The science fiction genre has evolved over time, shaped by pioneers like H.G. Wells and Mary Shelley.

The genre explores threats like nuclear power, racism, and environmental issues, influenced by ideologies such as capitalism and communism.

Science fiction reflects modern themes like transhumanism and artificial intelligence in authors such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.

The genre has branched into sub-genres like hard sci-fi, dystopian, and cyberpunk, with notable authors including William Gibson and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Women authors like Mary Shelley and Ursula K. Le Guin have significantly impacted science fiction, challenging traditional gender and identity notions.

Authors of color, such as Cixin Liu and Nnedi Okorafor, have gained international recognition for their unique science fiction perspectives.

The science fiction genre has become more diverse, exploring a wide range of themes and incorporating new ideas.

A book club reading list should balance classic and contemporary science fiction by including diverse authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Ursula K. Le Guin.

The Hugo Award is a useful reading guide for science fiction, helping book clubs discover new authors and diverse perspectives.

Notable authors like Neil Gaiman and Ursula Le Guin, who have won Hugo Awards, are great options for book club selections.

Liu Cixin, a Chinese science fiction writer, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015.

When evaluating science fiction books, consider allegories, world-building, character development, and moral dilemmas.

The book should appeal to diverse backgrounds and be accessible to a wide range of readers.

The goal is to choose a book that will generate interesting discussions and provide a thought-provoking reading experience.

Science fiction has been influenced by authors from diverse demographics, including women and people of color.

The science fiction genre has evolved over time, shaped by pioneers like H.G. Wells and Mary Shelley.

Title:

Content: Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
“A story from the Stone Age. ”
A collection of stories recently published by the Syrian Writers Authority
Published recently by the Syrian General Authority for Book 2023, and within the series "Science Fiction Literature", the collection of stories "A Story from the Stone Age", by: Herbert George Wells Translation: Maha Asaad Marza.
Herbert George Wells
Herbert George Wells, a pioneer of science fiction literature, was born on September 21, 1866 in Kent, England, and died on August 13, 1946 in London, England, and is famous for his fiction novel, mixed with science, a writer of short stories, and one of his most famous works Time Machine, The Invisible Man, Island of Dr. Moreau, War of the Worlds and the Early Men on the Moon.
Herbert became famous for his novels of the literary genre, and unlike his contemporary Jules Verne, Wells' novels contained purposeful social critiques and did not limit themselves to telling adventures.
His first novel, which included science fiction, began in 1895 and was titled The Time Machine and became popular among young people.
His second novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau, was published in 1896, about a mad scientist who turns animals into human beings, in 1897, The Invisible Man, about a world that succeeds in concealing itself, and in 1898, The War of the Worlds, about a Martian invasion of the Earth.
In 1909, the author published a novel, Anne Veronica, which discussed the maturation of a woman's thought and her appearance in a new and open dress, and which aroused much controversy, but was well received by critics and readers who came to read it.
The theme of the collection is “A Story from the Stone Age ”.
After the absence of the moon from among the trunks of trees on the rocky edge, he sent two enormous beams of light, and a strip of darkness was emitted through the papyrus.
Then came the sound of a continuous rustling, the sound of water splashing, and the papyrus moved further and further apart.
In the end, a hole appeared in it, as if it were splitting from the roots to the ends...
The end has come.

What is considered the first true science fiction novel of the modern era, which foreshadowed genetic tinkering?

The genre explores threats like nuclear power, racism, and environmental issues, influenced by ideologies such as capitalism and communism.

Title:

Content: Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts (Symposium, Toulouse)

Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts

The aim of this symposium run by the LLA-Créatis laboratory at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès is to develop open thinking about “political” questions, in the broad sense of the term, that science fiction narratives allow. Different types of stories can be considered, in different literary genres or in cinema, video series and comics. It can be studied and interrogated from a historical, political and social perspective by involving, where appropriate, the possible contributions of different analyzes (anthropology, semiotics, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, etc.) Diversity of perspectives and questions raised by gender.

The entire twentieth-century period produced works in San Francisco that were marked by ideologies such as capitalism and its “communist” counterpart, but also by threats associated with civilian and/or military nuclear power, religious-related abuses, racism, minority liberation struggles, and pollution. , etc. These perceptions persisted, but in the period from the last 20 years of the 20th century to the first 20 years of the 21st century, other concerns were voiced: ecological pesticides, the climate crisis, demographic crises, resource depletion, or the danger. The scientific and technical potential (transhumanism, “artificial intelligence”, etc.) is being carried away.

The link to the realities of the times (as in the collection “Le Passager Clandestin / Dyschroniques”) can of course depend on one or more authors, take into account a work or compare several (especially in the case of short stories and short films). The broader perspective will consist in considering the basic ideologies, either in relation to the literary prizes awarded, or in relation to the works themselves, the semantics of these presenting themselves from the outset sometimes as criticism, sometimes as propaganda, the two being able to be combined according to modalities that tend to be ironic, Satirical, disruptive, etc.

See also  The number of dengue fever cases is on the rise

In any case, it would be a matter of highlighting the “exploratory potential” in these works, of identifying the “problematic tools” and of making the ideas put forward in fictional form productive from the point of view of political theory. (Y Rambhala).

Of course, it is advisable to include works belonging to different geographical and linguistic fields so that the panorama of this search is sufficiently realistic.

Provisional schedule of courses (date adjustments possible)

Oct 20, 2-4 PM / Nov 17, 2-4 PM / Dec 15, 2-4 PM / Jan 19, 2-4 PM / Feb 9, 2-4 PM / Mar 15, 2-4 PM / May 31 , 2-4 p.m

Contribution proposals must be sent Before October 1, 2023 To the following addresses: frederics[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

What concepts does Ishiguro's literary science fiction novel bring up?

Science fiction reflects modern themes like transhumanism and artificial intelligence in authors such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.

Who are considered great masters of the golden age of science fiction?

The genre has branched into sub-genres like hard sci-fi, dystopian, and cyberpunk, with notable authors including William Gibson and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Title:

Content: 60 Sci-Fi Books That All Science Fiction Fans Must Read

Are you looking for a new science fiction book to read? Looking to fill up your reading list with journeys to strange new worlds and fast-paced science fiction adventures? You're in luck because we've compiled a list of the best sci-fi books.

Whether you're looking to dive into the great sci-fi classics you missed out on or you're looking to delve into brand new tales from up-and-coming indie authors, you're sure to find something that will spark creativity and excitement for you. Science fiction and fantasy novels provide us with allegories, cautionary tales, and deep dives into the human condition told through the lens of the fantastical and the cutting-edge.

The Best Sci-Fi Origins Books

Where did it all begin? Read these early tales with impossible futures, fascinating creatures, time travel, and alien invasion!

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein brought us the iconic monster made by Victor Frankenstein. Considered the first true science fiction novel of the modern era, it would foreshadow genetic tinkering stories of the future.

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish (also called The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World)

Considered to be the first science fiction work, in the 17th century, Duchess of Newcastle Margaret Cavendish wrote of a utopian world.

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The third Oz book by L. Frank Baum features Tik-Tok, the wind-up clockwork man Dorothy Gale encounters in the Land of Ev. Tik-Tok is basically one of the first robots in literature. Other wacky features in Ozma of Oz include a sand-sailing boat and lunch pail tree.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

A 19th century classic by Wells, depicting time travel and inspiring science fiction tales for over a century.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

The book would go on to inspire a radio program that terrified people into thinking Martians were actually invading Earth. Wells would kickstart first contact stories and alien invasion at the same time, offering up a cautionary tale that touches sci-fi to this day.

The Best Sci-Fi Space Epics Books

Transport yourself across the universe with these pillars of world-building in science fiction, all of which are either now adapted for TV or film or soon will be.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert’s Dune is considered a masterwork of world-building and family intrigue, inspiring other famous series and their respective houses. In the first book, Paul Atreides encounters the resident free people of the planet Arrakis (Dune), the Fremen, and achieves a destiny of messianic proportions. Dune recently graced the big screen in a new adaptation by Denis Villeneuve.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor's Binti novella series begins with Binti, a Hugo-award-winning Africanfuturistic science fiction horror story published by Tor.com. Binti is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the most exalted institution of higher learning in the galaxy. She faces the choice to accept the offer and give up her place in her family so that she can travel among the stars. Hulu has ordered a pilot for Binti.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

The beginning of the Foundation series reveals the “psychohistory” developed by mathematician Harry Seldon. Seldon would establish a new empire called Foundation to preserve the culture from societal collapse. Foundation debuted as a TV show on Apple TV in 2021.

Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell

Gareth L. Powell's award-winning trilogy Embers of War follows the war-weary crew of the sentient spaceship Trouble Dog, who after becoming disgusted by her role in war joins the House of Reclamation. Trouble Dog and her captain Sal Konstanz are sent on a rescue mission, which intersects a mission to find missing poet Ona Sundak. The galaxy teeters on the brink of another war, just as an alien presence makes itself known, altering the course of things to come. Now under development for TV.

Rendezvous with Rama by Sir Arthur C. Clarke

A strange spacecraft enters the solar system, and humanity investigates. The secrets within the enormous craft, called Rama, reveal the heritage of an advanced alien civilization. Rendezvous with Rama is in development for a film adaptation with Denis Villeneuve at the helm.

The Best Hard Sci-Fi Books

If you like your science fiction taut with the edginess of battle and the implication of future wars, you must add these books to your collection!

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

This classic military sci-fi epic details the tragic effects of time dilation on a group of soldiers fighting a seemingly endless war.

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Set in the 29th century, Louis Wu and his companions explore a vast, Earth-orbit-sized, constructed world. Their adventures uncover the alien civilization that built it.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

First set with the backdrop of China’s cultural revolution, this new epic involves secret scientific experiments, alien invasion, challenging moral dilemmas, and impressive world-building.

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

A man in his 70s is recruited as a soldier in the Colonial Defense Force, and altered physically in unexpected ways. Strong on character development, this kickstarts the Old Man’s War Series.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

This classic military sci-fi tale follows Johnny Rico and military recruits who become involved in a battle between humans and aliens nicknamed Arachnids or “Bugs.”

If you love Starship Troopers, check out our review of the wisdom of Grand Admiral Thrawn – Michael

The Best Sci-Fi Robot Stories

The future of robots is here and is complex and necessary reading in these sci-fi tales.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov’s intriguing work introduced the laws of robotics that all robots must adhere to work alongside humans.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The first novel in the Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, follows a cyborg that goes by the name Murderbot contends with self-awareness in the corporate-dominated future.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The beginning of the Lunar Chronicles series is a retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of a cyborg.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

Famed for its eventual big-screen adaptation, Blade Runner, this novel recounts a future in which highly realistic artificial fugitives are on the run from bounty hunter Rick Deckard.

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia

Mattie is an automaton in this steampunk and urban fantasy novel involving gargoyles, Mechanics, and Alchemists.

The Best Sci-Fi Mars Stories

Our neighbor, the red planet Mars, beckons to us. What would it be like to walk on the shifting red sands of Mars? Find out in these Martian classics.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s mesmerizing prose introduces us to a Mars full of exotic possibility, soon plundered by humanity’s arrival.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

The first in the Mars Trilogy, Red Mars, involves the colonization and terraforming of Mars and the conflicting moral questions that result.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Astronaut Mark Watney is left behind on a Mars mission and must draw upon his skills and ingenuity in order to survive.

Mars by Ben Bova

Navajo geologist Jamie Waterman joins the first expedition of scientists exploring Mars. The grounded approach Bova takes to all the interaction, politics, and bureaucracy help achieve a plausible future story.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

The first book in the Red Rising Trilogy envisions a future of planetary colonization in which caste systems abound. Darrow must fight against this system of overlords.

The Best Sci-Fi Fantasy Books

Fly high with dragons, roam lands on epic quests, and learn the hearts of true heroes in the fantasy masterpieces.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnum opus spans three books, opening up a fantastically detailed and wholly invented universe in Middle Earth that was hinted at in The Hobbit. Considered the ultimate work of fantasy, The Lord of the Rings brings myth, allegory, poetry, song, war, and melancholy to heights of realism and wonder.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The first novel in The Earthsea Cycle tells the tale of the wizard Ged, and his journey to redeem his reckless past.

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

Beginning with A Game of Thrones, Martin’s elaborate, dark fantasy series covers land in which seasons last decades, and a terrible force from the north threatens to bring an icy apocalypse to an area filled with rulers jockeying to take the Iron Throne.

The Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey

This remarkable series takes place in the world of Pern, where people telepathically bond with dragons. Dragonflight is the first in the series.

The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth, Book 1 by N.K Jemisin

The Fifth Season marks the first book of the award-winning The Broken Earth trilogy. Set against civilization’s collapse and natural disaster, Essun endures great personal tragedy in her quest to rescue her daughter.

The Best Sci-Fi Dystopian & Apocalyptic Books

Set in a nightmare future, these dystopian and apocalyptic legends will keep you up at night.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

In a totalitarian future America, handmade Offred is forced to bear children to men of a ruling class. The tale follows her harrowing life in a bleak future, and the attempt to escape and bring down the subjugating class to restore rights.

The Stand by Stephen King

A deadly pathogen escapes a military installation, rapidly spreading and bringing civilization essentially to an end. A group of survivors makes its way to a form of a promised land while battling a malevolent group seeking domination.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

In the near future breakdown of the society of Los Angeles, empathic teenager Lauren believes in a better future entailing traveling to other planets. Lauren gathers followers to her belief as she makes her way north.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Set in the Great Lakes region of America, a group of nomadic creatives picks up the pieces after the fall of civilization due to pandemic flu. Station Eleven has been adapted for HBO Max.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy follows the immense challenges that Katniss Everdeen faces in the post-apocalyptic version of America called Panem. She takes her sister’s place in the government-sponsored Hunger Games to compete for survival in a no-holds-barred and deadly competition.

The Best Sci-Fi Near Futures Books

The future is here, or nearly so, in these ground-breaking novels set close to our present day.

Contact by Carl Sagan

Scientist Ellie Arroway detects a potential extraterrestrial signal from space, which appears to instruct humanity in how to build a machine. She faces self-doubt amid scrutiny to uncover the mysteries of the discovery.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

This cautionary tale about genetic engineering in which scientists make living, cloned dinosaurs for an amusement park. Mayhem ensues.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Mysterious monoliths appear across many worlds, seeding life with intelligence. Following the discovery of one such monolith on the moon, Dr. Bowman and a team of scientists investigate the signal it sends to Saturn’s moon Iapetus. The onboard AI begins exhibiting dangerous behavior during the journey.

Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer

A physics experiment creates an unintended consequence of everyone on earth losing consciousness for two minutes. Each person sees a “flash forward” decades in the future while they are unconscious. The resulting accidents and visions challenge everyone’s ideas of free will.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In dystopian 2044, impoverished Wade Watts navigates through the virtual reality world of the OASIS, seeking to reverse his fortune.

The Best Sci-Fi Books for Younger Readers

Take adventures through time and space, no matter your age!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The Murry children and Calvin O’Keefe crosses universes and space-time to try to find their missing father. Their tale is a mind-bending adventure of good vs. evil.

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass/The Subtle Knife/The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass/Northern Lights begins this sweeping saga of two children, one born in a parallel universe, one born in our own. In Lyra’s world, people’s souls exist in animal form, called daemons. Her father and mother represent warring factions determined to control all universes. Filled with talking animals, witches, airships, and strange creatures, His Dark Materials packs an emotional punch.

The Apothecary Series by Maile Meloy

Set in the 1950s, The Apothecary starts this highly entertaining, thrilling adventure series in which American Janie Scott meets Benjamin Burrows, the son of an apothecary. After Benjamin’s father is kidnapped, the teenagers uncover a terrifying plot that could result in humanity’s end. They use potions with magical effects to try and stop the impending doom.

The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1) by Sayantani DasGupta

The first of the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series, book one begins with Kiranmala discovering her parents are missing, and there is a demon in her kitchen! Two princes recruited her and sent to another dimension, where she must battle the Serpent King and the Rakkhoshi Queen to rescue her parents and save the Earth.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

This delightful middle-grade novel recounts a discarded robot named Roz and her search for love and acceptance.

The Best Sci-Fi Ponderous Books

These mind-bending sci-fi novels will have you thinking for a long time afterward.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Raised on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith returns to Earth and tries to fit in. His unusual upbringing makes him seem superhuman, but he attempts to help his Earth kin understand things from a different perspective.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Set in the 24th century when telepaths (“Espers”) are common, and police are telepathic as well. Ben Reich tries to evade the telepathic police for a murder he wants to commit. The story opens up the moral issues of using telepathy, regulated mostly by a guild, but raises concerns about the exclusion of telepaths who run astray as well as psychological intrigue.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Solaris follows humans’ failed attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence. The sentient planet tests the researchers with their memories and emotions.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A story spanning time and space and connections between various characters, Cloud Atlas explores the theme of fate with a mind-bending narrative.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

This classic tale follows the journey of Genly Ai on his mission to the planet Gethen. The ambisexual Gethenians present challenges and growth for Ai.

The Best Sci-Fi Cyberpunk Books

If you dream of the future lit by neon, shadowed by noir, and fueled with intrigue, these seminal cyberpunk novels are for you!

Neuromancer by William Gibson

In the first novel of the Sprawl Trilogy, hacker Henry Case is hired to help an AI take over the global network called The Matrix.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

A modern cyberpunk tale is weaving together magic and science, with wit and feeling.

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Set in the 25th century, humans have spread through the galaxy and can be preserved after death via cortical stacks, then essentially regenerated or “re-sleeved” into another body. Takeshi Kovacs stumbles upon a vast conspiracy after his latest “sleeve.”

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

This early entry into cyberpunk sci-fi follows teleporter Gully Foyle, an outcast considered dangerous.

Synners by Pat Cadigan

The synthesizers, or Synners, are people who can turn mental images into products for consumption. The story is told via various characters’ viewpoints.

The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Indie Authors

Discover the latest sci-fi and fantasy stories, while supporting independent authors!

Mindful Things by Mya Duong

Nineteen-year-old Lauren begins to experience visions and uncovers the fact her deceased parents were witches. A madman hungry for power pursues her, and she must embrace her magical heritage to try to stop him.

The Infinite by John W. Akers

The inventor Pax works on a secret project that can revolutionize human cognition. His plans are derailed by a computer virus that could end civilization, so Pax is forced to choose how he can help humanity survive.

Threadwalkers by Joanna Volavka

Miranda Woodward undergoes a discordant series of events following her father’s death. This is a young adult time travel tale.

Resonance by Jennifer Greenhall

In Book One of the Resonance Series, Sophia Walsh uses her psionic abilities for good but finds herself the next target of a killer.

Heliopause: The Questrison Saga®: Book One by J. Dianne Dotson

Heliopause by J. Dianne Dotson kickstarts The Questrison Saga®, a four-book series science fiction and fantasy series. In Heliopause, a mystery at the edge of the solar system reveals a galactic menace. A galactic natural disaster unfolds, aiding the monster in the void. Human Forster and human-looking, ageless Galla-Deia team up with telepaths, galactic mages, aliens, and androids to face the greatest threat to all life in the galaxy. Full of diverse characters and exotic worlds, found and made families, heartbreak, and whimsy, this space opera recalls Star WarsDoctor Who, and Game of Thrones.

At Your Money Geek, we are huge fans of the science fiction genre, everything from military science fiction to novels about space travel, parallel worlds, and fantasy novels. We are always looking for new books to read and exciting sci-fi writers to profile, let us know in the comments what authors you are currently enjoying.

This post was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.

| Website | + posts

J. Dianne Dotson dreamed up other worlds and their characters as a child in the 1980s in East Tennessee. She formed her own neighborhood astronomy club before age 10, to educate her friends about the universe. In addition to writing stories, she drew and painted her characters, designed their outrageous space fashions, and created travel guides and glossaries for the worlds she invented.

As an adult, Dianne earned a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology, and spent several years working in research. She published Heliopause: The Questrison Saga®: Book One (2018) and its sequels Ephemeris: The Questrison Saga®: Book Two (2019), Accretion: The Questrison Saga®: Book Three (2020) and her last novel in the saga, Luminiferous: The Questrison Saga®: Book Four (2021).

Dianne is also a science writer, content writer and manager, short story writer, watercolorist, and illustrator. She lives with her family.

Women authors like Mary Shelley and Ursula K. Le Guin have significantly impacted science fiction, challenging traditional gender and identity notions.

Title:

Content: This website uses relevant technologies to provide a better reading experience, while respecting the privacy of users. Click here to understand the privacy statement of the Central News Agency. When you close this window, you agree to the above regulations.
Your browser does not appear to support Traditional Chinese.
Would you like to go to CNA ’ s English website, “Focus Taiwan ”?
Koko Koko Koko Koko Koko Koko
"日本語版「フィーカス」について" (in Japanese).
To build a man who will always love me, from Frankenstein to Science Lovers.
2022 / 1 / 22 10: 34 (Updated on 1 / 22 11: 20)
Please agree to our privacy policy in order to enable news listening.
British author Janet Winterson pays homage to science fiction classic Frankenstein 200 years ago with Science Lovers. (Courtesy of New Classic Culture)
Please agree to our privacy policy in order to enable news listening.
British author Jeanette Winterson pays tribute to the science fiction classic "Frankenstein" 200 years ago with "Science Lovers".
The new classic culture invites two domestic science fiction writers Gao Yifeng (author of "2069") and Lin Xinhui (author of "Flawed Man") to talk, and the Central News Agency is authorized to publish the wonderful content of the talk, and share with you the common desire behind the strange man and his lover.
Gao Yifeng:
The year before last, I opened a science fiction reading and commentary course at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Literature at Beijing Arts University. The first book was “Frankenstein ” in 1818.
Before I was ready to read Science Lovers, all I had in mind was Mary Shelley ’ s Frankenstein, and the discussions I had with my fellow students at the Institute at that time.
As far as I ’ m concerned, Science Lovers started with the name.
When you look at the cover, you can see that the kiss in the middle is changed from the ken in the middle of Frankenstein to the kiss, and FranKISSstein becomes the new novel name.
Janet Winterson, a modern, powerful female thinker, uses this kiss to deconstruct Mary Shelley ’ s Frankenstein 200 years ago.
Frankenstein is not the name of the monster, but the name of the scientist who invented the weirdo.
The first time I read this novel, I found it very challenging - if you haven't read Frankenstein, you may not know why the author wrote an 1816 story first, and then through the story of Mary, to create a near-future science fiction story.
In this near-future story, frame another story where Mary Shelley meets her own character.
It has 3 very deep levels, which started with Frankenstein.
Because The Frankenstein of 1818 is the way to write a “framing novel ” — it uses a story with a narrator in it, and then tells you that the narrator has the next story.
In "Frankenstein" there is a nautical adventurer, in the snow and ice to see the scientist chasing the weirdo, rescued him, and began to tell the whole story.
"Science Lovers" has been paying tribute to Mary Shelley from the frame structure!
Science fiction writer Gao Yifeng said that "Science Lovers" changed the ken in Frankenstein to kiss, and used the kiss to deconstruct "Frankenstein" 200 years ago. (New Classic Culture provided)
The 19th century is a very patriarchal era, Mary this important writer experienced a complicated and hard life, eloped with Shelley, miscarried several times, but she and Shelley two people have always loved, very close to the theme of this: to build a person who loves me.
Why do we want to create a strange person out? It is actually as a human lust.
Why create a weirdo ’ s lover after creating a weirdo? It ’ s because the weirdo has an selfish desire.
The author is debating this.
As a woman, Janet Winterson pays homage to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as she contemplates the Old Testament descending from the Bible.
What was Adam ’ s function in the Garden of Eden in Genesis?
The first work of “he ” is to name creatures and even take out a rib to create women. Why do men create women?
The whole novel starts with the name, and she ’ s making fun of it all — I think it ’ s a very beautiful gesture.
There are many naming attempts in the novel: First, the scientist / creator Victor Frankenstein (Victor Frankenstein) becomes Victor Stein (Victor Stein), and he and a transgender man named Ry Shelley (Ry Shelley) have developed a love that seems desegregated.
The author also uses a lot of naming skills for many people around him, such as Ron Lord (Ron Lord) is the reverse of the name Lord Byron.
Lord is the Lord of the Christian faith. This self-proclaimed character of the same name is the maker of sex robots in the near-future world.
This new creator, Longen, has created a female sex robot that can meet men - it is really possible to build a person who only loves me? Such a modern, sci-fi scientific lover, in the novel the author pushed farther - Longen Lord even thought: Is there a way for me to build sex robots for priests and priests?
This can also solve the problem of pedophilia in all priests.
In "Mythical Tales", Prometheus molded the clay man in the form of a god, and Athena injected the soul (wisdom) into man.
The male Creator created the human form, but the female God gave it to the inside.
This is in contrast to the “story of faith, ” in which Jehovah created Adam, who, as the Creator, split up another man, Eve.
This is the story of an "artificial man" and a "human being".
There are subtle differences and reflections between the two.
This process of creation has become something that the author has to resist and confront as a female thinker.
So when I read it, there will always be a strange, as a heterosexual, male perspective, the back will suddenly cool, not sure if she is accusing me?
Lin Xinhui:
I found that creating science fiction and gender attention, the two things seem inseparable.
When I started writing science fiction, I wrote a short story, "Hotel California," which, as everyone knows, refers to the Eagles' classic song.
I appropriated the lyrics to create, in the story reverse write "Eve was born from a rib of Adam" myth: the heroine in the novel is unknown, do not know whether she is human or biotic, she uses the length of the ribs to measure the human male protagonist, the male protagonist is instead deconstructed as a component of the rib.
The woman turned and used the rib to disassemble the man around her.
This is what I wanted to do when I first wrote science fiction.
Intentionally or not, I felt from the beginning that science fiction should be gender, it must be related to gender, why do I have this inexplicable intuition?
Many science fiction works, both ancient and modern, put women in non-human roles.
For example, Rachel in "Blade Runner" is a biotic, and the operating system for falling in love with the human male protagonist in "Cloud Lover" is also set to be female.
The robot, Sophia, who is considered a citizen in the real world, is also a girl.
Non-human beings are always assigned a female position, and in these stories, the protagonists are always men, and they are all humans.
Why isn ’ t there a sci-fi story to break this structure? Sci-fi is preset to be a male story from the start?
But in retrospect, today ’ s Science Lovers pays homage to Mary Shelley ’ s Frankenstein, which is considered the first science fiction novel ever written by a woman.
Echoing the deconstruction that Teacher Yifeng just talked about, the role of transgender doctor Rui brought out a lot of gender thinking, and a lot of female thinking is concentrated in the story line of Mary Shelley's history in 1816, the women's movement has just begun to flourish, not to mention Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of the first wave of feminism advocates.
Is “knowledge ” male or female?
There is a dialogue that women seem to bring disaster to the world, which Byron said: women are red face evil water.
If Pandora hadn ’ t opened that box, many of our things would have been less painful.
And Mary Shelley replied to him that if we didn ’ t hurt, it wouldn ’ t be human, because machines don ’ t hurt.
She said, “Does knowledge cause pain? ”
Or is the knowledge that women bring to make us human?
In this near-future storyline, Janet Winterson uses the role of Rui to bring out a problem of mind-matter dualism that we are still debating.
Our understanding of transgender may be that his body and his soul want to reach another state of harmony, not that he was not reconciled, but that he wanted to change.
For example, she was originally a biological woman and wanted to become a so-called "complete male".
The transgender doctor in the book, he did not become a so-called complete boy, his upper half is male, the lower half is female, but he likes the state: a soul lives in two bodies, he is both male and female, and then he is very comfortable in this state.
(New Classical Culture Provided)
Rui ’ s relationship with Vito thus has an undefinable ambiguity, which challenges the state of men and women in the era of 1816.
The love story of Ray and Victor is difficult to define as gay or heterosexual, which can be said to be a state of desegregation.
And the state of sexualization also echoes the world that Vito wants to create — the human consciousness is uploaded to the cloud, without the bondage of the body.
Without the body, there is no label: there is no label for skin color, and there is no label for gender.
In fact, Victor also wants to create a new human, just as Frankenstein in Frankenstein wants to create a creature.
There is a scene in the novel that is super scary: Ray opens the door and sees a lot of hands crawling around on the ground, which is very creepy.
This section reflects that Victor wants to create a new human body, and this human body can have its own will and drive itself? This part corresponds to "Frankenstein", whether the creature can drive its own will and body.
"Creation" is "life", and the back of "life" is actually talking about "death".
You want to bring the dead body back to life, you want to use technology to create eternal life, you want to upload consciousness to the brain, anyway, as long as you are conscious, you will live forever.
Vito said that at this stage, we are very comfortable with all kinds of life technology, such as when we are only pregnant, the mother's body will be subjected to various invasive tests: to see if your fetal position is correct, the sex of the fetus, whether it is so-called "normal health", and to preserve embryos, frozen eggs and other technologies... And...
In contrast, we have been vocal about technology ’ s desire to end death, perpetuate death, or immortality as a major moral issue.
Why are we optimistic about "life" and so afraid of "death"? Don't want to talk about it, don't want to imagine technology intervening in its world.
Gao Yifeng:
In the novel, page 174, a very simple sentence is mentioned: "So, Vidor, non-living forms of life, because their forms are purer, closer to the essence of love than we are?"
The story of the transgender doctor Rui, his body is neither a man nor a woman, such a body is more aware of love?
Absolutely fully tested Janet, with a classical, Gothic romance, to talk about the love story of Mary and Shelley. Mary's love is completely gender-neutral, she really loves Shelley the poet.
She loved that no matter how many children she had and how many times she lost, even if I was crazy, even if I did not know whether I could still have the next life in the future, whether the function of a woman given to me by the Bible or mythology could be achieved, I was willing to love you.
In "Science Lovers", Janet constantly probed this point through many characters, constantly asking: Is it possible in the world to create a person who loves me that way through a way like "Frankenstein"?
Want to create a person like this, even if it is not a living body, even if it does not have any gender to test, even if it is a kind of sex robot we can not predict, can it really have love?
Claire is a very old-fashioned sex robot.
Does such love exist?
At the heart of the book is its subtitle: a love story.
Beyond the gender we have to face, or the various discussions of organic and inorganic life, Janet Winterson is asking the same question she wanted to ask two hundred years ago under such complicated and highly literary writing.
I love Frankenstein so much that when someone challenges me, I think, "Okay, I see what you can write."
"Science Lovers" actually carried "Frankenstein".
Not only did he write about the monsters created by Frankenstein, but he also wrote about the love of Mary Shelley.
I think this is a great place.
Lin Xinhui:
When it comes to “love ”, I think a lot of discussion is about what“ reality ” is.
We all know that love is between two people, and the most basic consensus is "what is the reality we all recognize."
When both parties have a common understanding of "where the reality is going", there is the beginning of the "relationship".
Science fiction writer Lin Xinhui (middle) says that every chapter of Science Lovers begins with "What is reality?" (courtesy of New Classic Culture)
Every chapter of Science Lovers begins with “what is reality ” — reality is soluble in water, reality is the present, reality cannot withstand excessive human beings.
These inquiries about reality, on the one hand, are similar in the form of the novel and the "trans" of the transgender, which constantly appears in different chapters, a bit like the role of the past and the soul, or the reunion of the afterlife, or the feeling of the same soul into different bodies.
On the other hand, it is rooted in its sub-label: the love story.
But in the end, Rui and Victor are not together in Science Lovers.
Why can't they be together? Because their perception of "reality" is different - Rui's perception is "reality is the body", our love is based on the body; but Victor told him that sex does not have to be achieved by the body, he said that the perception of receptors in the brain everywhere, even a "brain in a vat" (brain in a vat), can still have sexual love. Feeling.
Even Victor would say that reality is an emergent: it is because your brain thinks that it exists, and there is no direct causal relationship between this reality and your nervous system (such as what structure creates what reality).
So that reality cannot be proved as a reality.
This inference, even Vito said, has entered a state of Buddhism.
All in all, Vito and Ri think differently about reality, so although they love each other very much, they can ’ t be together in the end.
This also leaves a lot of suspense, because we don ’ t know what happened to Vito.
There are no quotation marks in this book – many foreign readers are scolding it.
But the fact that there are no quotes is still functional in the end, because it will make the reader uncertain whether the person who is speaking now is Mary Shelley or Ray? The last person they call together is Victor or Frankenstein? Because Mary Shelley and Frankenstein later meet in a fictional way.
Rui calls his beloved Vito until the end, but we no longer know if he is alive or dead.
In a way, the old Vito is still alive, and the Vito at this point in time seems to be missing.
Their last common call was, “Vidor, is that you? ” and it ended.
This is the end of a beautiful love story. (Editors: Huang Shufang, Wang Jingyi) 1110122
(New Classical Culture Provided)
Title: Science Lovers: A Story of Love
Author: Janet Winterson
Translated by: Chen Jialin
Publisher: New Classical Culture
Publication Date: 2021 / 12 / 01
Please agree to our privacy policy in order to enable news listening.
The text, pictures and audio and video of this website shall not be reproduced, broadcast or transmitted or used without authorization.
Download the Central News Agency “First-hand News ” app, and don ’ t miss out on daily news!

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

Authors of color, such as Cixin Liu and Nnedi Okorafor, have gained international recognition for their unique science fiction perspectives.

Who wrote "Binti," a Hugo-award-winning African futuristic science fiction horror story?

The science fiction genre has become more diverse, exploring a wide range of themes and incorporating new ideas.

Title:

Content: Sunday Literature ‧ 2021 The Most Awakening Book List (Literature)
Post Date: December 26, 2021
【 Ming Pao Newsletter 】 Fiction
by Sunfai
A variety of Hong Kong in three novels
In the past, I actually read less and less Hong Kong literature, and this year I wanted to distance myself from some words that were too timely to respond to society, and also found that I was getting farther and farther away from the younger generation, so I specially found some young writers' novels to look at, and taste the multiple Hong Kong in different eras and frames.
1) The Love Method of the Overcrowded City
Author: Huang Yi
Publisher: United Literature (September 2021)
Before the winter solstice, I finished Huang Yi ’ s “The Love Method of the Overcrowded City ”.
Each short story is put together with a painting, and the words are light and light because of the power of the picture, so that the reader has the possibility of multiple reading.
Whether it is heterosexual love, homosexual love, complex entanglement of love, the author wrote so naturally, but as a reader of my psychological reaction turned out to be so twisted.
The novel was written in the past two or three years, the dark shadow of the era is like a shadow, but it does not reduce the warmth of the heart, love, the breath of youth so that people still have a little space in the oppression.
2) Single Bed
Author: Jiajun
Publisher: Mishan Bookstore (2021)
Because of the promotion of "Sunday Literature", I read the first book by Mishan Bookstore, "Single Bed", and was surprised at the resilience of the younger generation.
In the book, Jiajun writes about Beijing, Xinjiang, Mongolia, South America and other places, but Hong Kong is always a lingering theme.
Central white-collar life is certainly not easy, but occasionally open anal, bladder jokes, the meaning of life still has to rely on their own to find.
As in the case of the righteous, there is a life of lawlessness, a life of lawlessness.
3) Nan Hui Truck: A Collection of Short Stories from New Territories West
Author: Wang Zen-heng
Publisher: Postscript Studio (January 2021)
But the most profound, or after the vernal equinox read "Nan Hui truck: New Territories West short story collection".
The workers in the northwest New Territories under Wang Zen-heng ’ s pen, the crane workers, the massage girls, the unmarried women from the Mainland who came to Hong Kong, the border youths, and the low-level agents of the anti-triad unit, are not the groups I have come into frequent contact with in my life, but I know that they are the background of this society.
The black sand beach of Lung Kwu Tan, the disorderly walk on Castle Peak Road, the village entrance of Siu Lam Tsuen, and the unquenchable smoke head of the ground of the rear hill breaking down the primary school are obviously not the schizophrenic construction of "Illusion Love", but in fact, they are the cruel reality of the nightmare that impels Yuen Tin and even our city.
I am 30 years old and 40 years old, I am particularly taught by the post-90s generation this year, whether it is music, YouTube Channel, or the creators of novels.
This year has not been easy, and the road ahead is even more difficult. I just hope that you will continue to work hard and unleash more power than you can imagine.
Science fiction
Man TANG Ching-kin
The Crossing between Science Fiction and Pure Literature
If science fiction is still regarded as genre literature today, it would be too light on science fiction.
Now pure literature writers are happy to take science fiction as the topic, and actively explore the pursuit of literature with science fiction; on the other hand, many authors who are regarded as science fiction writers have gradually pushed "science fiction" to a new position beyond traditional types of literature.
If possible, I would prefer to use "Watsuki" to understand the relationship between science fiction and pure literature.
1) Clara and the Sun
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Translator: Lin Hongtao
Publisher: Shang Zhou (March 2021)
Nobel Prize winner Ishiguro Ishiguro has written many works with science fiction elements, but the literary laurels make him incompatible with the label of "science fiction writer".
But as soon as you start reading his words, you will immediately understand what I mean by "Watanabe".
Klara and the Sun is a bittersweet grown-up novel about Clara ’ s feelings and introspection as she grows up — the only thing special is that Clara is a robot made to be a companion to human children.
The novel uses a robot as a first-person narrative, so the novel not only responds to the growing fiction tradition in the history of literature, but also transcends it: how did the robot human spirit grow? How did Clara's knowledge of self and love get excavated under the pen of the novelist?
Ishiguro Ishiguro is one of the few writers to write gently and deeply about science fiction, and this new work after the Nobel Prize has not disappointed.
2) Zero Separation
Author: Imah
Publisher: Maitian (May 2021)
However, this kind of "crossing" is not limited to the topic of the novel.
In Taiwan, for example, a group of Mesozoic novelists even regarded it as a basic narrative skill, and science fiction has become a common material for them to practice narrative skills.
This year, I was particularly interested in the new book Zero Separation.
Since "The Dreamer", Yi has explained to the Chinese speaking world that he has the ability to lead Chinese novels to a new territory of "science fiction - (pure) literature".
The complexity of the narrative of the novel lies in the fact that he takes on the universe of The Dreamer and at the same time inserts various fictional "subtexts" such as preface, postscript, and dialogue to contain a future world written by a future author.
3) "Transit: 15 Trans Dimensional Travels by Le Guin"
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Translator: Yan Yun
Publisher: Trojan Horse Culture (August 2021)
Finally, I have to recommend a science fiction writer in the strict sense.
Her "six songs of earth and sea" has long been a science fiction type of classic.
This year, Taiwan translated her short story series, “Changing Planes, ” a series of stories about moving through different dimensions.
Under Le Guin ’ s pen, science fiction stories are written as ethnography, spreading the magnificent and mixed heterogeneous universe.
Literary readers with a clear heart can also read a kind of intertextuality: the novel refers to many literary names, such as Bochs, Calvino, and Dostoyevsky.
As I read, I twirled between the “sci-fi universe ” and the“ literary dimension. ”
This is the experience of reading contemporary "science fiction - (pure) literature".
prose
Mann Chan Yen-kai
1) Copy the "Unfathomable": "Drifting Clouds"
Author: Li Rikang
Publisher: Postscript Studio (January 2021)
Those frightened, harsh eyes were staring at me.
He is forcibly taken away by a dog squad with a dog pen, or has become a dish on someone else ’ s table.
It was the black dog that accompanied me through my childhood.
It turns out that "a lot" is also the case, which may be the fate of rural dogs.
Li Ri Kang ’ s “Leaving the Clouds ” also revealed the scars of my childhood.
The author says this book is about misinformation.
While studying in Kyoto, he enjoyed Japanese aesthetics, but also encountered natural disasters.
In the summer of 2018, I was editing a collection of student essays, and I soon received an article entitled “A Journey to Kyoto ” from Li Rikang.
The article explains the various aspects of visiting students, and carefully explains the experience of copying ancient books in college.
A year later, someone is determined to open the Pandora box, and the result is “unexpected ”.
Later, people experienced "grief, sigh, destruction, mystery, fear, determination, and dreams."
There is also a "mishap" to be written.
Man Hsu Ti-chung
Guarded by Dragons: Encounters with Rare Books and Rare People
Written by Rick Gekoski
Publisher: Constable (August 2021)
When Gekoski was a student, he sold a set of Shakespeare and made his first pot of gold, which led him to start his gold business by trading old books.
His original occupation was a professor of English at Warwick University, and he probably taught Tao Jie. Obviously, being a rare bookseller is much more fun than teaching.
The subtitle of this book, "The Best Book and the Best People", can also be used in the previous similar work, Tolkien's Gown (American version of Nabokov's Butterfly), both to write books, and more importantly to write people, these people, mostly famous writers, Gekoski help them sell books, or Their book heritage, written about their great personalities and behaviors.
So the bookseller can not be offended, otherwise he will explode your dark side - rest assured, after you pass.
3) "Geng Zi Hai Wu Xu"
Author: Yeh Han-liang
Publisher: OUP (April 2021)
Yeh Han-liang is now widely known as a martial artist. When he knew his name, he was a musician and a broadcaster.
When I bought this book, I wanted to see if he was teaching people how to spend years and fortune telling.
If so, you might end up putting the book down.
There is only a small amount of talk in the book, and because of the circumstances, it is not selling cucumbers.
And Ye Han-liang is the same generation, he talks about the old life, I can most of the experience, feel the same.
The words in the book are quite beautiful - a little higher than fluency, Li is the meaning of sprinkling.
He studied foreign languages at university, but has long paid attention to "national history", and academic numbers, had to understand Chinese classics, the pen quotes the ancients, pure and natural, will not give people the feeling of dropping a book bag. Geng Zi, that is, 2020, 2019, 2018, is the eventful autumn of Hong Kong, the article is more lyrical than emotional (in fact, it is absolutely not), it is not only political, it is more everyday.
4) 《 Love Bookstore 》
Author: Yosuke Ikouchi
Publisher: Small Bookstore Small Case Publishing (July 2021)
The coronavirus epidemic has dealt a heavy and even fatal blow to various industries, and the book industry naturally bears the brunt of it, with fewer people taking to the streets. But according to the author of the book, some booksellers have turned to selling books online, and their business has been ahead of the curve.
Another interesting phenomenon is the addition of a number of independent bookstores and independent publishing houses in that year alone (2020).
I found that this is also the case in Hong Kong, in addition to bookstores and publishing houses, as well as magazines, it is because of curiosity that we have to see what is happening in the Japanese book industry.
The author visited 10 independent bookstores in Japan and their founders, and his list is said to be as long as 40.
These bookstores have their own characteristics, but they generally have one thing in common, which is that they often host lectures and events, and even publish.
In Hong Kong, some bookstores offer paid lectures, classes, and even become a major source of income.
The author is Japanese, understands Chinese, and the book is written in Chinese, so there is no translator.
Man Lee King-heng
I ’ m not a fan of new books, but I ’ ve recently read a couple of memorable books that happened to be published in 2021.
5 ） 《 Shop Life 》
Author: Huang Guoxuan, Zheng Junhan
Publisher: Extraordinary (March 2021)
I rarely read the prose, but this collection of essays calls me unrelenting.
The article in the book depicts the daily life of the bookstore, but in the clever arrangement, the whole book structure is complete and unified, the content is comprehensive, and thought-provoking.
The story begins with two people entering the bookstore and ends with a review of everyone ’ s departure.
The author briefly and warmly outlines the daily work of the bookstore — ordering, unpacking, putting on shelves, stocking, packing, book fairs, and even dealing with rat plague floods, as well as the fate and interests of bosses, colleagues, guests, publishers, authors, book club owners, and even porters.
The book permeates the author's ideal mission and realistic management of books, reading, bookstores, and even social life care and reflection.
Reading this book about books and bookstores made me feel the texture and temperature of the book.
6) Running to the Night: A Collection of YOASOBI Novels
Author: Hoshino Dance Night, Ishigaki Aota, Ishigaki no, Underwater Wave
Translator: Chen Fanfan
Publisher: Cutting-Edge (May 2021)
I like books and I also like music.
This “musical novel ” project, which combines music and literature, is very special: the record company first released the draft under the premise that the winning works will be adapted into songs, and the Japanese duo YOASOBI wrote and interpreted the lyrics based on the winning works. YOASOBI is good at subtly composing melodies of melancholy and melancholy, and subtly composing melodies through the contrast of form and content. It is a simple but complex rhyme.
This book contains four original novels adapted by YOASOBI as songs on the album THE BOOK, including young people ’ s feelings and reflections on death, fate, love, and the end.
Hoshino Dance Night ’ s “The Temptation of Sonatos / Dissolve in the Night Sky ” is a story about death in an ingenious and one-of-a-kind way, and the song“ Run to the Night ” has been downloaded over 100 million times.
But I prefer - whether it is a song or a novel - "Maybe", like it to capture the sadness and helplessness left by a couple after their love fades with a precise but understated brush stroke.
7) Becoming Simonova
Author: Kate Kirkpatrick
Translator: Zhang Wei
Publisher: Acropolis (June 2021)
Simompova is a legendary woman: an open relationship with Saudi Arabia; an existentialist following Saudi Arabia; a world-renowned feminist. It is absolutely amazing to read this more than 500 pages of Being Simompova with these impressions.
Based on the letters and diaries published after Bova ’ s death, the author presents one of the most three-dimensional complex Simone Bova has ever seen.
Rather than being the perfect embodiment of ideal love, Bova and Saudi Arabia are more like partners on the intellectual road.
In fact, she is much more passionate about other heterosexual and same-sex relationships, and has been deeply hurt by Saudi Arabia ’ s popularity and coldness.
Academically, Bova ’ s ability to argue is higher than Saudi Arabia ’ s, forming ideas about existence and nothingness earlier, and even developing a set of existential ethics on her own.
She was dissatisfied with the feminists of the time, and wrote "Second Sex" originally only to organize their own growth experience, but unexpectedly became the most influential feminist.
Finally, I have to mention that the foreword of this book is very wonderful, and even if she is not a Bova fan, she will certainly feel endless fun.
WEN YARAN
(8) The Complete Seventies.
Author: 7th Grade
Publisher: Imprint (December 2020)
A full set of 13 books, with novels, poems and essays, published in December 2020, should not be excessive if it is included in the 2021 awakening book list.
I have not read the seventh grade before, it is after his death in 2020, the printing and publishing of this set of complete began to read.
The words of the seventh class are really powerful, like one of his masterpieces, the short story "I Love Black Eyes", is pouring rain, pedestrians scramble to climb the ladder to the roof of the house to avoid flooding, he wrote: "He has never hated human beings as much as at this moment. The goal of the project."
The words of the seventh class, I would say, have a unique dark atmosphere, and when asked where this atmosphere came from, the prologue in the second book of the Complete Collection provides an answer: that is, "the characteristics of the rhythm of the text."
In the words of the seventh class, the rhythm is different from other, there is "the breath of life, the beating of the blood."
You will understand when you read.
9) The past is not as good as smoking.
Author: Zhang and
Publisher: OUP (September 2021)
When you see the author ’ s name, you know it ’ s a must read book.
The six characters in the book, like the first book published in 2004, are the stories of the upper echelons of Chinese society and the last aristocrats, all of whom have been talking to the author's father, Zhang Bojun, for many years.
In China before and after World War II, as well as resisting foreign enemies, the elites of these countries wandered between the two parties, and in their lives, there were questions about where the country should go and what role they should play and what role they should play.
There are dramatists like Hong Shen, who was once a member of the Kuomintang, and later hoped to be recognized as a communist after his death; there are also political figures like Zuo Shunsheng, who was once the secretary general of the NLD, an important figure of the third force outside the KMT, and was the object of Mao Zedong's active recruitment.
It was only after 1949 that he did not go to Beijing and did not go to Taiwan, choosing to settle in Hong Kong and continue to discuss politics as a scholar.
Under the political storm, there are at least six examples of what people can choose and how they should choose.
"The Anatomy of Melancholy"
Author by: Robert Burton
Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 2021)
The Chinese translation "Anatomy of Depression", first published in 1621, and finally revised after the author's death in 1651. In 2021, the Penguin Classic reprinted this monumental work in hardcover.
This year, there is such a book on the pillow, there will be a calming effect. More than 1,300 pages, talking about what depression is, was written by Robert Burton in Oxford.
The book is very thick, but in addition to the opening preface, there is actually no need to read from scratch, find the chapter that interests you, that is, a specific depression that troubles you, or what kind of curiosity you are about depression, like the root of love depression, or why we are angry or afraid, the author as early as the 17th century, has the answer.
Wen Yi-jen
11) The Mayfly of the Great Age
Author: Shao Songxiong
Publisher: Mishan Bookstore (December 2021)
Shao Chung-hsiung studied in the 1980s, and has a wide range of knowledge and interests in the humanities. In the past, Oxford published only three collections of essays on music: Black and White, The Joy of Music, and The Twilight of the Gods.
"The Mayfly of the Great Age" just compiled his column articles written in the last years of the Apple Daily, from memoirs of the pioneers he encountered during his school years, to talk about Hong Kong popular culture such as movies or TV dramas, from family education to learning boxing and cooking, etc., and chatter and talk, and let the reader savor the image of the last student.
The book is divided into six parts by content: floating life, religious views, teaching, world style, humanities and film arts.
Shao Songxiong ’ s words do not have beautiful words, on the contrary, he sincerely shares his experience and insights with readers in a solid text, which is a long example of scholarly prose in the classical humanistic tradition.
"The Soul of the Old."
Author: Guo Ting
Publisher: Maitian (July 2021)
What are old things? Why are old things important? Guo Ting, who grew up with the elderly in Shanghai, seems to have a firm belief in old things.
From the old things, she saw people who had lived and died in a single line of time and did not return, leaving behind a chance to reconnect with the lost time.
While studying in the UK, she found that the society has been relatively stable for hundreds of years, and its charity shop has left a large number of intact old things, from fashion to porcelain, from books to vinyl records, and even home furnishings. Guo Ting will be her rich knowledge and passion for charity shops, second-hand shops, and old bookstores, focusing on the soul of old things. It is written in a very detailed manner, and it is written in a poetic manner.
How did the sad days pass?
Author: Huang Shu-han
Painting: LAI En-tsi
Photographer: Ruan Chi Him
Publisher: Shi Ching Culture (November 2021)
After two turbulent years, many Hong Kong people re-examine the past life and find the shadow of the past life. Huang Han-sook's "How to Live the Sad Days" recorded some of her own experiences and thoughts in the past few years: as a person in the education system, a witness of my city's aging, a patient, how should she view the city people's evasion of negative things?
In search of the whole, she listens to other people ’ s stories; in search of answers, she reads classic literary novels.
The book contains not only her simple words, but also the paintings of theater director Ryan Enci and the street scenes photographed by Ruan Zhiqian, which show a more three-dimensional look of sadness.
Poetry collections
Mann Chan Tzu-him
1) Save me with her little tongue.
Author: Cao Shuying
Publisher: Black Eyes Culture (June 2021)
Cao Shuying is good at short poetry and rapid segmentation, full of improvised fun, you can never guess where it will turn, how to stop.
This book is published in Taiwan, but it is full of memories of Hong Kong. At least four and a half of the seven chapters refer to this place: Hong Kong, Tai Yu Shan, Night Kowloon, Heart Lake City, Green Island.
Some poems seem to have no local memory, and the author still does not forget the point at the end of the poem, which shows deep feelings.
On the other hand, poetry does not always flow into reality, but can also plunge into the mind.
Also written in Taikoo, Cao Shuying ’ s “In Taikoo ” does not outline the landscape and concentrate history like the“ Taikoo ” of Ru Ming, but says that those “women like robots ” and“ men like silk ”, “should not walk in King ’ s Road, Jusco, Percy ’ s Restaurant, / They should walk in Rome, Prague, Brooklyn. ” A mysterious rope is drawn.
How far can poetry go from life?
2) "Simboska. Collage of Life"
Author: Alice Milani
Translator: Lin Wei-yun
Publisher: BIG CULTURE (July 2021)
Simboska is very popular in the Chinese world, and there are many translations of poetry, but no biographies in Chinese have been seen so far.
Based on biographies, interviews and other materials, the graphic novel "Simboska. Collage of Life" is a virtual reality, which not only presents the poet's life turning point, changes in literature and political beliefs, but also infuses imagination with fun.
Poets love to collage images, and so does this book, which uses crisp splicing to connect different time and space.
When it quotes poetry, it often does not restore the writing background like a biography, but deliberately mismatches the poetry to another time and space, and uses it to interpret the poet's psychology and arouse the reader's imagination.
Simboska is known for his humor, and the book is just as humorous, and even the dullest thank-you note makes me laugh: “Finally, I want to thank my unparalleled manager, Alexandra Sparta. ”
He has my love and 70% of my income. "
The Rose Is Open for No Reason: 40 Paths Approaching Modern Poetry
Author: Liao Wei-tang
Publisher: New Classical Culture (May 2021)
Roses bloom, there is no need for reasons, but when the city people can not feel the poetry, who will give them the reason to read poetry, or temptation? "Roses are open for no reason - approaching the 40 paths of modern poetry" does not intend to generalize all poetry issues, prefer to give the right medicine, and respond to the public's questions: Is modern poetry and classical poetry incompatible?
Is there no musicality without rhyming? Why branch?
Therefore, this book does not look like a hard textbook, but a dialogue with a living person.
There are 40 chapters in the book, each with two or three poems carefully read to explore a poetry topic. It is obvious that Liao Wai-tong does not first have concepts and then find examples, but first draws inspiration from poetry reading and then distills concepts.
Therefore, the discussion of the topic in the book may not be complete, but the appreciation is always written brilliantly, as tempting as poetry.
Art • Liu Ruoji
Editor • Kwan Hsiao-yang
Email • literature @ mingpao.com
fb: http: / / www.facebook.com / SundayMingpao

A book club reading list should balance classic and contemporary science fiction by including diverse authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Ursula K. Le Guin.

The Hugo Award is a useful reading guide for science fiction, helping book clubs discover new authors and diverse perspectives.

Title:

Content: My channel
* Drag categories can be customized sorting
Recover Default OK
Setup
Alert
Li Lanlei ’ s “fear of imprisonment for 6 months ” is in crisis, and Wang Lihong ’ s divorce lawsuit is exposed.
Home prices rise with interest rate median home selling price 361,700 yuan... up 14%
Hugo ’ s Soul – Hugo Award, the highest honor in contemporary science fiction
A crazy idea from a science fiction novel has come true.
How can they give up this feeling of being in heaven? Of course they want to go on to heaven.
Heaven appeared in Chicago for the second time in 1940 and Denver for the third time in 1941.
However, the Second World War broke out and their annual extravaganza was interrupted.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the vast majority of science fiction fans enlisted in the military, and only a few stayed home.
Those who stay will send science fiction magazines to their comrades on the front lines, because the comrades who hide in the trenches must rely on them to protect their souls.
In 1945, a crazy idea in science fiction came true, two atomic bombs exploded in Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Japan, ending the war, bringing peace back, and, of course, heaven. In 1946, the Fourth World Science Fiction Conference reopened in Los Angeles.
At science fiction conventions, sometimes science fiction fans vote for their best novel or short story.
At the Eleventh Congress in 1953, a rocket-shaped trophy was presented to the winner, but it was only a temporary initiative that did not continue the following year.
It was not until the Thirteenth Congress in 1955 that the people decided to make the award a permanent ceremony, and the award was named The Science Fiction Achievement Award, but it was still called the Hugo Award in private in honor of Gensbach ’ s contributions.
In 1958, the Hugo Award became the official name.
And so the Hugo Award was born.
Nearly 70% of the awards were awarded.
Canadian author Jo Walton is the winner of the 2012 Hugo Award for fiction.
Starting in 2010, she spent three years reading the novels that won awards and were shortlisted in the 42-year period from 1959 to 2000, and published them on the science fiction website, and in-depth discussions with the science fiction community, which caused widespread response.
In 2018, she published An Informal History of the Hugos.
She said she expanded her reading range to include the finalists because she was curious to see if the winning entries were actually the best ones of the year.
She concluded that twenty-five of those forty-two years were indeed well chosen, equivalent to 69% of the winning entries.
In addition, why stop at the year 2000? She gives two reasons.
First, she has published her own work since 2000 and was shortlisted for the John Campbell Memorial Award in 2001, so she cannot include her work in the evaluation in order to remain detached and objective.
The second and most important reason is that the work must stand the test of time.
Since she started writing the column in 2010, a ten-year interval is a reasonable time frame.
For example, if a novel published in 2000 is not out of print by 2010, it can barely stand the test of time.
It takes time to see the works from the depth of history.
Finally, she said that because she also won the Hugo Award in 2012, deeply shocked, coupled with reading 250 novels and writing a column for three years, she is more convinced that the Hugo Award is indeed of extraordinary significance, indeed the most important literary award in science fiction.
The Ideal Science Fiction Reading Guide
So, for readers in Taiwan, what does the Hugo Award mean?
Compared to English-speaking countries, Taiwan's science fiction publishing is much cooler, however, with the efforts of many publishers, Taiwanese readers can still get access to some classic works in the history of science fiction.
Therefore, the Hugo Award can still be an ideal reading guide.
For example, the 1966 award-winning Dune is a classic in the history of science fiction.
The film based on this novel has been popular around the world since its recent release, which has sparked a rush to read the original novel.
Successful film and television adaptations do help drive readers ’ interest in science fiction reading.
Similarly, the 2016 Oscar-nominated film “Arrival ” is also based on classic science fiction.
The success of the film has made Chiang Feng-nan, one of the most prominent Taiwanese-American writers of the time, a household name.
His two collections of novels, The Story of Your Life and The Breath, won four Hugo Awards in 2002, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
And the 1966 Hugo Award "Best Science Fiction Series" of the "Base" series (Chinese translation fantasy base publication) is the history of science fiction super classic, the impact on the future generations is unparalleled.
A television series based on the novel is also popular.
The 1970 award winning "Left Hand of Darkness" and the 1976 award winning "Nothing" are representative works of the life of the female writer Esula Le Guen, who is familiar to Taiwanese readers.
The 2002 award for American Gods is the work of Neil Gaiman, a leading contemporary fantasy writer, and his award is the most successful example of a Hugo Award-compatible fantasy genre.
The publication of classic science fiction novels in Taiwan still has a long way to go. (Part II)
Fiction Finalists
The last one.
Sea Star Anti-Epidemic Soup
The next one.
I used to be a fellow traveler.
Extended reading
Super-popular
More >

Notable authors like Neil Gaiman and Ursula Le Guin, who have won Hugo Awards, are great options for book club selections.

Liu Cixin, a Chinese science fiction writer, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015.

Title:

Content: China
China wants to smell.
Three finalists for this year ’ s Hugo Awards in Chinese sci-fi ’ s “Four Heavenly Kings ”
[Ming Pao News] The 2024 Hugo Awards announced the finalists on the afternoon of 29 local time in the United Kingdom. He Xi ’ s “Life Is Not Different ” and Wang Jinkang ’ s“ Mercury Sowing ” were shortlisted for “Best Long and Medium Novel ”; Gu Xi ’ s“ Overture to 2181 ” was shortlisted for “Best Short and Medium Novel ”." Best Short Novel ".
This is the first time in Chinese science fiction "Four Heavenly Kings" that three people have been nominated for the Hugo Award at the same time.
The science fiction writer Hai Yun, who won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in Chengdu last year, declined this year's nomination.
The scope of the Hugo Award is the works published in the previous year. Although the original Chinese works “Life Is Not Different ”,“ Mercury Sowing ” and “Voyage Without Answers ” have already been published, they have been included in the“ Tide 166 Light Years Away ” collection of Chinese and foreign authors, which was published last year, and they have been re-qualified to participate in the competition.
This year, a number of science fiction works by Chinese writers have been shortlisted for nine awards.
In 2015, Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin won the Best Novel Award for the English version of Three Kingdoms, becoming the first Asian to win the award.
The Hugo Awards ceremony was held in Chengdu, China, for the first time last year, and the organizers accepted China ’ s request to exclude works on sensitive issues such as “Taiwan ” and“ Tibet ” from nomination, causing strong criticism from the outside world.
Related Words: Reviewing Science Fiction Hugo Awards
Previous / Next News

When evaluating science fiction books, consider allegories, world-building, character development, and moral dilemmas.

The book should appeal to diverse backgrounds and be accessible to a wide range of readers.

Title:

Content: Skip to main content

‘Go Big Read’ seeking suggestions for 2024-25 book

November 8, 2023 By Käri Knutson

Some of the past Go Big Read books are displayed.

Fiction, non-fiction.

Books about the past, present and future.

Go Big Read has had them all. But what’s next? That’s where you come in.

UW–Madison’s common reading program is seeking title suggestions of any book relating to contemporary issues of broad interest to the campus community. Book suggestions can be made on the Go Big Read website through Nov. 27.

The ideal selection should have the following qualities:

  • Be readable, relevant, engaging, and well-written
  • Appeal to people with diverse backgrounds and experiences
  • Encompass sufficient depth and scope to generate discussions from different points of view
  • Be conducive to teaching and learning, and offer opportunities for integration into academic programs
  • Lend itself to a variety of activities and programming

The ideal book might also have a subject or author with a Wisconsin connection, an author who may be able to visit campus, cross-disciplinary appeal, and promote the Wisconsin Experience by engaging “issues that matter.”

After the submission period ends, a review committee will read and discuss the suggested books before making recommendations to Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin, who will make the final selection. Interested faculty, academic staff and university staff interested in joining the committee can apply until 5 p.m. Nov. 14

Weren’t able to catch the Nov. 7 event with David McRaney, author of “How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion,” the 2023-24 Go Big Read selection? You can watch the recorded livestream here, and read about it here.

Previous Go Big Read books include “How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” by Clint Smith, “Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi, “Parkland” by Dave Cullen, “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes” by Dan Egan, “The Poison Squad” by Deborah Blum and “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond.

The Go Big Read program is an initiative of the Office of the Chancellor. It engages members of the campus community and beyond in a shared, academically focused reading experience.

Tags: Go Big Read

Yusuf Azza al-Din Eissa's writes about humanity with what perspective?

The goal is to choose a book that will generate interesting discussions and provide a thought-provoking reading experience.

Title:

Content: Discover New Worlds: Top 10 Science Fiction Books for Young People
If you ’ re looking for a novel, thrilling events, elaborate details and a mystery, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik ’ s novel In the Rat Corridor is your best choice, published in 2016 and one of the best Arabic science fiction novels.
(Explanatory)
Reading is the food of the mind and a window to learn about new worlds you may not know anything about, giving you a different pleasure through which you can overcome boredom and depression and spend your free time reading your favorite book, but the most important question remains: Why read science fiction books?
Especially since there are thousands of books specialized in history and different civilizations throughout the ages that require reading and learning about them?
The answer is simply that sometimes we need to let go of the past, the present and even think about the future and let our imagination take a fun journey with science fiction books, which makes us fly into a parallel world where we can make our own laws and build our own world as we want.
10 Best Science Fiction Books Worth Reading
1.
In the Rat Corridor by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik
If you ’ re looking for a novel, thrilling events, elaborate details and a mystery, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik ’ s novel In the Rat Corridor is your best choice, published in 2016 and one of the best Arabic science fiction novels.
The story is about a huge meteor collision with the planet, blocking the sun ’ s rays from the earth, and thus the lack of all sources of energy and the creation of a system of “Commander ”, which criminalizes the generation of any source of energy or even the ignition of fire.
After the emergence of a group of rebels calling themselves the "Illuminati", the story ends with a tragic and unexpected end.
2.
Call for Carl Sagan.
Contact is the masterpiece of writer Karal Sagan, the novel talks about the realization of the dream of humans to discover another life somewhere else in the universe, but contrary to expectations people do not care about this discovery due to their preoccupation with their human world full of various political conflicts.
The adventure begins with a message explaining how to get to this place with a specially made machine for this journey, called a trip to the edge of the universe, where man sees what he has never seen before, where the huge stars and amazing scenes from a new world beyond our comprehension, and during this journey one can experience an adventure like never before.
3.
Traveler Zero by Ahmed Abdel Fattah Saleh
Traveler Zero, one of the most beautiful Arabic science fiction books, revolves around the character of a man named Sharif who wakes up one day to find himself in a world other than his own, and a life he knows nothing about, and that the last thing he remembers is his sleep as a college student and waking up as a married man with children and a different and new life. The truth about himself and the reason why he suddenly fell into this situation.
This novel is characterized by its attractive style of narration, as the writer relied on images, symbols and fictional situations that added to the novel a lot of elements of suspense and pleasure, and in which you can not stop reading if you have already begun.
4.
Dr. Morrow Island by Herbert George Wells.
This novel is the simplest example of an intellectual revolution, where it revolves around an Englishman descended from a class of nobility named Edward Brendick, all things change Edward when he goes on a trip to an island in the Pacific Ocean and his ship crashes and is rescued by a man named Montgomery, who takes him on a boat to the island inhabited by this man, in addition to a mad animal anatomist named Moro, and a number of half-humans. Created by this scientist with surgical methods and other interventions in animal life, Edward's adventure begins.
5.
The Ferry Man by Justin Cronin
This novel is about a group of survivors who are on a hidden utopia, but the truth is not what it seems.
Set in the Prospera archipelago, founded by the mysterious genius known as the designer far from the horrors of the deteriorating outside world, this island paradise has a long and satisfying life until the screens installed in their arms, aimed at measuring their physical health and well-being, drop to less than 10% and retire, and set off on a ferry trip to the island known as the nursery, where their bodies are renewed. Their memories are erased and they are ready to be brought back to life.
The story centers on Proctor Bennett of the Department of Social Contracts who finds himself questioning everything he once believed in, involved in a much larger cause than he was connected to and in a desperate mission to uncover the truth, after mounting unrest and rumors of a resistance group known as the “Expatriates ”, which may incite a revolution.
6.
The Time Machine of Herbert George Wells.
This book is considered one of the best and most important science fiction books, written by Herbert George Wells, one of the founders of science fiction and thriller.
The story revolves around a physicist who has developed a device through which he can see the future, and the extent of the major conflicts between two species of humans in the future, one of them is the Elroy luxuriant who is stupid behind the graces and lives on the surface of the earth, and the other is the Morlock, the species that lives underground and never sees the sun. Louie. "
7.
The Storm of Swords by George Martin.
This novel is the third part of the epic "Ice and Fire", one of the most famous books by George Martin, and revolves around the story of the Storm of Swords about the Five Kings, especially the young King Jeffrey, who seeks to secure his rule, and at this stage many battles and wars between the family and other kings, in an atmosphere full of excitement, suspense and science fiction.
8.
A Land Without Shadow by Mohamed Abdel Aal Al Khatib
This novel delves into the sea of science fiction and takes place in the future, where the debris of a planet flies in the sky, and each period the debris of this planet comes closer and closer to the inhabitants of the Earth, who live in a state of unprecedented fear and horror, and the population begins to search for another planet to escape to it by researchers and thinkers.
9.
The truth about Dan Brown.
One of the works of the American novelist Dan Brown is one of the most famous science fiction novels, and it is difficult to start without finishing it immediately; it revolves around the conspiracy theory and the involvement of NASA with a large research agency to convince the world of the existence of a meteor coming, and thus the public is preoccupied with many social problems and economic situation experienced by the country. There are a lot of corruption cases in the United States.
10.
Earth to the Moon by Jules Verle.
At the end of the list is one of the best science fiction novels worth reading, one of the oldest works that predicted human travel to the moon, by French writer John Ferrell, published in 1865.
A group of scientists from a club called Cannon developed a cannon shot designed to take them to the moon, and this book predicts the fact that humans arrived on the moon almost 100 years before it actually happened.
In this article, we have presented to you 10 books and novels that are considered one of the most famous and best science fiction books for leading writers, which many have enjoyed reading and enjoying.

Science fiction has been influenced by authors from diverse demographics, including women and people of color.

Title:

Content: Lists

The 20 Best Book Club Books For 2021

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Whether you’re back meeting in person or still catching up with your book club on Zoom, book clubs haven’t slowed down in 2021. I myself have joined a few new ones in the past year. There’s something so satisfying about connecting with other people about books. Whether you loved the book or hated the book, after you read a book, it’s nice to get to talk about it.

2021 has been a good year for book clubs, which means 2021 has been a good year for book club books. So much of the world seems out of our control, and it’s been comforting to escape into a good book and connect with friends about it. If your book club is looking for new books from this year to read and discuss, there are so many great options from this year.

This list includes 20 books that are perfect for book club discussions. They’re compelling and fun to read, so you won’t have any problem getting through them before your next club meeting. These books also packed with plenty of topics worth talking about, whether it’s the wild plot twists, the heart-warming relationships, or the thought-provoking themes the story brings up. The books on this list span several genres, so your club will have something fun to read no matter what genre they prefer. And because 2021 has been such a stressful year, a lot of books on this list are uplifting, feel-good novels that promise an escape from whatever’s troubling you in the real world.

So grab your book friends and get ready to read!

The Best Book Club Books 2021

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Looking for a good mystery/thriller for your book club that examines American suburbia? Give Sarah Langan’s Good Neighbors a try. Maple Street in suburban Long Island seems like the perfect place to raise a family. Then the Wilde family moves into the neighborhood. The father Arlo is a washed up rockstar, the mother Gertie dresses provocatively, and their kids are rough around the edges too. Not the type of the family the people of Maple Street are used to welcoming into their community. Unsurprisingly, the Wildes quickly become outcasts, and when the most popular family in the neighborhood throw accusations against the Wildes, tensions mount to shockingly high levels.

What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster

What’s Mine and Yours is a historical literary fiction novel that’s sure to bring up a lot of interesting discussions at your next book club meeting. When a county in North Carolina moves to integrate its high schools, the community is outraged. Then two high school students — Gee and Noelle — join a school play meant to bridge the divide between the students at the school. Gee and Noelle both find themselves right in the middle of the integration debate in ways that will affect their lives and their families for the next 20 years.

The Atmospherians by Alex McElroy

The Atmospherians is a dark, satirical literary novel that examines contemporary influencer culture and gender roles. Sasha Marcus’s social media career tanks after an unfortunate run-in with a media troll. Now there are men’s rights activists protesting outside of her house, and she feels like she’s hit rock bottom. That’s when she and her best friend Dyson hatch up a plan: The Atmosphere. The Atmosphere is a rehabilitation community for men who have lost everything: their family, their jobs, their self-respect. Seems like a great idea, right? What could possibly go wrong?

The Upstairs House by Julia Fine

The Upstairs House is perfect for your book club if you love discussing books that leave you all asking yourselves “What the heck did we just read?” This book is a strange, eery literary novel with touches of surrealism and horror. It’s the story of Megan, a woman who is raising her newborn baby alone while her husband travels for work. She’s exhausted, drained, and fairly certain the ghost of Margaret Wise Brown and her lover Michael Strange are living upstairs. Will these ghosts help her care for her baby and pull her life together? Or will they do the opposite and tear her life apart?

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

Of Women and Salt is a sweeping debut literary novel about family legacies and difficult choices mothers sometimes have to make to do what they think is best for their children. Jeanette is living in Miami and battling addiction. She’s the daughter of a Cuban immigrant and she’s determined to learn more about her family’s past. And so she travels to Cuba to see her grandmother in the hopes of learning more about her family. But her trip threatens to reveal secrets that could change everything.

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Beautiful World, Where Are You is the latest novel from New York Times best-selling author Sally Rooney, and it’s been getting a lot of well-deserved buzz. This is the story of Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon, four friends whose lives are complicatedly intertwined. Follow their stories as they fall in love with each other, desire each other, get together, break up, fall back into one another, and more. If you love beautifully rendered characters who are complex and maybe not entirely likable, then Sally Rooney’s books (especially her latest) will really work for you.

Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce

Wild Women and the Blues is a beautifully written and well-researched historical fiction novel set in Jazz-age Chicago. Dreamland Café is a ritzy club where Honoree Dalcour dances every night, looking to find a path to a better life for herself. But how much is she willing to risk to get ahead? Ninety years later, in 2015, film student Sawyer Hayes seeks out a 110-year-old Honoree. He’s looking for the missing pieces to his research about legendary filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, but the information Sawyer gets from Honoree is completely surprising.

All’s Well by Mona Awad

After the wild ride that was Bunny, author Mona Awad’s novel All’s Well was highly anticipated, and readers knew they would be in for surprises. Awad’s latest novel does not disappoint. Miranda Fitch is a college theater director whose life is falling apart. Her acting career was ruined after a terrible accident. Her marriage has fallen apart. All Miranda wants now is to direct All’s Well That Ends Well, but her students don’t respect her, and they refuse to do the play. Then Miranda meets three strangers, and suddenly her luck changes.

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant

If your book club is looking for an uplifting, feel-good book club book to get you through 2021, Happily Ever Afters is it. This young adult novel follows 16-year-old Tessa Johnson. She’s never seen herself reflected in the romance novels she’s read, and so she began to write her own. Now, she’s landed herself in a prestigious creative writing program. She’s so excited to finally share her stories with the world, but when she sits down to write, she finds she has some major writer’s block. Maybe a little real-life inspiration is all she needs to spark her creativity.

Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Oyeyemi’s novels are always a little bit magical and strange, which should give your book club plenty to talk about. Otto and Xavier Shin are in love, and they’ve been gifted a trip on a sleeper train to celebrate their new commitment to one another. And so they embark on an adventure together, accompanied by their pet mongoose. But Otto and Xavier soon realize this is no ordinary train. Everything aboard seems especially catered to their needs and tastes. And where are all the other passengers?

The Tiger Mom’s Tale by Lyn Liao Butler

With The Tiger Mom’s Tale, you get emotional story of complicated family relationships that’s also ultimately uplifting. When American Lexa Thomas inherits the wealth of her Taiwanese family, she travels to Taiwan to confront the family in which she’s always felt like an outsider, and to face the truths that she tried to leave behind. Lexa’s trip to Taiwan leads her to explore her connections to her family and the realities of who she truly is. This heartwarming story should give book clubs plenty of material to discuss, laugh about, and cry about.

The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam

For your 2021 book club, what novel could be more appropriate than a novel about startup tech companies? The Startup Wife is the story of Asha and Cyrus, two newlyweds who together start a tech incubator called Utopia. Their social media platform soon becomes wildly popular, replacing religious rituals for many of its users. Now Cyrus is being treated like a messiah, and Asha’s unsure their relationship can survive.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

The Other Black Girl has been a really popular book club pick for 2021, and when you read it, you’ll see why. This novel is impossible to put down, but it also examines complicated issues of racism and microaggressions in the workplace. Editorial assistant Nella Rogers is the only Black employee at Wagner Books, and she’s sick of it. So when Hazel starts working for the publishing company, at first Nella is certain she’s found a new ally. The reality, however, is much more complicated.

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Another topic that’s impossible to ignore in 2021: climate change. Charlotte McConaghy’s Once There Were Wolves is a meditation on climate change while also being an engaging story, which makes it perfect for timely discussions an enjoyable reading (so perfect for your book club). Inti Flynn is leading a team of biologists in the Scottish Highlands. Their mission is to reintroduce 14 grey wolves into the environment. Just as the wolves begin to thrive, a farmer is found dead, and everyone blames the wolves. Inti refuses to believe her wolves are capable of such a thing. But if they didn’t do it, who did?

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Cloud Cuckoo Land is another novel that’s been getting a lot of buzz this year. Readers couldn’t wait to see what Anthony Doerr was going to do after his beloved novel All The Light We Cannot See. So if your book club likes to stay up on all the buzziest books of the year, you need to pick up this one. This novel is a mixture of historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, and follows five characters’ stories in different places in the world in in different periods of time, from Constantinople in the 15th century to outer space decades into the future.

Fault Lines by Emily Itami

Fault Lines is a love story set in Japan that’s compared to the works of Sally Rooney (who is also on this list!) and Helen Fielding. Mizuki is a Japanese housewife who seemingly has the perfect life, and yet she can’t help but wonder how her life could have been different — and perhaps more exciting — if she’d made different choices. Then she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. And through her time spent with him, she rediscovers her passion for life. The more time she spends with Kiyoshi, the more she falls for him and the person she is when she’s with him. But this can’t go on forever. Ultimately she must choose the comfortable life with the family she loves, the romance and electricity of something new.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun is author Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. The story is told from the eyes of Klara, and artificial friend who learns about the world from watching people from her store window. Then one day someone finally comes to take Klara home and make her part of the family. But Klara is warned to not trust the promises of humans. Ishiguro’s literary sci-fi novel brings up environmental issues, concepts of religion, questions about what it means to be human, and much more. Perfect for a book club discussion.

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Torrey Peters’s Detransition Baby is one of the most talked about books of 2021, which means it’s perfect for your book club. This novel follows the story of three women — transgender and cisgender — whose lives come together in unexpected ways when they attempt to raise a child together. Detransition, Baby explores gender identity, motherhood, relationships, and more through thoughtfully rendered characters who feel incredibly real.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Are you looking for a fun, lighthearted sapphic romance with a huge dose of time travel? After hearing that sentence, are you realizing this this the storyline you didn’t know you needed? August is a cynical twentysomething New Yorker who doesn’t believe in love. Then she sees Jane on the train. Jane is gorgeous, charming, mysterious, and she looks like she came from the 1970s with her leather jacket and punk rock style. Then August finds out that Jane is actually from the 1970s, displaced in time, and her subway romance becomes a whole lot more complicated. This is a warmhearted and unique romance story that your book club will love talking about.

Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

Gold Diggers is a coming-of-age story with a big pinch of magical realism, humor, and heart. Neil Narayan is a second generation Indian American teenager growing up during the Bush era in the Atlanta suburbs. Neil’s parents want him to be successful, but all he really wants is Anita Dayal, the girl of his dreams who lives across the cul-de-sac. Then Neil discovers Anita is brewing a magical potion out of stolen gold that harnesses the ambition of the person who owned the gold. And Neil’s life is changed forever.

If you’re looking for more guidance for getting your book club going, we’ve got some suggestions for you! Have the books you want to read but don’t have club to read them with just yet? Here’s your guide to starting your own book club. Also! Here are some ideas for book club discussion questions to get the conversation going. And if you’d rather just keep things online for now, here are some of the best online book clubs you can join right now. Happy reading, and happy chatting it up with your book club friends!

Start an Audiobooks.com Free Trial and listen to all your faves!

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

Who wrote "Binti," a Hugo-award-winning African futuristic science fiction horror story?