Ern's Monthly Page Turners (May 2010)

*本に関するネタ日本語は書き込みません

Oh my - the month is more than half over and I haven't posted my book reviews (or movies reviews as well). Am I getting even lazier in my old age? Perhaps. But that doesn't mean I've stopped reading! I think you will find this month's choices eclectic as ever. So, without further ado, take a look:


CAR GIRLS by Jacqueline Hassink - Most of the guys I know love the combination of cool car and sexy babe, unfortunately they would be disappointed with this title. Photographer Jacqueline Hassink isn't in to taking pictures of scantily clad woman next to custom cars. No, Hassink traveled the world between 2002-2008 checking out the women who help sell new cars at International Motor Shows. She also takes pictures of the women without them noticing so they would be in their most natural pose. As there are Motor Shows all across the world, Hassink settled on three cities that are classified as A shows which include Detroit, Frankfurt, Geneva, and Tokyo. The B shows that she attends include New York City and Shanghai. As I have actually been to the Tokyo International Motorshow at least once, you cannot help but notice the campaign girls, and one of them just happened to be a former co-worker of mine, which was another reason why I went.


SHORT TRACK by Jake Mendel - When I lived in the States, a couple of my friends competed in the Figure 8 race at our local speedway - Spanaway Speedway located right outside of Tacoma, Washington. Looking through Jake Mendel's photographs of the Short Track - a step below NASCAR but probably more popular than demolition derby reminded me of my friends. The publisher makes it even simpler to know the content - [Short Track documents the world of semi-professional dirt track racing: from the downtrodden bombers and high-end stock cars, to the fans, drivers, and mechanics' lives on and off the track.] Mendel's photographs focuses on the short tracks of the Deep South, Arizona and New Mexico. Too bad he couldn't have included Spanaway Speedway, but that's just my opinion.


FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE May/June 2010 - I don't usually write reviews of magazines but as this mag has 200+ pages of mostly sf/fantsy short stories and novelettes as well as book and movie reviews. I feel it deserves to be reviewed as I would a book. As I stated previously, I've been going back to the roots of my book reading enjoyment and have once again started reading some newer science-fiction and fantasy titles. After reading Jack McDevitt's "The Engines of God" last month, I thought this magazine would give me some ideas of currently popular s-f/fantasy authors. As it's been years since I've read science fiction, I was not familiar with any of the names in this month's issue - writers such as John Sladek, Michael Libling, Fred Chappell, Aaron Schutz. I did recognize one name though - Charles de Lint. But he did not write a story, he wrote reviews of some upcoming titles to be aware of. The stories I most enjoyed was Robert Onopa's "The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe" about a model train village that uses AI components; Lokiko Hall's "The Gypsy's Boy" a love story about a blind boy sold to a Gypsy who falls in love with wind; "Dr. Death vs. The Vampire" by Aaron Schutz was amusing as well. Also included in the mag was a review of "New Moon" and "Avatar" by Kathi Maio and a chapter titled "Curiosities" in which Bud Webster reviews a book called "Alvin Steadfast on Vernacular Island" by Frank Jacobs and published in 1965. I may have to try to find that book.


JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL CONFIDENTIAL : HOW TEENAGE GIRLS MADE A NATION COOL by Brian Ashcraft with Shoko Ueda – If you’ve been to Japan or have plans to visit, then there is something you will see no matter where you go. From Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the far south. You cannot escape them. They are the sailor suited Japanese schoolgirls! They are the trend setters, the queens of fashion, the women who are not quite children and not yet adults, the women who are not tied down to a marriage or career and have the most disposable income. To understand a major portion of Japanese pop culture, you must understand “how teenage girls made a nation cool”. This book is not just about Japanese schoolgirls though, it’s about how they have become an international symbol of cool. You will find sailor suited characters in the anime of “Sailor Moon”, “Evangelion” and “Blood : The Last Vampire”, the kung-fu fighting women of “Street Fighter”, and as an assassin in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill”. Gwen Stefani sings about them in “Harajuku Girls”. It’s just not anime and video games where you will find women dressed in sailor suits – the book covers Japanese pop-idols, cult movie actresses, and even the history of the sailor suit itself. Although the sailor suit was originally created as a school uniform, the women would wear them outside school hours because they are also cute and fashionable. There are even companies that create “nanchatte” sailor suits (fake sailor suits) that aren’t affiliated with any schools and do a fair amount of business. For the full review, please check it out on the “Asia by the Book” blog at


CADDIE WOODLAWN by Carol Ryrie Brink - An American classic. Winner of the 1936 Newbery Award for best American Literature for Children. This book is based on the life of Carol Ryrie Brink's grandmother - Caroline Woodlawn - the real Caddy Woodlawn. It's about Pioneer life in Wisconsin in the late 1800s. A time when the white man still feared the Indian, when the country was in the middle of the Civil War, and during the assassination of President Lincoln. Unlike Laura Ingalls Wilder's diary which spawned a successful drama in the 70s starring Michael Landon, "Little House on the Prairie" for those of you who are not familiar, I find Caddie to be a much more lively character to read about than Wilder. She's more adventurous and doesn't quite understand the meaning of being a lady. I suppose if Caddie Woodlawn had a kept a diary herself, it would have also been made into a successful television series as well. But since there isn't, one can only read this book. But it's never too late to read a classic!


T is for Tokyo by Irene Akio – A bilingual children’s book published by ThingsAsian Press. The story is written as a conversation between a father and daughter with the daughter asking about the city she was born in. We are introduced to common sites not only in Tokyo, but Japan in general – tera (temple), maneki neko (beckoning cats), koban (police box), ema (prayer boards), sumo, ninja (although you won’t see any in present day Japan unless you go to a place called Edo-mura – which is kind of like a samurai theme park). This is not really a guide to Tokyo but a nice picture book that shows a bit of the character of the city in watercolors.




UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo - Chinese science-fiction? I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this title, but Guo, who is also a filmmaker, writes quite an interesting story. It's hard for me to say if it accurately portrays life in a small rural Chinese village but the book allows me to imagine the events as they unfold. In a rural area of Hunan province in a small town called Silver Hill Village, lives a peasant woman named Kwok Yun. "On the twentieth day of the seventh moon" or September 11, 2012 while riding her Flying Pigeon bicycle, she claims to have seen a spinning plate in the sky, a “UFThing” or what we would normally call a UFO. She reports the incident to the village chief, Chang Lee, who reports the incident to officials in Beijing, who send Beijing Agent 1919 and Hunan Agent 1989 from the National Security and Intelligence Agency to investigate the matter. The agents start their investigation by interviewing Chang Lee, then her secretary, then Kwok Yun (who appears to be the only witness to the UFO), and then the other peasants who live in the village. Unfortunately for Beijing Agent 1919, he cannot understand the village’s dialect and the peasants cannot understand his Chinese. This frustrates him to no end as he does not even want to be in this back water town and feels his time is being wasted. He is condescending and a bit rude, which made me speculate this probably reflects the current attitude of the Chinese government towards the general population. For a more complete review of this title, check out the “Asia by the Book” blog.


H is for Hong Kong by Tricia Morissey – Another title in ThingsAsian Press introducing us to the mysterious world of Hong Kong, a bilingual book written in English and Chinese. I remember my first trip to Hong Kong which was part of a family trip – we rode on the Star Ferry, went up to Victoria Peak, checked out the night market in Kowloon, was amazed at all the bamboo scaffolding, going to Repulse Bay. The pictures are based on what the artist has seen in her walks around Hong Kong with an index at the back of the book giving a description of where in Hong Kong that inspired these illustrations. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the children’s book in the future, perhaps “B is for Bangkok”, “V is for Vietianne” (okay, that might be pushing it a bit but you never know).


Cheech & Chong : The Unauthorized Biography by Tommy Chong – When I was about ten, our family moved from Tokyo back to the States. We settled in Tacoma and the only albums I remember my brother having (I had a bunch of singles of anime theme songs and Linda Yamamoto), was an LP full of anime theme songs, the 3rd album by a group called Garo, and for some reason, Cheech & Chong’s third album “Los Cochinos”. This was my first exposure to the duo. Like I said, I was only 10 so I didn’t really understand some of the drug references at time. But some of the other skits on the album were self-explanatory such as “Up His Nose”, “Chebornek”, and the song “Basketball Jones”. It was interesting reading about their beginnings – Tommy Chong as a musician in Canada, Richard “Cheech” Marin, draft-dodger. It almost seemed like a fluke that they became a comedy team. As I grew older and understood their jokes, I also became a fan of their movies – “Up in Smoke”, “Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie”, “Nice Dreams” – all drug related themes. I think my brother still has the album at home as well. Perhaps I will give it a listen the next time I’m home in the States.


Portable Grindhouse : The Lost Art of the VHS Box edited by Jacques Boyreau – If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you will know that last month I was having my very own B-movie marathon at home and this book was just the perfect item to check out during that time. As with the advent of cds, the LP jacket artwork was slowly becoming a thing of the past. Now that we are in the age of the DVD and Blu-ray, the next art item to go by the wayside are the VHS box. I still remember our first VCR which included a remote that was not cordless. And with the birth of VCR, there also came to be known something as the DTV movies (direct-to-video). You will find the artwork of some long lost gems (or rarely remembered anyway) movies such as “Beast of the Yellow Night”, “Legend of the Wolf Woman”, “One Armed Executioner” are a few examples. “Streets of Fire” was listed as well which I remember watching a bunch of times on Showtime. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t tell you what year the films were released or if its currently available on DVD. The artwork on the B-movie DVDs released in Japan I was given would make for a great art book as well with titles like “Mosquito”, “Vulcan”, “Junk Wars 2035”, “Zompire” (some titles were changed for the Japanese market such as “Zompire” who’s original title is “Legion of the Dead”, but I will be writing about those movies on my film review post (whenever that may be).


Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - If this is the future of science-fiction, it's no wonder that there leadership has been dwindling. This is the kind of book that turns people off to the genre. Last month when I read Jack McDevitt's "The Engines of God", some critic had said that McDevitt was a mediocre writer and his story was rather bland. I tend to disagree. I think McDevitt's book was much easier to read and a heck of lot more entertaining than this supposed space opera. I have nothing against technical marvels and whatnot but when every other page is using some techno-babble term, it just becomes tiring. In fact, I was having such a hard time reading through this book, I had to take a break a couple of times and read something else. The story is slightly similar to McDevitt's book - alien monuments, extinct space-faring races, vicious plague, powerful weapons of alien origin, unknown mystery, etc. Oh, and I was particularly annoyed with the implants of other people's personality. It kind of reminded me of the movie "Mission Impossible 3" where they kept using the latex mask so you never knew who the person really was (they used that trick 4 times in that movie, I remember counting). The main character here has an implant of his father inside his head, but what he doesn't really know is that he is not the son, he is a clone of his father. This does not make me want to read any of the sequels or related story. I think I may have to read another Jack McDevitt book instead.


Evernight by Claudia Gray – With the popularity and success of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight Saga”, it was only a matter of time before the young adult market was saturated with teen vampire novels. As I started reading this, the only thing that popped up in my mind was “Jeez, another “Twilight” rip-off”. You wouldn’t believe how many authors are trying to find success by hanging on to the coattails of Stephenie Meyer (which I must admit, I have yet to read although my sister continues to highly recommend it). Just replace Bela with Bianca and Edward with Lucas, change the small town of Forks into the private school called “Evernight Academy”, have Bianca and Lucas fall in love and voila – another “Twilight” rip-off…or so I thought for the first half of the book. But, as their passion for each other heats up, we discover that Bianca takes a bite out of Lucas – yep, Bianca is a vampire. Okay, so “Twilight” rip-off in reverse? Well, Lucas isn’t an ordinary student either. He is a member of “Black Cross” – a secret society of vampire hunters. Sorry Sis, but I think I might read the “Evernight” series first as the second book “Stargazer” is available as well. Must find out what happens and yet I still have no desire to read Stephenie Meyer’s book, don’t ask me why, but I did see the first movie.

And so ends another month of literary morsels. I'm going to have to be a little more adamant about writing these reviews or they will be posted later and later and I might not be able to catch up to writing the reviews of books read (heaven forbid!) Next month - more literary magazine to review, more science-fiction, the new Barry Eisler, and other titles as well. Happy Reading!