all books all the time

Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism - Patricia Hill Collins. ( Read more... )

Rocket Girls - Housuke Nojiri, translated by Joseph Reeder. ( Read more... )

Chains of Babylon: The Rise of Asian America - Daryl J. Maeda. ( Read more... )

Succubus Heat - Richelle Mead. ( Read more... )

Mechademia 3: Limits of the Human - Edited by Frenchy Lunning. ( Read more... )

Mechademia 4: War/Time - Edited by Frenchy Lunning. ( Read more... )

Air - Geoff Ryman. ( Read more... )

Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women - Edited by Asian Women United of California. ( Read more... )

Succubus on Top - Richelle Mead. ( Read more... )

Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live - Martha Beck. ( Read more... )

Days of Disquiet, Nights of Rage: The First Quarter Storm and Related Events - Jose F. Lacaba. ( Read more... )

Romancing the Dead - Tate Hallaway. ( Read more... )

Wolf Tales - Kate Douglas. ( Read more... )

Topography of War: Asian American Essays - Edited by Andrea Louie & Johnny Lew. ( Read more... )

Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide - Donald A. Ritchie. This is packed full of useful information. However, while chapters are organized topically, within them, the text consists solely of questions followed by answers of a few paragraphs of more. So it was essentially like reading a 250-page FAQ: useful, but by no means scintillating.

Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism - Derrick Bell. Bell has a lot of interesting, compelling ideas about race, but some of the essays were so clunkily written I cringed a little. He likes to use the conceit of imagined dialogue a lot, which is fine, but the people seem so stilted & academic & not like anyone else I've encountered talks (including academics). Several of his science fiction stories are included here (including "The Space Traders," where the US ships all its black people off w/aliens in exchange for various treasures), & these I found really good, solid reading.

Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead. Oh, fun! Georgina Kincaid is a succubus who's unhappy w/the whole deal, mostly b/c she's lonely: she can't date nice guys b/c of course she ends up sucking away some of his life energy when her succubus nature kicks in. She has a bunch of friends (demons, vampires, an angel) who are also, in various ways, not excited about the supernatural imperatives they're chained to. Georgina is trying to live as normal a life as possible: she works in a Seattle bookstore, loves slightly pulpy-sounding books, & tries to put up w/her loneliness. The core of the plot revolves around sudden murders of local supernaturals. I can't be arsed to describe it further, but this was a fun, fun book, & I will definitely be reading the next one.

Shadows in the Darkness - Elaine Cunningham. It seems I like storylines involving ex-cops (even tho' I am, shall we say, less fond of cops): Tanya Huff's Blood books (which I haven't finished yet), & now this one. Gwen Gelman is a PI who was forced out of police work when she was blamed for a bust gone wrong. When she investigates a string of abductions of young girls, she learns that... sigh... she's an elf, actually. Which would explain (squick) why she's 34 but looks like she's in high school--slow aging, & all that. Anyway, the book was much more interesting before this reveal (even though you knew it would happen), & I'm not sure I'll keep reading this series.