What We’re Reading This Week

CHRISTINE

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 edited by Joe Hill

“It is the first science fiction and fantasy collection in the Best American series. The editor is John Joseph Adams, who edits science fiction magazines and has written lots of award-winning science fiction. Joe Hill is the guest editor for this first volume of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Each of them gives an introduction about the background of both science fiction and fantasy, geared towards those new to the genre, but also serving as  a good reminder to those who love the genre as to why they love it. They drew from magazines, journals, short story publications, and not just the ones that specialize in science fiction and fantasy. There are even three stories from The New Yorker!” You can find copies of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

JAN

The Investigation by J. M. Lee

“This is the fictionalized account of the last days in the life of Korean poet Yun Dong-ju. He had the misfortune of being born an intellectual in exile in Manchuria and was educated in Korea during the brutal Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula–a time when it was illegal to speak Korean in public, teach children Korean language in schools, and even have Korean names (all of which is completely absent from English-language history books). Yun was arrested as a thought criminal and seditious intellectual by the Japanese and sentenced to two years in Fukuoka prison during the height of the war in the Pacific, which is when and where this novel takes place. The narrator is a Japanese guard tasked with investigating the murder of another guard, and, in doing so, ends up the mental sparring partner of this young radical poet. Fans of Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road To The Deep North and Richard E. Kim’s Lost Names: Scenes From A Korean Boyhood will love this beautiful book.” You can find copies of The Investigation on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. 

MATTHEW

In Youth is Pleasure by Denton Welch

“In Youth is Pleasure is a sweet and melancholy book about a delicate gay boy, wandering by rivers, drinking communion wine in empty chapels, and stealing lipstick from the local store. He is a little stuffy, a little precious, and highly sensitive to his own shifting thoughts and emotions. His world is exquisite and dangerous.” You can find copies of In Youth is Pleasure by special order via bookpeople.com. 

MELISSA

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

“Red Rising is the first book in a futurist YA science fiction trilogy that could easily be considered adult. But here’s the kicker…it’s set on Mars! Whoa. Darrow is a miner, a ‘Red,’ and lives in an underground society, helping to make a livable planet once Earth decays…Only he finds a full society already on the surface. The beginning of a rebellion ensues! I’m only 100 pages in but I was immediately hooked, and thrilled! This series does a fantastic job filling the hole Harry Potter and The Hunger Games have left behind – but in a completely fresh and beautifully written way. Is my excitement showing?”You can find copies of Red Rising on our shelves and via bookpeople.com.