Read in '07

Submitted by diaskeaus on Tue, 01/09/2007 - 07:11
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  1. 1.1.07 - Teahouse, by Lao She: One teahouse owner in Beijing struggles throughout China's rough revolutionary times in the 20th century. 4.0
  2. 1.31.07 - Japanese Lessons, by Gail Benjamin: A cultural anthropology on the Japanese school system from kindergarten through high school, told in an accessible style of personal stories, mini-essays on topics in Japanese culture, and a transformative narrative from rebellion to acceptance of the rigid but equally as flexible education system as the author herself goes through the trials of being a mother of two students in the unique and methodical learning environment. 4.5
  3. 2.01.07 - The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang: A biting and eye-opening account of the brutalities the Japanese occupying army visited upon the citizens of Nanjing in 1937, massacring an estimated 300,000 people in three months, as well as bringing to light criticism the invaders received from the world, and the effort the world at large went through to shield the rape from history, glitteringly wrought under Chang's incensed voice and passion. 4.5
  4. 2.06.07 - In the Night Garden, by Catherynne Valente: A multi-path narrative focusing on a stripling prince who adopts a demonic outcast living in the garden of his castle as his new friend as she spins stories of strange and beautiful design to him under the moonlight, a questing prince who must fight against magical beasts and traverse deep swamps to revive his sister whom he murdered, and of two magical bears, lovers who are forced apart from each other by the lines of fate and in effort to return to the love they lost, take upon human guises and search the world for meaning, taking part in legendary tales and both heroic and ordinary lives. 4.5
  5. 2.21.07 - Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami: The son of a famous artist runs away from home, gets involved in an incestuous sexual relationship, copes with it, and goes home; while he’s gone his dad is murdered and a weird metaphysical roadtrip takes place, involving an old man who can make things fall from the sky, and an aimless trucker who struggles with his inability to form long lasting relationships, which heralds a bunch of even weirder, unfocused events. 3.0
  6. 2.23.07 - The Road, by Cormac McCarthy: The quickly moving but lushly written account of a father and his son in the aftermath of a great nuclear holocaust at some uncertain time in the future, as they wrestle against the dangers of the ashen world and treacherous cannibalistic road agents the war left over from its blaze, and make their way to the sea, half starving, searching for abandoned food stores in farmhouses, and forging a bond as family through all the toils of the shattered and monster-filled road to the sea. 5.0
  7. 3.07.07 - Elric of Melniboné, by Michael Moorcock: The story of the Emperor Elric, a dying drug-addicted sorcerer and swordsman, who after being revived by a water demon and ousting his cruel cousin from his usurped throne, makes compacts with demons and hunts his hiding enemy-prince outside of the safety of Melniboné, the immortal and dragon-roosted kingdom in the sea, and chases his nemesis into the darkness of the Shade World where he must come face to face with his tragedic fate and lonely life calling. 4.0
  8. 3.11.07 - Typee, by Herman Melville: Melville's high-brow adventure story and cultural anthropological study of the reclusive and feared Typee cannibals of the South Sea, details of how the author and another sailor deserted their charge in apathy of their work, and found themselves imprisoned in the idyllic valley of the Typees, subject to alien fixations and strange customs for upwards to three months, and finally escaped their hospitable but cruel hosts. 3.5
  9. 3.13.07 - Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny: An immortal and vicious but cleverly compassionate prince, after regaining portions of his memory from a near-fatal automobile accident, travels back to his home with his loyal but shifty brother, to the reclusive and powerful nexus of the universe known as Amber, where he raises together an army of otherworldly soldiers and marches against another brother who usurped the throne and now rules the magical realm like a tyrant. 4.0
  10. 3.29.07 - The Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain: Using dry wit and radical but dated liberal ideology, Twain's iconoclastic and cynical travel diary during the year of 1862 memorializes his travels in Europe and the Middle East and contains memorable and even poetic excursionary tales about the deep of Tourist Europe and the imaginary barbarism of a 19th century Holy Land, and even as he unravels the depths of his own prejudices and pokes fun at nearly everyone and everything (outside of his own religious experience) he still maintains his veneer of political pride and sardonic but tempered philosophy. 4.5
  11. 4.06.07 - Homeland, by R.A. Salvatore: The childhood and youth of brilliantly talented and deeply compassionate Drizzt Do'Urden, born under a baby-sacrificing blade into the violent and murderous society of Menzoberranzan deep beneath the sprawling nightmare-filled tunnels of the earth, through the influence of his father and sister, learns to despise his society, and with the loss of innocence and the promise of a distant future that does not end in blood, slowly begins to discover his own strength to stand against the anger of his vengeful and unloving mother and defies even his people's god, the invincible and hateful Spider Queen. 4.0
  12. 4.09.07 - Exile, by R.A. Salvatore: The first half of the dark elven exile into the Underdark flows poetically, illuminating a discussion on loneliness, following the solitary hero and his loyal spirit-panther into a darkness of violence and filial betrayal, but as the story moves beyond the main character, the plotline becomes unfocused, more of a mental anthropology of various monsters Drizzt encounters and befriends, finally ending in a typical heroic battle between father and son, escalating in the downfall of his own family, while thematically outlining the warrior's own deep sense of pacifism and care for any creature, regardless of station. 3.5
  13. 4.12.07 - Sojourn, by R.A. Salvatore: Between the dazzling interludes by the poetic ranger, Drizzt Do'Urden, lies a smattering of episodic storylines about the exile's first seven or so years on the surface away from his dark and violent home in the Underdark, as he travels from one heroic battle to the next, pursued relentlessly by a small homeless quickling and a bounty hunter with a personal vendetta for the death of one of his hunting dogs, and as each "campaign" of Drizzt's life begins and completes itself, he learns valuable lessons which introduce the attributes and philosophy he becomes famous for in the popular Dungeons and Dragons mythology. 3.5
  14. 4.21.07 - The Crystal Shard, by R.A. Salvatore: In this surprisingly well-written first novel based on the well-known role-playing franchise of Dungeons and Dragons, Salvatore weaves the stories of four lonely warriors who eventually become best friends, a passionate dark elven exile, a compassionate but fierce dwarven king of a people searching for their long-lost and legendary home, a son of a barbarian warlord whose life was spared on the battlefield and forced into indentured servitude, and a lazy but clever halfling who lives his life away from his people in pleasant luxury due to his political aptitude and a magical gem he stole from his old teacher, and as Salvatore weaves the tapestry of two epic battles in the northern lake region of Ten Towns, these four learn to conquer some of their fears, while rallying the people against an apprentice wizard taken captive to lust by the influence of an ancient artifact bent on cruel subjugation by enhancing magical ability to the limit. 4.5
  15. 4.29.07 - Streams of Silver, by R.A. Salvatore: A Lord of the Rings clone by any estimation, this story combines the lyrical "dungeon romp" of Drizzt Do'Urden, King Bruenor Battlehammer , Ex-king Wulfgar of the Elk Tribe, and Regis Rumblebelly, a lazy and clever thief on the run from the mysterious black rider and invincible assassin, Artemis Entreri, in the search for the dwarven king's ancient buried homeland in the Mines of Mo-... er, in the Mithral Mountains, and on the way, they play tavern games in the shadowy city of Luskan, encounter the wise but distant wizard family of Harkle Harple, visit the luminescent elves of Silverymoon (in which Lady Gala-...er, High Lady Alustrial gives the Companions of the Hall magical elven bread) and fight the gob-... er, evil dwarves that patrol the Mines of-... er, (sorry, again...) Mithral Hall, ruled by the Balr-... ack, shadow dragon, Shimmergloom, and his fiery hellhounds, which then, in compact fashion, ends with the wiz-..., er dwarven king Bruenor throwing himself into the great chasm (right before the bridge and exit to the mines), axe in one hand, flaming pot of oil in the other, and the two tumble into the darkness while the bridge cracks and falls, and the remaining Companions of the Hall put step to the chase. 3.5
  16. 5.5.07 - The Halfling's Gem, by R.A. Salvatore: The five companions return for this final set of campaigns along Faerun's now-famed Sword Coast, but this book seems to focus more on their individual struggles and strengths within the group, as Salvatore takes his near invincible warriors and pits them mano e mano against your local tavern brawlers, undead, evil dwarves, ugly and foul-toothed pirates, wily and backstabbing merchants, desert fighters, lycanthropic rat-men, lumbering giants, shadowy thieves, powerful wizards, demonic beings from another plane, and an invincible assassin who perhaps illustrates the entire quest of blood in his lust for terror and death, and throughout this detailed tapestry of murder, the five friends from the snowy north grow together as their blades dance between lives, forcing them closer than they had ever been before, both in love and pain. 3.5