Feb 21
“(To be a girl is to have your edges torn away by people who do not deserve any part of you.)”
— Jade Chang, What a Time to Be Alive (2025)
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“(To be a girl is to have your edges torn away by people who do not deserve any part of you.)”
— Jade Chang, What a Time to Be Alive (2025)
Congratulations to Jade Chang! For our sixth Empyrean's Blessing, you won a $20 Amazon.com e-Gift Card! (x)
The Empyrean's Blessing is an AC Patron Quarterly Giveaway exclusive to Primus Praetors and up!
The world ended, and then it didn't.
Jade Chang, The Wangs vs. The World
9 great reads by poc authors!
Book Club picks for only $2.99!
THE WANGS VS THE WORLD by Jade Chang
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THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE by Michel Faber
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INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri
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THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX by Maggie O’Farrell
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WHAT TO READ WHEN YOU NEED MORE ANNE SHIRLEY IN YOUR LIFE
For generations of women, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s fictional Anne Shirley has been a defining prototype of resilient girlhood. Her red hair, incorrigible imagination, and unflagging spirit were and are an inspiration for every girl who has ever been told she talks too much and too loud. She didn’t moon around for Gilbert Blythe (even while the rest of us did and still do). She showed those adults a thing or two. And sure, she sold out a little to the family life, but at least she married the right man, unlike that other heroine, Jo March.
Today, Netflix launches their new series Anne with an E, an Anne Shirley remake for all of us who still fancy ourselves an Anne. But just in case that’s not enough Anne for you, here’s a list of books for times when you need a strong female protagonist (like every day right now in America).
Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels: This series is full of incredible women, but especially the “brilliant friend” Raffaella Cerullo. Sethe in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Anais Hendricks in Jenni Fagan’s The Panopticon. Mireille Duval Jameson in Roxane Gay’s An Untamed State. Every female character in Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan. Yeong-hye in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Sarah Hepola in her memoir Blackout. Blue van Meer in Marisha Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Victoria Woodhull forever! Start with Barbara Goldsmith’s Other Powers: the Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull. Beryl Markham and incredible pioneering women in her memoir West with the Night. Johanna Morrigan in Caitlin Moran’s How to Build a Girl. Grace and Saina from Jade Chang’s The Wangs vs. the World. Dana and Chaurisse from Tayari Jones’s Silver Sparrow. Also, anything by Octavia Butler. Seriously, anything. Just pick a book. --The Rumpus
Win 12 books in our Summer Paperback Giveaway!
Fill your summer tote with twelve delightful paperbacks, perfect for beach reading:
THE VERSIONS OF US by Laura Barnett
Cambridge, 1958. Late for class, Eva Edelstein swerves to miss a dog and crashes her bike. Jim Taylor hurries to help her. In that brief moment, three outcomes are born for Eva and Jim, the only constant is the power of their connection.
THE WANGS VS THE WORLD by Jade Chang
Sharply observed and full of charm, this debut novel is an entirely fresh look at what it means to belong in America—and how going from glorious riches to (still name-brand) rags brings one family together in a way that money never could.
THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT by Alexander Chee
In the Paris of the Second Empire, what did it take to rise from courtesan to diva? From a ferociously talented writer who is “the fire, in my opinion, and the light” (Junot Díaz) comes a blazing portrait of a woman who creates her own fate.
ASHES OF FIERY WEATHER by Kathleen Donohoe
A debut novel about the passionate loves and tragic losses of six generations of women in a family of firefighters, spanning from famine-era Ireland to Brooklyn a decade after 9/11.
THE TURNER HOUSE by Angela Flournoy
A novel centered on the journey of the Turner family and its thirteen siblings, particularly the eldest and youngest, as they face the ghosts of their pasts—both an actual haint and the specter of addiction—the imminent loss of their mother, and the necessary abandonment of their family home in struggling Detroit.
FEVER AT DAWN by Péter Gárdos
In this improbably joyous novel about two recovering concentration camp survivors, love is the best medicine.
THE LONEY by Andrew Michael Hurley
Hailed as “a masterful excursion into terror” by the Sunday Times—the eerie, suspenseful debut novel about two brothers that is taking the world by storm.
UNDER THE UDALA TREES by Chinelo Okparanta
Inspired by her mother’s stories of war and Nigeria’s folktale traditions, UNDER THE UDALA TREES is Chinelo Okparanta’s deeply searching, powerful debut about the dangers of living and loving openly.
LISTEN TO ME by Hannah Pittard
A modern gothic about a marriage and road trip gone hauntingly awry by acclaimed writer Hannah Pittard. ("If she's not on your radar yet, she should be." — Buzzfeed)
MARROW ISLAND by Alexis M. Smith
A new novel tracks a young woman’s return home to investigate a secretive community that has mysteriously rescued an island devastated by natural and chemical disaster—as well as taken hold of one of her oldest friends.
LADY COP MAKES TROUBLE by Amy Stewart
The best-selling author of Girl Waits with Gun returns with another adventure featuring the fascinating, feisty, and unforgettable Kopp sisters.
THE ONE-IN-A-MILLION BOY by Monica Wood
The incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house—a friendship that touches each member of the boy's unmoored family.
Enter to win here!
Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! And what better way is there to celebrate than with a great book? We recommend...
SALT HOUSES by Hala Alyan – While this multi-generational saga mostly takes place outside the United States, some branches of this Palestinian family tree end up there after generations of displacement and exile.
EDINBURGH by Alexander Chee (@alexanderchee) – A coming-of-age story about a Korean American boy called “incomparable” by Junot Díaz.
FOR TODAY I AM A BOY by Kim Fu – The only son in a family of three daughters, Peter is given the Chinese name Juan Chaun, “powerful king.” The problem: Peter knows he is a girl.
THE NAMESAKE by Jhumpa Lahiri – This novel follows a Bengali couple and their first generation son, Gogol, who struggles to balance his Bengali and American identities.
THE FORTUNES by Peter Ho Davies – A groundbreaking, provocative new novel recasting American history through the lives of Chinese Americans.
THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD by Jade Chang – A hilarious debut novel about a wealthy but fractured Chinese immigrant family that had it all, only to lose every last cent—and the road trip they take across America that binds them back together
BIG LITTLE MAN by Alex Tizon – In this memoir-meets-cultural study, the late Alex Tizon explores what it means to be an Asian American man.