Episode 52: Debut Authors
Summary: Welcome to year three of Hearts & Daggers, friends! We are so delighted you are along on this ride with us. To get 2024 started, Holly and Devin are digging into books by debut authors. There may be nothing more impressive that someone who puts their heart and hard work on the line to publish their first book. It’s not only difficult to get published in the first place, but once your book is out there are thousands if not millions of people who experience your finished work. Holly and Devin both love reading debuts, finding that the more diverse voices added to the canon the more they enjoy diving in.
Topics Discussed:
The Heart (3:45): Devin discussed Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen, an enemies-to-lovers centered around Olivia Huang Christenson and Bennett O’Brien as they go head-to-head in a competition to see whose Chinese zodiac matchmaking approach is best. Liv is working hard to maintain the traditions of her grandmother’s matchmaking business and Bennett has launched a new dating app that recommends matches using the Chinese zodiac. Devin’s key takeaways were:
The crux of the romance and the plot of the novel is the push/pull between tradition and innovation. How can one maintain culture via traditional practices and where should technology and new perspectives impact those traditions?
Devin is year of the Horse and Holly is year of the Snake, but either had been exposed very much to the Chinese zodiac before Devin read this book; Kung Jessen pulls from her Chinese-American heritage to add a unique cultural and historical perspective to the novel without making it seem like a lesson at school.
Lunar Love was a bit light on the romance side and not very steamy. That being said, it was built authentically through Liv and Bennett’s competition. Reading how each of them watched each other on dates that they themselves orchestrated and the complicated feelings there was especially enjoyable.
The Dagger (19:22): Holly discussed Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden, a crime thriller following Virgil Wounded Horse as he delivers vigilante justice for his Lakota Nation community when the American legal system and the trivial council fall short. When heroin makes its way onto the reservation and directly impacts Virgil’s nephew, his career in vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. Holly’s key takeaways were:
This novel was not only an extremely solid debut, but an important fresh voice for the triller genre; it was character-driven and a slower build in terms of action, but Holly read it in a day and found it was impossible to put down.
Winter Counts explores themes of justice and the corruption that can preclude real accountability and fairness within not only the federal policing system as it interacts with the Native communities, but also the tribal councils themselves and the cascading impacts it has on the people.
Through Virgil and the other characters of the book, Weiden explores not only how personal history and trauma influence perspectives and actions but also the challenges of maintaining and evolving cultural identity and traditions for the Native communities in the modern era.
Hot On the Shelf (35:26):
What’s Making Our Hearts Race (41:29):
Holly: Rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender
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