Wonderful New Blogs Discovered in 2009

In no particular order here are my favourite new-to-me blogs of the year:

Reading in Color. Ari reads and reviews and discusses and generously gives away YA books about people of colour. Ari was the first person to tell me about Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith, which was one of my fave books of the year. For that alone I would be her devoted follower forever, but there’s way more to her blog than book reviews. If you have any interest in YA and you’re not following Reading in Color, then shame on you!

The Intern. An intern’s view of publishing. Funny as hell. She even has a nemesis and refers to herself in third person. She’s crazy, but so is publishing. They are the perfect match.

White Readers Meet Black Authors. Some wonderfully warm and witty outreach to us white folks who would like to expand our reading horizons.

Journal of a Baby Power Dyke in Training. Wickedly witty, insightful, Barbra Streisand-obsessed and happy making. Although I do not share the BS obsession I am a fan of many of her other faves, such as Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris-Lacewell. I adore a good ole rant about politics and BPD is very happy to oblige.

Happy Nappy Bookseller. Doret Canton is my new favourite bookseller. Not only does she love YA, but she’s also a total sportshead and has given me enough girls sports book recs to last me a lifetime. Happiness! She runs two or three very thoughtful reviews a week. If you have have any interest in childrens lit, from picture books through to YA, you need to add Doret to your blogroll ASAP.

Eat Drink One Woman. Ganda is all about the food. Me too. This is probably one of my fave food blogs of all time. And she talks about bikes too! Perfect. Following her food adventures in Sweden was one of the blog reading highlights of my year.

Taste Life Twice. Two California girls, Tashi & Kiki, who love to blog about books. Their blog is chockers with book reviews and interviews. Their crazy high school schedule means they don’t blog as often as I’d like but, hey, that just means I treasure what they do post. Another essential for us YA fans.

Apophenia. Danah Boyd’s a researcher who writes incredibly thoughtfully about social networking online. I’m particularly fascinated by her research on facebook, myspace, twitter and race and class.

Color Online.

This is not just a blog about the work of women writers of colour, it’s also a non-profit that among many other things runs a library to get books by and about people of colour into the hands of those least able to get hold of books. They welcome book donations. It’s also a truly excellent blog with some of the best coverage of YA online. It really is essentially reading if you care about publishing or YA or reading. Susan also has an excellent personal blog, Black-Eyed Susan.

If you don’t know any of these there’s some wonderful reading in store for you. What were your fave new blogs this year? Oh, and no recommending your own blog. Self praise is no praise, people!

Posted by Justine at 0:06, 30 December 2009 under Bloggery | 10 Comments »

Comments

MissAttitude Says:

Aw thanks so much for the shoutout! *blushes*
I just started book blogging this year so most blogs were new to me, but some new ones that started in 2009 are Gal Novelty (Ah Yuan is the blogger and she’s so funny and she writes great reviews!). I also really like adventures of cecilia bedalia, your blog (such informative posts that ALWAYS get me thinking) and now the Intern! I just clicked over and her current post had me laughing already, especially about how there are no books about Rastafarians and why is this? Lol. Good point. I then kept reading her other posts and laughing. I’m now a follower! Oh and I love Zetta Elliot’s blog too, Fledgling.
So glad you loved Flygirl. I wish there were more WWII novels about AA soldiers, especially female soldiers. It would have been nice to see Ida Mae get a little more fighting action!

December 30th, 2009 at 1:02 AM
2. Justine Says:

MissAttitude: My pleasure. It’s fun introducing peoples to good blogs. Thanks for these recs, by the way. Already loving Zetta’s blog, but now I have two more to check out.

December 30th, 2009 at 3:14 AM
Ellen Says:

I loooove INTERN. My other favorite blog (which has a similar crazy-view-of-the-publishing-world, except it’s written in first person plural instead of third person) would be the Rejectionist http://www.therejectionist.com/ (sorry I don’t know how to do the link-within-a-comment-thing <.<)

December 30th, 2009 at 10:08 AM
The OTHER Tally Youngblood Says:

Oh.
My.
Gosh!
That intern site is great! LOL!
=D

December 30th, 2009 at 3:36 PM
Sarah Allen Says:

Thanks for this! Great sources. I will definitely be looking into those, and this blog makes my list of top new blogs!

Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)

December 30th, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Beth S. Says:

Thanks for the great list! I added a few of them to my RSS feed.

December 30th, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Nathalie Mvondo Says:

Thank you for the list, it’s really helpful.

I discovered Reading In Color this year as well, not too long ago in fact, and I’m already using one of the lists Miss Attitude put together.

Also discovered a photoblog by an Australian photographer, Jennifer Sando. Her blog is brand new.

I enjoy Elana Johnson’s one… Discovered the Open Book by Lee and Low Books… Stacy Whitman’s Grimoire, and the Intern is one of my faves as well for information, wit and humor.

I need to thank you, because I benefited numerous times from your writing advices.

Happy new year!

December 31st, 2009 at 1:48 AM
Ganda Says:

GAH! Thank you for the honor, Justine! You are too too kind.

December 31st, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Anna Says:

THE INTERN is def my favorite. She is the rocketh of my sockeths.

January 1st, 2010 at 9:51 PM
Literary Kitty Says:

The Intern is such a great find. Will definitely be following that one from now on. Thanks

January 13th, 2010 at 11:41 AM