While Phillips has a true gift in her ability to describe foods with tantalizing detail and convey the sensual experiences of each dish, the book is incredibly self-aggrandizing and appropriative. She conveys dated exoticized concepts of the "other" when she shares her initial experiences in Taipei, and then gradually reveals her arrogantly judgmental and inflated sense of her hand in Chinese cuisine as she becomes more involved in this Chinese food culture. Ultimately there is a complete lack of deference and humility - an utter lack of awareness of her role in the larger part of the world that she seeks to authoritatively explain. She ends the book by claiming that more Westerners need to learn Chinese so that they can become "cultural conduits" of Chinese cuisine like she is. Um, does she not realize that tons of Chinese people speak English? Or that there are tons of Chinese immigrants in the West? Overall, this is not worth reading. Our globalized world provides many more platforms and options for people to authentically share their different cultures without have to endure the myth of inherent exceptionalism within this book.

I was blown away by Ariadne. It presents itself so familiarly at first with all the traditional Greek myths and epic tropes. It then quickly subverts these old traditions shine a bright light of condemnation on toxic masculinity and the misogyny that runs through all these accepted classical narratives. Saint develops extremely complex characters and interactions, and explores a range of different feminine traits and personalities through the two sisters. The novel manages to be both empowering and sadly resigned. I loved it and strongly recommend this book!