Ragged Company
Summary
Four chronically homeless people - Amelia One Sky, Timber, Double Dick and Digger - seek refuge in a warm movie theater when a severe Arctic front descends on the city. During what is supposed to be a one-time event, this temporary refuge transfixes them. They fall in love with this new world and, once the weather clears, continue their trips to the cinema. On one of these outings they meet Granite, a jaded and lonely journalist who has turned his back on writing the same story over and over again in favor of the escapist qualities of film, and an unlikely friendship is struck. A found cigarette package (contents: some unsmoked cigarettes, three $20 bills, and a lottery ticket) changes the fortune of this struggling set. The ragged company discovers they have won $13.5 million, but none of them can claim the money for lack proper identification. Enlisting the help of Granite, their lives, and fortunes, become forever changed. Ragged Company is a journey into both the future and the past, told by an accomplished full cast which includes, in order of appearance: Monique Mojica as AMELIA ONE SKY Benjamin Blais as DIGGER J.D. Nicholsen as TIMBER Douglas Hughes as GRANITE Wesley French as DOUBLE DICK
©2009 Richard Wagamese (P)2019 Anchor Canada
How Much of These Hills Is Gold
Summary
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize Finalist for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize National best seller A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree A GOOP Book Club Pick "A fully immersive epic drama packed with narrative riches and exquisitely crafted prose." (San Francisco Chronicle) "Belongs on a shelf all of its own." (NPR) "Outstanding." (The Washington Post) "Arresting, beautiful." (The New York Times) "Revolutionary... A visionary addition to American literature." (Star Tribune) An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape - trying not just to survive but to find a home. Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their Western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future. Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and reimagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But its about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.
©2020 C Pam Zhang (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Interior Chinatown
Summary
A 2020 National Book Award Winner "One of the funniest books of the year...a delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire." (The Washington Post) From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Willis Wu doesnt perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: Hes merely Generic Asian man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but he is always relegated to a prop. Yet every day he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. Hes a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy - the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. At least thats what he has been told, time and time again. Except by one person, his mother. Who says to him: Be more. Playful but heartfelt, a send-up of Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes, Interior Chinatown is Charles Yus most moving, daring, and masterly novel yet. "Fresh and beautiful...Interior Chinatown represents yet another stellar destination in the journey of a sui generis author of seemingly limitless skill and ambition." (The New York Times Book Review)
©2020 Charles Yu (P)2020 Random House Audio
Death Notice
Summary
"Fiendishly inventive." (The Wall Street Journal)
Chengdu, China: The vibrant capital of Sichuan Province is suddenly held hostage when a shocking manifesto is released by an anonymous vigilante known as Eumenides. It is a bold declaration of war against a corrupt legal system, with Eumenides acting as judge and executioner.
The public starts nominating potential targets, and before long hundreds of names are added to his kill list. Eumenides' cunning game has only just begun. First, he publishes a death notice announcing his next target, the crimes for which the victim will be punished, and the date of the execution. The note is a deeply personal taunt to the police. Everyone knows who is going to die and when it's going to happen, but the police fail to stop the attack.
The 4/18 Task Force, an elite group of detectives and specialists, is assembled to catch Eumenides before he strikes again. In the process, they discover alarming connections to an 18-year-old cold case, and they find out that some members of the team have much to hide.
©2018 Zhou Haohui, Zac Haluza (P)2018 Random House Audio
Mecha Samurai Empire
Summary
The Man in the High Castle meets Pacific Rim in this action-packed alternate-history novel from the award-winning author of United States of Japan. Germany and Japan won WWII and control of the US, and a young man has one dream: to become a mecha pilot. Makoto Fujimoto grew up in California, but with a difference - his California is part of the United States of Japan. After Germany and Japan won WWII, the US fell under their control. Growing up in this world, Mac plays portical games, haphazardly studies for the Imperial Exam, and dreams of becoming a mecha pilot. Only problem: Mac's grades are terrible. His only hope is to pass the military exam and get into the prestigious mecha pilot training program at Berkeley Military Academy. When his friend Hideki's plan to game the test goes horribly wrong, Mac washes out of the military exam, too. Perhaps he can achieve his dream by becoming a civilian pilot. But with tensions rising between the United States of Japan and Nazi Germany and rumors of collaborators and traitors abounding, Mac will have to stay alive long enough first....
©2018 Peter Tieryas (P)2018 Penguin Audio