furyofvissarion: (Default)
2016-03-28 06:29 pm

I am nearly caught up w/things I've read! Even if that's because I haven't read that much...

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell. ExpandRead more... )

Valmiki's Daughter - Shani Mootoo. ExpandRead more... )

Ich Bin Dann Mal Vegan: Glücklich und fit und nebenbei die Welt retten - Bettina Hennig. ExpandRead more... )

Interim Errantry - Diane Duane. ExpandRead more... )

Court of Fives - Kate Elliott. ExpandRead more... )

How to Save a Life - Sara Zarr. ExpandRead more... )

Nearly Gone - Elle Cosimano. ExpandRead more... )

Nacht der Hexen - Kelley Armstrong. ExpandRead more... )

Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor. ExpandRead more... )

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - Brené Brown. ExpandRead more... )

Die Schachnovelle- Stefan Zweig. ExpandRead more... )
furyofvissarion: (Default)
2015-08-28 06:05 pm

These are books I read actually in 2015, hooray!

Low Midnight - Carrie Vaughn. ExpandRead more... )

Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris. ExpandRead more... )

Go vegan!: Warum wir ohne tierische Produkte glücklicher und besser leben - edited by Marlene Halser. ExpandRead more... )

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz. ExpandRead more... )
furyofvissarion: (Default)
2011-02-06 02:20 pm

(no subject)

Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society - Edited by A. Breeze Harper. ExpandRead more... )

Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences - Cordelia Fine. ExpandRead more... )

A Map of Home - Randa Jarrar. ExpandRead more... )
furyofvissarion: (Default)
2008-02-29 06:56 pm

(no subject)

Capers in the Churchyard: Animal Rights Advocacy in the Age of Terror - Lee Hall. ExpandRead more... )

Breathless in Bombay - Murzban F. Shroff. This collection of short stories was, as they say, easier to admire than to like. It took me weeks to get through this book. I can see that Shroff is a good writer, in that he has some good turns of phrase & evocative descriptions & all that. But I found it really hard to empathize with, or care much about, any of his characters.
furyofvissarion: (Default)
2008-01-27 07:56 pm

behind!

Starting off 2008 by letting this journal sit too long. Here are mostly-brief writeups of what I've read thus far:

Felinestein: Pampering the Genius in Your Cat - Suzanne Delzio and Cynthia Ribarich. ExpandRead more... )

The Shadow Speaker - Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. ExpandRead more... )

Parrotfish - Ellen Wittlinger. ExpandRead more... )

Not Home, But Here: Writing from the Filipino Diaspora - Edited by Luisa A. Igloria. ExpandRead more... )

Homelands: Women's Journeys Across Race, Place, and Time - Edited by Patricia Justine Tumang and Jenesha de Rivera. ExpandRead more... )

The Feeling Good Handbook - David D. Burns, M.D. ExpandRead more... )

Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game - Janice Kim and Jeong Soo-hyun. ExpandRead more... )

The Blood Books, Volume Three - Tanya Huff. ExpandRead more... )

The Thread That Binds the Bones - Nina Kiriki Hoffman. ExpandRead more... )

Extras - Scott Westerfeld. ExpandRead more... )

The Sherwood Ring - Elizabeth Marie Pope. ExpandRead more... )

Poltergeist - Kat Richardson. ExpandRead more... )

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex - Edited by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. ExpandRead more... )

Stormwitch - Susan Vaught. ExpandRead more... )

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy - Edited by Nalo Hopkinson & Uppinder Mehan. ExpandRead more... )

The Rules for Hearts - Sara Ryan. ExpandRead more... )

Dime Store Magic - Kelley Armstrong. ExpandRead more... )

Industrial Magic - Kelley Armstrong. ExpandRead more... )

PopCo - Scarlett Thomas. ExpandRead more... )
furyofvissarion: (Default)
2007-10-26 08:53 pm

(no subject)

Crystal Rain - Tobias Buckell. I almost didn't read this, because for some reason I thought it was a lot more science fiction-y than I normally go for (I skew towards fantasy, big time). But I saw a glowing review on the [livejournal.com profile] 50books_poc community (here, & here's one about Ragamuffin, the sequel) & thought I'd give it a try. I'm so glad I did! There were a few times where I had to do things like poke my partner on the subway & squee ("Airship battle!!!!1").

Ahem. Anyway. John deBrun remembers only the past 27 years of his life, when he washed up on the beach in Nanagada, where the Caribbean descendants of "old-fathers" (who came to the planet via a worm-hole) live. Aside from the frustration of his missing memories, he's pretty content: wife, son, etc. etc. A constant threat to Nanagada from the south are the Azteca; their invasion of Nanagada comes pretty early on in the book, & John gets caught up in a quest for an old-father artifact that is probably the Nanagadans' last hope. Reading the book made me realize that any sort of invasion in a plot scares the crap out of me. I spent a lot of the time, when I wasn't squeeing (did I mention airships?), in dread.

The book runs really fast; there's so much fun adventure-y stuff, but w/o being fluff (not that I don't enjoy fluff, btw). Anyway--I thought the handling of dialect/accents/whatever (I'm no linguist) was well done; I didn't find it hard to read @ all, but scanning reviews online, apparently not having Standard English is, like, zomg scary! And, this goes w/o saying, but YAY for science fiction that feature POCs all over the place. I am psyched to read the sequel.

Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? - Gary L. Francione. Francione systematically eliminates common arguments for why animals should be treated as property (as, in fact, they are legally now). His writing is succinct & clear, which is nice given how much stuff written by lawyers I've seen be totally head-wrecking before. I found the book really upsetting @ times b/c he is graphic about what animals slaughtered for food & tortured in research labs experience. But, y'know, some folks need a wake-up call.

I learned a lot about how jacked up the legal system is about animals: for example, if you treat your factory-farmed animals cruelly, but it is common practice in the industry or it is seen as necessary to make the animal more useful to humans, then it magically doesn't count as cruelty in the legal world. Also, some guys broke into an animal shelter & beat something like 16 cats w/baseball bats. They only got charged w/a misdemeanor, not a felony, b/c, as they successfully argued, the cats were in the shelter b/c no one wanted them, hence they must be almost worthless. I was also shocked @ how many philosophers have tried to argue that animals have no interest in their own lives continuing, or in avoiding pain. Eh?

Francione placed the appendix of the book online; it features the answers to 20 questions he gets asked most frequently about animal rights. It's a good summation of some of the issues in the book.
furyofvissarion: (Default)
2007-10-10 07:06 pm

(no subject)

Living Among Meat Eaters - Carol J. Adams. Re-read, in preparation for a stressful upcoming family weekend. I found Adams' pieces of advice as pithy as the first time I read them; I only wish I could remember them better when I needed them (must practice, ha).

She says that, in dealing w/meat eaters, we should act as if they are all blocked vegetarians; this will make dealing w/them a lot less stressful & conflict-ridden. I think this is good advice; like she says, even if someone ISN'T blocked, acting as though they were will make things less confrontational. And I believe, anyway, that an awful lot of meat-eaters are, actually, blocked vegetarians--I can see that happening when I hear the stories of folks who have gone veg*n, & I can see that in some of the more unpleasant reactions I've had in my life w/meat-eaters. There are probably some folks who aren't blocked vegetarians--like I can totally see George W. Bush gleefully meeting the eyes of a cow, w/full knowledge & awareness, & then holding a pistol to its head & shooting it point blank. And then anointing himself w/the gore, or something. But again, it makes sense to act like this is not true. Otherwise being around meat-eaters can get pretty stressful.

I also liked the recipes in the back of the book; I've tried some of them before & enjoyed them, & there are a few more that caught my eye this time.

Graceful Simplicity: The Philosophy and Politics of the Alternative American Dream - Jerome M. Segal. The premise of this book is interesting: that too many books on simple living focus on the individual--what you can do to reduce consumption in your own life--w/o taking into account the need for a political change in the way we, as a society, look at working hours, vacation, necessities, etc.

Unfortunately, I found this book really dull to read. There's a lot of recapping of what various philosophers, like Aristotle, thought about money & work. Mostly I found that stuff boring. There's also a lot of discussion about ways for Americans to reduce the work week on a large scale--not just for the lucky few who can negotiate a part-time deal w/their current employer, etc. Anyway, good ideas, worthy of pondering, but this book was so hard to get through. Yawn.

The Great American Detox Diet - Alex Jamieson. Vegan chef Jamieson is the partner of Morgan Spurlock, he of Super Size Me fame. She took over Spurlock's diet after he became severely ill doing his 30-day McDonald's-only experiment. Her book runs along the same lines; it's nothing that I haven't heard before, but I do like reading about how to eat healthy & stuff. It's accessible & fairly simple, & probably will be useful for folks thinking about this stuff for the first time. There are a lot of yummy-looking recipes in the back too.

I had two small complaints. One: she talks about how important it is to drink lots of water, & that the 8-10 glasses a day idea is a good one, but she never clarifies how big a "glass" is. 8 ounces? 16? More? Two: she talks about a quick way to get a vague idea (not a definitive diagnosis, she's clear on that) on whether or not you're sensitive to certain grains. She says to eat a small bowl of the grain first thing in the morning. Plain, no condiments, & before you even drink anything like coffee or tea. Then you're supposed to monitor yourself for a few hours. Do you feel tired? Foggy? Have a headache? If so, you might be sensitive to the grain. Except I kind of think if you take a typical caffeine addict & keep them from their drug in the morning, they'll feel tired & have a headache. There ought to only be one independent variable, thanks.
furyofvissarion: (Default)
2007-09-22 03:51 pm

(no subject)

The Emotional Lives of Animals - Marc Bekoff. ExpandRead more... )

Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World - Bob Torres and Jenna Torres. ExpandRead more... )

The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient - Sheridan Prasso. ExpandRead more... )

Tantalize - Cynthia Leitich Smith. ExpandRead more... )

Name Me Nobody - Lois-Ann Yamanaka. ExpandRead more... )

Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back - Michele Simon. ExpandRead more... )

Heads by Harry - Lois-Ann Yamanaka. ExpandRead more... )

The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind - Ken Foster. ExpandRead more... )