So even as fast as I read, there are books that I haven’t gotten around to even though I’ve had them on my TBR list and/or on my actual bookshelf for a while (like, over a year in some cases).

The top of the list would be various POC who write adult SFF. I’m mostly a YA person, I guess because adult lit bores me a lot of the time (though I may just be biased because we spent so much of secondary school reading adult lit “classics,” i.e. books by long-dead, cishet white dudes). Maybe I just like escapism but speculative fiction, particularly fantasy, is my favorite genre. I don’t have anything against contemporary/realistic fiction, and I read a decent amount of it (for the POC representation! Also school life romcoms are fun), but SFF is what I live and breathe.

These are the adult SFF authors I need to read:

• Nnedi Okorafor – She writes both YA and adult SFF, and I’m about to read Akata Witch very soon for #DiversityDecBingo, but I need to get into her other books too. I own most of them already.
• N.K. Jemisin – I own all of her books except The Obelisk Gate and I need to read them. The covers are gorgeous.
• Ken Liu – I read his short story, Paper Menagerie, a while ago and I was like ;__; and then when I found out that the Grace of Kings+sequels are a wuxia-style series I was like “sign me up yesterday,” but also it’s really hella long so I put it off. One of my friends said his writing is kinda dry, but we’ll see how I feel once I get to reading it.
• Yoon Ha Lee – I found out about his existence through a short story anthology that he was included in that I bought, and I was like “whoa Asian writing adult SFF, cool!” But I haven’t read said short story yet. Conservation of Shadows and Ninefox Gambit are sitting on my wishlist.
• Daniel Jose Older – I LOVED Shadowshaper, his YA debut, and can’t wait for the sequel. I have the first two books of the Bone Street Rumba series (adult urban fantasy) on my shelf. The covers feature kickass POC. Just need to read them.
• Kate Elliott – I have the ebooks of the Jaran Series and physical copies of the Crown of Stars series, The Spiritwalker Trilogy, and The Crossroads Trilogy. Haven’t read them. Also have Court of Fives, her YA novel, so I’m starting with that one because YA.

For YA, here are a few I’ve put off for Reasons:

• Adaptation and Inheritance by Malinda Lo – I loved Ash and Huntress, so I put these two on my TBR once I knew they existed. And then left them there…possibly because they’re scifi, which I don’t like as much as fantasy, and also because the main character is white (I just outed myself as a reverse racist, didn’t I? Just kidding). But she’s bisexual and one of the love interests is an Asian American dude so I should really, actually, read this series. Especially while waiting on Malinda Lo’s upcoming A Line in the Dark, which is a YA thriller with an Asian American protagonist.
• Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo – I’m about to read Six of Crows for #DiversityDecBingo, actually, but despite knowing about its existence I put it off. The author is white, and I felt kind of meh about The Grisha Trilogy. But then I found out that the new series features a diverse cast of characters, so I was like “I’ll give this one a shot.” If I don’t like it then it’ll be a waste because I paid full price for the books and got them signed and personalized at the Texas Teen Book Festival a few months ago.
• Gates of Thread and Stone and The Infinite by Lori M. Lee – I have no excuse for this considering it’s fantasy by an Asian American author. Shame on me.
• The Penryn and the End of Days Trilogy by Susan Ee – I knew the author is Korean, but I didn’t realize that Penryn was Asian until I read a description of her on Wikia or something. Bumping it up for #ownvoices.