So my reading on a trip to Japan is so intensive that while I`ve read three other books here, there`s no way I have the energy to give each of them their own listing. And I`ve managed to give the first pass to novel number two (hereby working-titled "Tiger Lily" because I sucketh at titles but you gotta call them something. Now all I have to do is go home and type in all the changes and new scenes) so here`s a summary of the actually published novels I`ve been reading;

Dragonhaven by Robin Mckinley
YES! YES! One of those books I put down and wanted to cry right away at the beauty and pain and difficulty of life. God, she`s good. This doesn`t need its own entry because OF COURSE I recommend it and I would be afraid to ruin any bit of it by telling you about it as you need to read it as it unfolds and boy I wish I could write like that.

Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery
Okay....um.....interesting. Kind of psychedelic. I enjoyed the intense, intense descriptions of New York peoples....and then got bored by the riffing on those descriptions. Wanted more plot and less psychedelic. Still would recommend it though to be read in a kind of academic "so this is what post modern literature can be" kind of way.

The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson
YA book about a girl in an alternate world where Wellington LOST to Napoleon at Waterloo and Scotland is part of a Hanseatic Union fighting against Europe. It seems to be about spiritualism and arms and if might makes right when one is looking for peace. Pretty good.