jinian | September 2007 books

Maledicte, Lane Robins. A maybe from

coffeeandink, still a maybe after finishing it.

The New Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Stories: From Crumb to Clowes, ed. Bob Callahan. Wim's. The editor did a good job of choosing stand-alone stories. I still don't care for Chris Ware much. Author/artist sex breakdown: Women: 5; Men: 40 counting repeats, 37 not. (Ratio similar for afterword recs.) Not enough data for race breakdown: Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez, Art Spiegelman, Lynda Barry appear. Several more of the comics were centered on girls and women even though they were made by men, which was nice to see and makes me think the anthology's imbalance is at least somewhat due to publication numbers beyond its control.

Armageddon Summer, Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville. Decent YA about no actual armageddon.

Marvelous World: Book One: The Marvelous Effect, Troy Cle.

50books_poc #2. http://community.livejournal.com/50books_poc/4713.html

The Quiet Invasion, Sarah Zettel. I like Zettel, especially the aliens, and this was pretty good despite kinda boring politics.

Unless, Carol Shields. From my mom. Plenty of fine feminist anger woven into an introspective mainstream novel.

Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer. From

gwyneira. Really good time-travel body-swap YA. The poignancy of knowing the person you're pretending to be is either old or dead by the time you live actually works here, and the First World War in England is a creepy time to be in.

Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl. Thank you,

rushthatspeaks! This was great.

Crystal Rain & Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell.

50books_poc #3-4. I read Crystal Rain first and liked it much better. Ragamuffin felt like belaboring the points I'd already managed to infer, while telling a story I was less interested in. Sometimes reading out of order works; sometimes not.

Rethinking Thin, Gina Kolata. From

firecat. A good summary of weight-loss research that nonetheless misses several fundamental ways in which studies and the idea of weight loss are questionable. The most obvious is, of course, that BMI is a very poor measure of body fat or health, but she also falls into the trap of thinking that the process of weight loss increases health, despite having earlier in the book mentioned that improving diet and exercise increases health regardless.

Daughters of Earth, ed. Justine Larbalestier. Book Finishing Project. See also http://calico-reaction.livejournal.com/43871.html.

Virtual Girl, Amy Thomson. This first novel has some of the Thomson nature, but either it wasn't fully developed or it got edited away somewhat. Worth reading for a fan (which I hope more people will become!).

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy, ed. Nalo Hopkinson & Uppinder Mehan.

50books_poc #5. Some excellent stories that adjusted my brain.

Freak Show, James St. James. How to handle being an incredibly fabulous drag queen when transplanted into a repulsively normal high school? Flame on! They'll get used to it! (Kind of a rough read in parts, even for me, and I had no problems with bullying.)

Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies, Pija Lindenbaum. Very strange picture book that is just what it sounds like. Else-Marie is embarrassed about her nonstandard family config, but her friends think the little daddies (all identical and 1950s-gender-performative) are rad.

Dixieland Sushi, Cara Lockwood. From

oyceter. Cute fluffy

50books_poc #6. (HALF Asian again. At least the author is too.)

The Secret City, Carol Emshwiller. Great story about aliens stranded on Earth and their divided opinions on what should happen next.

The Fox, Sherwood Smith. Sequel to Inda YAY!

Numbers Don't Lie, Terry Bisson. Three Wilson Wu stories, two of which I'd already read. Amusing as always.

~~The Woman and the Ape, Peter Hoeg~~. Couldn't get into it; not trying very hard these days.

45 Fine and Fanciful Hats to Knit, Anna Zilboorg. My knitting life is revolving around a baby sweater at present, but some of these patterns have great colorwork and fun shapes.

Antique Bakery v2-4 (end), Fumi Yoshinaga. I enjoyed these, though the later volumes don't achieve the incredible appeal of the first.
Hellsing v2-3, Kohta Hirano.
One! Hundred! Demons!, Lynda Barry.

50books_poc #7. http://community.livejournal.com/50books_poc/7961.html
Yoroshiku Master, Sakura Tsukuba. Three chapters plus "Sweet Bite Mark" -- all fang-rottingly adorable.
Yume no Shiro, Masami Tsuda. Three short fantasy stories of consummate sweetness from the Kare Kano artist.