november wonders
hello, dear ones.
I know many of us are navigating the throes of fear, anxiety and grief over the results of the presidential election. With all my heart, I hope you’ve been able to self-regulate, take good care and avoid the catastrophizing that I am (unfortunately) seeing in a lot of leftist online spaces. While it’s easy enough to understand the impulse, it just works against us, I think. We can prepare for the worst without obeying in advance.
Books will become ever the more important, I think—access to books as readers, and the ability to pen them as authors. We’re already living in a country with widespread book censorship, so combating these efforts are nothing new for a lot of Black and queer authors, particularly in red states. Keep reading (and if you can, purchasing) the books that empire wants to erase. Keep writing the stories the state doesn’t want told.
To quote the seminal and ever-relevant The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions:
“We gotta keep each other alive any way we can, ‘cause nobody else is goin’ to do it.”
So let’s keep each other alive—through community, through art, through books.
To keep exploring this forest of tales with me, please consider using our affiliate links to purchase and/or throwing $5 into the silver dish on the tree altar at the edge of the meadow. The old gods thank you.
first things first
A lot of folks are looking for action items right now, so I’ll lay out a few. These were included in some recent Instagram posts I did, so feel free to scroll on by if you already saw those.
Clean and/or stock your community fridge. Keep your neighbors fed! Community fridges are an amazing gateway into the world of community care. You can stop by for a 20-minute cleaning once a month, or make a weekly commitment to clean and drop off some goodies. Or maybe make 10 sandwiches a month. Or maybe send funds to the organizers. There’s so many ways to get involved! Local fridges include Germantown, East Falls and Mt. Airy, but a quick Google of “your area + community fridge” should provide some options, too.
Volunteer at your library. What’s more punk than the public library? Check your library system’s website or stop by your local branch to see if they need volunteers. All kinds of skills are helpful—from fixing shelves, running events, designing flyers or re-shelving books!
Set up a monthly donation. Even if it’s $5 or less, a monthly commitment to an organization you care about can make a big difference—particularly if you mobilize friends and family to get involved, too. May I humbly suggest Books Through Bars and Abortion Liberation Fund?
Wear a mask. The pandemic never ended for disabled folks! A great, easy way to start getting involved in community care is to simply wear a mask when you’re in public—particularly places like healthcare facilities, public transit, grocery stories and pharmacies. No blue bracelet necessary!
Thrift books for a cause. If you have some extra funds, a free morning and a good eye for books, hit up your local thrift shops and grab some great titles. Then take ‘em on down your local little free library! Feeling particularly energized? Maybe consider setting up a little free library if there isn’t one in your neighborhood!
Support local community spaces. Whether it’s bookshops, boutiques, coffeeshops, bars, comic shops—support ‘em if they provide space for discussion, organizing and community. Support doesn’t have to be monetary if you can’t afford it. Sharing their social media posts and encouraging people you know to check them out can be a huge help, too.
Read those racial justice books you bought in 2020. Understanding the reasons behind the political climate we’re experiencing is incredibly important if we want to do anything about it. There is a ton you can learn from those hot 2020 titles if you haven’t cracked them open just yet, and now’s the time.
Look inward. The truth is that we probably don’t need a bunch of people joining organizations and marching in the streets. We probably need more people to just look in the mirror and do the incredibly hard work of taking inventory of what’s staring back at us. Those 2020 books I mentioned above will help, but this road is a long one, and it never really ends. But it’s absolutely vital if we’re going to create the world we want.
Get involved in organizing. If you’ve taken that long, hard look in the mirror (and are committed to continuing to do so) then yeah, join us. There’s a lot of ways to get involved and movements need all kinds of skills, from graphic design to grant writing to data organization to really goddamn good note-taking. Be prepared to sit back and listen before the hands-on work starts. Reclaim Philadelphia, Working Families Party and Standing Up For Racial Justice are great places to start.
Don’t forget about Palestine, Sudan, Congo and Lebanon. When we’re in survival mode, it’s easy to put blinders on—and I would argue it’s probably even an evolutionary trait that’s kept us alive. But understanding the interconnected nature, I think, helps us keep moving forward. All oppression shares the same root, which means our liberation must be collective for it to be true.
what i’ve been reading
Ok, back to the books. Here’s a peek at the pages I’ve been wandering since we last spoke.
TIME’S AGENT by Brenda Peynado - an incredibly moving and sharply accurate picture of the places where colonialism and capitalism intersect, told through a terse saga of time travel. Peynado expertly deploys common sci-fi devices to create something entirely uncommon. This slim novel is a gut punch in the best way. We’ll also be reading it for January’s Selkie Book Club, if that helps convince you. An incredible work of speculative fiction that’s everything the genre is all about. Grab the paperback here!
COURTING OF BRISTOL KEATS by Mary E. Pearson - I DNF’d this one, though I’m seeing people speak about it positively on Bookstagram, so as always, take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Pearson is a competent writer who took a stab at romantasy—an exploding genre—and in my opinion, only offered another stale rehash. I was really excited to crack open this ARC and am still a little sad I couldn’t get through it. There’s way too many characters from the get-go, the dual POV slows everything down instead of adding urgency, and the tone feels unintentionally inconsistent, volleying between warm and whimsical to dark and distressing. YMMV, and the special edition is so goddamn pretty, lol. Grab the hardcover, the audiobook or that very pretty special edition.
CELESTIAL BODIES by R.A. Moreau - Another DNF. Moreau is undoubtedly a competent writer and I will absolutely read her work again. For me, this romantasy left too much of the world-building and atmosphere to the reader, particularly considering the Beauty and the Beast vibes—a work where setting is so important. The characters always felt like characters to me, not real people leaping off the page, and the plot lacked the heft to excuse underdeveloped characters. But there is a real loveliness in Moreau’s prose that I imagine will only become stronger with time, and I look forward to reading her again. But check out the paperback for yourself!
THE MUSE OF MAIDEN LANE by Mimi Matthews - Matthews has done it again! Look, I’m not exactly a historical romance girlie, which will probably surprise none of you, lol. But I AM a horse girl, so Matthews’ Belles of London series—which features independently-minded horsewomen navigating the marriage mart—seemed like a great beach read. Well, since reading The Siren of Sussex, the first of the series, I’ve been absolutely hooked. The latest and final installment, The Muse of Maiden Lane, might just be my favorite of the whole series. Stella is a fantastic protagonist who I absolutely adore—the perfect combination of strength and relatable insecurity. Teddy, the love interest, is disabled and uses a wheelchair. Matthews writes Teddy in a way that made my own disabled heart sing; his disability impacts his life in so many ways, but he’s never seen as less for it. Stella’s attraction to him is perfectly written, and I love the way their relationship unfolds. I’m jealous of anyone getting to read this for the first time, lol. (As a note, you don’t technically have to read these books in order, but I do recommend it as they’re written in chronological order, and I think it adds to the overall story.) Grab the paperback here, or check out the audiobook.
december selkie
I’d love to see you at December’s meeting for Selkie Book Club, Spiral’s speculative fiction gathering. We’ll be reading BLUE-SKINNED GODS, a globe-spanning speculative fiction novel that expertly explores what it means to be human. Sindu manages to tackle nearly every major theme—family, gender, race, religion, sexuality—in this gorgeous tale, and I can’t wait to discuss it with you!
You can grab a ticket here to join us! Though you’re welcome to grab a copy of the book wherever you’d like, you can help support us by getting it directly from our shop, or through these affiliate links: Bookshop.org | Libro.FM
merch for the holidays
Might I humbly suggest that some Spiral merch makes its way to your wishlist this season? We’ve got crewnecks, totes, tees, stickers and mugs galore, all featuring designs made by yours-truly. AND most items are printed on demand, which helps eliminate overstock and waste. Here’s a peek at a few of my faves! Click here to shop the whole selection.
small business saturday
I won’t be offering anything for SBS this year—mostly because I’d rather you spend whatever funds you have with IRL bookshops. I’ll be swinging by Multiverse and Capricorn tomorrow and hope you do, too!
Some other favorites include Harriett’s, A Novel Idea, Inkwood, Mavey Books and Kiss & Tale!
talk more soon <3
Until then, take care and be safe. We’ll wander the story-wood together again soon.