Overlooked gems
Discover overlooked literary gems in our curated reading list. From Dennis McFarland's *The Music Room* and Ruth Ozeki's *My Year of Meats* to Mark Salzman's *Iron and Silk*, explore hidden fiction and biography treasures worth your time.
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The Music Room
by Dennis McFarland
Martin Lambert must come to terms with his brother's suicide, and embarks on a poignant journey through his family's haunted past that leads him from a childhood tainted by parental abuse to a present clouded by alcoholic despair and desperate love.
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Iron and Silk
by Mark Salzman
Salzman captures post-cultural revolution China through his adventures as a young American English teacher in China and his shifu-tudi (master-student) relationship with China's foremost martial arts teacher.
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My Year of Meats
by Ruth Ozeki
A cross-cultural tale of two women brought together by the intersections of television and industrial agriculture, fertility and motherhood, life and love—the breakout hit by the celebrated author of A Tale for the Time Being and The Book of Form and Emptiness Ruth Ozeki’s mesmerizing debut novel has captivated readers and reviewers worldwide. When documentarian Jane Takagi-Little finally lands a job producing a Japanese television show that just happens to be sponsored by an American meat-exporting business, she uncovers some unsavory truths about love, fertility, and a dangerous hormone called DES. Soon she will also cross paths with Akiko Ueno, a beleaguered Japanese housewife struggling to escape her overbearing husband. Hailed by USA Today as “rare and provocative” and awarded the Kirayama Prize for Literature of the Pacific Rim, My Year of Meats is a modern-day take on Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle for fans of Michael Pollan, Margaret Atwood, and Barbara Kingsolver.