Asia | Reading Backwards book reviews

Samurai Swords By Clive Sinclaire Read: May 2010 Ratings: Pleasurable My senior thesis was a story rooted in Japanese mythology surrounding sword smithing. I spent years working on this thing, and have done a lot of research. Of course, I wasn’t able to lay my hands on anything really useful in the months leading up to my [...] Full Story	The Photographer By Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, Frédéric Lemercier Read: October 2009 Rating: Wow There’s no other word for it than, “Wow.” Every few pages, there it is again–Wow. Didier Lefèvre was a photographer, who became involved with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In 1986, he accepted an assignment to enter Afghanistan with an MSF mission, [...] Full Story	The Blue Lotus By Hergé Read: September 2009 Rating: This was the very first Tintin book I ever got my hands on. So there’s nostalgic attachment to it. Published in 1936, the squabbling countries make speeches to… The League of Nations! Funnily enough, there’s not mention of communism, at all. But I suppose that wasn’t so much on [...] Full Story
The Cigars of the Pharoah By Hergé Read: September 2009 Rating: Transitional One can definitely feel the transitional quality of this volume. It FEELS like a Tintin book, but the story is quite choppy, and for good reason–originally, it was running as a serial. There is a consistent story arc, but it’s not like later books where everything is geared [...] Full Story	Dreamless By Sarah Ellerton (art) and Bobby Crosby (writing) Read: May 2009, ongoing Rating: Wow Read it at: http://dreamless.keenspot.com/ Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother reviewing a comic that only has about a dozen pages, but my dearest Sreyaduck has been begging me to read this one. You should as well. The art is beyond fantastic. Each panel [...] Full Story	Megatokyo by Fred Gallagher Read: Continuously, reread May 2009 Rating: Brills Get sucked in: http://www.megatokyo.com/ If you’ve been reading webcomics for any period of time and haven’t come across Megatokyo you’re not surfing the right comics. Ever seen the Sad Girl In Snow trope? This is where it was born. Megatokyo is a lot of things, [...] Full Story
Red String By Gina Biggs Read: Continuously, reread April ’09 Rating: Squee Read at http://redstring.strawberrycomics.com/ I’ve been reading Red String for quite a while. The concept piqued my interest right away. Old Japanese myth/folktale says that true lovers are connected by a red string. Miharu wants to believe in true love, but her parents have arranged a [...] Full Story	Peony In Love By Lisa See Read: January 2009 Rating: Lovely Set in China during a time of transition, the novel is a story of love, and voice. Peony Definitely an improvement over Snow Flower, in that the language doesn’t have as many weak spots, and the historical fact conveyed is much, much smoother. Oddly enough, the voice [...] Full Story	The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe Read: May/June 2008 Rating: UGH This was recommended to me for my senior capstone project. I dutifully made it to the end, but gawd was it painful. Exemplifies all that I hate in a certain kind of writing, usually seen in short stories. Only this was longer. Unjustifiably so, in my opinion. [...] Full Story
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan By Lisa See Read: January 2009 Rating: Absorbing This is a book I wanted to get my hands on quite a while ago. I found it, and a sister book, Peony in Love, at the Princeton Library sale. Two girls, matched in age, names, sizes, and signs, form a friendship through a traditional contract. This [...] Full Story	The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon Translated by Ivan Morris Read: November 2008 Rating: Most delightful. I think I like Sei Shonagon herself more than I like her writing. She’s a fantastic character in and of herself–willful, witty, clever, eager to entertain, proud, and quick to judge. All of this comes across through her own recounts of her days, which are [...] Full Story	The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro By Alison Fell Read: July 2008 Rating: Humn. I bought this one for $1 at Strand, and so I can’t complain about the price. I was pretty pleased with it at first, titillated on my train ride home, but I stopped about midway through for some reason with the intention of picking it up again [...] Full Story
Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden Read: high school, January 2008 Rating: Lovely A lot has been said about MoaG, so I’m not going to give it a huge, thorough review. What I am going to say is that it is wonderful. The settings are thorough. The culture feels alive and natural. You sympathize with the characters and [...] Full Story	The Temeraire Series (Books 1-3) By Naomi Novik Read: September 2006 Rating: Faboo!! Every so often, the grocery store rewards my endless browsing with a shiny pearl. This is some of the coolest stuff you could ever present to me: Historical novel. With dragons. !!!!! of JOY! Some of the only ”traveling” books I have ever liked! And you know [...] Full Story	Spring Moon By Bette Bao Lord Read: August 2006 Rating: Honorable Strand Books has stands outside their stores with lots and LOTS of carts housing $1 books. Last time I visited I skipped them and went straight for the “5 for $2″ paperbacks. (Yum.) In amongst the really trashy romance and outdated guides to New York restaurants [...] Full Story
The Twentieth Wife By Indu Sundaresan Read: August 2006 Rating: Lackluster. I love historical fiction. I love romance. And I love Philippa Gregory, despite not always liking what her characters do. So I should be able to get through a book like this, right? I’m still barely a quarter of the way through, and I’m putting it down. [...] Full Story	A Great And Terrible Beauty These books are huge. Undeniably huge. This is my most popular post, and I am just as excited as everyone else for The Sweet Far Thing (Book #3!) to be released on December 26th. I’ve pre-ordered as an Xmas gift for my mom. A film is also in production, and you can get more info [...] Full Story	Queen of the Amazons By Judith Tarr Rating: Ixcelsiooor! Read: June 2006 This one came from Strand Books, my beloved second-hand goldmine. The description was interesting, the cover art is gorgeous (her neck piece looks like mother of pearl) and the story is well-told and thoroughly unusual. Very good. Full Story
Idoru By William Gibson Don’t send the nanotech after me! Amazon.com Rating: Evasive. Read: Freshman year (00-01), reread march 05 There are two people who may be upset that I did not enjoy Idoru, but I’m afraid I have to be honest. I found Idoru to be scatter-brained and evasive. I’ve never been a fan of [...] Full Story	Amazing Agent Luna Story by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir & Art by Shiei Read a sample online: Amazing Agent Luna Rating: Fun. Read: Tonight! NOTE: Amazing Agent Luna is manga- a graphic novel, rather than prose. This has all the makings of a really enjoyeable shoujo series. The characters are well-defined, the art is fantastic, and the [...] Full Story