What it is: Sedia is a Russian-born author of strange, lyrical fantasies who teaches science in Philly’s South Jersey suburbs when she’s not writing fairy tales about feminist wind-up robots and beach houses that drift off to sea. Her latest book collects 21 short fictions featuring ghost stories about beer, adopted children plagued by monsters, the absurdity of Nigerian-style email spam and a tale whose title, “Zombie Lenin,” pretty much says it all.

Who it’s for: Short story lovers, urban fantasy readers, Russian Americans.

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