44. Jeniffer 8. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food

A pop non-fiction book covering pretty much every possible topic related to Chinese food in America. There are chapters on the origins of American-Chinese dishes (fortune cookies, chop suey, General Tso's chicken), a history of Chinese immigration to America, the risks taken by deliverymen (including a horrifying story of a deliveryman who got trapped in an elevator for several days, which I took the opportunity to retell when I was briefly stuck in an elevator myself last week, possibly terrifying the people stuck with me), the story of a family who buys a Chinese restaurant, people who have won the lottery using numbers from fortune cookies, and others. I think my favorite chapter was the one where Lee sets out to find the best Chinese restaurant in the world, outside of China itself.

Overall, this is a light, fun read. I have no idea how the book actually originated, but it reads a lot like Lee (who is a journalist) found some vaguely-related articles and reworked them into a book. Which is not necessarily a flaw; it makes for a very breezy book, which is sometimes what I'm in the mood for.

I may have Nisioisin’s name wrong. I’ve seen it several ways, but this is how the footnotes and “about the author” in the book present it.

Anotherholic is three novellas based on the popular manga by Clamp. It relies on only the simplest understanding of the manga’s plot-a high school student named Watanuki sees and is harassed by ghosts, and makes a deal with the dimension witch, Yuuko, that she will eventually free him of this if he works in her shop, which is dedicated to granting wishes for a price, only to find himself frequently involved with her clients and other supernatural events-and contains no spoilers for the manga. Yuuko and Watanuki are the only manga characters to appear in the novellas, though series regulars Doumeki and Himawari are mentioned.

Two of the novellas are pretty normal “customer” plots-a girl who receives text messages from her dead friend every day, at the exact time of day that her friend died, and a woman obsessed with breaking social taboos, to her own detriment-and the third is something of a “why things happen and the nature of this supernatural element” plot. As plots, there good, but Nisioisin tries to mimic the manga’s style and capture the otherworldly feel, rather than writing it his (?) own way. Unfortunately, much of what makes xxxHolic work the way it does is Clamp’s layouts and imagery, and that can’t really be duplicated in prose. Speaking of the art, there are several stunning spreads as chapter pages. Including one of Watanuki in a dramatic, somewhat gothic pose. Holding an eyeball.

Set shortly after Cast in Shadow, the humans of Elantra trust the telepathic Tha’alani even less than they did before. Concerned by increased violence to the Tha’alani, the emperor orders the royal playwright to write a play designed to make the humans more comfortable with them. Having more experience than anyone else with the Tha’alani, Kaylin and Severn are assigned to be his consultants. Meanwhile, their Leontine commander, Marcus, is accused of murder (committed in public, no less) and has been jailed. Marcus and his wives are also essentially Kaylin’s foster parents, and Marcus’s replacement is too by-the-books for anyone’s comfort.

The book starts out heavily focused on the Tha’alani plot, then shifts focus almost entirely to the Leontine plot. Part of me thinks it’s because there are more women for Kaylin to interact with there (and kudos to Sagara for depicting a polygamist society that doesn’t make me want to hate all men, as tends to happen with me and polygamy in fiction), but also because the Leontine plot is introduced and wrapped up here, whereas I suspect the Tha’alani plot will continue for some time. Unlike previous books in the series, I doubt Cast in Fury would be accessible at all for new readers, as much of it is heavily based on previous books.

Other people have complained in the past about Kaylin’s thickheadedness in needing to have things explained to her at times, but that’s never bothered me much, as it’s primarily been Sagara’s way of cluing the reader in to what’s up with the various societies and histories. It’s a narrative necessity, and explanations to the lead are way better than five pages of infodumping. This book is an exception, as it’s Leontine society being explained to Kaylin, and that’s something she should be familiar with. On the other hand, she gets to explain the Tha’alani to someone in a similar way, which was a nice bit of payback.

The already-backburnered romantic plotline is almost completely nonexistent here, which is fine with me, but may be less so for others. We also learn more about the “magic tattoos” on Kaylin’s body, and get hints about her eventual destiny.

One day, I really should read more of the Luna line, as all I’ve read so far are these and Mercedes Lackey’s first two fairy tale books for the line.

43. Rich Benjamin, Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America

A pop non-fiction book about what the author calls "whitopias": fast-growing, often exurban or rural, conservative, majority white (usually over 90%) communities. Such whitopias are becoming more common, he argues, and many of them are some of the fastest growing areas in the country. Against this backdrop, Rich Benjamin (a black guy) decided to try living in three such communities (St. George, Utah; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and Forsyth County, Georgia) and researching many more (including Carnegie Hill, in Manhattan and only a short walk from my own apartment, though that's a walk that covers a lot of change) to see what they're like, and what kind of people choose to live in them. These aren't sundown towns- obviously, since Benjamin managed to find places to rent in them- but are more like an extreme example of white flight. I picked this book up because I've been reading a lot of books about PoC communities, and I thought it would be interesting to get a black perspective on white communities.

I really enjoyed this book, perhaps because I'd read James Loewen's Sundown Towns over the summer, and Searching for Whitopia is the perfect follow-up to that (Sundown Towns is an absolutely amazing book, and I encourage everyone to read it. It is very worth its enormous length and many footnotes, though, the author being white, it will not count as one of your 50books_poc books). And Searching for Whitopia really is an update; it manages to include research from 2009 and I always think it's very impressive when someone can manage to get a book from the writing-stage to the in-bookstores-stage that quickly. And that recent information is particularly impressive because Benjamin covers a lot of topics, from Latino/a immigration, to the history of the conservative movement in American politics, to the New Urbanism city planning philosophy. Benjamin approaches his topics with a light touch, in particular giving way more of the benefit of the doubt to the people he interviews from whitopias than I would have. He even gives several pages to defining the difference between interpersonal racism and structural racism, a distinction which most people reading this community probably don't need help with. Because of that, though, I think this book would make an awesome gift to someone who's not that knowledgable about these issues; Benjamin is very careful to not offend, and there's things to interest people who wouldn't normally pick up this sort of book, including an entire chapter on golf.

So, a book which doesn't have much in-depth information, but has good, up-to-date information on a variety of topics, which is fun and easy to read: overall, pretty nice!

17. Monique Poirier, "Concerning the Ars Mechanica".

In a nutshell: steampunk erotica about a gay automaton.

The link above is only good for today: circletpress is doing an erotic story Advent calendar right now, with each story posted from midnight to midnight. (Pacific time zone? Not sure.) For after that link stops working: "Concerning the Ars Mechanica" is collected in the anthology Like Clockwork.

Erotica is hard to review meaningfully -- either a story hits your personal kink, or it doesn't -- but I will say that I feel frustrated that this is "just" erotica. Haider is too meaty interesting a character, in too toothy a scenario, for me to be content with the story ending where it does. (There are betrayals to be dealt with! Cultureshock to be explored! Political and social identities to be developed! I suppose I shall just have to continue to wait for the steampunk novel she's working on.)

FYI, there's one more story of Monique's that's supposed to go up during Circlet's Advent Calendar: "The Goose Boy." I'm going to be traveling during part of the countdown and may miss it, so don't count on me to catch and post the link.

Poll #1497396 Best Thing Ever, cont.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 124

Write-in ballot

I give you: THE END.

Poll #1497394 Super-Special Awesome Grânde Finalé
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 492

How best is: Free Will?

View Answers
Mean: 7.99 Median: 8 Std. Dev 2.18

1	15 (3.1%)
2	3 (0.6%)
3	7 (1.4%)
4	10 (2.0%)
5	32 (6.5%)
6	19 (3.9%)
7	71 (14.5%)
8	91 (18.6%)
9	83 (17.0%)
10	158 (32.3%)

How best is: Oxygen?

View Answers
Mean: 7.00 Median: 8 Std. Dev 2.32

1	23 (4.7%)
2	11 (2.2%)
3	19 (3.9%)
4	13 (2.7%)
5	56 (11.5%)
6	41 (8.4%)
7	63 (12.9%)
8	67 (13.7%)
9	196 (40.1%)

How best is: Being Warm and Happy and in the Company of Friends?

View Answers
Mean: 8.56 Median: 9 Std. Dev 1.59

1	3 (0.6%)
2	1 (0.2%)
3	0 (0.0%)
4	5 (1.0%)
5	12 (2.5%)
6	22 (4.5%)
7	69 (14.2%)
8	95 (19.5%)
9	90 (18.5%)
10	189 (38.9%)

How best is: Several Lifetimes and a Capable Vessel In Which To Explore the Incalculable Vastness of the Universe, Discovering and Unraveling Its Wondrous Secrets?

View Answers
Mean: 8.35 Median: 9 Std. Dev 2.20

1	9 (1.8%)
2	5 (1.0%)
3	10 (2.1%)
4	15 (3.1%)
5	19 (3.9%)
6	29 (6.0%)
7	40 (8.2%)
8	55 (11.3%)
9	82 (16.8%)
10	223 (45.8%)

How best is: True Love?

View Answers
Mean: 8.45 Median: 9 Std. Dev 2.06

1	10 (2.0%)
2	4 (0.8%)
3	7 (1.4%)
4	8 (1.6%)
5	17 (3.5%)
6	27 (5.5%)
7	37 (7.6%)
8	72 (14.7%)
9	93 (19.0%)
10	215 (43.9%)

Results binding.