Interesting Readings

Interesting Readings: a book club for the best in sci-fi, from quirky classics to fresh indie!

Our first July selection will be Octavia E. Butler's PARABLE OF THE SOWER.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/parable-of-the-sower-octavia-e-butler/3d0d65170d5548df

Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding social chaos and anarchy caused by climate change and economic crisis. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy--a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.
Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.

Includes a foreword by LeVar Burton and an afterword by N. K. Jemisin

**Note: this book was originally scheduled for June, but was moved to July so our requester could be at the meeting!

Interesting Readings: a book club for the best in sci-fi, from quirky classics to fresh indie!

Our second July selection will be Nnedi Okorafor's DEATH OF THE AUTHOR.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/death-of-the-author-a-novel-nnedi-okorafor/33987d7322df1a46?ean=9780063391147

In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human in a compelling work of speculative fiction. The future of storytelling is here.

Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister’s lavish Caribbean wedding, she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.

When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey—one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu’s novel, a true book-within-a-book, will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.

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Interesting Readings: a book club for the best in sci-fi, from quirky classics to fresh indie!

Our first read for Graphic Novel August will be ND Stevenson's NIMONA.

Find it online: https://bookshop.org/p/books/nimona-a-netflix-film-a-graphic-novel-nd-stevenson/83bd0cbaf0b29088

Now a Netflix animated film!

Nimona is the New York Times bestselling graphic novel sensation from ND Stevenson, based on his beloved and critically acclaimed web comic. Kirkus says, “If you’re going to read one graphic novel this year, make it this one.”

Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from ND Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel has been hailed by critics and fans alike as the arrival of a “superstar” talent (NPR.org).

Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.
But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.