Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, coming at you with new releases and a bit of African SFF, and…how the heck is it almost the end of January? Who gave this year permission? I haven’t gotten hardly anything done! (I haven’t read nearly enough books…but I imagine that’s a common affliction.) Well, that’s how the calendar goes, I guess. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Tuesday!
2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here are two places to start: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides medical and humanitarian relief to children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation; and Ernesto’s Sanctuary, a cat sanctuary and animal rescue in Syria that is near and dear to my heart.
Bookish Goods
Journal With Afrofuturist Cover by thetrinigee
Since we’ve got a bit of an African SFF theme going in this newsletter, I wanted to get something that celebrated Afrofuturist or Africanfuturist imagery. And this is one cool-looking journal cover image. (They also have it as a tote bag!) $25
New Releases
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Nelah is trapped in a marriage with a police officer who tracks her constantly using microchip monitoring, though to anyone looking from the outside, her life seems perfect. Even that appearance is shattered after a car accident; desperate, she hides the body of her victim. But the mundane horrors of her life are soon joined by the supernatural as her victim’s ghost begins to hunt down all those she loves. If she wants to save those she has left, she will need to unravel the conspiracy they were about to expose.
Three Eight One by Aliya Whiteley
Rowena is the curator of a vast archive of twenty-first-century internet material. One day, she finds a story that was posted during the summer of 2024, in which the number 381 is used repeatedly. As she follows the story of this fantasy character, she begins to question her own life path and choices.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
With Womb City coming out, I wanted to grab a couple of other SFF books by African authors!
Jah Hills by Unathi Slasha
Jah Hills is alone in the bush of Kwafindoda, waiting for the elders to deliver him home. But he is instead tricked and transformed into an isithunzela, a creature that is trapped in a wardrobe by day and free by night to travel between the realms of the dead and the living. When he finally escapes, his only wish is to return home…but home is no longer home.
Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
The Kintu clan in Uganda is a bloodline cursed by the actions of their leader in 1750. As the history of their nation unfolds, different members of the clan work to reconcile the curse, their history, and the unfolding of time and modernity.
See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.