[244] The Year of Ice – Brian Malloy

But if Randy’s death taught me anything, it’s that life is short. I know it’s nuts, it’s impulsive, I haven’t thought it through at all. But sometimes, Kevin, you just have to say ‘what the heck?’ and take a chance. [144]
The Year of Ice follows a year in the life of Kevin Doyle, who turns [...]

[242] The Calligrapher’s Daughter – Eugenia Kim

“You must always think first of your family, your father, and put your own thoughts and desires last. We live in hard times hat we pray will get better. Hard times. You must be careful and obey your parents in all things. Agreed? [10]
Nicknamed Najin when she was eight, the heroine in The Calligrapher’s Daughter [...]

[241] Maurice – E.M. Forster

Read my first review from almost three years ago.
Maurice looked at him with tenderness. He was studying him, as in the earliest days of their acquaintance. Only then it was to find out what he was like, now what had gone wrong with him. Something was wrong.” [114]
Written in 1914, E.M. Forster was ahead of [...]

[239] Surprising Myself – Christopher Bram

“It frightened me because Corey was a guy. I wanted to protect it because such a love was so ridiculous and fragile. Love was for marriage, and I couldn’t marry Corey . . . I couldn’t distinguish the excitement of my fear from the excitement of love.” [61]
Joel Scherzenlieb grows up at a time given [...]

[237] Fixer Chao – Han Ong

“I had entered this world of privilege where the people had taken me in as one of their own, and had been entirely comfortable divesting themselves of ugly things in my presence. These people, in my imagination, lived in a glass bubble filled with money, aerated and sent flying in all directions.” [100]
Never say never. [...]

Chinese Women in Fixer Chao

For a debut novel, and that the protagonist is not morally attractive, Fixer Chao is surprisingly not a bad read. I picked up this book when Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun has become too grim. The point of this book is an astringent depiction of the high life and the low in Manhattan. [...]

[236] The End of the Affair – Graham Greene

“And yet I could feel no trust: in the act of love I could be arrogant, but alone I had only to look in the mirror to see doubt, in the shape of a lined face and a lame leg—why me? . . . Distrust grows with a lover’s success.” [48]
Love is hate and hate [...]

[235] Sing Them Home – Stephanie Kallos

When he asked Larken what was going on and did it seem like the kids at school were avoiding them, she snorted darkly and said, Are you kidding? Nobody wants to see us or have anything to do with us because they all feel guilty about not looking for Mom anymore. I just wish somebody [...]

Sing Them Home Teaser

I usually don’t do teaser, but this one really resonates. Between brother and sister, now grown up, but are still traumatized by their mother’s disappearance. (She was swept away by a tornado.)
“Gaelan, what are you thinking?”
“I’m not thinking anything,” he replies.
“I just don’t see the point of having sex if you’re not trying to have [...]

[233] Crystal Boys – Hsien-yung Pai

“In this kingdom of ours there are no distinctions of social rank, eminence, age, or strength. What we share in common are bodies filled with aching, irrepressible desire and hearts filled with insane loneliness. In the dead of night these tortured hearts burst out of their cages, bearing their fangs and coiling their claws as [...]