Stay-home guide for Wednesday: Catch some zombie action, read a love letter to libraries and more

In 2007, Tomine, an American of Japanese descent, tackled what it feels like to be an Asian man growing up in a culture that drums into you the idea that you are nobody's idea of handsome.

In this tragicomic story, told in spare, sensitively drawn panels, Ben is a Japanese-American man with a girlfriend, Miko, of the same ethnic background. She resists assimilation into the majority culture and encourages Ben to do the same. He thinks it is a waste of time. Despite having a good career and a dream partner, he seethes with resentment and is gripped by strange desires which poison his relationship with Miko.

The topic of race and sexual attraction is massive, but Tomine finds a simple, clean line through it by sticking with the point of view of Ben, a conflicted and confused Asian character who will remind readers of their friends or even of themselves.

A movie based on the book is planned. Korean-American actor Randall Park (WandaVision, 2021) is tipped to direct.

Info: The e-book is available at the National Library Board website

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2. Listen: Stay F. Homekins: With Janie Haddad Tompkins & Paul F. Tompkins

He is a stand-up comedian and improv genius. She is an actress. They are a child-free, middle-aged couple who - as one does - started a podcast in their Los Angeles home as live gigs and shooting schedules went to pot early last year.

They expected the podcast to last only a few months but today, much to their chagrin - and fans' delight - they are still cooped up and podcasting. In contrast to the thousands of others who have started a pandemic podcast, the couple have no guests. They simply talk. And they are hilarious.

Janie and Paul talk about what they have watched (this week, it is the Disney comedy Cruella), current affairs (mask mandates and cancel culture, for example) and things they see around town. Theirs is a sincere, snark- and provocation-free show with zero edginess. Despite each episode clocking in at over an hour, there is no rambling. Nor do they try to be zany or put on characters. They are two wise, slightly cynical veterans of show business who enjoy drinking what they call "weekend water" before turning on the mikes.

Info: Stay F. Homekins: With Janie Haddad Tompkins & Paul F. Tompkins can be found on iTunes, Spotify and other podcast hosting platforms.

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3. Watch: Black Summer on Netflix

Army Of The Dead, Netflix's highly touted big-budget zombie movie, arrived - and was a big yawn. Never mind. There is still 2019's Black Summer to watch or rewatch. The first of this series' eight episodes is a masterpiece of kinetic film-making.

Rose (Jaime King) is a suburban mother running on foot to safety with her daughter, each step marked by a horrific vignette glimpsed in the background. This is a series grounded not just in emotional reality, but also in the world of real, everyday objects. The way fences, doors and buses work matter.

There is a larger dystopia at work, seen through the eyes of a handful of characters, each one given a separate thread until later in the series. Scary monsters are everywhere, but the real horror lies in being a refugee in a society where the thin coat of civility has been scraped away. The second season is coming to Netflix on June 17.

Info: Go to this website

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4. Tar Pau Nation: Chef Sham's chicken and pig stomach soup and vinegar pork trotters are Cantonese classics

After months of ordering food delivery, you learn to identify what will best survive the trek to your home, especially if the eatery is not in your neighbourhood.

Soups and stews are high on my list of these dishes. Not only do they maintain their taste and consistency for a long time, but they can also be easily reheated in the microwave oven or on the stove. Just make sure you use low to medium, not high, heat and you should find the food tastes pretty much the same as when it left the shop.

And if you cannot finish everything, they keep well overnight in the fridge too.

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5. Shelf Care: Susan Orlean's The Library Book is a marvellous love letter to libraries

In 1986, a fire broke out in the Los Angeles Public Library, destroying 400,000 books and damaging 700,000 more.

"At first, the smoke in the Fiction stacks was as pale as onionskin. Then it deepened to dove grey. Then it turned black. It wound around Fiction A through L, curling in lazy ringlets. It gathered into soft puffs that bobbed and banked against the shelves like bumper cars. Suddenly, sharp fingers of flame shot through the smoke and jabbed upward. More flames erupted. The heat built. The temperature reached 451 degrees and the books began smouldering. Their covers burst like popcorn."

Susan Orlean's The Library Book is a riveting account of the most devastating library fire in American history. The sight of books burning is a terrible one to behold. Yet her writing crackles with such intensity that it is nigh impossible to stop looking.