What We Are Reading in October

The year is 1941, and in the Philippines, Caramina Grassi dreams of training in Italy to become an opera singer like her older sister, Rosa. But as war erupts and her family is forced to flee to the jungle, music becomes Caramina’s source of courage, sacrifice, and determined focus on what is good in the world. 

Meanwhile, in Florence, Mussolini tightens his grip on Italy. Drawn into the underground resistance, Rosa feels lost in a fog of deception that clouds everything she thought to be true. Facing a devastating betrayal, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the one she loves.

Striker isn’t entirely sure she should be on this luxury Antarctic cruise. As a Black film scout, her mission is to photograph potential locations for a big-budget movie about Ernest Shackleton’s doomed expedition. Along the way, she finds amusement in the behavior of both the native wildlife and the group of wealthy, mostly white tourists who have chosen to spend Christmas on the Weddell Sea.

But when a kayaking excursion goes horribly wrong, Striker and a group of survivors become stranded on a remote island. Soon the hostile environment will show each survivor their true face, with the group’s secrets, prejudices, and inner demons emerging, including revelations from Striker’s past that could irrevocably shatter her world.

The hard-working geniuses of “Spent Bullets,” including Jie-Heng, are the crème de la crème of the meritocracy. Educated in the best schools in Taiwan, they move to lucrative positions in America’s big tech, achieving career prestige. Yet there is a dark side to their relentless focus and achievements.

Jie-Heng is a prodigy who can solve any logic problem, always doing what is expected of him. He tries to fit in, yet fails to connect because of other people’s fear, misunderstanding, resentment, and obsessive adoration. His most vital deviation is a perverse, longstanding relationship with Wu Yi-Hsiang, a tormentor-turned-lover. Wu Yi-Hsiang is fascinated by Jie-Heng’s intellect and, with his own anxious need to please, carefully tends to Jie-Heng’s desire for debasement.

Set in Taiwan and the Silicon Valley, a collection of linked stories explore the meaning of success and the purpose of existence, centered on Jie-Heng, who descends deeper into despair while rising higher on the professional ladder.

In a near-future Kolkata beset by flooding and famine, Ma, her 2-year-old daughter, and her elderly father will soon be joining Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning, they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, containing their immigration documents, has been stolen.

Set over the course of one week, the book tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom. 

Readers are immersed into a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families, each operating from a place of ferocious love and undefeated hope, each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future.

Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at 14 as the “orphan hacker,” is trying to live a life of digital obscurity. But when a lawyer named Piers — whose famous wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals — barges into her life, Julia puts aside the solitary life she has painstakingly created to help. 

Elli is an oneirofex, a dream artist who can weave the dreams of an audience together through a shared virtual landscape, by tapping into each attendee’s memories. While these collective dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also dreaming one-on-one with the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he’s demanding the return of his dreams in exchange for Elli. Unraveling the real and unreal leads Julia on an adventure that takes her across the country and deep into the shadows of her psyche. 

A collaborative project between Black Women Radicals and the Asian American Feminist Collective, this compilation envisions cross-racial and internationalist politics that explicitly addresses solidarity between Black and Asian feminists. Bringing together organizers, artists, journalists, poets, novelists, and more, this collection introduces readers to new ways of understanding and reflecting on race and feminism.

Drawing out lessons from the revolutionary work of movement forebearers — including the Combahee River Collective, Claudia Jones, Grace Lee Boggs, Yuri Kochiyama, and Third World Women’s Alliance, as well as struggles today — this book offers an urgent call for the just future we might build together.

Opening in 1920s Shanghai, the book introduces Agnes, a young girl who’s expected to behave and be quiet. From there, readers experience the full arc of her life: immigration to the U.S. in the 1940s with the forces of Communist revolution on the horizon; the engineering student she starts dating, lonely and adrift in Manhattan; a marriage; a son; and the arrival of her daughter, and all of the unraveling that would follow. 

Throughout, Agnes interrupts the narrative from beyond the grave to argue, amend, correct, and scold her daughter’s telling of their story — “Bad bad girl!” she’ll say. “You don’t know how to talk!” In the process, readers see two women who are trying to understand one another and the circumstances that made them the people who they are. 

Having married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship soured by infidelity. One day, she runs into her old friend Mr. Takaoka, who offers friendship, love, and an unusual escape: He teaches her the trick of living inside her dreams.

Now, each night, she sinks into another life: first as a high-ranking courtesan in the 17th century, and then as a serving lady to a princess in the late Middle Ages. As she experiences desire and heartbreak in the past, Riko comes to reconsider her life as a 21st century woman — as a wife, as a mother, and as a lover — and to ask herself whether, after loving her husband and loving Mr. Takaoka, she is ready for her third great love.

In the follow-up book to Axie Oh’s “The Floating World,” Ren has managed to topple the General’s insurrection, but the Floating World and its territories are still under threat of attack from the rival Volmaran Empire. And far worse, she was powerless to save Sunho from being overcome by the monstrous power in his blood. Now he’s gone, transformed into a feral, deadly creature that doesn’t even recognize her anymore, and her heart aches for the sweet boy she’s grown to love.

But the escalating war will not pause for her grief. Seen by some as a heavenly savior and others merely a figurehead to be manipulated, Ren must use all her courage and cunning to survive the royal court’s game long enough to find Sunho and bring him home before he loses himself to the Demon forever.

In an effort to connect with others, Hu Anyan started posting essays online about his experiences as a short-term worker during COVID lockdowns. His recollection of night shifts in a huge logistics center in the south of China went viral: His nights were so hot that he could drink 3 liters of water without taking a toilet break; his days were spent searching for affordable rooms with proper air conditioning; and his few moments of leisure were consumed by calculations of the amount of alcohol needed to sleep but not feel drowsy a few hours later. The work was brutal, with no real future in sight. 

In 2023, “I Deliver Parcels in Beijing” became the literary sensation of the year in China. Anyan’s story about short-term jobs in various anonymous megacities, with workers feeling dehumanized, hit a nerve with a generation of young people who feel at odds with an ever-growing pressure to perform and succeed.