Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found

372 pages (September 2021)

 

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

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Ryka Aoki interview at the Hugo awards 2022:

This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith; The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang; The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune; Shakti by Rajorshi Chakraborti; August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White; Vampire Weekend by Mike Chen; Good Omens by Neil Gaiman; On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee; She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan; A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers; A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark; The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Quirk and charm give way to a serious exploration of the dangers of complacency in this delightful, thought-provoking Orwellian fantasy…. By turns zany and heartfelt, this tale of found family is hopeful to its core. Readers will revel in Klune’s wit and ingenuity.

Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world.

Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light.

The House in the Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.

398 pages (March 2020)

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13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

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Erica's Book Talk| The House in the Cerulean Sea (from Fountaindale Public Library) :

This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki; Sourdough by Robin Sloan; The Guncle by Steven Rowley; Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire; Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers; A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman; The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern; The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams;  The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow; The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab; The Midnight Library by Matt Haig; and The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

From bestselling author Meg Wolitzer a dazzling, panoramic novel about what becomes of early talent, and the roles that art, money, and even envy can play in close friendships.

The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.

The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.

Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.

468 pages (April 2013)

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Book Page at BookBrowse.

Lit Guide from LitLovers.

Reading Guide from BookMovement.

Reading Guide from ReadingGroupChoices.

 

13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Interestings at goodreads

 

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Meg Wolitzer in Conversation with Delia Ephron (New York Society Library):

 

Meg Wolitzer reads from The Interestings at Eat, Drink & Be Literary (BAMorg):

 

Meg Wolitzer at The Moth: First Love, Long Island 1975:

This title is available for download as an eBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Ensemble by Aja Gabel; Invincible Summer by Alice Adams; Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam; Two Across by Jeffrey Bartsch; Expectation by Anna Hope; Close to Hugh by Marina Endicott; Freedom by Jonathan Franzen; Trust Exercise by Susan Choi; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante; Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt; and Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.