V. Castro 141 pages Creature Publishing (2021) 

Tl;dr summary: Teenage girl gets possessed by sin-eating Aztec goddess

Read this if you like: Mesoamerican mythology, folk tales and fairy tales, spiritual horror

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Toshikazu Kawaguchi 272 pages Hanover Square Press (2019) 

Tl;dr summary: Intersecting stories of the employees and patrons of a café with a time travel seat.

Read this if you like: Haruki Murakami, Twin Peaks, magical realism

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Elwin Cotman 89 pages Nomadic Press (2023)

Read this if you like: mythic fantasy, punk poetry, Haruki Murakami tl;dr summary: Combination poetry collection and story about a galaxy-traveling wizard

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Virginia Woolf 329 pages Mariner Books (1928)

Read this if you like: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, magical realism, literary satire

tl;dr summary: 16th-century aristocratic English teenager grows up into a 19th-century British woman and has many adventures along the way.

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Roberto Bolaño 607 pages Vintage Español (1998)

Read this if you like: David Foster Wallace, Jack Kerouac, Mexican culture and literature

Tl;dr summary: Two young Mexican poets go on a road trip that turns into a 20-year flight around the world. 

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Multiple authors (anthology) 302 pages Air and Nothingness Press (2022)

Read this if you like: Dr. Who, non-humanoid aliens, speculative short fiction

tl;dr summary: Interdimensional librarian has adventures, loans books, preserves knowledge across the multiverse.

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Vanessa MacLaren-Wray 138 pages Paper Angel Press (2020)

Read this if you like: Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdez, Isaac Asimov, Vernor Vinge

tl;dr summary: Alien poet/trust fund child adopts an injured human and manages not to kill her in his attempts to help her.

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F. G. Haghenbeck 282 pages Oceano (2018)

Read this if you like: Magical realism, Mexican culture, speculative non-fiction

tl;dr summary: Frida Kahlo’s life story, mostly.

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Juan Villoro (trans. Kimi Traubb) 136 pages George Braziller, Inc. (2015)

Read this if you like: Denis Johnson, Roberto Bolaño, Mexican culture

tl;dr summary: Magical realism without the magic in modern Mexico

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman 120 pages (Herland), 117 pages (With Her in Ourland) The Forerunner (1915-1916)

Read this if you like: Mark Twain, Gulliver’s Travels, utopias

tl;dr summary: Women do things better, and that includes building a civilization.

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