Book cover of Foreign Seed

Book description

Set in China as America gets involved in WWI, Foreign Seed follows newly minted Vice Consul Samuel Sokobin's first case as he investigates the disappearance of Frank Meyer (of Meyer Lemon fame), explorer for the U.S. Department of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, when he disappears from a steamship on…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Foreign Seed as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Allison Alsup’s debut novel FOREIGN SEED combines beautiful, lyrical writing that transports us to another time and place with a propulsive plot that keeps us turning the page and reading long past our bedtime. The characters are tightly drawn and three-dimensional (even the secondary characters) and the unfolding action, setting descriptions, and dialogue are gripping. The author handles the fraught theme of "ambiguous loss" with grace and elegance. This book is so beautifully written and definitely has cinematic potential. At the beginning, I was getting Casablanca vibes and by the end, I was thinking about another favorite movie, The Year…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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