Books for August

[oyceter]

Hrm, since I usually write things up on my LJ, I figure I will try to do compilation posts here each month. Also, I'll link my manga write ups here as well, though I won't be counting those toward my own 50 books (partly out of embarrassment of my total manga tally each year...).

1. Chu, Carl - Chinese Food Finder: The Bay Area and San Francisco
   I am generally leery of English-language write-ups of Chinese food; in my experience, they tend to portray Chinese food as something exotic and foreign at worst and as something non-normative at best. More importantly, the Chinese food that they talk about is not my Chinese food, which is normal, everyday and comfortingly familiar. Also, either I can't figure out what the books are talking about because the names are funny transliterated English (ex. "Dragon Phoenix Soup") that make sense in Chinese but not really in English or because they're talking about stuff that I don't eat very often (ex. banquet food from the seventies). (more)



2. Zia, Helen - Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
   Contrary to expectation, this is not actually a history of Asian Americans. For that, I would grab Ronald Takaki's Strangers from a Different Shore. Instead, this is a history of the politicization of Asian Americans as a group and the formation of an "Asian-American" identity, as opposed to many separate groups (Chinese Americans, Cambodian Americans, Thai Americans, etc.). (more)

Manga

• Yoshinaga Fumi - Antique Bakery, vol. 01-04 (Eng. trans.) - Fun food porn!



• Yumeji Kiriko and Ubukata Tou - Le Chevalier d'Eon, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.) (minor spoilers for premise) - FREAKING INSANE!



• Ogawa Yayoi - Tramps Like Us, vol. 11-12 (Eng. trans.) (spoilers)



• Tateno Makoto - Yellow, vol. 01-04 (Eng. trans.) (minor spoilers at the end) - better than anticipated, but still had a lot of yaoi tropes I dislike



• Urushibara Yuki - Mushishi, vol. 02 (Eng. trans.) - continues to be one of my favorite new series



• CLAMP - xxxHolic, ch. 135-143 (HUGE SPOILERS!)



• CLAMP - Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, ch. 156-164 (HUGE SPOILERS!)

Comments

[decarnin.livejournal.com]

Really liked your restaurant book review! And recced it to a friend in the Bay Area. I was going to say I wish you had put the "more" cut directly onto the 50-books page, but it turned out I was really glad to be able to read the comments and your replies on your own LJ. Fascinating. I live in LA but can't go out, because of a disability currently. If I get better I will look for his guidebook!

[oyceter]

Yeah, I'm still wavering on whether or not I should just link or repost, largely because I am an organizational freak and like having all comments in one place!

His guidebook is great reading, even if you can't make it to the restaurants. I think the best part for me was learning about various regional cuisines!