The Invisible Ring, by Anne Bishop: My level of tolerance for Anne Bishop’s prose (can you believe she actually makes a catchphrase out of “balls and sass”?) has decreased over the years, but The Invisible Ring still makes an indulgent and mindless read. I finished the book in a day, over three train rides. [...]
I didn’t understand feminism in high school and found it irritating. Much has changed since then, of course. It’s odd because despite my seemingly negative reaction to Byatt here, Possession won its place in my memory as one of my favorite books in contemporary literature. I also find my “critique” of contemporary [...]
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, by Catherine Webb: Pei Yi and I had a book swap, where I sent her Ted Chiang’s short story anthology, and she sent me this book by Catherine Webb. Lucky for me because as far as I can tell, the Horatio Lyle books aren’t published in [...]
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett: Another Ankh-Morpork novel along the lines of The Truth, i.e. a look into the chaos that explodes when the Discworld equivalent of a modern-day convenience develops. Vetinari at his absolute best here. There’s definitely a gentle parody of that 50s film stereotype of the con man who ends [...]