It’s Monday! What are you reading?

New In This Week

Both of these are review books for book tours through TLC Book Tours.

DNF this week

The Lonely War by Alan Chin I had started this and put it aside. I decided to pick it up again for #AsianLitBingo. It is the story of a gay Chinese-American Buddhist man in the Navy in WWII. I knew they were captured by the Japanese. He was forced to submit sexually to the commander of the camp in order to keep his friends safe. I was expecting gritty historical fiction about brutal, self-sacrificing choices in war. What I got was a guy wondering if he could be in love with his captor after first meeting him. Nope. Nope. Nope. Put it down. Not doing that.

Finished This Week

I’ve been on a roll this week.  It started with the announcement of #AsianLitBingo.  I read the announcement and thought that was nice.  I don’t usually participate in Bingo challenges.  But, reading more Asian books was one of my goals for 2017 and when I suddenly looked around my house, this is what I saw.

 

I wasn’t going to do #AsianLitBingo (http://tinyurl.com/n942mfk) but then I realized that most of the books I was planning to read soon had Asian authors.⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ Paper Boats – translated Indonesian novel⠀⠀ Asian Monsters – fantasy short stories⠀⠀ A House Without Windows – Afghani-American author⠀⠀ The Witch’s Market – Chinese Author⠀⠀ A Tale for the Time Being – Japanese American author⠀⠀ Outrun the Moon – Chinese American Author

A post shared by Heather (@dvmheather) on May 3, 2017 at 5:29am PDT

So there’s that. I was almost doing an entirely Asian authors month by accident. I found a bunch of other books by Asian authors on my ereader too since I took that picture. This week I’ve finished The Witch’s Market, Paper Boats, and Outrun the Moon.  

What Am I Reading?

“Facing challenges in an increasingly colonial world, Chye Hoon, a rebellious young girl, must learn to embrace her mixed Malayan-Chinese identity as a Nyonya—and her destiny as a cook, rather than following her first dream of attending school like her brother.“  

What Am I Listening To?

I found this entirely by chance.  I have a few audiobook apps on my phone and the one with my current book refused to open.  I skimmed through Audible on the off chance there was anything on there that I hadn’t finished.  I swear I’ve never seen this book before in my life but they seem convinced I own it.  Who am I to argue?

“On a dark night in 1775, Lizzie Boylston is awakened by the sound of cannons. From a hill south of Boston, she watches as fires burn in Charlestown, in a battle that she soon discovers has claimed her husband’s life.

Alone in a new town, Lizzie grieves privately but takes comfort in her deepening friendship with Abigail Adams. Soon, word spreads of Lizzie’s extraordinary midwifery and healing skills, and she begins to channel her grief into caring for those who need her. But when two traveling patriots are poisoned, Lizzie finds herself with far more complicated matters on her hands—she suspects a political plot intended to harm Abigail and her family. Determined to uncover the truth, Lizzie becomes entangled in a conspiracy that could not only destroy her livelihood—and her chance at finding love again—but also lead to the downfall of a new nation.”

It is quite good.  I was into it from the beginning.  I had a quick trip to Maryland and back this weekend so I had lots of audiobook time.  I hate the idea of maybe running out of audiobook so I downloaded this one too. I found it because I was preordering Seanan McGuire’s sequel to Every Heart A Doorway.  I decided this other series of hers sounded like something I’d like.

“The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity—and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she’d rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren’t for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family’s old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone’s spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city…“

  This is the one that I ended up listening to.  The other narrator was so soothing that I figured that wasn’t a good fit for a long road trip.