The Neurospicy Bean

  Okay, I’ve been agonizing over this review for literally months. Pulley’s writing here is absolutely beautiful, her characters compelling, her world intriguing. She makes things that absolutely shouldn’t make any sense – talking mammoths anyone? – feel entirely natural. I was captivated from beginning to end. And yet. I have seen some legitimate criticisms of the way the book approaches its subject matter. The idea is that Mars is a human colony, specifically Chinese (although there are several cultural influences). Mars-born humans, being born in lighter gravity, are taller and generally more delicate than Earth-born humans. Earth-born humans (Earthstrongers) are comparatively extremely strong, enough so that a mere touch can pose a threat to a Martian, so they’re segregated from Martians. Our main character, January, is an Earthstronger refugee, while his love interest, Aubrey Gale, is a politician running on the platform of mandatory Earthstronger naturalization. There is a LOT th

  There’s nothing special about Chin’s writing, necessarily, but the stories, anecdotes, and culture that he shares in this memoir more than make up for it. This book drew my interest because my brother goes to school in Detroit, and I’ve actually seen where Chung’s – the Chinese restaurant behind the title of the book – used to sit, near downtown. The Chinese community in Detroit has a really interesting backstory, which Chin goes into extensively. And of course as a gay Chinese American he has a specific experience to share. I found it really interesting to read about.

 

Unfortunately it’s been a few months since I read this, so I just don’t remember it as well as I would have liked to (though that’s in part because some of the stories just aren’t terribly memorable). So I can’t do a detailed review of each story. The three that I remember most clearly are “Kushtuka” (Mathilda Zeller), “Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” (Conley Lyons), and “Snakes Are Born in the Dark” (D.H. Trujillo). Each one carried a nice eeriness to it, each in a very distinct way. But oddly, I actually think the major highlight of this book was the foreword by Stephen Graham Jones. I don’t really have the words to describe it, but it is easily the part of the book that has stayed with me the most. There’s an intensity to it, a really excellent take on the horror genre, and a fascinating connection between Indigenous history and horror. All the stories were fine to read, but the introduction is the absolute most important part. If you don’t read anything else, read that. Otherwise, wh

  This was actually more enjoyable than I expected it to be. I was anticipating one of those meandering, plotless books that middle aged white women seem to love, and it certainly wasn’t that. Instead, it was a perfectly pleasing mystery with plenty of clues and even a bit of action. Seemingly unrelated details were smoothly woven together in a satisfying way, and there were nice little relationships that got nods throughout. I did have a few gripes, mainly to do with the various perspectives the author was trying to weave together. The main thing is just that there was no reason to have so many different POVs. At the beginning, I think we heard from almost every single major character, and a couple of characters that seemed like they’d be major but then got shunted off to the side a third of the way in.  One example of this was I believe KJ (yeah, he was presented as a main character in the first several chapters and then became so sidelined that I hardly even remember his name). He w

  There are quite a few reviews saying that this book didn’t meet their expectations in terms of action, which is a real bummer because this is by far one of the best pieces of historical fiction focusing on Chinese women that I’ve read. It’s true that if you’re looking for Treasure Island, Pirates of the Caribbean-esque action, in the vein of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, you’ll be a bit taken aback by this book. I was definitely expecting something in that vein going in, and it is the genre I typically prefer. It probably should be marketed less as a pirate book and more as historical literary fiction about womanhood and female friendship…that happens to be about history’s most successful pirate. But once you get past all that, this is still a really, really good book. If you remember (or want to look up) my review of the extremely popular Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, there were a lot of elements of that book that didn’t do Chinese women justice, and I would consider this book to