Episode 627-With Peng Shepherd

The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Peng Shepherd, author of ALL THIS AND MORE.

About ALL THIS AND MORE: Meek, play-it-safe Marsh has just turned forty-five, and her life is in shambles. Her career is stagnant, her marriage has imploded, and her teenage daughter grows more distant by the day. Marsh is convinced she’s missed her chance at everything—romance, professional fulfillment, and adventure—and is desperate for a do-over.

She can’t believe her luck when she’s selected to be the star of the global sensation All This and More, a show that uses quantum technology to allow contestants the chance to revise their past and change their present lives. It’s Marsh’s only shot to seize her dreams, and she’s determined to get it right this time.

But even as she rises to become a famous lawyer, gets back together with her high school sweetheart, and travels the world, she begins to worry that All This and More’s promises might be too good to be true. Because while the technology is amazing, something seems a bit off…

Can Marsh really make her life everything she wants it to be? And is it worth it?

About Peng Shepherd: Peng Shepherd is the nationally bestselling author of The Cartographers, The Book of M, and the forthcoming All This and More.

Her second novel, The Cartographers, was a USA Today, LA Times, and a national Independent Bookstores bestseller, as well as a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. It was also named a Best Book of 2022 by The Washington Post, and has been optioned for film.

Her first novel, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Institute for Literary Arts Award for Debut Speculative Fiction, and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Elle, Refinery29, and The Verge, as well as a Best Book of the Summer by the Today Show and NPR On Point.

A graduate of New York University’s MFA program, Peng is the recipient of a 2020 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, Mexico City, and New York. When not writing, she can be found planning her next trip or haunting local bookstores.

This week’s picks:

• Peng: Chants of Sennaar (Game)
• Tracy: Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Narrated by: Moira Quirk
• Patrick: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Narrated by: Moira Quirk

Links:

• Peng Shepherd on Instagram
• Tracy Townsend on the network formerly known as Twitter
• Patrick Hester on the network formerly known as Twitter
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2024 Patrick Hester

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