What (am I currently reading)? 

I am currently reading the speculative novel  Beautiful Shining People by Michael Grothaus, which was published by Orenda Books in March 2023. 

Book Blurb    (taken from  https://orendabooks.co.uk/  )

This world is anything but ordinary, and it’s about to change forever…

It’s our world, but decades into the future…

An ordinary world, where cars drive themselves, drones glide across the sky, and robots work in burger shops. There are two superpowers and a digital Cold War, but all conflicts are safely oceans away. People get up, work, and have dinner. Everything is as it should be…

Except for seventeen-year-old John, a tech prodigy from a damaged family, who hides a deeply personal secret. But everything starts to change for him when he enters a tiny café on a cold Tokyo night. A café run by a disgraced sumo wrestler, where a peculiar dog with a spherical head lives, alongside its owner, enigmatic waitress Neotnia…

But Neotnia hides a secret of her own – a secret that will turn John’s unhappy life upside down. A secret that will take them from the neon streets of Tokyo to Hiroshima’s tragic past to the snowy mountains of Nagano.

A secret that reveals that this world is anything ordinary – and it’s about to change forever…

Why (have I chosen to read it)?

Because it’s published by Orenda Books – who publish interesting and “well worth a read” books.  Also it is the first book in their newly formed Orenda Books Book Club, so not only did they kindly send me the novel, but also a list of thought provoking questions.  And it is speculative fiction  (plus lots of other reasons – see book blurb above!). 

While (I am reading it) 

I have just returned from a week in England visiting family who live by the seaside.  Every day was a perfect sunny day (yes, really!) , so I enjoyed reading Beautiful Shining People on planes, trains and sitting on the beach. 

All the best,  Emma of EmmabBooks.com