“Never be mean in anything. Never be false. Never be cruel. I can always be hopeful of you.” Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a…
Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross
“Their souls weren’t mirrors but complements, constellations that burned side by side.” Two weeks have passed since Iris returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over. Roman is missing, lost behind enemy lines, with no memory of his past, or Iris. Hoping his memories return, he begins to…
The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang
“Rainbows are funny things, aren’t they? The harder it rains, the more beautiful they shine. Who knows? Maybe it’s a gift from God, for those who’ve endured the storms.” On the outskirts of Rainbow Town, there is an old, abandoned house. They say that if you send a letter detailing your misfortunes there, you could…
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
“How much of ME is my own and how much is stamped into my blood and bone, predestined?” Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and…
One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny
“Marriage is a convenient way to remove an inconvenient child.” Oxford 1360. When his sister’s betrothed vanishes the night before her politically arranged marriage, Raff Barden must track and return the elusive groom to restore his family’s honour. William de Foucart ― known to his friends as Penn ― had no choice but to abandon…
Hunter School by Sakinu Ahronglong
Hunter School is a timely piece of fiction, drawing on the recollections, folklore, and autobiographical stories of an aboriginal Taiwanese man aiming to reconnect with his lost tribal identity a Paiwan identity lost in the name of development. It is impossible to be unaware of the effect of development, invariably at the hands of outsiders,…
A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen
“When you’re so close to the answer, you almost don’t want to keep going because it’s safer to stay in the dark. Because maybe knowing is the scariest part.” In Sài Gòn, Lan is always trying to be the perfect daughter, dependable and willing to care for her widowed mother and their bánh mì stall….
World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever
“All of us, when we travel, look at the places we go, the things we see, through different eyes. And how we see them is shaped by our previous lives, the books we’ve read, the films we’ve seen, the baggage we carry.” Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took…
The Accusation by Bandi
“Surely you know that whatever the play, the curtain always falls at the end.” Stolen from Goodreads: The Accusation is a deeply moving and eye-opening work of fiction that paints a powerful portrait of life under the North Korean regime. Set during the period of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il’s leadership, the seven stories that…
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being, just by shimmering at the meadow’s edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun.” As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the…
The Great Book Wyrm 