#35: Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The second book in Marjorie Liu’s series about Maxine Kiss, the latest in a long line of hereditary demon hunters, features Maxine’s boyfriend, a former priest, being targeted for his own (mostly unknown to him) mythic heritage. Unfortunately, while I quite like Grant, I’m less interested in him and his past than I am in the Kiss women and their history. Really, I’d be happy if the books were divided between Maxine learning about the “real” mythology of her world and flashbacks to her ancestors.

Also, I can’t help but notice certain similarities to Buffy. I mean, the entire setup is a woman who is the chosen demon hunter of her generation, who comes into her powers when the previous hunter (in this case, her mother) dies. And then there’s the fact that “zombies” are demons inhabiting human bodies, and there’s an organization of men who having been watching the hunters for centuries. Mind you, positive Buffy comparisons are never a bad thing. Well, the first five seasons, at least.

There’s also the “exotic setting” of Shanghai which…seems to be there as an exotic setting. It doesn’t really contribute anything to the plot. That is, it could have been set anywhere. Which is odd, because even when the various setting in the “Dirk & Steele” book don’t feel “right,” Liu tends to at least try to do something with them besides provide window dressing, and the glimpses here into other worlds and dimensions prove that she can make different settings interesting.

However, the focus on Grant and his mythic heritage is far from a bad thing, it’s just less interesting to me than Maxine’s mythic heritage, and every tidbit dropped about past Kiss women making me want more of them, and less of anything else.

#11-20

[oyceter]

Still really behind in posting...

11. Cunningham, Michael, and George Alexander - Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair
    Like Cunningham's Crowns (same photographer, different interviewer), this is a a gorgeous book of photography coupled with personal interviews, only this time, it is on... hair! Yes, Actual Black Women (tm) talking about their Actual Hair (tm)! Hopefully those tormented by curiosity about the subject will at least read this instead of springing unwelcome questions on random Black women. (more)


12. Shah, Sonia - The Body Hunters: Testing New Drugs on the World's Poorest Patients
    Shah's book focuses less on reproductive health and more on Big Pharma and the drug testing industry. She goes through recent history, from the rise of testing with the Salk vaccine to the Nazi and WWII-Japanese experiments on human subject to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study to testing nowadays in "third-world" countries. (more)


13. Evaristo, Bernardine - Blonde Roots
    I don't think the concept entirely succeeds, but honestly, this is the best version of the black/white flip that I've seen, and I say that as someone who is not sure the concept will ever entirely succeed (not because of authorial skill, but just because of how difficult it is to Other the familiar and the multiple levels and complications that have to be addressed to not simplify things or to make it so "Oh, anyone can be racist!"). It's a very impressive reconstruction of the institutions of slavery, not just story of one slave. (more)


14. Venkatraman, Padma - Climbing the Stairs
    Vidya is fifteen and dreams of going to college, but she's afraid she'll be married off. But soon, tragedy strikes as her father becomes more and more involved with the Indian independence movement, and she and her family are sent off to live with her paternal grandfather. There, the women are separated from the men, and Vidya's life is so limited that the only freedom she can find is in the library upstairs. And life gets even more complicated as Britain calls on Indian volunteers to help fight the Axis powers. (more)


15. Ly, Many - Home Is East
    This is the first book by the author of Roots and Wings, which I liked a lot.
    
    As with her latter book, this is the story of a Cambodian-American girl and her relationship with her parent. Only this time, it's her father. Amy grew up in St. Petersburg, Floria, among a fairly substantial Cambodian community, but when her mother leaves Amy and her father, the two of them move to San Diego to make a new start. (more)


16. Patel, Raj - Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
    Patel touches on a huge number of topics, from the rise of soy in everything we eat to high-fructose corn syrup to how big agricultural companies use genetically modified crops to control small farmers. But the central threads through the book are Patel's critique of the system that rewards big agricultural companies and the middlemen between farmers and consumers, how they are privileged over farmers and consumers, and his understanding of how this works globally. I find the last bit most helpful; Patel doesn't just look at the UK and the US, but focuses a lot on the Global South*. He also makes an effort to focus not just on the "big" players, but also on grassroots organizations and farmers themselves. Highly recommended. (more)


17. Kibuishi, Kazu - Amulet: The Stonekeeper
    After her father dies in a car accident, Emily, her mom, and her younger brother Navin move to their great-grandfather's house in a quiet neighborhood. The house itself is creaky and needs a lot of work, and while they're cleaning, Emily discovers an amulet. Soon, her mom is kidnapped by a tentacly monster thing, and she and Navin head to the world underneath the house to rescue their mother. (more)


18. Singh, Nalini - Angel's Blood
    The book has many of the same flaws that her Psy-Changeling series does: the prose isn't great, the men are too alpha for me, and overall I could use less serial killers/vamps gone bad/supernatural beings gone bad in romances, but the worldbuliding is even crazier! This, by the way, is a feature, not a bug. (more)


19. Smith, Sherri L. - Flygirl
    Ida Mae Jones wants to fly. She learned with her dad on his crop duster, but there are two strikes against her when it comes to getting her pilot's license: she's black, and she's female. Soon, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, and Ida Mae finds out about the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots), who deliver airplanes for the Army, test-fly planes, or any other non-combative flying jobs the Army needs done. But even though the WASP is for women, it's for white women. So Ida Mae decides to pass. (more)


20. Nakamura, Lisa - Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet
    Nakamura comes from a background in visual studies, and this book is less ethnographic and far more culture-focused. She analyzes the portrayal of race in works that affect how we think about the Internet, such as the fun times of Asian landscapes and languages without the actual people in Gibson's Neuromancer and Bladerunner and how later on, we get more mixed-race Asian protagonists (Matrix, Snow Crash). I very much liked her reading of the Matrix, particularly of Agent Smith as white male kyriarchy, but can't comment much on the others, as I only vaguely remember the Gibson and Bladerunner and have never read Stephenson. (more)

16. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

[sumofparts.livejournal.com]

The book is a collection of connected short stories about a group of Canadian doctors in the times before, during and after medical school. I thought the author did an excellent job showing the human side in the practice of medicine. No, scratch that. It's more showing the side that we normally don't see - the frustration, emotional turmoil, stress and indifference -- and it's glorious. There was a lot of variation in theme and writing style to suit the stories. I don't watch a lot of the medical dramas but I imagine some of these topics are explored in mass media. Still, I felt that even if they're not new, they're written in a compelling way. There were stories touching on interracial relationships, on what it means to be a good doctor, on being ethical and honest towards patients and their families, on where the obligation of being a doctor begins and ends. I really loved the book and I highly recommend it.