Light From Uncommon Stars

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And so, Katrina listened … for footsteps, for breathing, for sleep. She listened, and listened. Through the dark, she heard her mother’s one last cough. Her father’s one last flush.

The deeper Daya immerses herself into the world of roller derby, though, the more she realizes it’s not the simple physical pain-fest she was hoping for. Her rough-and-tumble teammates and their fans push her limits in ways she never imagined, bringing Daya to big truths about love, loss, strength, and healing. El Monte Donuts became known not only for apple fritters, but for Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Defender. Their most popular game, by far, was Stargate. Dedicated video game players would spend hour after hour, quarter after quarter, rescuing people from an alien invasion that would never, ever cease. Eventually, the Thamavuongs decided to buy, rather than rent, first one, then two, and finally three Stargate machines. Since they kept them in good playing condition, their shop became known informally as Stargate Donuts. Told from the point of view of Seema’s child at the moment of his birth and infused with the poetry of Wordsworth, Keats, and the Quran, Radiant Fugitives is an operatic debut from a bold new voice, exploring the tensions between ideology and practicality, hope and tradition, forgiveness and retribution for one family navigating a shifting political landscape. A picture of Mr. and Mrs. Thamavuong still hung on the wall. They had acquired Starrgate in 1979. At the time, it was known as El Monte Donuts. The Thamavuongs sold classic, American-style donuts made with happiness and care. And, in the ’80s, video games became popular, so the Thamavuongs brought them into their store.Those women were around her mother’s age—they could have been her mother’s friends. She didn’t need to understand them to understand them, for it blended with the chatter that she heard every day. Of course, I understood there was no chance that Shizuka was going to consign Katrina’s soul to hell. It is very much not that kind of book. I knew that the trajectory of the book was going to ensure that Shizuka and the other characters would take good care of Katrina. (Would love to get that kid into trauma-focused therapy btw.) And they do, of course. Better yet, they foster her career with affection and respect, and Shizuka follows Katrina’s lead in their teacher/student relationship, helping her play video game theme music when she’s feeling it and Bartók when she’s feeling that. The point in either case isn’t for Katrina to play this piece or that piece, but rather to be connected to her work. With Katrina, Shizuka used what had always worked: let her listen, let her follow…. Just play and trust her to follow. With nuanced emotional precision, gritty humor, and compassionate insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities, the stories in Afterparties deliver an explosive introduction to the work of Anthony Veasna So.

James Davis Nicoll on Five SF Visions of Society Free From Rules, Regulations, or Effective Government 2 hours ago Lambda Literary Award-winning author Rebecca Podos and Stonewall honoree Ashley Herring Blake‘s FOOLS IN LOVE, a YA romance anthology offering up fresh takes on classic romance tropes in multiple genres, featuring Rebecca Barrow, Gloria Chao, Sara Farizan, Claire Kann, Hannah Moskowitz, Lilliam Rivera, Laura Silverman, Amy Spalding, Rebecca Kim Wells, Natasha Ngan, Julian Winters, and more, to Britny Brooks at Running Press Kids, for publication in December 2021, by Eric Smith at P.S. Literary Agency (world). There is more about music in Light from Uncommon Stars than can be detailed in a single review; it is the bass note, the driving force of the novel, the cause of redemption, the cause of damnation, and the raison d’être of many characters. There are enough details about musical technique, music history, and lutherie in it to delight everyone from the entirely uninitiated to the classically trained. Aoki is an anti-snob. For her, aesthetic experience inheres not in the rarity of its object, but in the self-evident pleasurableness of an experience itself. Shizuka, an expert in classical violin, does not sneer when she discovers Katrina’s love of video game music; in fact, she appreciates it almost immediately. When Shizuka and Lan share an intimate moment, Shizuka hums a melody.Lan’s family turns its attention to their donut shop within minutes of a literal earth-shattering moment, and throughout the novel, are as preoccupied with working on their stargate as they are with perfecting their donuts. It doesn’t matter who you are and who you identify as or where your diverse giftings may lie, Light From Uncommon Stars has something profound to say to you.

Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. I think girl,” the woman said. She didn’t bother whispering. So what if the kid could hear? They were speaking Cantonese; the young ones were either Americanized or learning Mandarin. Each of these subscription programs along with tax-deductible donations made to The Rumpus through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, helps keep u s going and brings us closer to sustainability. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of The Rumpus must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.I am not an immigrant nor a refugee nor a child thereof. No one has hurled racist slurs at me. I don’t know what it is like to leave my home behind for a new life far away, or to return to one’s home decades later only to find the neighbourhood changed. Still, Aoki’s descriptions of how these Los Angeles neighbourhoods have fluctuated and flowed throughout the decades, how various immigrant populations have made these neighbourhoods their own, creates a picture of the city that we seldom get to see. Aoki mixes wry commentary on Asian stereotypes with a careful delineation of differences among Vietnamese, Cambodian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese culture, cuisine, music, language, etc.—again belying the simplistic narratives that often flatten and erase this beautiful diversity. Also, this book kept making me hungry.