Eggplant.place

52d

New Report from PEN: Out of Circulation

"It’s not just books: Public libraries are increasingly censorship battlegrounds, leading to interference with book displays, improper reshelving mandates, and disruptions of events."

#books #bookstodon #libraries @bookstodon

https://pen.org/report/out-of-circulation/

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52d

Always delighted to receive an advance proof of a chum's forthcoming book: The Shape of Monsters by @clhellisen , coming late September from the fine crowd at @torbooks

.

#books #livres #Fantasy #CLHellisen #bookstodon

Green coloured cover for The Shape of Monsters,with a stag's head and antlers at the bottom, the head filled with a starry sky

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31d

Kingdom Rising — Build, Raid, Rule Build your kingdom. Train your army. Attack your friends and other players in real-time battles. Raid rivals, win trophies, and climb the leaderboard Page · lemmy.world

Build your kingdom. Train your army. Attack your friends and other players in real-time battles. Raid rivals, win trophies, and climb the leaderboard

Kingdom Rising — Build, Raid, Rule

https://lemmy.world/post/52263921

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52d

Leaving Stone Mountain | Los Angeles Review of Books Yet Under the Falls stands apart from these texts because, as the name Stone Mountain and its Confederate associations should imply, Russo links his perennial theme of white working-class struggle and misery—what we might call the Gloversville theme—to the South’s “Lost Cause” and, more broadly, to white racist laments for a bygone era. Here, more than in any of his other novels, Russo tempers his personal attachment to a Rust Belt story with a new awareness of how white Americans have long manipulated facts to generate a self-serving and hateful version of the past. The text’s invocation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol highlights Russo’s interest in distinguishing the white workers of his novel from the “young white men waving Nazi flags and members of the KKK and conspiracy-theory-stoked militiamen” whom he decried in a recent Lit Hub essay. To be sure, Under the Falls takes regional history seriously through a steady focus on Tyler and his ambivalent feelings about the area. The novel begins with Tyler and his band arriving in Stone Mountain to play a benefit show for Doc, a friend rendered paraplegic by a terrible fall years before. Already uneasy about his return after decades away, Tyler grows even more anxious when Doc informs him that “not everybody on the Mountain is a Tyler Sinclair fan.” Doc explains: “It’s not just that you made all that money, […] It’s that you made it writing songs about us. […] Where’s our cut? is how they look at it.” “The Long Fall,” Tyler’s most famous song, offers ready ammunition to his detractors: inspired by Doc’s accident, the tune allegorizes the town’s economic demise and social crisis. Tyler has turned his friend’s suffering and his community’s misery into popular music and benefited in the process. Page · lemmy.ca

Yet Under the Falls stands apart from these texts because, as the name Stone Mountain and its Confederate associations should imply, Russo links his perennial theme of white working-class struggle and misery—what we might call the Gloversville theme—to the South’s “Lost Cause” and, more broadly, to white racist laments for a bygone era. Here, more than in any of his other novels, Russo tempers his personal attachment to a Rust Belt story with a new awareness of how white Americans have long manipulated facts to generate a self-serving and hateful version of the past. The text’s invocation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol highlights Russo’s interest in distinguishing the white workers of his novel from the “young white men waving Nazi flags and members of the KKK and conspiracy-theory-stoked militiamen” whom he decried in a recent Lit Hub essay.

To be sure, Under the Falls takes regional history seriously through a steady focus on Tyler and his ambivalent feelings about the area. The novel begins with Tyler and his band arriving in Stone Mountain to play a benefit show for Doc, a friend rendered paraplegic by a terrible fall years before. Already uneasy about his return after decades away, Tyler grows even more anxious when Doc informs him that “not everybody on the Mountain is a Tyler Sinclair fan.” Doc explains: “It’s not just that you made all that money, […] It’s that you made it writing songs about us. […] Where’s our cut? is how they look at it.” “The Long Fall,” Tyler’s most famous song, offers ready ammunition to his detractors: inspired by Doc’s accident, the tune allegorizes the town’s economic demise and social crisis. Tyler has turned his friend’s suffering and his community’s misery into popular music and benefited in the process.

Leaving Stone Mountain | Los Angeles Review of Books

https://lemmy.ca/post/70316952

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143d

Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl.

I was really excited for this one, but it sadly didn't quite live up to the excitement I had in my head.

It was a bit tonally all over the place in the first half, and seemed to care more about being a videogame in book form than telling an emotionally impactful book.

It's a shame, because it definitely has some beats and moments where it really shines well.

#book #books #bookstodon #booksky #reading #readingCommunity

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51d

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Library E-Lending on the Book Economy: As Public Libraries Prioritize eBook Formats, Harm to Commercial Markets Across All Formats is Quantifiable and Significant.

“[C]onsumer print sales decline by approximately 0.85 to 1.0 percent for every one-percentage-point increase in the share of e-books in public libraries, with adult fiction being at the upper end of this range.”

#books #writing #libraries #writersofmastodon #WritingCommunity #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://publishers.org/news/new-study-analyzes-the-impact-of-library-e-lending-on-commercial-book-markets/

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51d

"The scientific genius is so like the old Hebrew prophet. He singles out the essential from the mass of facts before him, and then - lifts up his eyes."

The Way of Escape: A Novel, 1902.

~Margaret Todd (23 April 1859 – 3 September 1918)

She coined the term isotope in 1913 in a suggestion to chemist Frederick Soddy.

Books by Graham Travers (aka Margaret Todd) at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/47770

#books #literature

Scan of a picture of Margaret Todd, the physician who wrote under the name Graham Travers. She also suggested the term "isotope" to Frederick Soddy for his discovery.

Black-and-white photographic portrait of a woman with dark hair pulled back, wearing a light-colored blouse with a decorative brooch/flower corsage and a beaded necklace.

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51d

Hmmm, no book reviews in August. Do you still have a pulse?

Yes, dear readers, I might have mentioned that once I get my teeth stuck in Darwin's Descent of Man, they would remain firmly lodged there. Here is a progress shot as I am grinding my way through over 700 pages of Victorian English and effectively a separate book of dense annotations. No shortcuts here, just reading books cover to cover before writing a review, so I beg your patience.

And those books on the left? I am settling in for a deep dive into this topic.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #Evolution #SexualSelection #CharlesDarwin #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

On the right, The Descent of Man, showing a white oblong hardback with a colour photo of a fan of brown bird feathers with noticeable eyespots (these belong to the argus pheasant). The book is heavily annotated with yellow Post-it notes

On the left, two books: Darwin and the Making of a Sexual Selection, a white hardback with a period black-and-white cartoon illustration of a woman in Victorian garb seen from the back, holding a small umbrella. Her head, back, and the umbrella are covered with coloured peacock feathers. Next to it is A Most Interesting Problem, showing a white hardback with two monotone colour illustrations of a chimpanzee skeleton in yellow and a human skull in green.

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50d

#QuestionOfTheDay what's a canonical thing and/or "word of god" in a fictional work/franchise/etc you enjoy that you reject?

Use spoiler warnings as needed

Word of God for those are unfamiliar means something stated by the creator(s) as canon/fact/correct interpretation/intention/etc and not necessarily stated in the actual work

#fiction #art #comics #comicbooks #videogames #gaming #musicals #books #anime #manga #TV #television #movies #film #ttrpg #ccgs #scifi #fantasy

Edited 50d ago

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2d

#books #bookstodon @bookstodon

Authors cannot help the fact that they share the same name, but to head off confusion these are three separate people:

KATE QUINN:

Historical Fiction

The Alice Network
The Rose Code
The Huntress
The Diamond Eye, etc.

CATE QUINN:

Historical Fiction
(Travel and Lifestyle journalist, as well)

Black Widows
Blood Sisters
The Clinic

KATHERINE QUINN:

Fantasy/Romance

Stolen Midnights series
Mistlands series
The Azantian trilogy

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50d

AI fails badly in discussing books I am reading I was recently reading Ben Aaronvitch’s ‘Rivers of London’ and I was struggling to follow the plot. So I engaged in discussions with both ChatGPT and Gemini and both really struggled to not make lots of mistakes. Both AIs would regularly give inaccurate info about major plot points, and when I questioned them about those issues, they would apologize profusely and then try to continue on. I basically had to coach them through to get them to remember important points of the plot! They also struggled to not reveal spoilers past a certain chapter. It was interesting to see the AIs repeatedly fail. Page · lemmy.world

I was recently reading Ben Aaronvitch’s ‘Rivers of London’ and I was struggling to follow the plot. So I engaged in discussions with both ChatGPT and Gemini and both really struggled to not make lots of mistakes. Both AIs would regularly give inaccurate info about major plot points, and when I questioned them about those issues, they would apologize profusely and then try to continue on. I basically had to coach them through to get them to remember important points of the plot! They also struggled to not reveal spoilers past a certain chapter. It was interesting to see the AIs repeatedly fail.

AI fails badly in discussing books I am reading

https://lemmy.world/post/51522933

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50d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/LegacyOfNewts

The undead witch that rules the space pirates, known as the Dead Queen, has finally been defeated. That only makes it worse for the witches that pulled it off. She’s livid and coming for them, at least once she gets her star ship back under control…

@bookstodon #author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/LegacyOfNewts

The undead witch that rules the space pirates, known as the Dead Queen, has finally been defeated. That only makes it worse for the witches that pulled it off. She’s livid and coming for them, at least once she gets her star ship back under control…

Amelia Blackwell’s sisters were kidnapped by an ancient, undead witch known as the Dead Queen and Amelia attacked the pirate’s mountain-sized star ship out of pure desperation. She never expected to actually rescue her sisters, let alone defeat the pirate on her own ship. Nonetheless, she pulled it off, got her sisters back and left the pirate queen’s ship helplessly listing through space.

Unfortunately for the Blackwell sisters, that’s only the beginning, because the Dead Queen survived and she’s absolutely livid. She seeks revenge, because the sisters made her look weak, forcing her to save face by killing them, lest her own lieutenants kill her.

Worse, the soul of Amelia’s oldest sister, Marta, has been intertwined with that of the Dead Queen, who was using necromancy to consume it, to extend her own life. That leaves them both stumbling through the thoughts of the other, each looking for some advantage in a battle of soul vs. soul, winner take all – even though Marta has no desire to steal the undead witch’s soul.

Iris, the middle sister, fares no better. Since she managed to resist interrogation by torture, the Dead Queen instead forced an addiction on her, offering hits of a pleasure spell for information, until she broke. Her brain chemistry is so screwed up, she’s unlikely to survive withdrawal.

The Queen soon gets her ship moving and the chase is on! Will the Blackwells find refuge and allies to fight off the Queen’s massive ship, or will everyone shun them, unwilling to take the risk of standing up to the queen of the pirates, who terrifies even the rulers of the star system?

#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

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50d

📚 Switzy by: Emma Cline

A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his ow...

https://bookblabla.com/book/switzy

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #psychologicalfiction

A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting.

A mystery, among many mysteries. The world, once so knowable, has been rendered inscrutable.

This is what David knows: Cody, his assistant, asleep in the seat next to him, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. A meeting in France with an old friend, estranged for decades.

His final destination is Zurich.

David glides through hotel rooms and airports and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes in: the Sunday roasts of childhood. The stiff clothes meant only for church. A summer at a school friend’s house. The losses and missteps that punctuate a life.

As David’s arrival in Zurich looms, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unraveling mind emerges, both darkly humorous and profoundly moving. Hypnotic and startlingly original, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he's relied on, vanish.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL

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50d

"Beyond Belief: The American Press And The Coming Of The Holocaust, 1933- 1945" by Deborah E. Lipstadt. My rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Published in 1993.

Book description: This complete study of American press reactions to the Holocaust sets forth in abundant detail how the press nationwide played down or even ignored reports of Jewish persecutions over a twelve-year period.

Emotionally, this is not an easy book to read, but I found it very instructive because it chronicles much of what was published in the British and United States press, during these years, and, therefore, is part of the historical record.

#nonfiction #history #TheHolocaust #Germany #WWII #books @bookstodon

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202d

I fear I'm not nice enough to swear to h*ck, but I kind of wish I was that has to count for something 😇😂

@bookstodon @books
@worldbuilding @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Memes #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Low #Urban #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #Soft #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic
#Novel #Books #Bookstodon #BookMastodon

Post by RED

| swear to h*ck, if I have to explain the difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy again, I will literally be so glad to help because learning is awesome and those two genres are my favorite.

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247d

It's almost like publishers don't know the Spice of Life when they see it 😜😂

@bookstodon @books
@worldbuilding @humor @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#Dune
#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Memes #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Low #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic #Whatever #GiveMeAllYouveGot
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #BookLove

Two panel meme of a person being uplifted by an angel.
Panel one: Frank Herbert getting rejected by every credible publisher.
Panel two: A company that specializes in car repair manuals thinking his story about giant worms and space drugs is kinda neat.

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31d

In 19th-century Ireland, a chance encounter between a disillusioned doctor and a fallen woman begins a story of love, loyalty, and choices that will shape their lives.

Amazon - https://mybook.to/ascarletwoman
Other Retailers - https://lornapeel.com/fitzgeralds/a-scarlet-woman

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #Books #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #Ireland #BookSeries #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Promotional image for the Irish historical fiction novel A Scarlet Woman by Lorna Peel, book one in The Fitzgeralds of Dublin series, an Irish family saga. The headline at the top reads, “One Family. Many Secrets.” On the left, text states: “Every family has secrets. The Fitzgeralds have generations of them. Begin The Fitzgeralds of Dublin series with A Scarlet Woman.” On the right is a 3D image of the book cover, featuring a young woman in a vintage dress looking downward, with a faded cityscape beneath her. The book title A Scarlet Woman and author name Lorna Peel appear on the cover. Along the bottom, the formats “Kindle | Kindle Unlimited | Paperback” are listed. The design uses a cream background with black and red text.

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49d

RE: https://mastodon.art/@NickEast_IndieWriter/117172203765192969

With 40 votes the result of the poll is in:

97% think I should add images to The Last Philosopher ebook.

78% think I should add them as scene/chapter headers.

So, expect Part two to have images, mostly maps...

@fantasy @bookstodon @books @reading
@worldbuilding @humor

#Ebook #Ebooks #Indie #IndieAuthor #Map #Maps #Drawings
#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks #Geek
#Fantasy #SciFi
#Novel #Books #Bookstodon

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54d

I think this is one reason I like writing fantasy, whatever weirdness I come up with it's always correct 🤔😁

@fantasy @bookstodon @books @reading
@worldbuilding @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks #Geek
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Low #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic #Whatever #GiveMeAllYouveGot
#Novel #Books #Bookstodon

Post by Victoria Aveyard
all writers should have doctor friends

Writer: Can you get internal bleeding, like coughing up blood, from broken ribs and blunt force trauma to the abdomem
Doctor: Yes
Writer: Excellent

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3d

I've got one more (short) horror book to read before Halloween.

Have you read some really good horror this month/year/ever?

Best Horror
(my list)

The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

The Stand, Stephen King

The Rouse, China Miéville

Red Rabbit, Alex Grecian

The Woods, James Tynion (graphic novel omnibus)

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones

The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, Brian Evenson (stories)

and, I'll throw in a wild card:

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, Augustina Bazterrica (stories)

#books #bookstodon #horror @bookstodon

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50d

If you're looking for a weekend read, check out this collection of speculative reads!
https://books.bookfunnel.com/speculative_fiction_09/9ui4aiyx6p

#Bookstodon #sff #fantasy #sciencefiction #scifi #books

9ui4aiyx6p

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2d

I contributed to this anthology, which is free to read and brought by a project called Applied African Science Fiction, where some academics in the UK use sci-fi in schools. My story in the collection is The Leafy Man, which tackles corporate greed - a biotech company releases a genetically modified mosquito to eradicate malaria, but the result is an apocalyptic horror show.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16gddFf7AppNm-Q6Mxydg_B3MO1z4CYdL/view

#book #books #bookstodon

view

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49d

A sweeping saga of family, loyalty, and secrets that shape generations.

Set against the rich backdrop of 19th-century Ireland, The Fitzgeralds of Dublin series explores love, sacrifice, and the ties that bind.

📚️️️️️ Books 1–9 available in box sets
📖 Free with Kindle Unlimited

Discover the series - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#Books #BooksByLornaPeel #Ireland #BookSeries #HistoricalFiction #FamilySaga #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Promotional image for the Fitzgeralds of Dublin series - an Irish historical fiction series by Lorna Peel, featuring three box sets: Books 1–3, Books 4–6, and Books 7–9. The text reads: "Love, trust, family ties and secrets... The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series. Books 1–3 Box Set, Books 4–6 Box Set, Books 7–9 Box Set. Out now on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited." Each box set is shown with individual book covers. Background includes a grayscale photo of Georgian townhouses on Merrion Square in Dublin, Ireland.

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31d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/WrathOfTheSky

Zechariah Jacobs has angered a vast empire that spans a third of the galaxy, which is far too much for his planet to stand against, but in a clash of wizards and magic versus technology, it’s hard to say which will win.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Wrath of the Sky, by Owen Tyme.

On a black background, a planet much like earth burns, set aflame. The flames are on the top and sides, but haven't yet reached the bottom.

(Right) An ogre stands on a rocky cliffside path, clearly quite upset, with both his head and arms raised as he cries out! The background is blue sky with white clouds. The following quote is laid over the top of the scene:

Winzon grinned evilly. With great slowness and ceremony, he undid the draw-string of his sack and up-ended it, dropping an ogre skull at the brute’s feet!

The massive ogre’s entire demeanor changed in an instant! He backed away, carefully stepping out of reach of Winzon’s ax, even though it was still strapped to his back!

The brute whispered, “Ogre-slayer!”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/WrathOfTheSky

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49d

📚 Taipei Story by: R. F. Kuang

College freshman Lily Chen is off to spend the summer in Taipei at an intensive language program like so many Chinese American students before her, hoping to connect with the culture she inherited but never fully understood. But a promising start quickly unravels. Her classes are...

https://bookblabla.com/book/taipei-story

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #familylife #multigenerationalfiction #literaryfiction #womenfiction

College freshman Lily Chen is off to spend the summer in Taipei at an intensive language program like so many Chinese American students before her, hoping to connect with the culture she inherited but never fully understood. But a promising start quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate is driving her insane, and a reckless trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon has her classmates viciously gossiping. She feels adrift, a foreigner in a country she thought would feel like home.

Then shocking news arrives: Lily’s grandfather has passed away. The loss forces her to grapple with now-unanswerable questions about her family history. As Lily grieves, she’s drawn into a journey of self-discovery—piecing together memories, stories, and silences over a series of hilarious and devastating attempts at connection.

Taipei Story asks: What if the diaspora fantasy of homecoming never comes true? What if learning a language can’t bring you any closer to the people you’re trying to reach? What if you search for your family’s history, but your family doesn’t want to share? What if you wait too long to ask the right questions? As Lily struggles for answers, her summer becomes a poignant search for understanding—of herself, her family, and the meaning of home.

From R.F. Kuang, the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author of Katabasis and Yellowface, comes a wryly humorous and profoundly moving coming-of-age novel that grapples with

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