Hello and happy Monday, Epic folks! And Happy December (unless you’re one of the folks who dislikes it, in which case, condolences).
Announcements
As you’ve probably already seen, we have a big announcement regarding Insiders going into 2023. You won’t notice anything different with your account until January rolls around, and in the meantime you’ve got options!
What Are You Reading?
I’m currently wrestling with which books I should bring with me on a Boston trip with a friend. While the train ride will be around seven hours or so, I’m packing light, meaning I can’t cater to my mood-reading inclinations. There are books that I’ve been meaning to finish — like The Secret Society of Irregular Witches (which I saw Vanessa mention a month ago), Scout’s Honor by Lily Anderson, and Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki — but there are also ones I haven’t started that I’m excited to.
Fortunately, I have the books I’ve already started in a mix of audio and ebook formats, so they won’t take up actual space. But then there are the physical books I want to take! There’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which has been talked about in quite a few best-of book lists, and has also been sitting on my bookshelf for the longest, judging me. It’s about friends who have known each other for a while when they become partners in making video games. Let’s just say they experience all the ups and downs. I love how this is mostly about a friendship, as opposed to a romantic relationship.
I’m also considering packing Rio Cortez’s Golden Ax, a poetry collection that explores the history of Black pioneers in the Western U.S while still considering the present and the future. And then I’ve been feeling like getting into a hard-boiled ’20s or ’30s detective story, so I’m wondering whether I should bring the queer sff novella Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk, or The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher. Conjure Man was actually written in the ’30s and is the first detective novel written by a Black American. We’ll see which I land on.
If you were going on a trip next week, which books would you take? Tell us in the comments!
Erica