I like fiction about terrible people (see also: The White Lotus), so Yellowface by R.F. Kuang was fun for me. The book is about two friends – one Asian (Athena Liu), the other white (June Hayward) – who come up together through university, both pursuing authorship. When Athena dies unexpectedly…
Category: The Q Review
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The Q Review | Negroland | Margo Jefferson
“White people wanted to be white just as much as we did. They worked just as hard at it. They failed just as often. They failed more often. But they could pass, so no one objected.” I love reading about subcultures and sects. It fascinates me to learn when and…
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The Q Review | Destiny Disrupted | Tamim Ansary
I’ve read a lot of books about Islamic history. I’ve also read several versions of the Qur’an with commentary. These tomes tend to be dry and scholarly. This is fine, but I prefer cordial narratives and a sprinkle of humor when reading a book about history for my pleasure. Tamim…
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The Q Review | Sister Snake | Amanda Lee Koe
Sister Snake is a fresh, fast-paced novel that is, ironically, rooted in one of China’s Four Great Folktales called The Legend of the White Snake. This reimagining of a centuries-old myth by author Amanda Lee Koe shows that, regardless of when it was conceived, a good story is a good…
Books
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Q Review | The Life of Insects | Victor Pelevin
I love weird books but they’re surprisingly hard to find. I don’t mean books with weird characters, or edgy themes. I mean books that turn your brain upside down and make you wonder what in the hell you’ve just read. (I’m always on the lookout, so drop me a line…
Books
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Q Review | Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas | Fernando A. Flores
A few months ago I went to a recently opened indie bookstore called Alienated Majesty, close to the University of Texas campus. It’s a cute place with all kinds of cool stuff you might not find in a larger, corporate chain. The staff was helpful, and when I went to…
Books
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Q Review | Dead-End Memories | Banana Yoshimoto
“The words I read in books seemed to strike me more deeply, and with my senses sharpened by grief, I noticed the glittering transition of the seasons as clearly as if I held the grief in the palm of my hand. It had been a long while since I’d experienced…
Books
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Q Review | Death on Gokumon Island | Seishi Yokomizo
If you know me, you know that I love murder stories. 90% of my television viewing happens on BritBox and involves some detective or another solving capital crimes. Many of these stories are formulaic, steeped in genre tropes, but that’s part of the draw. It’s comforting, relaxing even, to solve…
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Q Review | The Informers | Bret Easton Ellis
This is another one of my Goodwill finds, and the first book by Bret Easton Ellis that I’ve ever read. American Psycho is on my list to get to someday, but this one was $1.99 and flipping through the pages I was assured of a quick and dirty read, so…
Film
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Q Review | The Phantom 52 | Swerve Pictures
I recently spoke with filmmaker Geoff Marslett who mentioned this intriguing animated short he wrote and produced called The Phantom 52 (starring Tom Skerritt). It’s based on the 52-hertz whale, a single living creature that has never been sighted, only heard through hydrophones. It sings at a frequency no other…