Category Archives: Asian Heritage Month

Lite Reads Review: ‘Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy’ by Neon Yang

July 21, 2021Asian Heritage Month, LGBTQ+, Lite Readsthefeministbibliothecary

The Feminist Bibliothecary’s Lite Reads: Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang: Review

We are ready to wrap up our 118th Lite Reads selection, Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang. This selection was chosen with the end of Asian Heritage Month (Canada) and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (USA) (which was May) and the beginning of Pride Month (June) in mind. I apologise for the delays in wrapping it up, I haven’t been doing as well as I’d like and it’s been difficult to keep up. I sincerely thank you for your patience, as I realise this is extremely delayed! There were questions as food for thought on social media as people had the chance to read it and think about it. I will be sharing my own thoughts here. Spoilers ahead for those who have not read the story yet.

Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang is a 2019 fantasy short story. It is filled with magic, spirituality, and a strong sense of community, especially community as an essential to recovering from traumas. The story stars Lynette, the titular Circus Girl, as she tries to live a regular life. She works in a salon, has a roommate, and everything appears normal until she sees Mirror Boy. Mirror Boy appeared in place of her reflection when she was going through trauma as Circus Girl in her teens, but had slowly faded away. Now Mirror Boy has returned to Lynette’s reflection with the warning that the serial killer appearing in the local news is targeting Mirror Boy’s companions and Lynette is next and last on the Hunter’s list. Lynette goes to Chrissa, a witch friend, for help and it is revealed that Mirror Boy is a wraith who has resisted his urges. Rather than take over humans and make them do awful things, Mirror Boy treats each of his humans as companions and leaves when they ask him, just as he left Lynette when he sensed she no longer wanted him around. Despite Mirror Boy’s benign nature, the Hunter looks to end his existence by killing all of his hosts because of the dark nature of wraiths. Chrissa helps them determine that the Hunter is actually Mirror Boy’s twin brother, aged ten years since Mirror Boy’s death, who has become a fanatic in the aim of ending Mirror Boy’s wraith as he feels responsible for his death. In the end, with the help of Circus Girl and the witch, Mirror Boy takes over his brother’s body for a chance at a normal life.

The ways that Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy show community and lack of community shaping the characters is striking. As Circus Girl, Lynette was alone after she lost her mother, and was preyed upon as a result, having to brutally fight back to keep herself safe. She had some semblance of community in that Mirror Boy was there and the adult women in the circus tried to keep an eye out for her, but she was more alone than not. Seeing her as an adult was so interesting because she had built a community without seeming to be fully aware of it. Lynette is surrounded by people in her life (like her roommate and friends) and even though she feels alone, it is ultimately her community that helps her. She is able to rely on Mirror Boy and Chrissa to help her defeat the Hunter. From the other side of things, the Hunter is alone in the world. He has lost his brother and can’t find an ally even within himself as he believes he is the one to blame (and may well be at fault). It is fascinating to see the ways that Circus Girl survives by her own strength and the strength of her relationships, while the Hunter loses in the end because he has no allies, and rather than lose in death, he loses as he is brought into the fold by becoming a body for Mirror Boy. These types of stories where found family and friendship are so central to queer stories because so many of us had to work hard to find families for ourselves too. It’s probably one of my favourite tropes of queer literature, and I think it works well here (even though the story is not explicitly queer).

I do really enjoy how the setting here feels almost real, but is permeated enough with fantastical elements that you can tell it isn’t our own world, leaving the setting of Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy with an almost uncanny valley effect. This actually suits the story perfectly in my opinion. It left me with the sense of almost-familiarity, but it was never familiar enough to feel safe or comfortable, meaning that as Lynette was being hunted, I felt anxiety alongside her, but I also wasn’t trying to work out what minute details really meant in the context of the world. It’s an excellent dynamic for a short story because it means the author doesn’t waste words explaining background details but the audience doesn’t feel a loss for that. The way it plays with familiar conventions in unfamiliar ways is one of the highlights of this story, even when we shift away from the setting and look directly at the plot. Mirror Boy is an outcast, expected to be evil and to truly possess those he resides in, but not only does he not do that, it is revealed that there isn’t a lot of research to suggest he is a massive anomaly. Everything about this situation feels intensely familiar, but the fantasy twists feel endlessly fresh.

Circus Girl, The Hunter, And Mirror Boy is also a treasure trove of plot twists. Some of them are more expected, such as Mirror Boy and the Hunter being revealed as twins, even as we knew the two had to be connected and that the Hunter looked like and older version of Mirror Boy. Other twists were less expected, at least for me personally, such as the final one where Mirror Boy takes over the Hunter’s body. This didn’t feel out of the blue or anything, and when it was about to happen I realised it was going to, but it was far from something I saw coming a mile away. One of the ways this story makes its twists so interesting, even when I could see what was coming, is through the shifts in narrator. Spending time inside the heads of each of the titular characters made what was happening more of a shock because I was experiencing those twists through through eyes of the characters experiencing them. It had me deeply invested in the outcome as I was learning more about each character and it meant that even when one character knew what was coming next, I didn’t as the reader. I think that interesting or unexpected twists are something that can be integral to a great short story, and I think it really works here. Even still, it did offer up a couple of twists that honestly made me wish the story was longer to see how one part or another would play out.

Overall, Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang was a fascinating and fun dark fantasy story with twists that I enjoyed exploring. Although I’ve been interested in reading Yang’s work before, this my first experience with the author. I look forward to getting more familiar with their work.

Lite Reads will be taking a brief hiatus. In order to look after myself, I’ll be taking a few weeks away from Lite Reads to do so. That doesn’t mean I won’t still be around (both on the blog and social media), just that I’m stepping back from the weekly project for the time being. We will return on September 12, with a new selection. Please feel free to go through previous Lite Reads selections while we’re on hiatus! There are over a hundred to choose from, across a variety of genres and time periods (recent releases to classics and everything in between). Browse through them, in reverse chronological order, at this link. Thank you so much for your patience; I look forward to starting back up refreshed and clear-headed!

The Feminist Bibliothecary’s Lite Reads: HIATUS: Lite Reads will be taking a brief hiatus, but we will return on September 12, 2021.

Lite Reads Selection: ‘Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy’ by Neon Yang

May 30, 2021Asian Heritage Month, LGBTQ+, Lite Readsthefeministbibliothecary

The Feminist Bibliothecary’s Lite Reads: Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang, #Pride #AHM #AAPIHM

Welcome to The Feminist Bibliothecary’s Lite Reads, where we read a different short story every week, and then discuss it here and on social media. This is our 118th selection, chosen with the end of Asian Heritage Month (Canada) and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (USA) in mind and the beginning of Pride Month in mind. This week’s Lite Reads selection is Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang!

Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang is a fantasy story published by Tor.com in 2019. From the Tor.com description: “As an orphaned sixteen-year-old, Lynette was haunted by the ghost of Mirror Boy, the drowned child who replaced her reflection. Ten years later, she’s built herself a new life, but all that is threatened when Mirror Boy returns, warning of danger. A hunter has come for both of them, and unless Lynette can figure out what’s going on, they will both perish.”

Neon Yang is a queer nonbinary Singaporean author of speculative fiction. They have written and published many short stories, and you can find a thorough list on their official website. They are best known for the Tensorate series of novellas, beginning with The Black Tides of Heaven (2017). Yang has been nominated for many awards, including awards such as the Locus, Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award. Their upcoming 2022 release The Genesis of Misery will be their first full length novel and the beginning of a new trilogy.

You can read Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy by Neon Yang in full for free on Tor.com. If you wish to support the author or prefer a different format, you can also purchase it as an ebook for $0.99. I am unaware of any audio version of the story, and I apologise for any difficulty this causes.

Please feel free to leave a comment here, or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram. You can also join in on the discussion at Litsy by following @elizabethlk and the #litereads hashtag. You can find our full review on Saturday, June 5.

25 Picture Books to Read During Asian Heritage Month and Beyond

May 30, 2021Asian Heritage Month, Children's Booksthefeministbibliothecary

May is Asian Heritage Month (Canada) and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (USA). To celebrate the occasion, I have gathered together this list of wonderful picture books by Asian authors (authors who still live in the continent of Asia and authors that are part of the diaspora) that reflect the massive diversity of the lives, experiences, and cultures of Asian people around the world, and I’ve done my best to ensure that a broad array has been reflected in these selections. While Asian Heritage Month is nearly over, I hope that you find a few picture books to fall in love with and enjoy year-round, as I have.

Eyes That Kiss In The Corners by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Dung Ho

Eyes That Kiss In the Corners is a beautifully told story about a young girl who loves her Asian features and the ways they tie her to her family and her culture. The story is gentle and filled with self-love, and the illustrations are breathtaking throughout.

Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person to Ever Run a Marathon by Simrat Jeet Singh, illustrated by Baljinder Kaur

Fauja Singh Keeps Going is a delightful picture book biography about Fauja Singh, an Indian-British Sikh man who eventually became the oldest person to ever run a marathon. With soft illustrations and encouraging storytelling, we get a fascinating picture of Fauja Singh’s life and accomplishments so far.

My First Day by Phùng Nguyên Quang and Huỳnh Kim Liên

Originally published in Vietnamese (and I was unable to determine who translated the book, my sincerest apologies), My First Day is the story of a young boy who travels down the Mekong to attend school. It turns the usually mundane act of going to school into a grand adventure with its bold story and stunning illustrations.

Watercress by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin

Watercress is based on the author’s own experiences and follows a young girl who feels a deep sense of embarrassment when her Chinese immigrant parents stop the car so the whole family can collect watercress from a ditch. Through beautiful illustrations, we see our protagonist learn a greater appreciation of her family, their background, and the food they have gathered.

It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Julie Morstad

It Began With a Page is a picture book biography about Gyo Fujikawa, a USAmerican daughter of Japanese immigrants who went on to become a prolific children’s author and illustrator. With cute illustrations and an accessible style, we get the chance to learn about the life and accomplishments of one of the first USAmerican children’s book creators to depict children from a variety of racial backgrounds.

Ritu Weds Chandni by Ameya Narvankar

Ritu Weds Chandni is a vibrantly illustrated picture book about a young girl who is excited to celebrate her aunt’s marriage to her longtime girlfriend, even though homophobia in the community threatens their safety. The book shows the ways we can support love and feel joy even when people are hateful.

The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Khoa Le

Based on the author’s experiences as a Hmong refugee, The Most Beautiful Thing follows a family from Laos to the USA. It portrays the tender relationship between a young girl and her grandmother, showing intergenerational love and respect, as well as the ways we can find love and beauty in the simple things in each other, beyond the superficial.

The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar, illustrated by Alea Marley

The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh follows a young Sikh boy who expresses himself and his mood through the vibrant colours of his patka. When his family moves to a new city, he finds himself struggling and begins to wear grey. This touching story shows how Harpreet finds joy again in his new home, even though it can be sad and scary.

Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America by Helen Foster James and Virginia Shin-Mui Loh, illustrated by Wilson Ong

Set in the early twentieth century, Paper Son follows a boy who gets official papers declaring him to be the son of his uncle so that he can move from China to California, even though it means leaving his grandparents behind. With soft and beautiful illustrations and rich historical detail, this work of historical fiction is a tender introduction to the subject.

Leila In Saffron by Rukhsanna Guidroz, illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova

Leila In Saffron is short even for a picture book, but with vibrant colours, beautiful patterns, and cute images we follow Leila as she finds love in herself, her family, and her heritage with an almost slice-of-life style story to it.

The Paper Boat: A Refugee Story by Thao Lam

With a beautiful mixture of collage style and comics layout, The Paper Boat is a wordless story that shows the journey of refugees out of Vietnam during the war. The author’s note at the end really brings the details together here, but the wordless nature of the story makes it ideal for kids just learning about the Vietnam War or the fraught journeys refugees make.

Ojiichan’s Gift by Chieri Uegaki, illustrated by Genevieve Simms

In Ojiichan’s Gift, we meet Mayumi, whose grandfather created a rock garden that they tend together every time she visits him in Japan, up until he has to move because he can’t look after himself alone anymore. It sensitively deals with intergenerational bonds, the fears of losing a grandparent, and the ways we can hold onto the things our grandparents teach us.

When Spring Comes to the DMZ by Uk-Bae Lee, translated from Korean to English by Chungyon Won and Aileen Won

When Spring Comes to the DMZ gives us a beautifully illustrated and unconventional look into the conflict between North and South Korea, as well as a glimpse specifically at the demilitarized zone between the two, which has unintentionally become a nature preserve where plants and animals thrive untouched.

Drawn Together by Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat

Drawn Together is a vibrantly illustrated story that shows a young child going to visit a grandfather even though they don’t speak the same language. Told through a limited number of words, we see them find a way to connect through art. You can also find a video of the author reading the book for PBS Storytime on Youtube.

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

Bringing in the New Year is a story about a young Chinese-American girl preparing to celebrate the Lunar New Year with her family. We follow her through preparations and festivities in this vibrantly illustrated, colourful book perfect for younger readers who are celebrating the occasion or learning about it.

Festival of Colors by Kabir Sehgal and Surishtha Sehgal, illustrated by Vashti Harrison

Festival of Colors is an adorably illustrated picture book about Holi, the Indian Festival of Colours. It’s a stunning way to learn about Holi as we follow a pair of siblings through their vibrant celebrations, and also a great picture book to use with kids learning about the different colours.

The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

The Name Jar is about a young girl who has just moved from Korea to the USA and finds that none of the students in her new class can pronounce her name. Her new classmates create a jar full of names for her to choose a new American name from, but she loves her Korean name, and with the support of new friends she teaches her classmates how to pronounce her name.

Mei-Mei’s Lucky Birthday Noodles: A Loving Story of Adoption, Chinese Culture and a Special Birthday Treat by Shan-Shan Chen, illustrated by Heidi Goodman

Mei-Mei’s Lucky Birthday Noodles follows a young girl in the USA who was adopted from China by white USAmerican parents. On Mei-Mei’s birthday, we follow her through Chinese birthday traditions that her parents use to help keep her connected to her birth culture. The pictures are cute, and as the author is a chef she includes a very tasty-looking recipe for noodles at the end.

Grandma and the Great Gourd: A Bengali Folktale by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, illustrated by Susy Pilgrim Waters

Grandma and the Great Gourd is a retelling of a Bengali folktale in which Grandma receives a letter from her daughter and has to make her way through the dangers of the jungle to go visit her. Grandma uses her smarts to trick her way past dangerous animals to see her family again in this story full of bold illustrations.

Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson, illustrated by Rebecca Huang

Queen of Physics is a picture book biography about Wu Chien Shiung, a Chinese American physicist. With lovely images throughout, we see how she worked her way through sexism and racism to make major scientific breakthroughs that changed the way we think about physics, and how she achieved many firsts in the process.

Monsoon Afternoon by Kashmira Sheth, illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi

In Monsoon Afternoon, we follow a boy and his grandfather as they head out into India’s monsoon weather to have fun in the rain. Through warm watercolour illustrations, we experience a sensitive and fun story about familial love and enjoying our environment.

Ghost Train by Paul Yee, illustrated by Harvey Chan

Ghost Train is a historical fiction picture book about a young disabled artist in China. Her father has gone to earn money building railway tracks in North America, but when she goes to visit him she finds that he has died in a work accident and they are not able to recover his body to lay his remains to rest. She sets out to help him and others like him find peace. The story is an emotional and stunningly illustrated look at a tragic part of history.

The Boy & The Bindi by Vivek Shraya, illustrated by Rajni Perera

The Boy & The Bindi is about a young boy who is fascinated with his mother’s bindi, and even though they are traditionally worn by women, we see how he chooses to wear one to express his culture when he learns the full meaning of it in this colourfully illustrated story.

A Different Pond by Bao Phi, illustrated by Thi Bui

Based on the author’s lived experiences, A Different Pond is about a young boy fishing with his father for their dinner, but it’s also about how their family moved to the USA from Vietnam as refugees. With breathtaking art and language, it mixes the mundane with the profound and the painful struggles with the little pleasures.

The Star Festival by Moni Ritchie Hadley, illustrated by Mizuho Fujisawa

The Star Festival is about a young girl named Keiko celebrating Tanabata Matsuri, the Japanese Star Festival with her mother and grandmother. The story shares some of the folktale the festival celebrates and some of the festivities that Keiko participates in with her family.

Lite Reads Review: ‘Mani Pedi’ by Souvankham Thammavongsa

May 29, 2021Asian Heritage Month, Lite Readsthefeministbibliothecary

The Feminist Bibliothecary’s Lite Reads: Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa, Review

We are ready to wrap up our 117th Lite Reads selection, Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa. This selection was chosen with Asian Heritage Month (Canada) and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (USA) in mind. There were questions as food for thought on social media as people had the chance to read it and think about it. I will be sharing my own thoughts here. Spoilers ahead for those who have not read the story yet.

Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa is a 2015 short story later included in the author’s collection How To Pronounce Knife (2020). The story follows Raymond, a boxer who takes up work at his sister’s nail salon, offering up an almost slice-of-life portrayal of the characters. Mani Pedi opens with Raymond realising that he’s no longer able to box like he used to, in competitions serving only as “someone to punch through,” and with failing health to show for his trouble. When Raymond struggles to find work that’s enjoyable or with a decent pay his unnamed sister offers him a job at Bird Spa and Salon, the highly successful business she owns and operates, giving the reason of their dead parents, saying “they didn’t leave Laos, a bombed out country, in a war no one ever heard of, on a raft made of bamboo to have him scooping out ice cream or frying cabbages with old grease oil.” While he initially does clerical work, Raymond’s sister eventually trains him to do the nails, and he becomes a huge hit. The women clients find it a novelty that an ex-boxer is doing their nails, and the men clients don’t want the women on the staff to see how bad their toes are since they’re often there for the first or rare pedicure. Although Raymond was looking for a healthier work environment than taking punches, he finds himself struggling with chemical fumes and stray nail clippings, not to mention the persistent smell of the feet that haven’t been looked after until their first visit with him. Raymond still finds himself hopeful, imagining a life with the women he meets and a happy future, while his sister is far more pessimistic.

I think that Mani Pedi offers a fairly interesting look at the entire concept of hope. Raymond has left a career as a boxer knowing that it was hurting his body to linger in the career and entered a job in a nail salon, and his hopes for the future are based primarily in his day-to-day fantasies more than in anything that’s actually happening, but he is ultimately the character who has the most hope. Raymond’s sister has a husband and children and a highly successful business, but she is worn down to the point that she has surpassed realism and driven straight to pessimism. At the same time, the story doesn’t presume to offer commentary on this at all, letting each of the characters have the feelings they need to get through the day. It’s a rare story that shows us the ways characters hope but allows them to each have their own feelings, leaving them to feel like real people rather than an inspiration or a warning. The ways these characters interact with hope feels like people I know in real life. Honestly, I was left relating to both Raymond and his sister based on how they interacted with the concept of hope and each of their ideas about life.

The ways that Mani Pedi plays with images of masculinity is especially interesting to me. Our society has so many toxic ideas about masculinity and reading a story where the protagonist went from something as traditionally masculine as professional boxing to something as traditionally feminine as nail care was excellent. The story seems to recognise this in the ways it says that Raymond hadn’t intended to go this route or that he would receive big tips for the novelty of being an ex-boxer doing nails or that the most unfortunate feet he dealt with were of men who hadn’t ever been for a pedicure and didn’t take good care of their feet prior to seeing him. There is a recognition that manicures and pedicures are traditionally feminine things to give and receive. Despite this, we see him comfortably and happily settling into this role that really doesn’t need to be defined by gender with no issues with his masculinity. It’s honestly just great to see a story with a largely positive representation of masculinity and the character’s relationship to it.

Mani Pedi is also an interesting look at class, especially class as it relates to immigrants and refugees. Coming from a Southeast Asian family, a nail salon is a socially “acceptable” business for Raymond’s sister to own and operate, and an “acceptable” business for Raymond to eventually take up work at. That said, it’s also telling that upon leaving a career as a professional athlete, Raymond’s options are limited to either serving food or working in a nail salon. With the weight of the intersections of class and race, there are specific roles in specific jobs that are expected, and there’s not exactly options that lie outside of those expected jobs. And while Raymond put his body at risk as a boxer and left to protect himself, he is still expected to put his body at risk doing a job that involves stray nail clippings flying around and harsh chemicals as a constant. There may be protective equipment available, but it’s telling that the best paying job he would be able to get could ultimately be bad for his health, only in different ways from his original boxing career. When you’re the child of refugees, when you’re not wealthy, and when you’re not white, your career expectations are wildly different from the opportunities that might go to those who are wealthier and whiter than you, and in fields that perhaps your family worked in before you. That Raymond has family that can offer him a job is a fortunate privilege, even while noting that his sister owns a business that is socially acceptable for an Asian family to own in Canada.

Overall, Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa was an interesting and enjoyable read with an unexpected sense of humour. It didn’t blow me away but it also has me interested in reading the author’s full collection to get more of a taste of her style.

I hope everyone who participated by reading the story and following along on social media has enjoyed themselves. If you have more thoughts to add, you can leave a comment here, or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram. You can also join in on the discussion at Litsy by following @elizabethlk and the #litereads hashtag. The next selection (chosen with the end of Asian Heritage Month / Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in mind, as well as with the beginning of Pride Month in mind) will be available tomorrow, Sunday, May 30.

Lite Reads Selection: ‘Mani Pedi’ by Souvankham Thammavongsa

May 17, 2021Asian Heritage Month, Lite Readsthefeministbibliothecary

The Feminist Biblithoecary’s Lite Reads: Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa, #AsianHeritageMonth #AAPIHeritageMonth

Welcome to The Feminist Bibliothecary’s Lite Reads, where we read a different short story every week, and then discuss it here and on social media. This is our 117th selection, chosen with Asian Heritage Month (Canada) and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (USA) in mind. This week’s Lite Reads selection is Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa!

Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa is a 2015 short story originally published in The Puritan. The story was longlisted for the Journey Prize and was later featured in her award-winning collection How To Pronounce Knife (2020). Mani Pedi is about a former boxer who takes up work in his sister’s nail salon.

Souvankham Thammavongsa (1978-) is a Canadian short story writer and poet. She was born in a Lao refugee camp in Thailand, and her family was sponsored to relocate to Canada when she was a baby. She has published four poetry collections at this time: Small Arguments (2003), Found (2007), Light (2013), and Cluster (2019). Thammavongsa’s short story collection How to Pronounce Knife was published in 2020. It included a number of short stories that had been previously published, including multiple award nominees. The collection earned her a Giller Prize. Other awards she has won include an O. Henry Award, a ReLit Award, and a Trillium Book Award. Thammavongsa is serving as a judge for the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize.

You can read Mani Pedi by Souvankham Thammavongsa in full for free on the Puritan website. I am not aware of any free audio version of the story (and I apologise for any trouble this causes), but as it is featured in her collection How to Pronounce Knife, it can be heard as part of that collection’s audiobook.