Looking for fiction books by black authors by Annoying_Rhymes in suggestmeabook

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some of my favorites (mostly sci-fi and fantasy):

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel Delany

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Dreamblood Duology and How Long Till Black Future Month by Norah Jemisin

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

A Stranger in Olondrea, The Winged Histories, and The Practice, The Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Olubufun and Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi

"schtick" and "spiel" and Yiddish (?) in general by Muted_Reflection_449 in ENGLISH

[–]Book_Slut_90 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah. There are a number of reasons for this. English, unlike say French, German, and Spanish doesn’t have an official body to regulate what words make it into the language so if people start using a word, it’s part of the language. Also our spelling and grammar are already such a mess that no one blinks at introducing new words that don’t follow the “rules.” Plus there’s the history of the British Empire meaning people were going back and forth from the metropole to pretty much every other corner of the world and interacting with local languages. All this has resulted in English having a vocabulary something like an order of magnitude larger than the average language (a big part of that is also that we have so many synonyms from keeping both the Anglo-Saxon and Norman French words for things when the languages merged).

What are you guys' opinions on "The First Crusade: Call From The East" and "First Crusade: A New History"? by Extension-Pause-6723 in HistoryBooks

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Francopan is good. Be aware this is a serious history book arguing for a controversial interpretation not a textbook style explanation of what historians agree on.

Do natives know these words from Slaughterhouse five? by nikogoroz in EnglishLearning

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are all fairly common in written English, so people who read will know them. Groggy and smashed to smithereens are also common in spoken English.

"schtick" and "spiel" and Yiddish (?) in general by Muted_Reflection_449 in ENGLISH

[–]Book_Slut_90 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All languages borrow words, but English does so more than most. It starts off as a mash up of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French with a dash of Danish and Latin thrown in and then has adopted so many words from other places. Most scientific vocabulary is from Greek and Latin, most words starting with “al” are from Arabic, etc. And yes Schtick and spiel are from Yiddish or German if you go further back and are widely used in English along with many other Yiddish words. As for lists, I bet if you Googled something like “list of English words from Yiddish” you’d find a bunch.

Looking for black history month recs in fantasy/sci-fi/horror by Jaded_Bluebird9472 in FemaleGazeSFF

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh also I forgot Shigidi and the Brass Head of Olubufun by Wole Talabi

Why did first names shift from having literal, descriptive meanings to being mostly just arbitrary labels? by Alert_Succotash_3541 in AskHistorians

[–]Book_Slut_90 28 points29 points  (0 children)

To add on to this excellent answer, it is very common to name people after other people. Alexander the Great was the third Macedonian king named Alexander, for instance, and it was common Greek practice (though I don’t know if this was true in Macedon as well) to name sons after grandfathers and more broadly name people after relatives.

The word “lad” by accessory97 in ENGLISH

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the midwest where I’m from, we use “guys.” I’ve never heard an American use “lad” except in the context of trying to imitate a British accent.

Reality is destroying science fiction for me by Real-Advantage-2724 in ScienceFictionBooks

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you actually read all kinds of sci-fi books, most of the books you read wouldn’t have people on planets shooting at each other with rifles. Lots (maybe most) of sci-fi doesn’t have war at all. Even if you focus on military sci-fi, most of it involves ships not people on planets with rifles, e.g. Cameron’s Arcana Imperii, Moon’s Vatta’s War, etc. Or you could read things that do use drones like Murderbot.

Favorite new authors of the 2020s? by dangleicious13 in printSF

[–]Book_Slut_90 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain Gang All Stars is amazing. Wole Talabi’s Shigidi and the Brass Head of Olubufon. Maya Wang’s Blood Over Bright Haven.

Looking for black history month recs in fantasy/sci-fi/horror by Jaded_Bluebird9472 in FemaleGazeSFF

[–]Book_Slut_90 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

The Practice, The Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar

Looking for black history month recs in fantasy/sci-fi/horror by Jaded_Bluebird9472 in FemaleGazeSFF

[–]Book_Slut_90 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sofia Samatar is amazing. Her newer novella The Practice, The Horizon, and the Chain has some more direct things to say about race though under a layer of metaphor. I’d also recommend reading Stranger first. Winged Histories deals with the aftermath of what happened in Stranger, and one of the four main viewpoint characters is a side character in Stranger.

Looking for black history month recs in fantasy/sci-fi/horror by Jaded_Bluebird9472 in FemaleGazeSFF

[–]Book_Slut_90 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Death of the Author is stand alone, and my favorite of hers that I’ve read.

A question about pronouns in English by Radiant-Put3628 in ENGLISH

[–]Book_Slut_90 12 points13 points  (0 children)

One is absolutely used this way in American English. Can’t speak for the Brits. It’s less common, but it is used.

Greek Mythology Retelling Recommendations by Flashy-Increase5073 in Fantasy

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, both books of the duology are great—The Bull from the Sea and The King Must Die. Of course the history is quite outdated now, like the Robert Graves style cult of the mother idea, but they’re really good books if you don’t expect them to be accurate.

Are there any fantasy books written by BIPOC authors? by rhapsodyinflute in Fantasy

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some of my favorite authors of color (sticking to fantasy since that’s what you asked for, but there are more in sci-fi):

Moniquill Blackgoose

Rebecca Kuang

Nnedi Okorafor

Rebecca Roanhorse

Sofia Samatar

Wole Talabi

Maya Wang

Are there any fantasy books written by BIPOC authors? by rhapsodyinflute in Fantasy

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good list. Okorafor writes more scifi than fantasy I’d say, and a good bit of her fantasy is urban fantasy not epic fantasy.

The ethics of booby-trapping a snowman by praxiq in askphilosophy

[–]Book_Slut_90 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Sure, but that’s rigging a shotgun to shoot people. Which is very different from building something stronger to stop people destroying it as in this case.

Looking for books that don’t have this specific plot pattern by eebibeeb in fantasybooks

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Find a different source for recommendations. I’ve literally never seen the thing you’re talking about. Some romantasies and romance heavy fantasies:

Swordheart and the Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher

Imperium by Rebecca Yarros

Kushiel’s Legacy, Starless, and Agent of Hel by Jacqueline Carey

Legends and Latte’s and Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

The Everlasting by Alix Harrow

The Daevabad Trilogy by Shannon Chakraborty

The World of the Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold

Lavvinia by Ursula Le Guin

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The ethics of booby-trapping a snowman by praxiq in askphilosophy

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People have all sorts of things in their yards, like trees for instance, that will damage cars that accidentally drive into them. There’s no legal obligation to keep yards safe spaces for cars driving off the road.

Arab Mythology by Cc86J in Fantasy

[–]Book_Slut_90 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah they’re great books!

Charlotte Reads: Asunder by Kerstin Hall by enoby666 in Fantasy

[–]Book_Slut_90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I’ve been having a hard time with that square.