Hello ! This month we're reading a comic. It's called The Blue Road: A Fable of Migration text by Wayde Compton, illustrations by April dela Noche Milne. Here's a synopsis:

In this stunning graphic novel, Lacuna is a girl without a family, a past, or a proper home. She lives alone in a swamp made of ink, but with the help of Polaris, a will-o'-the-wisp, she embarks for the fabled Northern Kingdom, where she might find people like her. The only way to get there, though, is to travel the strange and dangerous Blue Road that stretches to the horizon like a mark upon a page. Along the way, Lacuna must overcome trials such as the twisted briars of the Thicket of Tickets and the intractable guard at the Rainbow Border. At the end of her treacherous journey, she reaches a city where memory and vision can be turned against you, in a world of dazzling beauty, divisive magic, and unlikely deliverance. Finally, Lacuna learns that leaving, arriving, returning -- they're all just different words for the same thing: starting all over again. 

You can read about the comic here in a feature with a Canadian newspaper: https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/the-blue-road-is-a-delightfully-subversive-young-persons-tale-of-migration

This comic may be difficult to get depending on where you are since it is published by a Canadian distributor, so here are my recommendations:

1. Purchasing: I have linked the book to this post, bookshop has an paperback version. Or buy directly from the publisher, they have an epub excerpt you can view before you purchase: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/T/The-Blue-Road

2. Borrowing: I recommend putting in a request at your local library, purchasing a copy through bookshop (linked below in this post)

3. Lending: If you prefer an e-copy and you're having difficulty accessing it, I have added an epub version you can access in the discord.

If you do end up reading it by epub and can't financially support the cartoonists, I highly recommend and rating the comic on goodreads and storygraph, it helps the comic get on other people's radar.

You'll notice our first 2 reads of the year are aimed at young readers and are not particularly long. That's by design. I read a variety of genres and dense books all year long, but the ones that get less love because they're short are the ones I want to highlight and read together. I hope that interests you as well! There's a lot we can dive into and discuss together in a comic, if you never have before I recommend joining this month.

The poll is up in the discord now to vote on the next discussion date. Join the discord to vote!

Hello and happy new year,

I hope you’re all doing well! This isn’t a long post but I was too excited not to make this.

Bindery has a new feature where you can request a specific title and it comes straight to me with a cute little postcard. I had no idea this feature came out (i was very much on vacation and not looking at my email for most of December, keep an eye out for my next newsletter for more there) or I would have already answered them. If you sent in a request, the recs are below !

As a former bookseller, I genuinely miss recommending randomly specific titles and it’s quite fun racking my brain for book knowledge, especially great when we find the right one. This is a beta feature so I’m not sure yet the best way to answer these. I can either do it as a post here on Bindery, or on ig stories, let me know which way you prefer!

Now onto the recs:

The first request was from Ezra who asked for: a banger that is also a book club crowd pleaser.

A social media account was not tagged so hopefully you see this one. I have a scifi and fantasy recommendation:

Project Hail Mary: A Novel by Andy Weir

This one is going to be adapted later this year and from everything I hear it’s a very good pick for a book club. It follows Ryland Grace, the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. While I haven’t personally read this, my sister’s book club (that heavily reads scifi and fantasy) said this one was a great pick!

A Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez:

My pick is definitely this standalone fantasy which follows Jun, a guard that is full of regret of his past decisions, and Keema, an outcast that is fighting for identity and self-value. The pair end up aiding and abetting the escape of a god that has been locked under a palace for centuries and used for her abilities and magic by her own family. The ruling family consists of an emperor and his three murderous sons who have used the god’s abilities to rule with cruelty for centuries and bleed the land of resources as they oppress their citizenry. Jun and Keema end up on an adventure with this god that changes the course of power in the land and those who wield it. It’s written with such stunning prose and imagery, the descriptions alone are enough to make this a great discussion book. This was my favorite read of 2024 and genuinely the most talked about book that my club and I chose to read. There is so much action and heart packed into it, I think it definitely fits the criteria.

The second request was from Kaith. ig: (@kaithisms)

First of all, thank you for watching! I have quite a few recs I hope one of these stand out. I would be remiss not to mention the one that inspired the video to begin with which was of course:

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072

This is one of the most unique scifi books I’ve read, as it imagines a word beyond the apocalyptic style, dystopian narrative we have been fed for decades. Written from the perspective of two activists that come from labor organizing, activist work, and trans rights organizing we are getting the perspective of two powerful voices in M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi. The novel is done in an oral history style as the title suggests, interviewing young and old people who all belong to different communes across the post-capitalist version of the U.S. This book offers a glimpse into a possibility after violence. A future that has gone through war and famine and the breaking down of systems, and asks, okay so what do we build up from the rubble? What skills can we offer each other tangibly? How do we see our relationships, our living structures, and our society as a whole and where do we need improvement? All of that and more is explored in this book and in my opinion, it feels like a novel that is in direct conversation with us, people experiencing the mid 2020s and all the horrors that have gotten us to this point. Can we imagine a future that doesn’t constantly beget violence? Are there sustainable systems we can start building the framework for now? What kind of life do we want and what are willing to do to get it? I can not recommend this book enough. It remains one of my favorite scifi novels I’ve ever read.

Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction by Joshua Whitehead

This anthology collection showcases a number of new 2SQ (2 spirit and queer indigenous) writers that each come up with their own utopian narratives that detail the strength of indigiqueer stories through their plight in the maw of settler colonialism’s histories. It has been at the top of my tbr for a while, I definitely think this collection will hold a few gems.

Thyme Travelers edited by Sonia Sulaiman

This anthology is completely unique, coming from the perspective of Palestinian diaspora writers and artists that image a future beyond occupation and the devastating effects of imperialism and zionism. Each story in this collection explores different aspects of the future from analyzing the effects of what dehumanization does over the years, to using robotics to imagine uses for disabled Palestinians, to exploring gender identity and queerness. I highly recommend it to everyone interested in post colonialism as a subject and as a broad topic of study.

I hope these were fun (I had a great time putting them together) and you found something new to read. If you have any more requests, please send them in!

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.

Join the discord channel to join the discussion and vote on the poll for our date. See you there!