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Malinda Lo’s Reading List FigureMalinda Lo’s Reading List Figure

Malinda Lo’s Reading List

Curated by Malinda Lo


About the Curator
Malinda Lo is the bestselling author of the National Book Award winning novel “Last Night at the Telegraph Club.” She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

About the Folio

I’ve written novels in several genres, including fantasy, science fiction, psychological thriller, and with my latest novel “Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” historical fiction. Although my novels may seem different on the surface, they’re all about queer girls and women. I even joke that my brand is lesbians! In my Folio, I share a few of the books that inspired “Last Night at the Telegraph Club.”

Book selections

Malinda Lo book recommendations - Fable

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Malinda Lo
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Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

By Malinda Lo
“Last Night at the Telegraph Club” is about Lily Hu, a 17-year-old Chinese American girl living in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s. It’s the dawn of the atomic age, and Lily wants to be a rocket scientist. She’s also starting to realize she might be a lesbian, and begins to visit a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club with her classmate, Kath. This book had many inspirations, including the geography of San Francisco itself. Chinatown is only a block away from North Beach, a traditionally Italian neighborhood that also was home to many gay and lesbian bars in the 1950s. I felt certain that some queer Chinese Americans must have crossed the street to visit them. That idea eventually grew into this novel, which at its heart is a coming-of-age love story.

Malinda Lo

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