Some Books I Loved

**Simply put, one of the finest works of fiction ever written.  Not just science fiction, but fiction period.  Written by a master who was decades ahead of her time** Fire and fear, good servants, bad lords. The year was 1969.  Science fiction, though exiting the "Golden Age" and entering the "New Wave", was still largely dominated by male authors writing for male readers.  Although the industry had somewhat moved past the raygun adventures with sexy alien babes of the 50s, it was still very much a boy's club.  While much was made of science fiction "maturing" as a genre, in practice that still basically meant adventures with author-insert characters, and the "maturity" was just adding in sex and drugs (not to say that it was a complete desert, of course.  I think the work of some guys like Bradbury and Vonnegut still hold up very well.  But they were few and far between) Anyways, into this walked Le Guin, writing a novel about a cisgendered ...

Pride Month!  I've said it before, I've said it again, but science fiction in particular has always  been fantastically queer.  Fantasy as well, but scifi in particular.  Because science fiction has always been about asking society, "what if?"  A lot of authors throughout history have asked, "what if we weren't so closed-minded?" and they've often had some really great answers to that question Here are some books I've loved in the past! * * * "The Space Between Worlds" by Micaiah Johnson (2020) **This is why I read scifi.  A cutting social commentary, but wrapped in a fun tech setting with thriller-paced plotting** "More Happy Than Not" by Adam Silvera (2015) **Not just one of the most heart-rendingly good queer coming-of-age books I've ever read, but one of the best coming-of-age books I've ever read, period** "How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures" by Sabrina Imbler (nonfiction; 2022) **A s...

 **A perfect, magical Coming of Age story.  One of the best I've ever read** There are some stories that tell you about a young person who believes in magic.  There are some stories that make you remember what it was like to be young and believe in magic.  And then there are some stories that make you believe in magic again, if only for the time you're reading them.  This is one of those “Those stories come from a time when the night is black. Only darkness. And in the darkness, a princess lives in a castle in the sky. The princess very lonely, so she whisper stories to the night. And those stories become stars.” "When You Trap a Tiger" is a truly wonderful book.  It's technically a kid's book, "middle grade" (intended for kids 8-12).  But it absolutely transcends its genre and is simply one of the most gorgeous books I've read I suppose that's not too uncommon.  To copy in what I've said before, The Newberry Medal is, in my experience, o...

 **The author himself admits that this started out as a simple retelling of Aladdin, but then quickly got out of hand . . . don't you care close your eyes* I learned that even the “original” Arabian Nights Aladdin was a last-minute anthology insertion by a French collector based on a folktale he’d heard from a Syrian Christian storyteller, set in a generic China that was somehow also Muslim and Arab and featured a villain from generic Africa. And then I rewatched the animated film set in Hollywood exotic Arabia featuring classic American cinema/pop-culture references. And I knew that some day I needed to give this roaming orientalist classic yet another temporary residence to call its own. So this book started out as a retelling, a new house for a fable that I could see was tired and lost, but then the place I set the new story in, and the people who lived there, started demanding to be let in. This book is what happened after they took over and invited their friends. I think it st...

 **A powerful and important story about race relations in the United States** Ok.  To start with, you need to know the story of Latasha Harlins, a story that is known by far too few people: In March of 1991, just 13 days after footage of Rodney King's beating was released, a Korean corner store owner thought that 15-year-old Harlins was shoplifting a bottle of orange juice.  There was a scuffle, in which Harlins struck the shopkeeper.  As Harlins was walking away (the orange juice left behind), the shopkeeper fired one shot, perhaps on accident (in the trial, it was revealed that the handgun had been illegally modified to have a lighter trigger), hitting Harlins in the back of the head and killing her instantly.  When the cops arrived, they found $2, the money to pay for the orange juice, in her hand The store owner was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years, but the sentence was suspended.  In the end, she was placed on probation for...

 **Simple put, a modern masterwork that's still being written.  Some of the most wonderful 'stories about stories' you'll ever read** This is actually the first time for this blog that I've reviewed two works by the same author (I reviewed "Siren Queen" as one of the inaugural posts!).  It's fitting that it's Nghi Vo, who is arguably my absolute favorite modern author.  And well, simply put, I've had this blog for too long without talking about The Singing Hills.  As we start off Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month, it's time to change that The Signing Hills Cycle is a series of novellas, each one more or less standalone.  While it makes sense to jump in with the first one as it was written with the assumption that the reader would be coming in cold, you really could pick up any of them.  The only constant throughout the novel is the main character, Chih, a cleric from the Singing Hills Monastery (although they are almost alw...