Assuming I don't find another list somewhere, this should bring me up to date as of just over a month or so. I appear to have inserted vast amounts of spoilers into the first and last of these, so consider this a warning.

( Wanda Cowley, Biddy Alone. )

Consider the title fair warning. I was not impressed by either of these, and if you liked them or haven't read them, you should probably skip over this. It may or may not help to know that my next post will probably be about 15 volumes of BL manga (all by the same author), which I accidentally read while writing my Yuletide story, and involve me ( Read more... )

Red China Blues: my long march from Mao to now
Jan Wong's China: reports from a not-so-foreign correspondent
Beijing Confidential: lost and found in the forbidden cityI read these out of order - starting with Beijing Confidential, which is technically last - and, although I don’t think it makes a huge difference, it’s probably best to start with ( Read more... )

Starting off with massive thanks to Orannia for telling me about these and lending me her copies (I'm ordering my own shortly, although the trick is going to be not ordering a bunch of other unread books as well ( Read more... )

Which are in progress. Technically, the dog is recuperating from his operation (neutered yesterday) and is a delicate flower who needs to be coddled and fed a light diet, according to the info sheet from the vet; in reality, he is massively hungry and keeps charging down two flights of stairs to see if there are any unattended shoes that need ( Read more... )

I am now optimistically on twitter as accanz, where I am noting down whatever I've read in the hope that this will make me catch up more quickly. Am currently doing long reviews of Cryoburn, the Jan Wong books and Ginn Hale; in the meantime, some briefer ones ( Read more... )

Micah is a young black woman at high school in New York, an habitual liar, and the first person narrator of this book. Which is a mixture of truth and lies; which is which, or which if anything is true, is up to the reader.

( I can't talk further about the book without spoiling it, which I do - if vaguely - behind the cut. I think it's worth reading, but it didn't really work for me; this response is individual enough for me to recommend it anyway, with caveats. )

Two people with the same name tell alternating chapters of an intersecting story; both male (and white), one straight and determined not to care (but doing so despite himself), one gay (and closeted) and hating himself.

( Moderately detailed discussion, hopefully still vague enough if you haven't read it. )

I was on the third floor in a meeting for today's 5.0 aftershock (shallow and close to the city - knocked out power for thirty minutes or so). I did end up heading for the doorframe (with one of the other meeting members - the rest milled around, while one slightly confused soul went and stood next to the window) but I went there fairly slowly and ( Read more... )

I've been following much of the discussion about race and fandom that's been going on, through various iterations (and some appalling demonstrations of privilege), and so this does tend to come through in my reviews. I don't think I would have been wild about this book before that - it's the second Andre Norton ever published, and while it's an all ( Read more... )