Uncreated Conscience

The hardcover of SILVER PHOENIX by Cindy Pon

Recently there have been rumblings in the blogosphere about the re-jacketing of Cindy Pon‘s book SILVER PHOENIX that have been brought to my attention. Reactions have been mixed, from outrage to support, with many bloggers pointing to the re-jacketing as yet another example of publishing cover racefail (the first being Justine Larbalestier’s LIAR and the second being Jaclyn Dolamore’s MAGIC UNDER GLASS).

This is a bit of sensitive subject and I was a little wary of writing about it. It isn’t the topic; I’ve blogged about race and cover matters before and I try to champion novels with POC themes, settings, and characters whenever possible, but this situation requires delicacy for a few reasons.

1. This is not directly analogous to situations in either LIAR or MAGIC UNDER GLASS.
2. I am not Cindy Pon’s editor or publisher so I obviously don’t know all the details.
3. Despite my best intentions to keep neutral, there may be some finger-pointing (not at Cindy or her publisher).
4. What I say may come off as a little defensive even though I don’t mean it that way.
5. Contrary to what we want the outcome to be, in this situation, we as the concerned reader may not be able to effect much change.

Those reasons aside, I did feel I was qualified to say something about this topic based on these reasons:

1. I work in editorial.
2. I am a woman of Asian descent.
3. I ain’t happy about this either.

Above is the original cover for SILVER PHOENIX. The re-jacketed cover is below the cut.

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So. Reviews. I did say I would write them. I seriously haven’t had time to eat, let alone blog in the past few weeks. But if you’re curious about what I’m reading outside of work, you should probably check me out on Goodreads.

The hardcover of TENDER MORSELS by Margo Lanagan

There’s not much I can really say about TENDER MORSELS that’s coherent. This novel slayed me. I closed the pages feeling absolutely gutted and wrung out, wondering if the world would ever be okay again and knowing it will.

TENDER MORSELS is a retelling of the fairytale Snow White and Rose Red (Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot), which is about two sisters, roses, a bear prince, an ungrateful dwarf, and stolen treasure.

I’m rather fond of fairytale retellings, as is evidenced by my love of Robin McKinley’s BEAUTY, Elizabeth C. Bunce’s A CURSE AS DARK AS GOLD, Malinda Lo’s ASH, and countless others. I love them as literal or as figurative as they come. I think I love fairytale retellings because the story mechanics are already in place so the author is free to take the characters and world in any which direction s/he pleases. Similarly, fairytales being so sketchy and vague themselves allow for wonderful interpretations of the source material.

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Ack, BEA is fast approaching and I still have two more books to review. Right, no excuses, JJ, just jump on it.

Review of WHITE CAT by Holly Black

WHITE CAT by Holly Black

Because I suck at writing cover copy, I’m just going to swipe the one on Holly Black‘s website.

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Spoilers after the cut.

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Right, so I promised to have more reviews up for you this week and I swear it shall be done. I swear it shall be done before BEA because heaven knows I’ll probably have a gazillion more books to review after having read all the ARCs I’ve stolen from my coworkers. (Muahahaha. Oh the perks of working in publishing.)

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

A while back on one of the various social media platforms I have (really, I’m starting to reach saturation point with social media) I said I wanted to be haunted by a book. Until I read BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, I hadn’t been.

Ethan Wate wants nothing more than to get out of his small town, to leave Gatlin, the South, and what he perceives as his tiny way of life. He wants nothing more than to be able to experience the outside world. One day, the outside world intrudes on Gatlin in a spectacular way in the form of Lena Duchannes, the dark haired and green eyed niece of the town shut-in, Old Man Ravenwood.

(Can you see how deliciously gothic the book is already?)

Lena is certainly different, but little does Ethan know just how different she (and her family) really is…

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My newest movie obsession

For the first weekend in ages, I did nothing but watch movies and it was GLORIOUS. I rewatched Dangerous Beauty and Much Ado About Nothing and then watched Amadeus no less than three times. On the same day. (I know, I know, I tend to obsession.)

I think my taste in movies can be extrapolated and extended to my taste in books. Why do I love Dangerous Beauty? It’s an intelligent historical chick movie. Also, it has courtesans and apparently whenever people think of “courtesans”, they think of me. Why do I love Much Ado About Nothing? Because it is delightful. No other reason. Seriously, it is CHARMING and the cheer is infectious. Also, a little ridiculous, but I like that sort of thing. Also, this is my favourite of Shakespeare’s comedies.

As for Amadeus, well, this is a little harder to articulate. Certainly I love Mozart and his music, but one can’t help but be gratified by a great story well-told. Revenge, passion, the nature of genius, the pain of mediocrity, humor, tragedy–this movie is wonderful in every sense of the word. I could go on and on about its brilliance, but everything I feel about this film can be summed up in its title: Amadeus, Beloved of God. One of Mozart’s names rendered into Latin (he was christened with Gottlieb, but went by Amadé in his professional life), but also a recurring theme throughout the play/movie: divine inspiration. Oh! Oh! How I love this movie so.

Anyway, despite having watched movies all weekend, what I really want to do in this blog post is was review two very lovely books, GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD by Karen Healey and THE DEMON’S COVENANT by Sarah Rees Brennan. More after the cut.

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NAAMAH'S CURSE by Jacqueline Carey

I make it no secret how much I adore Jacqueline Carey and her Kushiel books. I have read every novel set in that universe. There have been 7 books to date.

Carey writes with lush, descriptive (but not overwrought) prose, develops a killer fantasy world that is both heartbreakingly realistic and a place to which I want to escape, portrays wonderfully nuanced and sexy relationships between all her characters, and has created my favourite feminist heroine of all time: Phèdre nò Delaunay, a kinky, bisexual, sexually masochistic courtesan-cum-spy.

Yep.

NAAMAH’S CURSE is her latest book (available for pre-order), the second in Moirin’s trilogy, the first being NAAMAH’S KISS. And right on the heels of my race-in-fiction week: LOOK AT THE COVER.

I might love her even more now.

I have (perhaps stupidly) committed myself to another blog, in which my roommate and I will document our progress as we train for the 2011 marathon. Last night Psychic Roommate and I completed our first run around the Reservoir in Central Park.

New post at Running Roommates!

Read about it here! It’s a good thing we’ve started training. There are 5lbs of post-holiday pudge I need to get rid of, 10lbs altogether I’d like to lose. Tonight I will do a nice, restorative yoga practice to recover. Running is really hard on the body! Doesn’t help I have one flat foot, loose ligaments in my shoulders, and one bum knee. I’m a young and decrepit, how sad.

But you know who isn’t young and decrepit and is instead young and awesome? Astrid Llewellyn from Diana Peterfreund‘s RAMPANT. I read this novel months ago, but never got around to giving it a proper review. Hopefully White-Harp will be chiming in with her thoughts as well via vlog. (We are ambitious, White-Harp and me.) Review follows beneath the cut.

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Last night I went to the 10 year reunion of my High Point Academy classmates and had an amazing time (but then again, we always did). I went to a small private school–36 of us in our graduating class–so in effect, these were kids with whom I grew up. For nostalgia’s sake, Mandi brought our 8th grade yearbook and I immediately turned to our “Remember When” page.

Remember when…Sarah didn’t use big words.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Although I went by Sarah in those days; it could because I was the only Sarah in that class and was thus able to avoid sharing the name with another girl.

Looking at my Remember When, I suppose it came as no surprise to anyone that I now work in publishing. :) Speaking of which, I finally got around to reading FIRE by Kristin Cashore, the review for which follows beneath the cut.

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I currently have a bit of a dilemma.

Nothing major, of course. But my dilemma is that I have $50 to spend on books and I don’t know what I want to read.

Here’s my problem: in the past year, I have accepted that I am almost exclusively a reader of young adult books. I am more than comfortable with this. I like reading YA. For the most part, I find them much more entertaining and just as rewarding as “serious” adult literary fiction. So when Bear’s parents gave me a gift certificate to the bookstore for my birthday, I was more than ready to spend it.

Until I realised two things. 1) I have read all the books to which I had been looking forward and 2) all the books I want to read won’t be published until later this year or 2010.

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