(no subject)

[skygiants]

I recently had the excuse to reread my favorite epistolary romance, Zen Cho's novella The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, which I love just as much now as I did when it came out in 2012, if not more.

The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo is set among the avant-garde literary circles of 1920s London, and Jade herself is a sharp young Malaysian writer who accidentally becomes the main character of the day by penning a scathing review of the latest book by Literary Darling Sebastian Hardie. Fortunately or unfortunately, Hardie thinks this is the hottest thing he's ever seen anyone do; moreover, Hardie's very accepting wife thinks Jade is so charming; and as for what Jade's handsome and serious editor Ravi thinks ... well, events unfold from there, carried along by Jade's unique and delightful and irrepressible voice. If every first-person protagonist I met had even a quarter of Jade's verve and personality, I would be content, but the fact that they do not just makes me cherish Jade all the more.

If you've not met Jade Yeo, or if like me you have indeed already met her and would like her to live in your house forever, the book is getting a new print edition through the small press Homeward Books and preorders have just opened!

(The Kickstarter also has NYC and Seattle book rec party tiers which unfortunately I cannot attend as i will not be anywhere near those locations but I very much hope someone else does and tells me about them.)

Comments

[osprey_archer]

I think I meant to read this book when it came out! And then life happened, I got distracted, I did not read... Thank you for reminding me it exists!

Do you have a print copy that I could perhaps read when I visit in March? Or should I look into ebooks?

[skygiants]

There has in fact never been a print edition before and this new one is not coming out until June, so alas it is impossible that I will have one for you to read in March!

[ambyr]

This is petty of me, but I cannot for the life of me tell from that Kickstarter what actual physical object I would be backing: is it a hardcover? Trade paperback? Mass market? What do the interiors look like?

I am middle-aged and my eyes are bad and if I am going to back a hardcopy of a book I already have in ebook, I want to know first whether the print size is going to be readable to me :-(.

[skygiants]

All very reasonable questions and I hope someone is able to provide answers!

[elanid]

Hi! I’m one of the people involved in the Kickstarter. We’ve never done this before so definitely a learning experience in terms of what’s useful to people!

It’s a paperback, but not any of the standard sizes because Jade is a novella; it’s proportioned after some of the more beautiful short essay books around, in that I literally went and looked at very small books in a shop to see which ones were nicest to read and look at. Concretely, it’s going to be quite itty bitty, only about 112 pages even in a pretty small size format (7.5”x4.75”). It’s not really mass market format on the inside although I think the outside dimensions are similar; we wanted the text to feel luxurious, so it’s relatively big, but definitely something where whether it’s big enough depends on how big you need it to be and I’m sure it wouldn’t work for everyone!

Would it be helpful if we posted up a page or two of the internals design? We don’t even have advance copies of Jade yet, but the typesetting is all done, and might be a useful illustration of what it’ll look like, since it’s to scale with the final.

(We wish we could have afforded to print a hardcover, but it’s just cost prohibitive at small press scales.)

[ambyr]

Thanks for stopping by! Yes, interior design images would be great! In general, when I'm buying books on Kickstarter, I want to know the type of binding (hardcover vs paperback, but also whether it's sewn or perfect bound), the paper being used (at a minimum whether or not it's acid free and FSC certified, but it's nice to know the exact paper stock), and the method of printing; I also like knowing what typeface it's set in, and seeing page samples is very helpful for assessing readability.

[lilysea]

Jade Yeo is great!

For a minute I misunderstood and thought that there was a second Jade Yeo book coming out, and I got all excited!

[skygiants]

asj;dlkfdj I'm so sorry to get your hopes up! no, only the original Jade in full glory

[kore]

Oh, neat!

[skygiants]

I'm very excited about it!

[komadori]

This has really caught my attention, but the last thing that I need is another book to read.

[skygiants]

It's a quick little book! Takes barely any time to read at all!

[qian]

Thanks so much for the shout-out!! I had to reread bits of Jade for the copyedits and I have to say, I don't think I could do the voice again haha.

[skygiants]

It really has lived in my head rent-free for over a decade!

[theladyscribe]

Aw man, I sadly will not be in NYC on the 29th, or I would definitely try to go. I really enjoyed Jade Yeo, and I'm delighted there's a physical copy coming!

[skygiants]

I feel the same way about the NYC one!