Meet Shannon Bowman-Sarkisian, Turner Free Library's new Outreach Librarian! Shannon graduated with her Masters in Library Science from Indiana University - Bloomington in May 2021 and began working at TFL in July 2021. She worked as a Senior Information Assistant driving the Outreach Van at Monroe County Public Library (MCPL) in Bloomington, Indiana for several years before graduating. Shannon received the 2019 Outstanding Staff Award from the Indiana Library Federation for her work developing and implementing the Creating Access for Violence Survivors (CAVS) program for MCPL. Born and raised in California, she has lived all over the United States from Portland, Oregon to Atlanta, Georgia and Brooklyn, New York. Shannon is an avid Science Fiction and Fantasy reader. Below is a selection of her favorite authors and titles.
Shannon's Recommendations:
N. K. Jemisin is probably my favorite author. She writes beautiful, poetic fantasy that explores power, gender, sexuality, race, nationalism, and more. My favorite book is the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
You might already aware of Ann Leckie's trilogy (WHICH I LOVED!), but I'm a huge fan of her less famous follow-up Provenance. It's basically a cozy mystery set in space (it's the same universe as her trilogy). I almost put it down because it was so different from the trilogy but once I let go of the expectation that it would be the same I really enjoyed it. The same goes for her fantasy book The Raven Tower.
Zen Cho is another favorite of mine. I adored Sorcerer to the Crown and the sequel, the True Queen. Sorcerer to the Crown is a historical fantasy set in England. It reminds me of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell if that book had examined racism, colonialism, and sexism.
I recently read Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko and it was SO GOOD. The protagonist is half djinn and was commanded by her mother to kill the one person she was sworn to protect. There is asexual representation in one of the secondary characters. This is the first in a series and the second book just came out.
The Devourers by Indra Das has queer representation and is set in different time periods in Kolkata, India. There are were-people!
Naomi Novik is another one of my favorites. I love Uprooted which is based on Ukrainian folk tales. If you like dragons, her Taemaeraire series is awesome. The first book is His Majesty's Dragon. The books are set during the Napoleonic Wars but there are dragons! The series was completed maybe six years ago so you won't have to wait for the author to finish it.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a sci fi book set on a spaceship that is basically the slavery system in the pre-Civl War United States. The protagonist is gender non-conforming.
The original Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is fantastic. I love the magic system (certain humans can ingest different types of metal to gain magical powers) and there is a HEIST!
Who Fears Death by Nnendi Okorafor is an amazing Afrofuturism novel. It's being adapted into an HBO series by George R.R. Martin.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed is a Middle Eastern fantasy novel that's also a mystery novel.
Brown Girl in the Ring is set in Toronto in the future. There's a lot of Caribbean folklore and magic.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger is set in an alternate timeline where magic and paranormal elements exist in the contemporary United States. Elatsoe (called "Ellie" in the book) is a Lipan Apache teenager who wants to become a paranormal investigator. I think this is the first book I've read with an asexual protagonist. Ellie can raise the dead and is investigating the murder of her cousin in Texas. I'm hoping that there will be a mystery series featuring this world!
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland is a historical fiction with zombies. The protagonist has been training at a residential school to learn how to destroy the walking dead.
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson is set in 15th century Spain when the Sultanate is being forced out of Spain. The main character escapes the palace where she is a concubine to save her friend who has a magical ability to make maps of places he's never seen and change the world based on his drawings.
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest is also a "Zombies in the Civil War" book but this one is steampunk. A nurse is trying to cross the continent to see her dying father. There are many obstacles and many zombies creating conflict.
Soulless is the first book in the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. This series is SO FUN. They're a mix of paranormal romance with Scottish werewolves, vampires, etc... and steampunk. The main character has no soul so when a paranormal person touches her they lose their powers.
City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty starts off in Cairo but is mostly set in a world of djinns and is inspired by North African and Middle Eastern mythology.