Read my award-winning debut novel, Year of the Amphibian.

  About the book

IndieReader Discovery Awards 2019:
- Winner, Best First Book
"A timeless, beautifully written coming-of-age story about transformation and self-acceptance." - 5/5 stars (read full review)
Eric Hoffer Awards 2019:
- Finalist, Fiction
Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2019:
- Finalist, General Fiction / Novel (over 80,000 words)
- Finalist, First Novel (over 90,000 words)

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~ Journal ~

This is one of my favorite classical albums of recent years, and is also the pianist's debut solo album. It's a bold one at that: rather than tiptoe out with a same-old program, Işıl Bengi assembles a transfixing series of pieces that I suspect most listeners will not have heard...

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gozo-1-xuereb

In late November, just before Omicron hit, my wife and I were able to visit our darling daughter living abroad, and after that we took a trip to Malta: four nights on the main island, and three nights on Gozo island. It was an incredible experience, with much time spent wandering along stunn...

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smartweed-delaware Here's a "Smartweed" honey I found in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market while I was visiting my sister and her family. The seller told me that Smartweed honey is also called "Red Bamboo" honey, but I'm wondering if that's accurate, because Red Bamboo is another name for Japanese Knotweed...

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My novel "Year of the Amphibian" is a kind of portrait, with much that's debatable, so I've always imagined it being discussed by a book club or in a classroom. To that end, I've assembled a number of questions here. I hope these will help bring you closer to the heart of the story.

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