional and mental costs of war, and its central relationship is gutting and bittersweet and hopeful. I'm constantly bummed it's so hard to find physical copies of the book and that the ebook is still so expensive. If you can find a copy and give Warchild a try, it's very great military science fiction that really digs into the issues it raises.
7. A book you love by a woman of color.
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden is a bananas mashup of science fiction and fantasy, with an A.I. uprising (think: your smartphone become sentient and decides to treat you like you've treated it...good luck), vengeful old gods, a trans politician struggling to be themselves while also being in the public sphere, a struggling pop star, new gods learning their power, and some queer teens who just got caught up in all the shenanigans. And honestly, that's not all. There's so much going on in this novel and it's the old made new again by rooting the story in a near-future South Africa. If you don't finish the novel wanting to protect Nomvula with your bare hands against the forces of evil, I will eat my hat.
8. A book you love with beautiful cover art.
This was really hard for me, because I'm a sucker for cover art. I'm also going to cheat and choose two because it's legit impossible for me to decide between them. The first is Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, set in a world where if you kill another person, you receive a magical animal companion you must keep with you, but also gain a special skill. Zinzi December's animal is a sloth and her skill is finding lost things. She uses the skill as a way to survive, because the treatment of people with animals is dire, and making a living is incredibly hard. She stumbles into a missing persons case—which she hates to take—and the underworld of fame. The cover I love is by John Picacio, who is both a great artist and an incredibly generous dude. He was really able to capture the tone of the book.
The second is Company Town by Madeline Ashby, which is about Hwa, working for a company on a rig that's a mini-community. She gets a job with the company boss, training his son on self-defense, leaving behind her former co-workers. They see her as selling out, which complicates their relationships, and just as she's changing jobs and getting to know one of the other company employees, a serial killer is stalking her former community and killing people. Hwa is dealing with a lot of nonsense, but she really cares about the people around her. I loved her mentor relationship with the kid she trains. Also, this novel would be at the top of the list I am making in my head of "Collective Action is Great, Unions Slap, Eat the Rich". This cover art is by Erik Mohr.
9. A book you love you were recommended by a friend.
I was looking for a new book to read for my women writers challenge and Jenny, the majestic sea zebra, suggested Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter, where there was a terrible illness—requiring genetic modification to survive. But this created an entirely new class of humans called gems. After 100 years of being second-class citizens, they've finally won a chance to gain their rights. But the gemtechs don't want it because they'll lose the ability to experiment at will, the religious definitely don't want it, and the norms are confused by misinformation and propaganda. It's a very excellent social science fiction thriller and I loved it to bits. Jenny is great at recs.
10. A book you recommend to everyone when they ask you for recs.
If people ask me, with no qualifications, what SFF novel to check out, I generally rec The Android's Dream by John Scalzi. A few reasons—it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's very fast paced, and I love the protagonists a lot. It's also a good introduction to Scalzi without making people feel tied to a series, because his Old Man's War is good, but can feel daunting. Even though I want The Android's Dream to have a sequel, it's a standalone! Harry, the first main character, is tasked with finding a sheep, but not just any sheep—it has to be the Android's Dream. The sheep is necessary in a ceremony to maintain good relations between Earth and an alien race, the Nidu. Harry's search for the sheep takes him across the path of Robin, who has a mysterious connection to the sheep, and the Church of the Evolved Lamb. When the sheep is found—and it is—it's utterly ridiculous and a lot of fun.
11. A book you love that made you have extreme emotions.
A few years ago I read a book that did the thing I don't like in fiction, where one section is in first person and the other in third. But. The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer stuck with me and wouldn't go away. It was like that time I watched a goofy reboot of Teen Wolf and then fell down a Stiles/Derek hole for two years. Like, brain, this is what you want to imprint on? Okay, fine. Dev is a mountain climber and a smuggler who gets roped by unfortunate personal circumstances into a job transporting a noble across the mountains to another kingdom. But the noble, Kiran, has a secret, and both he and Dev must contend with the reality of having the unregulated magic used by the powerful in their home city of Ninavel—and what happens to the fledgling alliance when they're faced with hard choices during their journey. This is the first book in the Shattered Sigil series (which is complete), and one of the first series where the first person/third person thing couldn't overpower my love for Kiran's struggle to escape his abusers, and Dev's slow realization that he's—surprise—a good person.
12. A book you love from a favorite author.
Everyone is going to keel over from not surprise, because a book I love from a favorite author is Court of Fives by Kate Elliott. It launches a three book series about sports, colonialism, and love of family that I have gobbled up twice now. Jes is a mixed-race daughter of a famous military officer, which requires her to follow social rules of the upper class, but receive none of the benefits of being so, due to the fact that her mother is native born. All she wants to do is run the Fives, a physical tournament made up of obstacles that contestants have to master. Jes runs it once, secretly, and becomes tangled with another contestant, Kalliarkos, who is upper class and completely off limits. But Kal's uncle, seeing Jes's skill, puts into motion terrible plots that rip Jes's family apart. Jes is faced with a choice: live her dreams and run the Fives by giving up on her family—or find a way through the obstacles created by the rich and powerful to do both.
Results
Why not take five minutes and throw things into Photoshop to see what this might look like?
I'm biased, but I'd be into seeing endcaps like this in my B&N.
I'm tagging Bree, Chelsea, Claire, Diana, Elizabeth, & KJ! And if Susan wanted to do a manga version....I wouldn't put up my nose at that.
Anyway, if your community has indie bookstores, let me live vicariously through you! Be sure to thank them for their work and shop there for all your bookish holiday gifts (to others...and let's be real, for yourself, too)! :)
Book Tag Prompts: Build Better Book Endcaps
1. A book you loved five years ago.
2. A book you loved three years ago.
3. A book you loved last year.
4. A book you loved this year.
5. A book you love by trans writer.
6. A book you love by a woman writer.
7. A book you love by a woman of color.
8. A book you love with the most dramatic cover.
9. A book you love you were recommended by a friend
10. A book you recommend to everyone when they ask you for recs.
11. A book you love that made you have extreme emotions.
12. A book you love from a favorite author.
