Shelly Bryant

Here’s what I was reading and viewing in December

Hits

• The Final Act of Mr Shakespeare (Robert Winder)
• Forrest Gump (Winston Groom)
• Billy Elliot (movie)
• The Steampowered Globe (Rosemary Lim and Malsanah bet Abu Samah, ed)

Back issues of Star*Line, Disturbed Digest, and Outposts of Beyond

Misses

• none

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• The Hobbit 3 (movie) – mostly not a complete miss because it was a fun outing with friends

So how was December reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I was reading and viewing in November

Hits

• Paths of Glory (Jeffrey Archer)
• The Fifth Child (Doris Lessing)
• Captain America: The First Avenger (movie)
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (movie)
• Jaya (Dr Devdutt Pattanaik)
• The Dispossessed (Ursula K Le Guin)
• Lucy (movie)
• If I Stay (movie)
• Dwarf Stars 2014 (Sandra J Lindow, ed)

Back issues of Aoife’s Kiss and Ploughshares

Misses

• Darkness at Bamiyan (Amol Titus)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (movie)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Judas Unchained (Peter F Hamilton)
  • I expected to like this a lot, but never managed to get into it – probably at least partly because I was sick

So how was November reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I was reading and viewing in October

Hits

• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: a novel (A J Hartley and David Hanson)
• Shoeless Joe (W P Kinsella)
• East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
  • this has moved up to a very high spot on my all-time favourites; I really loved it
• Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
• 《敦煌的诗》（方健荣  ／ 郑宝生，选编）
• Red (movie)

Back issues of Aoife’s Kiss

Misses

• none

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Ben Hur (Lew Wallace)
  • I expected to like this a lot, but never exactly got into it; one of the rare instances in which I’d recommend the movie over the book

So how was October reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I was reading and viewing in August and September

Hits

• Starry Island (Fiona Sze-Lorrain, ed.)
• Zero History (William Gibson)
• Urchin (Lisa Heiserman Perkins)
• The Genie at Low Tide (Paul Bayall)
• The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (Nancy Farmer)
• When the Gods are Silent (Jane Linskold)

Back issues of  Ploughshares and  Aoife’s Kiss

Misses

• none

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Pompeii (movie)
• The Lost Prince (Julie Kagawa)
• The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (T E Lawrence) – both hit and miss, since there were some interesting insights, but the coloniser’s clear sense of superiority is too insulting to overlook
• Brothers (Yu Hua) – both hit and miss, since the writing was good and much of the story was gripping, while other parts just came off as overboard; the real “miss” aspect, though, is the misogyny that is almost celebrated in the book

So how was August and September reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I was reading and viewing in June and July

Hits

• Unaccustomed Earth (Jhumpa Lahiri)
• 《悲悯大地》(范稳)
• Transformers: The Age of Extinction (movie)
• The Children (Edith Wharton)
• Drone (Allan Popa)
• Making Love with Scrabble Tiles (Joshua Ip)
• Invasion (Jon S. Lewis)
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 (movie)
• Red Dot Irreal (Jason Erik Lundberg)
• Homecoming (Cynthia Voigt)
• The Reason I Jump (Naoki Higashida)
• Five Right Angles (Aaron Lee)

Recent issues of Scifaikuest, Star*Line, and Illumen.

Back issues of  Scifaikuest, Star*Line, and FrostFire Worlds, 

Misses

• none

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• The Iron Woman (Ted Hughes) – both a hit and a miss, even though it feels almost irreverent to say so

So how was June and July reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I was reading and viewing in May

Hits

• Surface Tension (James Blish)
• Spook Country (William Gibson)
• 11-22-63 (Stephen King)
• I, Claudius (Robert Graves
• 《寸寸土地皆故事》 （尤今）
• Ender’s Game (movie)
• Her (movie

Back issue of Aoife’s Kiss.

Misses

• none

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Six Years (Harlan Corben) – both a hit and a miss, since I liked most of the book, but not the ending

So how was May reading and viewing for you?

I’m posting a 2-month reading list here, after having fallen behind due to a heavy workload. (Said workload also reflected in my meagre reading for that 2-month period.)

Hits

• Death Fugue (Sheng Keyi)
• The Invisible Man (H. G. Wells)
• The Once and Future King (T. H. White)
• The English Patient (Michael Ondaaje)
• The Red and the Black (Stendhal)
• 《等待国旗的人》 （尤今）

Back issue of Books & Culture and Aoife’s Kiss.

Misses

• none

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• none

So how was March/April reading and viewing for you?

Hits

• Death Fugue (Sheng Keyi)
• Field of Blood (Eric Wilson)
• Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
• 《白草地》（盛可以）

The most recent issue of Outposts of Beyond.

Back issue of Asia Literary Review.

Misses

• My Favourite Wife (Tony Parsons)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• none

So how was February reading and viewing for you?

Hits

• The 2013 Rhysling Anthology (John C Mannone, ed.)
• Balik Kampung 2A (Verena Tay, ed.)
• Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
• A Spectacle for Scholars (Winifred Welles)
• Faster (movie)
• 《白草地》（盛可以）
• 《人民的鱼》（苏童）

The most recent issues of Illumen, The Martian Wave,  and Lontar.

Back issues of Scifaikuest.

Misses

• none

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (movie)
• Immanuel’s Veins (Ted Dekker)

So how was January reading and viewing for you?

This is the last list of 2013.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Hits

• Our Room (unpublished MS by Susie Gordon)
• Elysium (movie)
• Europa Report (movie)
• Chris Pye’s Woodcarving Course and Reference Manual (Chris Pye)
• Dragons of the Watch (Donita K. Paul)
• Chinese Garden Pleasures (Alison Hardie)

The most recent issues of Scifaikuest  and Star*Line.

Back issues of Scifaikuest.

Misses

• Best Man Down (movie)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Oblivion (movie)

So how was December reading and viewing for you?

When I posted last month’s list so late, I thought this month’s would be on time.  But here I am, later than ever.

Hits

• Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby)
• Sometimes a Great Notion (Ken Kesey)
• Anthem (Ayn Rand)
• The Wolverine (movie)
• 42 (movie)
• After Earth (movie)
• Hunger Games: Catching Fire (movie)

Misses

• Pacific Rim (movie)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Shanghai Calling (movie)

So how was November reading and viewing for you?

I’m a little late with this list, but here it is at last.

Hits

• Habouring (unpublished MS, Susie Gordon)
• Going to Kyoto (unpublished MS, Miho Kinnas)
• “High Crimes” in Shanghai (film)
• Black Swan (film)
• Chinese Gardens (Lou Qingxi)
• The Day of the Jackal (Frederick Forsyth)

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Glengarry Glen Ross (onstage)
• Captain Blood (Rafael Sabitini)

So how was October reading and viewing for you?

Where did September go?  I’m not quite sure, but it is gone!

Hits

• The Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut)
• The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde)
• Favorite Poems (Henry Wordsworth Longfellow)
• The Men Who Stare at Goats (movie)
• Breaking Point (James E. Gunn)
• 《死亡赋格》（盛可以) – Death Fugue (Sheng Keyi)  x2
• Moby Dick (Herman Melville)

back issues of Books & Culture

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• none here either!

So how was September reading and viewing for you?

Hopefully this will be the last of my very short lists.  I’m getting past some of my deadlines now, and hope to have a bit of time to breathe.

Hits

• Dwarf Stars 2013
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (movie)
• Dune (Frank Herbert)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (movie)
• George MacDonald: His Life and Works (Rolland Hein)
• Minority Report (movie)

most recent issues of The ATA Chronicle

back issues of The ATA Chronicle and Aoife’s Kiss

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• none here either!

So how was August reading and viewing for you?

I think all of my reading lists will be smaller than usual for the rest of this year, or at least through the end of next month.  I’ve got several projects going on, and all my reading seems focused on those, for now.

Hits

• The Return (Charles Tomlinson)
• Upside Down (movie)
• Yorick Magazine
• Spores from Sharnoth and other Madness (Leigh Blackmore)
• Victimology (Verena Tay)
• Liquid Nitrogen (Jennifer Maiden)

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Man of Steel (movie)
• Trance (movie)

So how was July reading and viewing for you?

I think all of my reading lists will be smaller than usual for the rest of this year, or at least through August.  I’ve got several projects going on, and all my reading seems focused on those, for now.

This one is especially short (but I got loads of work done in June).

Hits

• 《独自上场》 （李娜) – soon to be out in English as A Single’s Game, by Li Na
• The Measured Word (Kurt Brown, ed.)
• Dune by Frank Herbert (in progress)
• Jonah (Ellen Gunderson Traylor)

Along with the most recent issues of Scifaikuest, Illumen, Star*Line, and Dreams & Nightmares, and back issues of Scifaikuest, Illumen, and Star*Line. (Catching up on what came in the mail while I was away for three months.)

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• none for this part of the list either

I always like the all-hit list, even if it is a shorter list than usual.

So how was June reading and viewing for you?

I think all of my reading lists will be smaller than usual for the rest of this year, or at least through August.  I’ve got several projects going on, and all my reading seems focused on those, for now.

This list is also a little later than I like to be. Maybe I’ll be able to get back on schedule with next month’s. (But no promises!)

Hits

• Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (anonymous, translated by Robert von Gulick)
• Dune (Frank Herbert) – in progress
• Miracle at St. Anna’s (movie)
• Song of Myself (Walt Whitman)
• Black is the Color of my Voice (onstage)

Along with back issues of Books & Culture

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• none for this part of the list either

I always like the all-hit list, even if it is a shorter list than usual.

So how was May reading and viewing for you?

I think all of my reading lists will be smaller than usual for the rest of this year, or at least through August.  I’ve got several projects going on, and all my reading seems focused on those, for now.

This list is also a little later than I like to be. Maybe I’ll be able to get back on schedule with next month’s. (But no promises!)

Hits

• Treason (Orson Scott Card)
• Letters from the Earth (Mark Twain)
• Der Kontrabass (onstage)
• Dislocations (Chew Kok Chang)

Along with back issues of Aoife’s Kiss

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• none for this part of the list either

I always like the all-hit list, even if it is a shorter list than usual.

So how was April reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  It’s a smallish list this time round, mostly because I have several projects going on that require a lot of reading, and at a very slow pace.  I’m also very late in posting my March reading list!

Hits

• Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
• War Poems (Carl Sandburg)
• When Dogs Cry (Markus Zusak)
• The Hidden Reality (Brian Greene)
• Other Voices, Other Worlds (Bruce Boston)
• No Exit (onstage)

Along with the most recent issue of In Other Words

Misses

• Startling Moon (Liu Hong)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• None

So how was March reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  It’s a smallish list this time round, mostly because I have several projects going on that require a lot of reading, and at a very slow pace.

Hits

• Spectre (Verena Tay)
• from within the marrow (Yong Shu Hoong)
• Future Cop (movie)
• Twenty-One Novel Poems (Suzette Elgin Haden)
• Cloud Atlas (movie)
• Hiss of Leaves (T. D. Ingram)

Along with the most recent issues of Star*Line and Illumen

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Rush Hour 2 (movie)

So how was February reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  It’s a smallish list this time round, mostly because I have several projects going on that require a lot of reading, and at a very slow pace.

Hits

• Blood of Heaven (Bill Meyers)
• Dreaming in the Days of Astophel (Lyn C. A. Gardner)
• Les Miserables (movie)
• Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell)

Along with some back issues of the magazine Knowledge

Misses

• no misses!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Flesh and Blood (Michael Cunningham)

(There was a lot I liked in Flesh and Blood, but also just enough that didn’t quite grab me to prevent it from landing on the Hit portion of the list.)

So how was January reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.

Hits

• The Garden of Evening Mists (Tan Twan Eng)
• Unearthly Delights (Marge Simon)
• 《死亡赋格》（盛可以，Sheng Keyi)
• My Friend, the Poet (Terrie Leigh Relf)
• Fish Eats Lion (Jason Erik Lundberg, ed.)
• The Dragon Dictionary (Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo)
• The Japanese Haiku (Kenneth Yasuda)
• Dragon Soup (Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo)

Along with the most recent issues and several back issues of the magazines Illumen, Knowledge, The Martian Wave

Misses

• no all-out misses

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Rising Sun (Michael Crichton)
• The Hobbit (movie)
• Men in Black II (movie)

So how was December reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Hits

• The Master (Colm Toibin)
• The Sun is Not for Us (onstage)
• The Craft of Gardens (Ji Cheng)
• Lao She in London (Anne Witchard)
• Continuous Growth (onstage)
• Interpreting Another Culture (an unpublished dissertation by Betty Barr)
• In the Company of Heroes (Verena Tay)

Along with the most recent issues and several back issues of the magazines Scifaikuest, Star*Line, Micro Art, The World of Chinese

Misses

• All My Sons (onstage)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
• 《驴得水》

(both of these two got mixed reviews from me)

So how was October reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Hits

• The Casual Vacancy (J. K. Rowling)
• Van Helsing (movie)
• Lust, Caution and other short stories (Eileen Chang)
• Finding Neverland (movie)
• Crossing Over (movie)
• The Other Side of Light (Mishi Saran)
• The Sheckley Trilogy
• The Master (Colm Toibin) – not finished yet, but really enjoying it

Along with the most recent issues of several back issues of the magazine The World of Chinese

Misses

• Friends with Benefits (movie)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Material Witness (Vanetta Chapman)  – it was OK, but not a real favorite with me

So how was October reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Hits

• Zoheleth (J. Francis Hudson)
• Northern Girls (Sheng Keyi)
• A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)
• Icarus Airlines (Taylor Mali)
• Vulcan’s Workshop (Harl Vincent)
• The Plague (Albert Camus)
• Hachi (movie)
• From the Cables of Genoside (Lorna Dee Cerventes)
• Source Code (movie)
• Moneyball (movie)
• Player Piano (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)
• White Deer Plain (movie)
• Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (onstage)
• Orlando (Virginia Woolf)
• Edgar Allan Poe Collection
• Six Degrees of Separation (John Guare)

Along with the most recent issues of several magazines, including:  Beyond Centauri, Star*Line

Misses

• none!

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• The Future of Ice (Gretel Ehrlich) – this one is hard to rate, because there were things I loved and things I loathed

So how was September reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Hits

• Winterflight (Joseph Bayly)
• Vamps (James S. Dorr)
• Falling Through Nothing (Scott Nicolay)
• The Commentaries and The Gallic Wars (Julius Caesar)
• Edible Zoo (David C. Kopaska-Merkel)
• The City of a Thousand Gods (Marge Simon and Malcolm Deeley)
• Wild Hunt of the Stars (Ann K. Schwader)
• The Devil’s Disciples (George Bernard Shaw)
• 《独自上场》 李娜
• Self-Reliance (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Along with the most recent issues of several magazines, including:  Beyond Centauri, Star*Line

Misses

• Bene Ha Elohim:  Sons of God (K. T. & C. J. Hehir)

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

So how was August reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Hits

• A Distant Shore (John Houghton)
• A Prisoner of Birth (Jeffrey Archer)
• The Amazing Spiderman (movie)
• The 2012 Rhysling Anthology
• Signs & Wonders (Jennifer Crow)
• How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction (J. N. Williamson, ed.)
• Virgin of the Apocalypse (Corrine de Winter)
• The Tortilla Curtain (T. C. Boyle)
• The Poetry Home Repair Manual (Ted Kooser)

Along with the most recent issue of Dreams & Nightmares

Misses

• There were no misses

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• None here either!

It’s always a good thing to post an all-hit list!

So how was July reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Hits

• The Cyberiad (Stanislaw Lem)
• The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
• Shakespeare in Love (movie)
• Puss in Boots (movie)
• Black Maria (Kevin Young)
• 《我的心中每天开出一朵花》畿米
• The Personifid Project (R. E. Bartlett)
• Snow White and the Huntsman
• Legends of the Fallen Sky (Marge Simon and Malcolm Deeley)
• The Civil Servant’s Notebook (Wang Xiaofang)
• The Phantom World (Gary William Crawford)

Along with the most recent issues of several magazines, including:  parABnormal Digest, Scifaikuest

Misses

• There were no all-out misses

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• 《贴身感觉》张小娴
• American Empire:  Blood and Iron (Harry Turtledove)

So how was June reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Hits

• The Mark of a Christian (Francis A. Schaffer)
• The Avengers (movie)
• 《下面，我该干些什么》（阿乙）(What Should I do Next, by A Yi)
• Beast (Erin Donahoe)
• Selected Poems (Tony Harrison)
• Through the Woods (Erin Donahoe)
• Big Shot’s Funeral (movie)
• Stellar Possibilities (John Dunphy)
• Up is Down (Mikal Trimm)
• Contemporary Haibun, vol. 13 (Edited by Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross, and Ken Jones)
• Pitch (Todd Boss)
• Men in Black 3 (movie)
• The Case for Working with Your Hands (Matthew Crawford)

Along with back issues of several magazines, including:  Scifaikuest, The World of Chinese (x2), Star*Line (x2)

Misses

• There were no all-out misses

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• 《1988： 我想和这个世界谈》韩寒 (1988:  I Want to Talk with the World, by Han Han)
• The Curious Lore of Precious Stones (George Frederick Kunz)

So how was May reading and viewing for you?

Here’s what I’ve been reading and viewing for the past month.  (You can click on the links for short reviews or comments I’ve left elsewhere.)

Several were close calls for me, with a few of the things I ultimately ranked “Hits” being fairly borderline calls, and one of the “Neither Hit nor Miss” reads being a good candidate for an all-out miss.

Hits

• The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
• David Copperfield (onstage)
• Far from the Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy)
• 四世同堂 (onstage)
• 贾宝玉 / Awakening (onstage)
• Oleanna (onstage)
• The Empty Family (Colm Toibin)
• Benjamin Franklin:  An American Life (Walter Isaacson)

Along with back issues of several magazines, including:  Chinese Newsweek, Aoife’s Kiss

Misses

• There were no all-out misses

Neither Hit Nor Miss

• Gypsy’s Game (Delia Latham)
• Breathless (Kathryn J. Bain)

So how was April reading and viewing for you?