Indistinguishable from Magic — Catherynne M. Valente

In Indistinguishable from Magic, more than 60 essays by New York Times-bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland) are brought together in print for the first time, sharing Cat's observations and insights about fairy tales and myths, pop culture, gender and race issues, an amateur's life on planet Earth and much more.   Join Cat as she studies the fantasy genre's inner clockwork to better comprehend its infatuation with medievalism (AKA dragon bad, sword pretty), considers the undervalued importance of the laundry machine to women's rights in locales as wide-ranging as Japan and the steampunk genre, and comes to understand that so much of shaping fantasy works is about making puppets seem real and sympathetic (otherwise, you're just playing with dolls).   Also featured: Cat takes a hard look at why she can't stop writing about Persephone, dwells upon the legacy of poets in Cleveland, and examines how stories teach us how to survive - if Gretel can kill the witch, Snow White can return from the dead, and Rapunzel can live in the desert, trust that you can too.