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Book SynopsisIdentity in the Covid-19 Years explores the how the COVID-19 pandemic has been represented in media, communication and culture, and the role these changes have played in renewing how we understand identity, engage in social belonging and relate ethically to each other and the world. This book explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on how we perform our identities, engage in social belonging, and communicate with each other. Understanding the onset of the pandemic as a moment experienced as cultural rupture, Cover provides a framework for understanding how selfhood, belonging, relationships and perceptions of time and space have undergone a disruption that not only is damaging to continuity and stability but also provides positive value through renewal and the re-making of the self and ways of living ethically. Drawing on philosophic, media and cultural studies approaches, this book describes how networks of mutual care and global interdependeTrade ReviewHow do we make sense of the individual and global trauma caused by COVID? Cover frames the pandemic by wrestling sense out of the inchoate panic, offering a major, wholistic cultural analysis of the pandemic and its enduring effects. In addressing the structural and discursive truths that the pandemic has exposed, he is also mindful of the personal devastation that COVID has wrought. COVID changed our social ecology, and we need a reckoning. Start here. * Sally Munt, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Politics, University of Sussex, UK *Drawing on philosophic, media, and cultural studies approaches, this book describes how networks of mutual care and global interdependency have been powerfully drawn out by the experience of the pandemic, yet also disavowed in some settings in favor of a problem individualism and sustained inequalities. * Chris Beasley, Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide, Australia *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: Stories of Rupture and Resilience in a Pandemic 1 Media Discourses of Coronavirus: From Health Advisory to Conspiracy 2 Apocalyptic Fictions as a Roadmap for Crisis 3 Disrupted Identity: The Self in a Time of Radical Cultural Change, Anxiety, and Crisis 4 Disrupted Mobility: Lockdowns, Borders, and Movement 5 Disrupted Exposure: Ethics and the Face of the Other in the Time of Masks 6 Disrupted Touch: Hands, Bodies, and Social Distancing 7 Disrupted Corporealities: Vaccination and Anti-vaxxers 8 Disrupted Futurity: Mourning the Self and the Other Conclusion: COVID Futures: Ethical Care in Interdependency References Index

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Book SynopsisIn 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: the two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.

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Book SynopsisThurber Prize finalist and author of the beloved Hollow Kingdom returns with another fantastical and endlessly funny story featuring a cast of colorful characters in a dying Italian village and a giant truffle that changes their fate forever. After nearly losing the election to a geriatric but wildly popular donkey named Maurizio, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can't help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarini Boscarino. Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara's cherishedristoranteis long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun withglis glispooeven Postman Duccio has been disgraced. All that's left is Bar Celebrit, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina's volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they've spent their entire lives.

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Book SynopsisThe best black writer in America (Time) joins the Library of America with a volume collecting 4 landmark novels about race and the legacy of slavery in America Includes A Lesson Before Dying, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and an early Oprah Book Club selectionBorn in 1933, the oldest of twelve children in a family of sharecroppers in Oscar, Louisiana, Ernest J. Gaines wrote novels and stories, set on and around the former slave plantation he called home, that are modern classics—nuanced, compassionate portraits of women and men, both Black and white, caught in the vortex of race in America. He joins the Library of America with this volume gathering his four greatest novels. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), the story of an elderly woman born into slavery who witnesses Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement. A living testament to the history, hopes, courage, and survival of her people, Miss Jane is one of the most indelible and unforgettable characters in American fiction. In My Father’s House (1978) finds an activist minister organizing a civil rights protest in his town when his estranged son suddenly appears on the scene, threatening to expose his family's secret past. A Gathering of Old Men (1983) sees a group of elderly Black men with nothing left to lose decide to make a last stand against the racism that has defined and delimited their lives. A Lesson Before Dying (1993, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and an Oprah Book Club selection), in which a local schoolteacher attempts to help a young man falsely convicted of the murder of a white man face execution with dignity. A fitting tribute to a still underappreciated American genius, this volume also includes a chronology of Gaines’s life and career written by his authorized biographer, John Wharton Lowe, and helpful notes.

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Book SynopsisA picturesque island. A shocking murder. A secret that could destroy everything. It's 1980, a time of peace and tranquility on a legendary island off the coast of New England. Inhabiting the island is a vibrant cast of locals that includes scallopers, tradespeople, and a mysterious reclusethe wealthiest man in Massachusetts. But that peace is shattered with the murder of a prominent lawyer, a pillar of the community. For Peter Christie, a journalist seeking a fresh start, the case is more than just a headlineit's a chance at redemption. As he delves into the island's secrets, he finds himself drawn to Haddie Danville, a determined conservation ranger. But Haddie, reeling from her grandfather's sudden death, begins to doubt both Peter and his true intentions. Determined to win Haddie back, Peter sets out to solve the murder, joining forces with a local detective, navigating a web of confounding islanders, and pressing closer and closer to the heart of the tightly coiled secret . . . a secret that threatens to tear apart the idyllic island.

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Book SynopsisTHE IRREGULAR AT MAGIC HIGH SCHOOL meets DUNGEONS & DRAGONS with a touch of NAME OF THE WIND in the bestselling LitRPG Epic Fantasy Action Adventure series MARK OF THE FOOL - in print and as a Light Novel for the very first time with MARK OF THE FOOL (Light Novel) Vol. 1 from Vault Books!The gods chose him. He said no. After his parents died, Alex Roth had one desire: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the University of Generasi, the world’s greatest academy of wizardry. Fate had other plans. On his eighteenth birthday, Alex is Marked by prophecy as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the Ravener, his land’s great enemy. But his brand is ''The Fool’. Worst of the marks. Rather than die or serve other Heroes like past Fools, he takes a stand, rejects divine decree…and leaves. With his little sister, his childhood friend, and her cerberus, Alex flees for the university, hoping to research the mystery of the Ravener. He’ll make lifelong friends, learn magic from mad wizards, practice alchemy, fight mana vampires, and try to pay tuition. There’s one small problem. The Mark insists on preventing the Fool from learning and casting spells, while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat, and spellcraft… …that is, unless he learns to exploit the hell out of it. Explore a coming-of-age magic academy fantasy with a weak-to-strong progression into power, a setting inspired by D&D, detailed world building, and magical science, action, comedy, slice-of-life, and GameLit elements. With nearly 10 million views on Royal Road, the popular web-serial MARK OF THE FOOL has sold more than 100K eBooks, while the bestselling (100K+) audio book is narrated by author Travis Baldree! Mark of the Fool (Light Novel) Volumes 1-3 narrative corresponds to Mark of the Fool, Book 1 eBook from Aethon Books. J.M. Clarke is the author of the bestselling, mega-hit, seven- volume LitRPG epic progression fantasy series MARK OF THE FOOL from Aethon Books, and the hit audiobook of Mark of the Fool Book 1 from Aethon Audio, as well as the super-hit RUNE SEEKER series (currently four books) co-written with C.J. Thompson. MARK OF THE FOOL (Light Novel) Vol. 1 is for fans of: Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Baldur’s Gate 3, The Irregular at Magic High School, The Rising of the Shield Hero, ARCANE (Netflix), Black Clover, Mother of Learning, Mage Errant, The Beginning After the End, The Primal Hunter, My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror, Amelia the Level Zero Hero, System Reborn/Apocalypse Reincarnation, All the Skills, The Path of Ascension, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, He Who Fights With Monsters, My Necromancer Class, Last Round Arthurs, Axis Church vs. Eris Church, Kino’s Journey, Will Wight’s Cradle series, as well as Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe, The Name of the Wind / The Kingkiller Chronicle (Patrick Rothfuss), The Chronicles of Arthur: Sword of Fire and Ice (John Matthews and Mike Collins), King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and for fans of magic school settings. About Light Novels from Vault Books: All Vault Books Light Novels are based on mega-bestselling LitRPG and Progression Fantasy eBooks published by trailblazing digital Science Fiction and Fantasy publisher, Aethon Books. If you’ve read and enjoyed the Aethon eBooks, Vault Books light novels have kept everything you love about those eBooks - and upped the game. By dividing each original Aethon eBook into two to four Light Novel volumes, Vault endeavors to enhance the reading experience by providing an easily-digestible print edition with illustrations and design details. Every Vault light novel volume is produced in conjunction with and approved by the author/creator of the bestselling eBook. Each Vault light novel volume contains seven original, exclusive illustrations - in both full color and black and white - from some of the most talented manga artists and illustrators from around the world, while every page of the book is meticulously designed and embellished with never-before-seen elements taken directly from the narrative heart of the story. If you’re already an existing fan and you’ve devoured the eBook, now is the time to grab the light novels in print format and widely distributed for the very first time! And if you’ve never read any of the bestselling eBooks, this is your opportunity to dive into the intersecting world of Light Novels, LitRPG, Progression Fantasy, Isekai, and Manga! LIGHT NOVELS FROM VAULT BOOKS: 2024 The Primal Hunter (Light Novel) Vol. 1 My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror (Light Novel) Vol. 1 2025 Mark of the Fool (Light Novel) Vol. 1 The Path of Ascension (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Battle Mage Farmer (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Road to Mastery (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Hell Difficulty Tutorial (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Reborn as a Demonic Tree (Light Novel) Vol. 1 The Primal Hunter (Light Novel) Vol. 2, Vol. 3 My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror (Light Novel) Vol. 2, Vol. 3

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Book SynopsisTHE WHEEL OF TIME meets DEMON SLAYER in the bestselling LitRPG Epic Fantasy Action Adventure series THE PATH OF ASCENSION - in print and as a Light Novel for the very first time with THE PATH OF ASCENSION (Light Novel) Vol. 1 from Vault Books!Orphaned by monsters, Matt must power-up to save others from the same fate. Matt plans to delve the rifts responsible for the monsters that destroyed his city and murdered his parents. But his dreams are crushed when his Tier 1 Talent is rated as detrimental and no guild or group will take him. Working at a nearby inn, he meets a mysterious and powerful couple who give him a chance to join the Path of Ascension, an empire-wide race to ascend the Tiers and become living legends. With their recommendation and a stolen Skill, Matt begins his journey to the peak of power. Maybe then, he can get vengeance he seeks... Experience the start of an action-packed fantasy adventure that blends the best of LitRPG and Progression Fantasy with Xianxia (Chinese for “immortal heroes” and is Chinese fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology). With more than 5 million views on Royal Road, this hit web serial is new-and-improved - and now in Light Novel format from Vault! The Path of Ascension (Light Novel) Volumes 1-4 narrative corresponds to The Path of Ascension, Book 1 eBook from Aethon Books. About the series: This is a mix between LitRPG and Xianxia. It''s like a car that looks like a LitRPG with dungeons and skills, but the interior and engine are all Xianxia. It features a magic system and progression system that are logically and internally consistent, as well as realistic fight scenes and a rational MC. THE PATH OF ASCENSION (Light Novel) Vol. 1 is for fans of: The SUMMONER Series (The Novice, The Inquisition, The Battlemage, The Outcast by Taran Matharu), The Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan), The Name of the Wind / The Kingkiller Chronicle (Patrick Rothfuss), The Traveler’s Gate Trilogy (Will Wight), Will Wight’s Cradle series , Coiling Dragon, Stellar Transformation, Mark of the Fool, Path of the Dragon Mage, Black Clover, Mother of Learning, Mage Errant, System Universe, I Shall Seal the Heavens, Renegade Immortal, A Hero Born, The Primal Hunter, Defiance of the Fall, Azarinth Healer, Beware of Chicken, The Beginning After the End, A Will Eternal, Amelia the Level Zero Hero, System Reborn/Apocalypse Reincarnation, All the Skills, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, He Who Fights With Monsters, My Necromancer Class, Axis Church vs. Eris Church, Kino’s Journey, and Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. About Light Novels from Vault Books: All Vault Books Light Novels are based on mega-bestselling LitRPG and Progression Fantasy eBooks published by trailblazing digital Science Fiction and Fantasy publisher, Aethon Books. If you’ve read and enjoyed the Aethon eBooks, Vault Books light novels have kept everything you love about those eBooks - and upped the game. By dividing each original Aethon eBook into two to four Light Novel volumes, Vault endeavors to enhance the reading experience by providing an easily-digestible print edition with illustrations and design details. Every Vault light novel volume is produced in conjunction with and approved by the author/creator of the bestselling eBook. Each Vault light novel volume contains seven original, exclusive illustrations - in both full color and black and white - from some of the most talented manga artists and illustrators from around the world, while every page of the book is meticulously designed and embellished with never-before-seen elements taken directly from the narrative heart of the story. If you’re already an existing fan and you’ve devoured the eBook, now is the time to grab the light novels in print format and widely distributed for the very first time! And if you’ve never read any of the bestselling eBooks, this is your opportunity to dive into the intersecting world of Light Novels, LitRPG, Progression Fantasy, Isekai, and Manga! LIGHT NOVELS FROM VAULT BOOKS: 2024 The Primal Hunter (Light Novel) Vol. 1 My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror (Light Novel) Vol. 1 2025 Mark of the Fool (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Path of Ascension (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Battle Mage Farmer (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Road to Mastery (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Hell Difficulty Tutorial (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Reborn as a Demonic Tree (Light Novel) Vol. 1 The Primal Hunter (Light Novel) Vol. 2, Vol. 3 My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror (Light Novel) Vol. 2, Vol. 3

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Book SynopsisFive lonely strangers join a bar trivia team in an effort to find friends, but end up on a path that will change each of their lives forever, in this heartwarming debut perfect for fans of Beth O’Leary and Sophie Kinsella.How do you make friends as an adult? That’s one question lonely Londoners Bryony, Harry, Jaime, Luke, and Donna would really like the answer to. They tend to do better with questions of a different variety—trivia questions like How did prosecco get its name? and Which Mariah Carey song has topped the charts in twenty-six countries?In an effort to meet new people, the five not-yet-friends answer an ad seeking members of a bar trivia team—the Red Hot Quizzy Peppers. As the weeks go on, the disparate band of unhappy strangers becomes swept up in both the buzz of winning and the way quiz nights start to bond them together in friendship . . . to the detriment of other parts of their lives. Despite all odds, the Quizzy Peppers might just have a shot at making the London Pub Quiz League’s Grand Final, if only they can get past the Golden Girls, the Banana Splits, and the Bombay Bad Boys.Utterly charming and uplifting, The Lonely Hearts Trivia Night is a story of finding friendship, love, confidence, and purpose—just right for fans of Jennifer Weiner.

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Book SynopsisThomas E. Ricks, author of five New York Times bestsellers, combines his deep knowledge of Maine with his years of experience covering U.S. military operations to craft a powerful tale of politics and mayhem in this riveting crime novel.When a group of young Native Americans launches a series of protests against climate change and its effects on the waters and woods of Maine, veteran FBI agent Ryan Tapia is assigned to monitor the movement. The protestors, who become determined to split away from American society, are led by “Peeled Paul” Soco, a Malpense hermit who played a key role in one of Tapia''s previous investigations. When the marchers begin making camps on the lawns of luxurious summer mansions along the Maine coast, they win national media attention—and the wrath of a reactionary president. Tapia soon finds himself torn. He wants to do right by Soco and the protestors, but his bosses at the Bureau are eager to please a president itching to crack down on them. Growing increasingly sympathetic to the protestors and their cause, he tells them about a possible refuge—a secret CIA base hidden away in the depths of the Maine woods on the Canadian border. Enraged by the protestors'' actions, the White House sends a U.S. Army unit to track down the protestors on their stealth march through the evergreen forests. Meanwhile, Tapia’s bosses, vexed and embarrassed, fire him and threaten arrest. Undaunted, Tapia snowmobiles through the wilderness on a wintry night to warn the Indian protestors of the impending attack. Building to a dizzying, wind-whipped climax, We Can''t Save You establishes Ryan Tapia as one of the most compelling and nuanced investigators in crime fiction.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2022 Lammy Award for Transgender Fiction From acclaimed author Jeanne Thornton, an epic, singular look at fandom, creativity, longing, and trans identity. Gala, a young trans woman, works at a hostel in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. She is obsessed with the Get Happies, the quintessential 1960s Californian band, helmed by its resident genius, B----. Gala needs to know: Why did the band stop making music? Why did they never release their rumored album, Summer Fun? And so she writes letters to B---- that shed light not only on the Get Happies, but paint an extraordinary portrait of Gala. The parallel narratives of B---- and Gala form a dialogue about creation—of music, identity, self, culture, and counterculture. Summer Fun is a brilliant and magical work of trans literature that marks Thornton as one of our most exciting and original novelists.

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Book SynopsisA middle-aged couple struggles with the husband’s descent into early onset Lewy Body dementia in this profound and deeply moving novel shot through with Kirshenbaum’s lacerating humor. It begins with hallucinations. From their living room window, Leo sees a man on stilts, an acting troupe, a pair of swans paddling on the Manhattan streets below. Then he’s unable to perform simple tasks and experiences a host of other erratic disturbances, none of which his doctors can explain. Leo, 53, a research scientist, and Addie, a collage artist, have a loving and happy marriage. They’d planned on many more years of work and travel, dinner with friends, quiet evenings at home with the cat. But as Leo’s periods of lucidity become rarer, those dreams fall away, and Addie finds herself less and less able to cope with an increasingly unbearable present.Eventually, Leo is diagnosed with early onset dementia in the form of Lewy body disease. Life expectancy ranges from 3 to 20 years. A decidedly uncharacteristic act of violence makes it clear that he cannot live at home. He moves first to an assisted living facility and then to a small apartment with a caretaker, where, over time, he descends into full cognitive decline. Addie’s agony, anger, and guilt result in self-imposed isolation, which mirrors Leo’s diminished life. And so for years, all she can do is watch him die—too soon, and yet not soon enough.Kirshenbaum captures the pair’s final years, months, and days in short scenes that burn with despair, dark humor, and rage, tracking the brutal destruction of the disease as well as the moments of love and beauty that still exist for them.

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Book Synopsis“A Dickensian sweep and a vast cast of characters, Upadhyay created an ancient world saturated with the spirit of our time and shaped by political ambition and dark vision . . . A grand novel indeed.” —Ha Jin, National Book Award–winning author of WaitingAn epic tale of love and political violence set in earthquake-ravaged Darkmotherland, a dystopian reimagining of Nepal, from the Whiting Award–winning author of Arresting God in Kathmandu In Darkmotherland, Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay has created a novel of infinite embrace—filled with lovers and widows, dictators and dissidents, paupers, fundamentalists, and a genderqueer power player with her eyes on the throne—in an earthquake-ravaged dystopian reimagining of Nepal.At its heart are two intertwining narratives: one of Kranti, a revolutionary’s daughter who marries into a plutocratic dynasty and becomes ensnared in the family’s politics. And then there is the tale of Darkmotherland’s new dictator and his mistress, Rozy, who undergoes radical body changes and grows into a figure of immense power.Darkmotherland is a romp through the vast space of a globalized universe where personal ambitions are inextricably tied to political fortunes, where individual identities are shaped by family pressures and social reins, and where the East connects to and collides with the West in brilliant and unsettling ways.

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Book SynopsisA transformational, transformative story about video games, three queer friends, and the code(s) they learn to survive, from the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Trans Fiction1998: Lilith, Sash, and Abraxa are teenagers, scattered across the country but joined by the Internet as they create Saga of the Sorceress, a video game that will change everything, if only for the three of them.Eighteen years later, Saga of the Sorceress still exists only on the scattered drives of its creators. Lilith works as a loan underwriter at a rinky-dink bank in Manhattan, a trans woman in a very cis world. Sash is in Brooklyn, working as a part-time webcam dominatrix. Neither knows that the other is in New York, or that Abraxa is just across the Hudson River, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s Jersey City home after a disaster at sea. They have never met in person and have been out of touch for years, but none have forgotten the sorceress or her unfinished quest.Weaving together the technologies of two decades, and a healthy dose of magic, A/S/L is a novel that queers our notions of nostalgia, friendship, and even the possibilities of fiction itself, confirming Jeanne Thornton as one of our best and most ambitious novelists.

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Book SynopsisA young woman reorients her relationship to the world in the wake of sudden deafness in this mesmerizing debut novel for readers of Rachel Cusk, Clarice Lispector, and Fleur JaeggyWhen the narrator of The Hearing Test, an artist in her late twenties, awakens one morning to a deep drone in her right ear, she is diagnosed with Sudden Deafness, but is offered no explanation for its cause. As the specter of total deafness looms, she keeps a record of her year—a score of estrangement and enchantment, of luck and loneliness, of the chance occurrences to which she becomes attuned—while living alone in a New York City studio apartment with her dog.Through a series of fleeting and often humorous encounters—with neighbors, an ex-lover, doctors, strangers, family members, faraway friends, and with the lives and works of artists, filmmakers, musicians, and philosophers—making meaning  becomes a form of consolation and curiosity, a form of survival. At once a rumination on silence and a novel on seeing, The Hearing Test is a work of vitalizing intellect and playfulness which marks the arrival of a major new literary writer with a rare command of form, compression, and intent.

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