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Oct. 31st, 2015 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionCold Magic- Kate Elliott. There's a lot to like here in this alternate 19th century setting: two spirited cousins (think Kate & Cecy), an intriguing magic system, actual attention to & love for non-European cultures. I had to get over my lingering dislike for the obvious romantic interest, & felt it took just a bit too long for a terrible & oppressive situation to be revealed as more complicated (I knew it would happen, I just thought we spent too long in the "no this is horrible everything is horrible" bit beforehand). But eventually, yes, I did get sucked in.
Harry Potter et le Coupe de Feu - J. K. Rowling. Reading this, like the others, just to keep up my French! Umbridge is as horrifying & creepy as in the original, & I like Dumbledore's Army just as well.
Cold Fire - Kate Elliott. I was expecting this to drag a bit w/second book-itis, but it didn't feel that way to me, for the most part. I really appreciated the story focusing more on the alternate Caribbean in this world, especially that there were many ways in which the cultures there were shown to be better than those in alternate Europe (for example, gender equality...).
We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This essay, based on her Ted talk, is a basic persuasive outlining of why feminism is important. Obviously I'm already of this opinion, but I do think this would be a good short missive to give to doubters!
East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture - Edited by Shilpa Davé, LeiLani Nishime, and Tasha G. Oren. Interesting stuff! Topics include Japanese-American beauty pageants, Tiger Woods, the comic strip Secret Asian Man, Cibo Matto, Ming Tsai, & about a billion other things, including some which maybe don't make the book sound as dated as I just did. I'd like to see another anthology like this w/all the Asian American culture of the last 10 years (this came out in 2005) too.
Harry Potter et le Coupe de Feu - J. K. Rowling. Reading this, like the others, just to keep up my French! Umbridge is as horrifying & creepy as in the original, & I like Dumbledore's Army just as well.
Cold Fire - Kate Elliott. I was expecting this to drag a bit w/second book-itis, but it didn't feel that way to me, for the most part. I really appreciated the story focusing more on the alternate Caribbean in this world, especially that there were many ways in which the cultures there were shown to be better than those in alternate Europe (for example, gender equality...).
We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This essay, based on her Ted talk, is a basic persuasive outlining of why feminism is important. Obviously I'm already of this opinion, but I do think this would be a good short missive to give to doubters!
East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture - Edited by Shilpa Davé, LeiLani Nishime, and Tasha G. Oren. Interesting stuff! Topics include Japanese-American beauty pageants, Tiger Woods, the comic strip Secret Asian Man, Cibo Matto, Ming Tsai, & about a billion other things, including some which maybe don't make the book sound as dated as I just did. I'd like to see another anthology like this w/all the Asian American culture of the last 10 years (this came out in 2005) too.