Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got your last round of new releases for January and part one of a focus on Palestinian SFF authors. I had a long, working weekend so I’m going to keep this short — please take care of yourselves, please do the little things you can to build peace in the world, and I’ll see you on Friday!
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! Rose and Jasmine Press is a Palestinian-owned small press based out of Canada, and they are fundraising for their first year!
Bookish Goods
Palestinian Tatreez Sunburst Cross Stitch Pattern by MinAmanne
This is a bit of a stretch, perhaps, since I normally try to find book or SFF-adjacent things, but I used to cross-stitch while listening to audiobooks, and this pattern is absolutely captivating. I might have to start cross-stitching again. It’s a PDF pattern for download. $12
New Releases
A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen
Mariana has just lost her best friend and would like to just give up and start over — even leaving her job as a consultant at a top-secret particle accelerator. But then Carter Cho mysteriously shows up to stop her with a warning: they’re caught in a time loop together. Then suddenly, it’s Monday morning again, and Mariana and Carter are living through the same four days together. Except Carter’s memories are starting to disappear…
The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers
The Everly family has lived for centuries, receiving the punishment of Penelope, a mysterious woman who appears to be immortal, who shows up to take their best and brightest in exchange for a crime no one remembers. Violet’s mother disappeared ten years ago when she set off to break this curse; now, Penelope has given Violet an ultimatum. She must find her mother, or she will be taken in her place. But Violet sees a third option: breaking the curse like her mother failed to do. This quest will lead her to the edges of the world and the mysterious city of Stardust, where it all began.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
This week, I want to shine a spotlight on SFF by Palestinian authors. Here’s part one!
Distance Haze by Jamil Nasir
SF writer Wayne Dolan has come to the Deriwelle Institute, which he’s convinced is an absolute scam. It’s built on sacred Native American ground, and the institute claims they’re on a mission to find God using advanced technology. The scientists are an unreliable group, to say the least…but Wayne is soon plagued by strange dreams and visions, heralding the nightmare the waking world is about to become.
A Song of Entanglement by Deena Helm
After years of being abused and living in a wasteland in the Midwest (not to mention the fact that her father is missing), Hala has decided to die at the age of 17. Too anxious to carry through with it, she begins writing songs to serve as a memoir of her life. But in another world, 24-year-old Deena finds Hala’s book of songs and it forges a connection between their two worlds. Then, things begin to get a bit…strange.
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.