Books Deserving Love
Jazz in Love, by Neesha Meminger, was apparently turned down by her publisher. Why, because it's all about brown girls? I can't figure out why, as I was immediately caught up in it--I meant to read a chapter or two a night, as is my usual habit when insanely busy, but I ended up reading until two a.m.
Teenage Jazz is Indian, specifically Sikh from Punjabi. Her parents have decided that they will be enlightened about matchmaking--they gave her photos of suitable boys from the proper Indian background. She can pick any of them to be her future husband.
But Jazz has the hots for Tyler, who is not on that list. So she develops a plot to get around the constraints of tradition, a plot that involves her divorced aunt who was bundled off to marry a suitable boy when she was in love with someone else. That marriage ended in disaster.
I love Jazz's voice, I love how much Indian culture is woven in (and I am taking notes on movies I haven't heard of). I love how distinctive the characters are, and I love the headlong teenage enthusiasm for all passions.
Meminger does an excellent job with the complications of family life, the clashes of culture, and the clashes between individuals of whatever generation. The characters are complex, and the handling of super-powered attraction and how it skews the world was beautifully handled.
Fury of the Phoenix is the conclusion to the story begun in Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix. In that book, sheltered, psychically gifted Ai Ling meets Chen Yong, and falls into adventure as they cross Xia to rescue her father. Their adventures draw on Chinese history and custom and mythology, leading to a powerful climax.
This book creates some nice symmetries, while deepening the story: this time, Chen Yong is in search of his father. Ai Ling joins him on a ship. As the two learn how to deal with ship life, including pirates, and Ai Ling takes lessons in self defense, she is increasingly disturbed by visions . . . of non other than Zhong Ye, who she hated and thought dead. As Ai Ling and Chen Yong get to know one another better, we learn about Zhong Ye's life--what made him the way he was. A shocking bit of news unsettles Ai Ling, precipitating a rapid flow of events that once again leads to a powerful climax.
I love Pon's fantasy China in part because it doesn't feel like a Westernized China, as do so many fantasies that draw on Chinese history or myth. The characters are engaging, and there is this sense of beauty so that reading the book is like watching a masterfully shot movie. The descriptions of the food make me hungry.
The conclusion made me want to reread Silver Phoenix all over again.
Darkside, by S.K.S. Perry, is only on Kindle, and it has a weird history. Somebody pirates it a week or two ago, and put it up for sale. (It would be the version with no cover, published March 19, for sale at 4.99) The author had offered it for years free, but was considering putting it up as an e-book when this happened.
Amazon is dragging its feet at removing the pirated copy (it's difficult right now to search on the correct one, which has a cover, and is priced at 99 cents), but at least it's now available. It's an urban fantasy in which a regular guy is shot in the first pages while trying to rescue someone, but for some reason he doesn't stay dead. So he has to deal with both the living world and that of the dead. It's funny, sarcastic, and packed with action.
Teenage Jazz is Indian, specifically Sikh from Punjabi. Her parents have decided that they will be enlightened about matchmaking--they gave her photos of suitable boys from the proper Indian background. She can pick any of them to be her future husband.
But Jazz has the hots for Tyler, who is not on that list. So she develops a plot to get around the constraints of tradition, a plot that involves her divorced aunt who was bundled off to marry a suitable boy when she was in love with someone else. That marriage ended in disaster.
I love Jazz's voice, I love how much Indian culture is woven in (and I am taking notes on movies I haven't heard of). I love how distinctive the characters are, and I love the headlong teenage enthusiasm for all passions.
Meminger does an excellent job with the complications of family life, the clashes of culture, and the clashes between individuals of whatever generation. The characters are complex, and the handling of super-powered attraction and how it skews the world was beautifully handled.
Fury of the Phoenix is the conclusion to the story begun in Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix. In that book, sheltered, psychically gifted Ai Ling meets Chen Yong, and falls into adventure as they cross Xia to rescue her father. Their adventures draw on Chinese history and custom and mythology, leading to a powerful climax.
This book creates some nice symmetries, while deepening the story: this time, Chen Yong is in search of his father. Ai Ling joins him on a ship. As the two learn how to deal with ship life, including pirates, and Ai Ling takes lessons in self defense, she is increasingly disturbed by visions . . . of non other than Zhong Ye, who she hated and thought dead. As Ai Ling and Chen Yong get to know one another better, we learn about Zhong Ye's life--what made him the way he was. A shocking bit of news unsettles Ai Ling, precipitating a rapid flow of events that once again leads to a powerful climax.
I love Pon's fantasy China in part because it doesn't feel like a Westernized China, as do so many fantasies that draw on Chinese history or myth. The characters are engaging, and there is this sense of beauty so that reading the book is like watching a masterfully shot movie. The descriptions of the food make me hungry.
The conclusion made me want to reread Silver Phoenix all over again.
Darkside, by S.K.S. Perry, is only on Kindle, and it has a weird history. Somebody pirates it a week or two ago, and put it up for sale. (It would be the version with no cover, published March 19, for sale at 4.99) The author had offered it for years free, but was considering putting it up as an e-book when this happened.
Amazon is dragging its feet at removing the pirated copy (it's difficult right now to search on the correct one, which has a cover, and is priced at 99 cents), but at least it's now available. It's an urban fantasy in which a regular guy is shot in the first pages while trying to rescue someone, but for some reason he doesn't stay dead. So he has to deal with both the living world and that of the dead. It's funny, sarcastic, and packed with action.