Into the Riverlands

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo, 100 pages

In this third entry of Vo's Singing Hills series, cleric Chih is once again traveling the country, gathering stories and histories, when they witness a bar fight between a burly man and a petite sophisticated woman — surprisingly, the small woman knocks out her much-larger foe and walks away unscathed. Chih is soon invited to travel with the woman and her companion, as well as an older married couple, through the Riverlands, a dangerous region for travelers, full of marauders and bandits.

This whole series is absolutely delightful, and Into the Riverlands is no exception. Chih is an excellent observational avatar for the reader, full of curiosity and wonder, and Chih's talking bird companion, Almost Brilliant, offsets that innocence with plenty of sarcasm. The fantasy elements are light, giving this series a much wider appeal than just fans of speculative fiction.

The girl with ghost eyes

The girl with ghost eyes / M.H. Boroson, 280 p.

Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1898, the "girl" of the title is Li-Lin, a young widow whose father is a great exorcist who provides protection for one of the major Tongs. Li-Lin herself has both sorcerous and martial arts training, but her father is a master. One day a man comes to her father's temple and asks her to perform a task in her father's absence, but then he betrays her to set a trap for her father. Once she figures out how to escape from the spirit world, she must protect Chinatown against the planned attack by a sorcerer with a grudge against her father.

I enjoy reading about magic from other traditions, so that appealed to me about this story. Of course, the built-in social assumptions of 1890s immigrant Chinese society greatly differ from what I'm used to, and I appreciate that the author tried to balance explaining taboos, insults, and other assumptions without lecturing, but sometimes it wasn't terribly smooth--I kept thinking about the book's narrative rather than being caught up in it. The author provides some notes at the back about how he condensed various histories and traditions so that he could tell his story.

How to Beat Up Anybody: An Instructional and Inspirational Karate Book by the World Champion by Judah Friedlander

How to Beat Up Anybody: An Instructional and Inspirational Karate Book by the World Champion by Judah Friedlander, Humor, 208 pages.
The first point I should make is that there is really no good reason to try and pass this off as a book worthy of a competition such as the prestigious Missouri Book Challenge. Friedlander's book is all pictures and some of them are not at all family friendly. That, in a large part is why I chose to read it. I am way behind this year. The book itself is an insult to the true spirit of the martial arts, to ninjas, and to charity work. It is 100% accurate concerning levitation though.
My second point is that How to Beat Up Anybody is a funny book. Unlike most comedians who have recently found fame on TV and are given a book contract, Friedlander doesn't seem to be just going through the motions and filling in 200 pages with worn out material. Every thing in this book seems fresh, odd, and a little disturbing. If you find Friedlander's character on 30 Rock, Frank Rositano, amusing, then this is the book for you.

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