I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still

watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you,

soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making,

Stories Without End from WB EZ Chicago.

Join me as I share how the genre began, their social impact, and why these stories endure.

Listen, wherever you get your podcast.

From WBEZ Chicago, I'm Greta Johnson, and this is the Nerdat Book Club.

It's just like a regular book club, except we actually have no way of knowing if you actually read the book. It is October of 2021, and our selection this month is Rika Aoki's Light from Uncommon Stars.

It is a sci-fi-ish novel about violin prodigies and interstellar spaceships

disguised as donut shops. Before I say any more, I want to tell you this is your spoiler warning.

If you haven't read the book yet and you don't want to know what happens, go listen to our

spoiler-free interview with Rika. It is in the feed. It is a lovely chat.

If you haven't read the book and you do want to know what happens or if you have read the book,

congratulations, you are in the right place. I am super excited to introduce you to our guests for

this month. We have Jen Northington. She's the host of Book Riot's SFFF Yeah podcast and the co-editor of the amazing, Inclusive, Arthurian short story collection, Sword, Stone Table, along with the delightful Swetha Krishna. Jen, welcome.

Hello. Thank you for having me back. Oh, my gosh. Thanks for being on. We also have Christina Orlando. They're the books editor for

Tor.com and also a freelance writer and generally excellent book person. Christina, hey. Hey, thank you so

much. This is so exciting. Full disclosure, though, this book was published by Tor. You Work for

Tor.com. There is no editorial overlap, right? Yes, that's true. Perfect.

Okay. So this book is sort of about three main characters. They're all queer women of color.

We have Katrina. She's a trans runaway who is very good at the violin. We've got Shizuka,

who is a violent teacher who has made a deal with the devil. And then there is Lon, an interstellar refugee, who runs the spaceship that is disguised as a donut shop, which is definitely one of my favorite elements of this book.

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