My life has been spent in search of a decent retelling of Mulan. The Hand, The Eye and The Heart is it. It treats our main character‘s gender identity sensitively, something I want more of in YA.
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Hua Zhilan is brought up a girl, a Banner Breaker with the ability to cloak herself in any form. When her father is called to war, she refuses to let him sacrifice himself for his family, and instead, assumes the Banner of Hua Zhi, her Male ‘twin‘.

Someone on the tube asked me if this was by the same person as "that handmaiden thing". They were American so I didn't correct them in the correct tube etiquette, which is to ignore everything around you.

But yes, Yankee friend, it is. And I reckon it's just as good.
(Now I am on a train where people are leaving me alone, and it is bliss.)

In equal parts this book was and was not written for my consumption.

A brilliant and human collection of the migrant experience that reminds me of my position of privilege as a white woman but that also reminds me of the diaspora between countries that say 'diverse' and are 'diverse'.

This is a book about experiences I can only read about, but that I (and our generation) must try to understand.

"White people debate it [diversity]. We live it."

"The people of Tabula Ra$a fell into roughly three camps in response to the terror threat:..."

Sometimes you read something that hits you like nobody has ever been hit before. In the wake of the various terror incidents that have hit my hometown in the past 3 weeks, I have been struck by the spirit of the people in town. They don't give up. It's just an inconvenience to have to deal with.

David Wong nailed human spirit, pass it on.

Bring on the weirdest schtick I'll read this year. I love David Wong.

New book for bedtime reading. Who else loves #historicalfiction?

I have literally never read a more heartwrenching and amazing book. The novel is equal parts hilarious, and throw-you-in-the-corner-shrieking.
I didn't like Hill's 'Horns', but reading this completely turned me around on him. The Fireman himself is intense, funny and the perfect Brit, while our protagonist (heroine is too cliche here) is equal parts whip smart and human. Coupled with the tensest ending I've read in a while, this book is flawless.

I finished this over the weekend after devouring it in about eight hours (praise be that there was no sunburn involved). Atwood's writing is the right kind of empty, the empty where you can fill in the blanks with your own summaries, your own emotions and your own experience, and that makes Offred's personality (or controlled lack thereof) so interesting.