books, books, books: 2019 oct-dec

[meiface]

Happy 2020! Wrapping up my 2019 books, so I can also take a look at the year as a whole. And definitely moving this off LJ to DW starting this year.

1. Goodbye Paradise by Sarina Bowen - I loved her collabs with Elle Kennedy so I thought I'd give his m/m story a try, about two boys escaping from their religious cult to make it on their own. It's a tough subject to tackle and I think it deserved more time and backstory to really flesh out, and a slower burn on the relationship would've worked better. It was sweet but felt a bit shallow for such a topic.


2. The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart - Finally tackling the sequel to Bridge of Birds. Still reallly good! I felt like it was more magic than I remembered, but still a fun story and I really liked the characters and how casually they embraced the beautiful gay boy who joined their party (but who was platonic soulmates with his childhood girl friend). Ox is just an entertaining narrator -- so clueless, naive, sweet and brawny, and manages to get laid a lot. I do enjoy the fantasy historical China setting a lot. Although the pre-standardized pinyin translation is interesting when I suddenly realize I can tell what it's supposed to say lol.


3. Dear Girls by Ali Wong - Picked this up at the airport before flying to DC for Lille's bachelorette. It's a quick read, entertaining. It's always a little weird to me because it really highlights how different my and Ali Wong's Asian American experience is, as well as our different personalities and values regarding kids and family, but also what we owe and how we fit into the Asian American identity/community. To say nothing of the kind of personality that drives her to do stand up comedy; I have less than zero interest, thanks. But other perspectives are always helpful in realizing how broad and diverse the Asian American experience is.


4. A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston - Technically a YA book, I think, but beautiful prose and adaptation of the major framing story of 1001 Nights. You don't hear the individual stories she tells, because it's not about that so much as it is about where she came from and what drives the prince himself. It's lovely, evocative, and very, very good in highlighting female characters and family relationships.


5. The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley - A classic mystery where a club of mystery fans gets together to solve a murder, each proposing their own solution. But of course there's a twist. Overall, quick and fun read, but you can tell there are making a lot assumptions about things that really wouldn't hold up.


6. Ranma 1/2 vol 25-26 by Rumiko Takahashi - Picked it up randomly at the library and Ranma is always a good time for dumb fights and feelings. I love the cast in this, they're all so ridiculous, and P-chan is still the cutest thing.


7. Shrill by Lindy West - A series of essays and part memoir on feminism, being trolled on the internet, being fat, and finding a voice. It's all so good, and so much of it felt validating and affirming, and so much of it was also making my throat tight with anger about how much we still disbelieve women, and are especially horrid to them on the internet. Also challenging truths about how we think about and treat fat people in America, which does make me think a lot. It's an uncomfortable topic, but we need to be able to face those. I can't wait to read The Witches are Coming by her, which I am like...months out from getting from the library due to the hold queue.


8. Mrs. Jeffries and the Best Laid Plans by Emily Brightwell - The premise of this book and the Mrs. Jeffries series is that a London's inspector detective's household is really the one gathering clues to help solve murders for him. Cute premise! Execution was unfortunately less good and rather clunky. Probably won't be pursuing the series any further. There are so many other mysteries out there to read!


9. Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle - The comic collection of aliens happily celebrating all of humanity's weirdest behaviors -- i.e., all of it, honestly. Cute and funny.


10. Eight Skilled Gentlemen by Barry Hughart - The last of the trilogy and really reminding me that I don't know much of our weird Daoist mythology. Was this referencing the Eight Immortals or something else? Lots of magic and strange shenanigans, even more sweeping than before, but overall still a quality read. Probably the first one was the most affecting of all, just because I didn't know what to expect but this was a nice conclusion.


11. Hat Trick by Eden Finley - Rock star jet and hockey-player-who-looks-like-Roman-Josi lol. Love it. A hookup, then some regret and UST pining, then more hooking up and feelings. Get it. Nice to see all the other couples getting on with their lives, and glad to see some real doubt/challenges in being together and resolving two very different lives.


12. Less by Andrew Sean Greer - It won the Pulitzer! The synopsis sounded cute and funny, about an author so conflict avoidant that rather than going to his ex's wedding decides to accept every writing/traveling/presenting invitation extended his way so he travels around the world rather than deal with his ex. For being a book about a middle aged white man having a life/aging crisis, it was self-aware and surprisingly tender. There's not that much to feel sorry for the main character for, except the compassion of knowing every person has their own fears and insecurities while aging and facing the future. The culmination of the ending was really lovely and made me teary. It made me go back and reread a lot of sections.


13. Here is Greenwood vol 5-6 by Yukie Nasu - God, I love Greenwood. I love, love, love this ridiculous cast of characters and the lived-in feel of their interactions with each other in the dorm. I love Shun and Hatsukawa, and of course I still love Mitsuru and Shinobu and their fucked-up individual issues and their relationship with each other. Also that you just accept magic, ghosts, and aliens at face value.


14. Hana Kimi vol 13 by Hisaya Nakajo - Another pick up from the library and I'd forgotten so many of the pointless subplots, lol. But Umeda and Akiha are still gay gay gay, Sano and Mizuki are cute, and I do still vaguely ship Nanba/Himejima. I wonder if there's any new fic out there...


15. The Rogue to Ruin by Vivienne Lorret - The series about the matchmaking sisters, which is honestly still the stupidest premise ever, but sure. It was a cute romance with the oldest sister and the rogue owning the gambling den/gentlemen's club next door, and it even fit in a pretend relationship! But it hit every trope so hard it was unbelievable; that the heroine had no idea she was attracted to the hero? Please. Although I did appreciate all the descriptions of how hot and built he was, and how he was a good person too. Then there were a lot of dramatic shenanigans in the final act, which for some reason feel more ridiculous in contemporary writing than in Heyer's... Anyway, very fun and fast read, but it didn't particuarly make a lasting impression.


16. The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay - Read on Christmas Day to fit the theme! A Golden Age classic, and it fit the trope very well with a house party and all the family together to celebrate, but then the patriarch dies and everyone has some kind of motive because of his will. The ending was a bit of a letdown, unfortunately. I would've liked a more clever resolution, but oh well.


17. Leave It to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse - My first P.G. Wodehouse! Some list somewhere said this was a fun one to start with for Psmith books and it was! Though I may just like dumb English hijinks dressed up in clever speech. I may need to investigate Mike and Psmith at some point, and perhaps someday get into Jeeves and Wooster...


18. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card vol 4 by CLAMP - I looooove CCS and Clear Card has been adorable; I'm so glad CLAMP reverted back to the beautiful shoujo art style in the original, plus all the sweet characters and simpler plots. TRC was a trip, whereas CCS is just a delight. Not actively following the manga, but would like to see a season 2 of the anime.


19. The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black - The last of the Folk of the Air trilogy and I came away satisfied. I really like Jude as a narrator and her relationship with Cardan is just fucked up enough for me to enjoy it without being too fucked up for me to buy into it. The family drama and war storyline were good; war could've been more political and might have been in an adult fantasy story versus YA, but the conclusion worked okay for me. A good trilogy, a fun (fucked up) faerie world that felt fantastical and magical and dark too.


20. Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds by Ian Wright - Infographic maps! A fun visual way to look at different topics. The appendix tells you where the data for the maps is sourced from, and that's important.


21. Every Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop - A cookbook I got from the library along with Chinese Soul Food. This one is written by a white woman, the first westerner to attend culinary school in Sichuan, and I hate to say it but this cookbook was more useful to me than the other. It is more authentic and lays out recipes that I would cook and can adapt, while the other imo starts off with already adapted recipes based on what the author and her family has lying around the kitchen. I don't need those recipes because that's what I already do. I need the original recipes, thanks. So it's more a personal preference and what is useful to me as an individual. Could be different from others.

That's it for 2019!