What is Mia Tsai reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Mia Tsai, author of The Memory Hunters.

Her entry begins:

Aside from books by my colleagues and friends in the industry, which I am always happy to read (Gabriella Buba's Daughters of Flood and Fury; JR Dawson's The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World; LD Lewis's The Dead Withheld; Yume Kitasei's Saltcrop; AD Sui's The Iron Garden Sutra; Jared Poon's City of Others; EM Anderson's The Keeper of Lonely Spirits), I try to keep a mix of personal interest nonfiction and fiction on the desk. Since I work in genre and am basically always reading something speculative or romantic, nonfiction has truly become my escape. I've been collecting books about horses for the next project's research (Susanna Forrest's The Age of the Horse) as well as some architectural books...[read on]

About The Memory Hunters, from the publisher:

Inception meets Indiana Jones in this cinematic, slow burn, romantic fantasy following a headstrong academic and her equally stubborn bodyguard as they unearth an ancient secret that rocks the foundations of their society…and challenges their unspoken love for one another. A sapphic, dark academia-adjacent, climate dystopia — with mushrooms — for readers of Blood Over Bright Haven, A Memory Called Empire, and Ink Blood Sister Scribe.

Kiana Strade can dive deeper into blood memories than anyone alive. But instead of devoting her talents to the temple she’s meant to lead, Key wants to do research for the Museum of Human Memory. . . and to avoid the public eye.

Valerian IV's twin swords protect Key from murderous rivals and her own enthusiasm alike. Vale cares about Key as a friend—and maybe more—but most of all, she needs to keep her job so she can support her parents and siblings in the storm-torn south.

But when Key collects a memory that diverges from official history, only Vale sees the fallout. Key’s mentor suspiciously dismisses the finding; her powerful mother demands she stop research altogether. And Key, unusually affected by the memory, begins to lose moments, then minutes, then days.

As Vale becomes increasingly entangled in Key’s obsessive drive for answers, the women uncover a shattering discovery—and a devastating betrayal. Key and Vale can remain complicit, or they can jeopardize everything for the truth.

Either way, Key is becoming consumed by the past in more ways than one, and time is running out.

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--Marshal Zeringue