#unpresidentedreads Challenge 2017 discussion

i struggle with understanding what fits into this genre. for example, i would consider murakami magical realism as opposed to spec fic. generally, i think of dystopian novels as spec fict, but i know that the genre encompasses more. can someone help?

Hi there. I'm not completely sure but my take was that speculative fiction was about fiction centered on the supernatural. I think it's cross-genre, so can include sci-fi, fantasy and other modes. Looking at a few articles, I see magic realism can be considered part of it too. Maybe at the heart of it is putting a twist on what realism encompasses (often times the supernatural will include characters from other time periods, worlds, and characters who would not be considered human exactly).

For this month, I'm reading Daniel José Older's Half-Resurrection Blues. I really enjoy his social media presence and have meant to check out his books. I'm in the first chapter and it's exploring a main character who could be described as un-dead.

I've picked up The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. My understanding is that it fits under the speculative fiction genre.

I'm going to read The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, which I think is speculative fiction? And Octavia Butler is a woman of color, ticking off that requirement as well. I've had it on my to-read list for quite a while and never gotten around to it, so I appreciate the motivation.

I also wasn't sure about what counted as spec fic. I've started The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemison, which is much more outright fantasy than the other books here, but I felt like I needed something a little bit escapist. I just finished Parable of the Talents, which was pretty intense to read through.

I've started 1Q84 by Murakami and it is soooo excellent so far. It's long though, so I gotta stay up on my reading! I fell off a little last month - the two books I picked were From Beirut to Jerusalem and Call it Sleep by Henry Roth, and both were just very dense so my dedication wavered. But, I'm back and ready to march into March!