This semester I am taking a graduate class on the history of human rights. It has been fantastic even though snow has interrupted it twice now. One of our first books was Inventing Human Rights by Lynn Hunt. She examines the language of human rights as it emerged with the French Declaration of the … [Read more]
Fatale: A murder/mystery with more murder and more mystery
It is raining. Darkly clad people under umbrellas at the funeral of Dominic Raines. One woman stands out, beautiful and dark. Our protagonist is immediately taken with her as she explains how her grandmother had a fling with the deceased - the godfather to our protagonist. This is the scene where … [Read more]
The Future is Nao
Well. I was dreading reading this book. While Ozeki may have made history by being the first ever Buddhist monk to make the Booker shortlist, the synopsis of this novel didn’t exactly make me fall over myself to read it. In Tokyo, a sixteen year old girl, Nao, is so horribly bullied and feels so low … [Read more]
's CBR6 Review No:8 ·
Genres: Fiction ·
Tags: #CBR6, A Tale For The Time Being, Booker prize, Buddhism, Fiction, journal, Ruth Ozeki, suicide, teenage, Tokyo ·
You’re Incomparable Like a… Like a…
If I had to summarize my feelings for this book in one sentence, it would read something like, “This is so silly, but I love it!” In all honesty, I don’t know why I had never heard of Bo Burnham until recently, and I must say that although he is a little ridiculous and random, I find his brand of … [Read more]
“Bright the hawk’s flight on the empty sky”
After taking on the rather draining Tiptree anthology, I wanted to rest my heart and mind and spirit. So I am revisiting one of my most cherished treasures: Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea cycle. I was 10 or 12 when I discovered this series, and I fell precipitously in love with it. It was my gateway … [Read more]
's CBR6 Review No:5 ·
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction ·
Tags: #CBR6, a wizard of earthsea, earthsea, fantasy, old favorite, ursula k le guin, YA ·
Chinese/U.S. Relations Viewed Through the Lens of a Murder Mystery
Flower Net is the first of a trilogy by this author, whose Snow Flower and the Secret Fan blew me away when I read it several years ago. This book travels back and forth between the U.S. and China in 1997, and is an incisive political commentary couched in a splendid if somewhat gruesome murder … [Read more]