furyofvissarion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
furyofvissarion) wrote2009-01-24 09:29 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2009-01-24 09:29 pm
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A Century of Migration (Bristol's Asian Communities) - Munawar Hussain. This is a collection of narratives put together by Bristol's library (see, totally the sort of thing about librarianship that interests me!), based on interviews w/Asians living in the city. I could tell that a lot of the interviewees had interesting lives worth reading about—but too often the writeups were devoid of quotes & read like summaries. Also, typos & inconsistencies galore (every ethnic group's chapter had a brief introduction about the history of that group—except the Arabs & the Vietnamese). I know some of this is par for the course w/books put out by community groups (or libraries, I guess) but I still wish they'd gotten a proofreader, & also consulted w/oral historians about how to make the life stories really pop. I know, I know, lack of resources & such—I do get it, but at the same time I wish the people interviewed had their stories displayed in the way that they deserve.
Chinatown Beat - Henry Chang. Jack Yu grew up in NYC's Chinatown, & now has just been assigned there as a police detective. I thought this might be too noir-ish for me (which means noir at all, really), but wanted to read it b/c hey, Asian detective! Chinatown setting! What I liked was how Chang showed the complicated relationships between the gangsters in Chinatown, the “good guys” (mostly-law-abiding citizens), & the cops, & how this affects Yu, who grew up running w/a bad crowd & now gets crap for selling out & joining the NYPD. It's also clear how uneasily different racial groups coexist, whether in the projects or on the police force. The plot revolves around a murder of a higher-up gangster & a serial child rapist, although the latter gets dropped for so long that I forgot about it; it doesn't seem to add much to the book. I actually don't enjoy reading about organized crime, generally, so that aspect of the book was less than exciting to me. But overall I enjoyed the book a lot more than I expected to, & probably folks who are more into noir might like it even more than that. I did think that the way Chinese language phrases were done was heavy-handed & distracting, though.
Once Upon a Time in the North - Phillip Pullman. Another novella in a pleasing little package from the world of His Dark Materials. This one has a little fold-up board game in the back, & a straight-up adventure involving Lee Scoresby (& fabulous daemon Hester) & his first meeting w/Iorek Byrnison. So you can't really go wrong w/that setup, & Pullman doesn't. Those who are inclined to think of him as preachy will probably balk at one anti-corporate line, but it made plot sense to me.
The Summoning - Kelley Armstrong. Armstrong is best known for her Women of the Otherworld series of paranormal romance (or whatever you want to call it); this foray into YA is pretty much Teens of the Otherworld. I mean, it takes place in the same milieu, & there aren't really any surprises here. I do wish the protagonist, budding necromancer Chloe Saunders, wasn't yet another naïve well-off character we're supposed to care about. I predict in future books that turning into a werewolf will miraculously cure acne.
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris. Another out-of-order comfort re-read. Though Harris' missteps regarding race seem a bit more prominent & irksome to me right now, I still enjoyed the book... tho' I got tired of hearing what a manly man Alcide Herveaux was, despite my liking for the character.
Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris. Same as the last entry—comfort re-read, Harris continues to make little annoying comments re: race, though not (yet?) enough to make me throw the book across the room. I do enjoy Sookie's fumbling around between guy after guy; Harris does a good job w/sex scenes, & if I were Sookie I wouldn't be able to choose either, har har.
Chinatown Beat - Henry Chang. Jack Yu grew up in NYC's Chinatown, & now has just been assigned there as a police detective. I thought this might be too noir-ish for me (which means noir at all, really), but wanted to read it b/c hey, Asian detective! Chinatown setting! What I liked was how Chang showed the complicated relationships between the gangsters in Chinatown, the “good guys” (mostly-law-abiding citizens), & the cops, & how this affects Yu, who grew up running w/a bad crowd & now gets crap for selling out & joining the NYPD. It's also clear how uneasily different racial groups coexist, whether in the projects or on the police force. The plot revolves around a murder of a higher-up gangster & a serial child rapist, although the latter gets dropped for so long that I forgot about it; it doesn't seem to add much to the book. I actually don't enjoy reading about organized crime, generally, so that aspect of the book was less than exciting to me. But overall I enjoyed the book a lot more than I expected to, & probably folks who are more into noir might like it even more than that. I did think that the way Chinese language phrases were done was heavy-handed & distracting, though.
Once Upon a Time in the North - Phillip Pullman. Another novella in a pleasing little package from the world of His Dark Materials. This one has a little fold-up board game in the back, & a straight-up adventure involving Lee Scoresby (& fabulous daemon Hester) & his first meeting w/Iorek Byrnison. So you can't really go wrong w/that setup, & Pullman doesn't. Those who are inclined to think of him as preachy will probably balk at one anti-corporate line, but it made plot sense to me.
The Summoning - Kelley Armstrong. Armstrong is best known for her Women of the Otherworld series of paranormal romance (or whatever you want to call it); this foray into YA is pretty much Teens of the Otherworld. I mean, it takes place in the same milieu, & there aren't really any surprises here. I do wish the protagonist, budding necromancer Chloe Saunders, wasn't yet another naïve well-off character we're supposed to care about. I predict in future books that turning into a werewolf will miraculously cure acne.
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris. Another out-of-order comfort re-read. Though Harris' missteps regarding race seem a bit more prominent & irksome to me right now, I still enjoyed the book... tho' I got tired of hearing what a manly man Alcide Herveaux was, despite my liking for the character.
Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris. Same as the last entry—comfort re-read, Harris continues to make little annoying comments re: race, though not (yet?) enough to make me throw the book across the room. I do enjoy Sookie's fumbling around between guy after guy; Harris does a good job w/sex scenes, & if I were Sookie I wouldn't be able to choose either, har har.