Fiction with older female protagonists (a theme which gives me life) Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid - on aging and still pushing yourself to win, but also accept loss with grace All Adults Here by Emma Straub - older mom sees friend die, goes through past parenting mistakes, has girlfriend now The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - a pirate who’s also an older woman…
I read a lot of books in 2022, and a high percentage of them were truly excellent! What a great year for reading! Books related to trauma and abuse Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott - This gutted me. A Baba Yaga inspired fantasy novel about 3G pogrom survivors. Before All The World by Moriel Rothman-Zecher - This too. A brutal pogrom/diaspora book, the language is stunning, the stories are…
Scifi/Fantasy I loved reading in 2021 The Scholomance (series) by Naomi Novik - Magical boarding school books, but extra horrifying and dark and well done. Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan - Easily the best Star Trek novel I’ve ever read (and I’ve read plenty), with lots of interesting linguistics/cultural nuance. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho - My favorite novel of hers so far. Queer Malay Chinese…
For easy reference, I’ve compiled a recipe index for the manga What did you eat yesterday?
Books I loved reading in 2020 which had a strong sense of place Meddling and Murder: an Aunty Lee Mystery by Ovidia Yu - Murder mystery solved by a Singaporean aunty who runs a restaurant. Very foodie, very cute. Latest book in a series I love. Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap - Thai short stories. Reading these made me feel ridiculous about my tourism. Excellent. The City We Became by N.K.…
Whoops, better get my 2019 list out before 2020 ends… Books I loved reading in 2019 that related to Judaism The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman - A murder mystery that takes place in a mikvah! The Chosen by Chaim Potok The Promise by Chaim Potok Serieseseseses I loved reading in 2019 The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch - Fun, light, junk-food fantasy novels about a black (dark skinned, not…
Sorry for the delay! I’m just barely slipping this in before I have to start working on my 2019 list, whoops! Series[eseseseses...] I loved reading in 2018 Prisoners of Peace by Erin Bow - Children of world leaders are raised as hostages by an AI to ensure world peace. Obviously war and rebellion come. (For Molly: there’s at least one scene I’d tag with #entrailsfromchandeliers for you.) The Craft…
This is the latest I’ve ever put out my best-books-of-the-year post! Sorry for the delay, folks. But I think the books I’m recommending here are worth the wait. Books I loved reading in 2017 that portrayed a very real NYC New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson - This is exactly what I needed - really captures the spirit of my hometown, kinda financy, dealing with climate change head on, but…
I read a lot of amazing books this year, but looking back it seems that most of them were very dark and emotionally difficult. I recommend them nonetheless. (Actually, I read so many good books last year that this list doesn’t contain all of them! I had to trim it down to the best of the best to keep it manageably short.) In 2016, I discovered Will McIntosh... Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh -…
As I was saying, I spent about 3 weeks alone in Chiang Mai, Thailand last December. I just posted my sketches from the previous week in Singapore , and now here are the Thailand sketches! Honestly they're mostly a bunch of wats. Wat Khuan Khama (near some of the best khao soi in town, Khao Soi Khun Yai) Wat Fa Ham (near the other best khao soi in town, Khao Soi Lam Duan) I got around mostly by…