Liu, Marjorie M. - The Wild Road

Lannes is a gargoyle (related to the gargoyle from Liu's novella in Dark Dreamers). Despite his paranoia about being discovered and exploited by humans, he ends up helping a young woman, despite the fact that she's covered in blood, armed, attempting to carjack his Impala, and has no name or memory.

While I find this highly impractical on his part, it's nice to know that there are also heroes in romances who are Too Stupid To Live! Also, Liu manages to pull it off for reasons that I'm still trying to figure out.

Soon, both of them are trying to figure out who the woman is while assorted people are alternately shooting at them or running them off the road. Liu's prose is still a bit out of hand, particularly when it comes to descriptions, and the dialogue isn't as zingy, given that both Lannes and the woman are strong, silent types. On the other hand, I loved reading about the two of them together, particularly how both of them have to overcome a great deal of angst and fear of intimacy. Sometimes they seem to trust each other too easily, but again, I think Liu makes it work by isolating the two.

Also, I love that the two of them are silent and stoic and angsty. One of my favorite moments is when they're standing several feet apart for hours, one just waiting until the other's ready to talk.

The usual insane Liu plotting is also in evidence, although the way things come together make more sense in this book than in some of her others. That said, I enjoyed this most for the growing emotional connection between the leads.

New York: many meals and several days

I got into New York on Friday and promptly went karaoke-ing until 3 in the morning. I feel like I have been sleep deprived ever since!

Have had incredibly tasty food so far, although I still tend to prefer vegetarian restaurants that feature more vegetables or tofu and less vegetarian meat, which is probably why I liked Red Bamboo's desserts and appetizers more than the entrees. Except littlebutfierce's cod cakes, which were deep fried and didn't seem to be emulating something else.

I went to a few vegetarian places in Taiwan over the summer, and the trend seems to be moving away from the fake meat, so the contrast was particularly interesting.

On the other hand, I am still very fond of vegan desserts for some reason! I suspect it is because they don't trigger my occasional lactose intolerance.

The weather is extremely odd: the California-like blue skies and fluffy white clouds today gave way to heavy rain later, the past two days have been nippy while today and Saturday were hot, and a thunderstorm woke me up on Monday. It's like New York is trying to decide between being like Taiwan or California and giving me severe climate confusion.

Today, I walked through Central Park and saw the superhero costume exhibit at the Met with astolat. The exhibit was more on the influence of superhero costumes on the runway and less on the evolution of superhero costumes, which the geek in me would have been more interested in, and the focus was more on superheroes who have had TV or movie incarnations. But still, very neat, and there's an amazing dress of brightly colored feather and several other spider-webby ones that I really wanted.

Also, Central Park is very large! My feet are complaining.

So, New York people, I am actually going to be slightly touristy this time and try to see museums, to break a little with my usual activities of book shopping, eating, more book shopping, and more eating. I am thinking about seeing the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, the planetarium, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the Museum of Sex. Any advice?