Believe it or not, I've actually been on a much-needed. vacation for the past week. But damn, it hurts to plug back in. While I was gone, the article everyone wanted to send me was this Salon.com book review of this creepy-ass book, The East, The West and Sex by Richard Bernstein: White male seeking sexy Asian women.

I have not read the book in question, but you can imagine it's probably as bad as it sounds. Is anyone else soooo over this topic yet? Apparently not, as guys like Bernstein continue to write entire books (don't get me started on blogs like ChinaBounder) on the western man's oriental obsession.

Here's more critical unpacking from Claire over at the Hyphen blog, both on the book ("I'll admit, I'm not rendered so much squirmy as nauseated by the subject") as well as Laura Miller's Salon review: More On Asian Sexual Fetishes: Laura Miller on 'The East, the West, and Sex'. And from Giles at BPR: East, West, and Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex.