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LITTLE SANCTUARY

With their lives destabilized by war and a devastating sickness spreading, Sabel, who has “wood-coloured” skin, sits down with her family to share a last meal before leaving home. But instead of the family leaving together, Appa and Amma send the kids—Sabel, Reya, Theri, Verlane, and S’Jin—off on their own. After a turbulent and disorienting […]

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WHO’S WALKING DAWG?

Dawg’s got a great life—as all “dawgs” deserve—but today, as he waits impatiently to be walked, leash in mouth, tail wagging, no one’s paying attention. Dad’s making pizza for dinner, Mom’s at her computer, Bro’s playing guitar, and Sis is on her phone. Everyone tells Dawg to ask someone else to walk him. Finally, Dawg […]

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NATURAL HISTORY OF SILENCE

An eco-acoustic researcher at the Natural History Museum in Paris, Sueur has long been listening to the sounds of the earth, animals, and humans. Inspired by the work of the late Canadian soundscape composer R. Murray Schafer and Bernie Krause, a soundscape ecologist and author of The Great Animal Orchestra (2012), Sueur has traveled on […]

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YIN YANG LOVE SONG

Chryssy’s family is cursed. While her uncles have all had long and happy marriages, generations of Hua women—Chryssy included—have been destined never to find lasting love, experiencing everything from prom night breakups to cheating spouses. Still reeling after a broken engagement, Chryssy has thrown herself into her job as a Traditional Chinese Medicine chef and […]

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SUPERAGENCY

Reid, the co-founder of LinkedIn, and Beato, a tech and culture writer, aim to dispel the public’s concerns about ceding control to AI systems and to establish trust in AI companies and their methods by showing “what could possibly go right” in AI development. Attempting to persuade readers that industry regulation is undemocratic and inhibits […]

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THE SEVENTH PARTITA

Kaden Dave Oshima is a musicologist and “old crackpot musician” (he’s in his mid-60s) living in Honolulu. In his own words, he leads an “uncertain existence of contemplation” in which he ponders “morality, truth, ecstasy, and clear understanding from this world.” He is a devotee of Bach’s incomparable music and believes that in addition to […]

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HOLY GROUND

Flowers, founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, writes with passion and gracefulness about her life and experiences as an advocate for the rural poor. While she is best known for her work to secure safe water and sanitation for people living near toxic conditions, Flowers […]

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SUPERBLOOM

If a little of something is good, then more must be better, and a lot more must be much better. According to journalist and author Carr, this assumption is longstanding, straightforward, and terribly wrong—at least when applied to communications technology. The theme of his book is that social media has taken over our society with […]

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THE SHORTEST HISTORY OF MIGRATION

For Goldin, migration is a “deeply personal” topic: his grandparents and his father fled antisemitic violence in their home countries, while Goldin himself left his home in South Africa as a result of his principled opposition to the apartheid regime. In this volume, the author traces the social, political, and cultural contexts that shaped migration […]

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A RAGE TO CONQUER

Shelves groan with “famous battles” accounts, and journalist and author Walsh has written another. Although no soldier, he has done his homework, and some military buffs will likely not object to his low opinion of the “politically correct” claim that war “never solves anything” and is shameful and destructive and marks a failure in national […]