Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon (Beyond the Kingdom of Xia #1)

Not sure of the series title, but it'll do.  The book came to my attention with the whitewashing of its cover.  The author also commissioned pretty art of it (which shimizu_hitomi might've linked to), and pretty art seduces me easily.  I think Silver Phoenix and Zhong Ye look like the hotter couple, lol ( Read more... )

Embers by Laura Bickle (Anya Kalinczyk #1)
I heard about it through one of the four book bloggers I follow (DearAuthor, Tempting Persephone, Janicu, Angieville).  Read the first chapter, re-read the back of the book blurb, and the only reason I didn't put it down was because I remembered (IIRC) Tempting Persephone giving it a glowing review.  Alas, ( Read more... )

this is just a post to say, i'm alive and have survived the holidays, haha.

currently using the break to binge on movies via Instant Queue on Netflix, and just starting to read.  I just finished my first thriller, Heartsick by Chelsea Cain.  I'm also kinda going through the films rec'd in this thread from what's on Instant Play on Netflix and what ( Read more... )

A Dance With Dragons by George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #5) - incredibly slow moving when you think about the plot.  It was so boring at times, I went off and read other novels over the course of the week it took me to read it.  It's essentially a transition/set-up novel.  AGOT was like that too, but that was the first book of the novel so ( Read more... )

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (#1 of 2)

Don't remember if I posted about it yet.  As always, Butler makes you think.  The work is still surprisingly relevant to today despite being published in 1993.  The age-gap in the main relationship was the most thought-provoking thing, I felt; rather mild for Butler I felt.  The issue of religion is ( Read more... )

Because I made this list, I might as well share it.  The requester asked for books with strong female heroines for a non-native English speaker.

Young adult (YA) books
*I’m noting which books I think have the easiest language

( Read more... )

North and South (BBC 2004; not the one about the American Civil War, the one based on Elizabeth Gaskell's book).  Kinda Pride and Prejudice-ish, despite the leading man's denial of. XD  Also watched Downton Abbey.  Both series have pretty background music (I think these are the tracks?).  Despite my support of Butler guy / Maid girl in Downton, I ( Read more... )

The Broken Kingdoms by NK Jemisin (The Inheritance Trilogy #2)

Cover art -  I like the city scape thing going, but I don't like these faces shooting light out.  Similarly, the tag lines are too.... melodramatic?

Narratively, it's quite similar to Yeine's in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.  The narrator doesn't tell things quite in order; she relays it ( Read more... )

If you saw, Utena, watch this. Now.

Click to view

One of the best things since peanut butter right there.  I laughed so hard at the fandom commentary ("If it was a badfic, I probably posted it on a livejournal thread for everyone to laugh at") as well as the racial commentary ("It's 2011, you don't have to call any white man master!").  And all the phallic stuff ( Read more... )

Dead Man Rising by Lilith Saintcrow (Dante Valentine #2 ( Read more... )