Top 10 Tuesday: Summer TBRs

We're building our summer TBR lists for this week's Top Ten Tuesday. Alas, TBR lists never seem to work out for me! Last autumn, for example, I said I'd read literary works like Under the Greenwood Tree and catch up with my manga backlog. Utter failure on both fronts.

But, when it comes to books, I am ever the optimist. So here is another list of TBRs I have every intention of reading ... but probably won't. Several of them are books I kickstarted, unfortunately, because while I loving helping books come into the world I am terrible about actually reading them.

Kickstarted, but not read:

• Faerie Blood by Angela Korra'ti
• Fairy Quest by Paul Jenkins
• Golem: A Graphic Novel by Hilary Goldstein (4 issues as PDF w/ the trade paperback out "soon")
• Gwendolyn and the Underworld by Bill Robinson

There are several others due out "this summer," but I'm reticent to add them to my TBR list in case they are delayed.

I'm signed up to do an e-book challenge, but haven't read any yet! Naughty of me, I know. So here's six books/novellas that haunt my Kindle:

• Dancing with the Duke (Landing a Lord) by Suzanna Medieros
• Lady of Devices: A steampunk Adventure Novel (Magnificent Devices) by Shelley Adina
• Snow White and Rose Red: The Curse of the Huntsman (Fairy Tales Retold) by Lilly Fang
• To Tame A Dragon (The Reluctant Bride Collection) by Megan Bryce
• Twixt Two Equal Armies (The Lord & Lady Baugham Stories) by Tina Moncton & Gail McEwen
• Two Moons of Sera (Omnibus Edition) by Pavarti K Tyler

Wordless Wednesday: Mystery Iris

I very much wish I knew the name of this iris -- the mauve standards, creamy falls, and
bright yellow beard are so distinctive! I would love to plant more.

Top 10 Tuesday: Beach Reads

I played a little fast and loose with this week's Top 10 Tuesday topic, "beach reads," to give you some of my favorite fantasy and science fiction novels featuring big bodies of water. If every wave has its shore, than there's a beach somewhere in each of these novels!

• The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip: sea dragon makes mischief after a local girl hexes the sea for taking her dad
• The Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski: all-female inhabitants of an ocean-covered moon recruit a man from another planet to share their lives, because philosophy
• The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin: wizard and companion set sail on a voyage to discover who is sucking all the magic out of the world
• Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey: the Sea King's amphibious youngest daughter runs reconnaissance for him and falls in love with a Drylander
• Jingo by Terry Pratchett: mysterious sunken "island" rises up from the depths of the ocean and everyone wants to plant their flag in it
• Raider's Ransom by Emily Diamand: girl returns from a fishing trip to discover her village ransacked and much mischief afoot
• Singer from the Sea by Sheri S. Tepper: noblewomen are dying in childbirth while noblemen and commoners flourish on a watery Earth colony
• The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge: on another watery planet, The Winter Queen seeks to rule forever by harvesting the blood of creatures revered by The Summer People
• The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler: fatherless girl raised on a boat takes a swimming lesson and her legs turn into a fishtail
• Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson: six stories linked by water ("The Sea King's Son" and "A Pool in the Desert" are two favorites).

Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009)

I stand naked in front of my full-length mirror and twist my head to get a good view of my back. And that's when I see it. A wide line of soft, dark hair running the the nape of my neck down to the base of my spine -- the stripe Asher was talking about. A stripe down the center of my back, like a skunk. This brings me to a whole other level. I'm not just a hairy Pakistani Muslim girl anymore.

I am skunk girl.

Fifteen-year-old Nina is a Muslim Pakistani American girl with parents who have very firm views on correct social behavior: no sleepovers, no dates, no co-ed parties with her predominately white classmates. While Nina chafes at the restrictions, she remains an obedient daughter and muddles along -- thanks in some part to good friends who support Nina and help her work around the social restrictions without causing her to disobey or lie to her parents.

Besides, some of the restrictions are no big deal. After all, who is going to want to date hairy, big-bottomed Nina, The Sister of "Super Nerd?" No one, that's who. Better to just focus on getting through high school and escaping to college as her sister did. But getting through high school is hard ... especially when Nina develops a deep (possibly mutual) attraction to a handsome new classmate.

I found Nina's story compelling, touching on issues many teenage "outsiders" face. But, despite its strong message of self-acceptance and self-definition, Skunk Girl never felt like a mawkish Teen Novel With A Message. For all the emotional/philosophical upheaval Nina experiences, the tone of the novel is up-beat and funny, and even early on it the novel you get the feeling Nina will be okay in the end. While her discomfort over her family's otherness is palpable, it's clear Nina loves her family and does want to be a good Pakistani Muslim American girl. She just needs to define what that means for herself.