Welcome to 2026.

You are most likely here because you care about books, community, and reading with intention. You are also here because sapphic stories deserve space, time, and serious attention. This year focuses on building that space together.

Here is what you can expect on my bindery this year (when the depress and the overwhelm of full caretaking for my dad with dementia and being a FT trauma therapist don't burn me out) - we have to have realistic expectations lol.

I'm going to attempt regular posts about the sapphic books on my reading list, the sapphic reading challenge and "if you liked this, read that" posts. Reviews will center craft, themes, and emotional impact. You will also see a stronger focus on queer speculative fiction (thank you E.A. Noble - if you're here for the reminder that my voice matters), heavy emphasis on sapphic speculative fiction. Last year brought several books that challenged my thinking in lasting ways. This year aims for more stories that stretch perspective, question norms, and ask readers to sit with discomfort and curiosity.

The paid tier will offer deeper access. You will get sneak peeks into The Tenth Muse anthology, including author spotlights, excerpts, and behind the scenes notes. You will also see posts tied to therapy work, including reflections, frameworks, and reading through a trauma informed lens. Paid content stays intentional and grounded.

This bindery exists to grow community. My goal stays simple, read diversely, read inclusively, and talk about books with care. I really want the Discord space to exist for discussion, shared excitement, and thoughtful conversation, I'm sooooo thirsty borderline desperate for community, tbh I'm really lonely and this online space provides for 90% of my non-work based human interaction and connection. You belong here if you want to read widely and listen closely.

The sapphic reading challenge and The Tenth Muse started last year out of frustration. Sapphic stories remain pushed aside while MM or Achillean books dominate conversation and visibility. Nothing is wrong with those stories, I mean look at what Heated Rivalry did for our community. The problem lives in a culture that treats sapphic books as scarce, niche, or hard to find. Requests for sapphic recommendations continue to frame quality through heteronormative sex scripts and racial hierarchy. Those patterns deserve naming. I want this space to push back through action and consistency.

This year I really want to get a sapphic book club. At the beginning of each quarter I'm going to post a poll here and in discord with 6-7 sapphic books as options for the book clubs and the books with the highest amount of votes will be our choice each month. This will give you all an opportunity to get the books ahead of time. Each month will include a Sapphic Sunday book club discussion. Readers choose the books. Readers shape the conversation. We'll do a live in the discord, or possibly zoom if I can get my life together.

If you want thoughtful reviews, intentional community, and stories that expand how you think about love, power, bodies, and futures, hi, that's what I intend to do in this space. Join the Discord. Vote in the polls. Read alongside others who care.

Thank you for being part of this space. I'm soooooo glad you're here and I can't wait to get to know you!

Also tell a friend, and tell a friend to tell a friend because this year I REALLY want to grow this community with the intention of working toward an imprint with Bindery. I want to get intersectional sapphic and speculative sapphic books into the hands of readers! We deserve to be seen and celebrated!

There’s something about a story based on a real life that hits differently, especially when that life involves as much resilience and grit as Anneke’s did. 🤱✨

From the very first pages, I knew Anneke Jans in the New World by Sandra Freels was going to be one of those historical novels that quietly grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go. I was completely immersed in 1630s New Amsterdam, a place that feels raw, uncertain, and brimming with both possibility and danger.

Anneke quickly became someone I deeply admired. As a young mother arriving in a male-dominated colony, she refuses to fade into the background, and I loved watching her learn when to bend the rules and when to break them entirely. When tragedy strikes and she is forced to rebuild her life yet again, her resilience feels both heartbreaking and inspiring.

This wasn’t a glossy, romanticized version of colonial life; it was messy, political, and often brutal. That honesty made the story feel so real, seamlessly blending Anneke's personal struggles with historical events like political tensions and religious power plays. Knowing she truly lived this extraordinary life made her fight to protect her family feel even more urgent.

By the end, I felt like I’d spent time with a woman who deserves far more recognition in history than she often receives. If you love historical fiction centered on strong, resourceful women who shape the world around them, this one is absolutely worth your time.

⚡️Thank you Book Sparks and Sandra Freels for sharing Anneke Jans in the New World with me!

❔️What’s your favorite historical novel about a real woman whose story deserves the spotlight?

Friends! Enemies! Everyone in between!

It's time to vote for the February book club pick. I asked the Bindery Discord channel (a private channel if you're a free follower or paid member to Bindery, which if you're receiving this... you are lol) for some suggestions and this is where we landed.

I lowkey want to abuse my power as your fearless leader and make us all read The White Hot buuuuut no pressure during your voting. Unless... 🥸

The story of a runaway mother’s ten days of freedom—and the pain, desire, longing, and wonder we find on the messy road to enlightenment—from Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes.

April is a young mother raising her daughter in an intergenerational house of unspoken secrets and loud arguments. Her only refuge is to hide away in a locked bathroom, her ears plugged into an ambient soundscape, and a mantra on her lips: dead inside. That is, until one day, as she finds herself spiraling toward the volcanic rage she calls the white hot, a voice inside her tells her to just . . . walk away. She wanders to a bus station and asks for a ticket to the furthest destination; she tells the clerk to make it one-way. That ticket takes her from her Philly home to the threshold of a wilderness and the beginning of a nameless quest—an accidental journey that shakes her awake, almost kills her, and brings her to the brink of an impossible choice.

The White Hot takes the form of a letter from mother to daughter about a moment of abandonment that would stretch from ten days to ten years—an explanation, but not an apology. Hudes narrates April’s story—spiritual and sexy, fierce and funny—with delicate lyricism and tough love. Just as April finds in her painful and absurd sojourn the key to freeing herself and her family from a cage of generational trauma, so Hudes turns April’s stumbling pursuit of herself into an unforgettable short epic of self-discovery.

Fleabag meets Big Swiss in this bold debut about a charismatic misfit who livestreams her life for seven days and nights to raise money to save her comatose sister—a poignant and darkly funny exploration of grief, forgiveness, and redemption.

Dell Danvers is barely keeping it together. She’s behind on rent for her studio apartment (formerly a walk-in closet), she’s being plagued by perpetual stomach pain, and her younger sister, Daisy, is in a coma at a hospital that wants to pull the plug. Freshly unemployed and subsisting on selling plants to trust fund kids, Dell impulsively starts a 24-hour livestream under the username mademoiselle_dell to fundraise for private life support for Daisy.

Dell is her stream’s dungeon master, banishing those who don’t abide by her terms and steadily rising up the platform’s ranks with her sympathetic story and angry-funny screen presence. Once she discovers she has a talent for eating spicy food, her streaming fame explodes and her pepper consumption escalates from jalapeño to ghost to the hottest pepper on earth: the Carolina Reaper. Dell is finally good at something—but as her behavior becomes riskier and a shadowy troll threatens to expose her dark past, Dell must reckon with what her digital life ignores, and what real redemption means.

Narrated in seven taut chapters, one for each day of Dell’s livestream, Just Watch Me careens through a week in the life of this misguided striver with a heart of gold. Voyeuristic and visceral, audacious and outrageous, Lior Torenberg’s debut is both a razor-sharp tragicomedy about the internet economy and a surreptitiously moving tale about the desire to be watched, and the terror of being seen.

An electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO in the twilight hours of his life as he is ferried from this world into the next.

Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.

She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?

Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s postdeath future.

With the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.

A rollicking debut novel about a cautious daughter and her eccentric, estranged mother venturing west in search of buried treasure—and a way back to each other—before they run out of patience, money, and options.

After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ticket to stay with her mother, Christy, a free spirit who has been living in Salt Lake City on Bea's dime. 

Usually the responsible one, Bea isn't about to admit exactly why she's suddenly decided to visit, but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets: Christy has a man. She has a map. She has . . . a username on a forum devoted to unearthing $1 million in buried treasure that an antiquities dealer claims to have hidden somewhere in the western U.S.?

Bea is convinced this is just another one of her mother’s wild larks, an elaborate way to refuse, as she has for Bea’s entire life, to finally grow up. But Christy believes she’s onto something—and she’s arranged a rendezvous in a rural town called Mercy with the guy she’s been obsessively trading theories with online to prove it. Out in the desert that one woman believes to be a promised land, the other a wasteland, they find themselves barreling toward a more high-stakes, transformative escapade than either of them could have imagined.

Populated with unforgettable characters and set against one of the world’s most oddly enrapturing landscapes, Scavengers is a funny and heartbreaking novel about old injuries, new beginnings, and the lengths to which we’ll go to find, escape, and reinvent ourselves.

Four very compelling choices! Happy voting and remember we are reading Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash in December, today is your last day to sign up.

Love what we do? Become a paid subscriber for less than a cup of coffee a month. Your ongoing support helps us plan ahead, fund causes we care about, and create meaningful programming for our community.

Note: When I woke up this morning, I told myself I wasn’t going to touch my computer today. The last day of 2025 was going to be spent reading and checking in with myself. But I felt like I had so much to say about this book and how it relates to my dad, and I couldn’t help myself. So here we are. I hope you enjoy these ramblings from my little brain.

Months ago, one of my subscribers recommended I read the book “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. I bought it right away, but it’s been sitting on my shelf ever since. It’s not uncommon for me to purchase a book and have it sit around for a while before I read it, but this one was intentional. Every time I’d attempt it, just reading the introduction would bring me to tears. This book is about a man’s literal “last lecture” as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University after getting a pancreatic cancer diagnosis (what my dad died from). He had three young children at the time of his death and used this lecture as a way to teach his kids the life lessons he wouldn’t be there to teach them in person. Last New Year’s Eve was surprisingly difficult for me (as in, I didn’t realize how hard it would feel. New Year’s is not a particularly big deal in my family), so I figured that if I was going to be miserable on this day again, may as well top it off with this book I’d been avoiding. I read it in one sitting.

While a lot of the book reads as a memoir, so much of what Randy preached reminded me of things my dad would have said. So many times since I lost my dad, I’ll hear something that sounds like it could have come directly from his mouth and respond as though he actually said it. It’s not something I do on purpose, but I like to think I knew him well enough to know what he’d say in certain situations. So much of what Randy wanted his kids to know are things my dad wanted my sister and me to carry with us always. In a sentence, being a good person is more important than anything else. It’s our duty to care of people who weren’t born with the same advantages that we were. (Okay that’s two sentences, but it truly sums up his philosophy on life.)

While 68 was still way too young for my dad to go, I’m so glad he didn’t spend too much time feeling miserable trying treatments while knowing the cancer would inevitably kill him. He lived in a state of realistic optimism, and it served us all well. He lived far longer than most people with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, so while we always knew the end was coming, we also enjoyed every day we got with him. Anytime I’d ask how he was feeling, he’d respond with “I’m not dead yet!” His biggest concern was never about himself and the pain of dying. Of course he was sad for all he wouldn’t get to be there for, but he was far sadder for those of us left behind who would be missing him for the rest of our lives.

I wish my dad could see how my YouTube channel has grown and evolved. He watched every single video over and over again, just to hear my voice and support me. I wish I could talk baseball with him and tell him how the Guardians came back from a 15.5 game deficit to win the division. I wish he got to spend more time with his grandson, my baby nephew Ben, and see what a great mom my sister is. I wish I could tell him that I’m going to be a barre3 instructor after not passing my audition the first time. (He’d say “that’s my Laura! When she says she going to do something, she does it!”)

While I’ve shed a lot of tears today, I’m really happy to have spent my last day of 2025 writing about my dad and reflecting on my first calendar year without him. I’ll never stop missing him, but I try to honor his memory by being the person he always saw me as: empathetic, hard-working, loving, and helpful. And he’d want me to remember that three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and how much my daddy loved me.

I want to end this with some quotes that could have been straight from my dad. And the first one down here is something I feel so strongly that it made me laugh. (Page numbers noted, in case anyone wants more context.)

Lately, I find myself quoting my dad even if it was something he didn't say. Whatever my point, it might as well have come from him. He seemed to know everything. (23)

As he saw things: When you're frustrated with people when they've made you angry, it just may be because yo haven't given them enough time. Jon warned me that sometimes this took great patience-even years. "But in the end," he said, "people will show you their good side. Almost everybody has a good side. Just keep waiting. It will come out.” (145)

Students would say to me: "What if I apologize and the other person doesn't apologize back?" I'd tell them: "That's not something you can control, so don't let it eat at you." (162)

When I was fifteen, I worked at an orchard hoeing straw-berries, and most of my coworkers were day laborers. A couple of teachers worked there, too, earning a little extra cash for the summer. I made a comment to my dad about the job being beneath those teachers. (I guess I was implying that the job was beneath me, too.) My dad gave me the tongue-lashing of a lifetime. He believed manual labor was beneath no one. He said he'd prefer that I worked hard and became the best ditch-digger in the world rather than coasting along as a self-impressed elitist behind a desk. (169)

Brick walls are there for a reason. And once you get over them—even if someone has practically had to throw you over—it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it. (174)

Everyone has to contribute to the common good. To not do so can be described in one word: selfish. (176)

Look, I'm not in denial about my situation. I am maintaining my clear-eyed sense of the inevitable. I'm living like I'm dying. But at the same time, I'm very much living like I'm still living. (182)

So my dreams for my kids are very exact: I want them to find their own path to fulfillment. And given that I won't be there, I want to make this clear: Kids, don't try to figure out what I wanted you to become. I want you to become what you want to become. (198)

Shameless plug: I know times are tough for a lot of folks right now, but I am raising money for the PanCan Purple Stride Walk. I’ll leave the link to my fundraising page if anyone feels so inclined to donate.

https://secure.pancan.org/site/TR/PurpleStride/PurpleStride?pg=personal&fr_id=3102&px=3764161

Me all puffy-eyed after finishing this

JANUARY: THE MAID & THE CROCODILE
In the magic-soaked capital city of Oluwan, Small Sade needs a job - preferably as a maid, with employers who don't mind her unique appearance and unlucky foot. But before she can be hired, she accidentally binds herself to a powerful being known only as the Crocodile, a god rumoured to devour pretty girls. Small Sade entrances the Crocodile with her she is a Curse Eater, gifted with the ability to alter people's fates by cleaning their houses.

The handsome god warns that their fates are bound, but Small Sade evades him, launching herself into a new career as the Curse Eater of a swanky inn. She is determined to impress the wealthy inhabitants and earn her place in Oluwan City . . . assuming her secret-filled past - and the revolutionary ambitions of the Crocodile - don't catch up with her.

But maybe there is more to Small Sade. And maybe everyone in Oluwan City deserves more too - from the maids all the way to the Anointed Ones.

FEBRUARY: THE ORNITHOLOGIST'S FIELD GUIDE TO LOVE

Rival ornithologists hunt through England for a rare magical bird in this historical-fantasy rom-com reminiscent of Indiana Jones but with manners, tea, and helicopter parasols.

Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that's beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She's so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they're professional rivals.

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can't trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.

MARCH: SWORDHEART

Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.

While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it—and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.

Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla—a most unusual wielder—he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all—the sword itself.

APRIL: I GOT ABDUCTED BY AN ALIEN AND NOW I'M TRAPPED IN A ROM-COM

Dorothy Valentine is close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she’s attacked by a lion. On the bright side, she’s saved! On the not-so-bright side, it’s because they’re abducted by aliens. In her scramble to escape, Dory and the lion commandeer an escape pod and crash-land on an alien planet that has...dinosaurs?

Dory and her new lion bestie, Toto, are saved in the nick of time by a mysterious and sexy alien, Sol. On their new adventure, they team up with the equally hot, equally dangerous Lok, who may or may not be a war criminal. Whether it be trauma, fate, or intrigue, Dory can’t resist the attraction that’s developing in their trio....

As this ragtag group of misfits explore their new planet, Dory learns more about how and why they’ve all ended up together, battles more prehistoric creatures than she imagined (she imagined...zero), and questions if she even wants to go back home to Earth in this hilarious and steamy alien romance adventure comedy romp.

MAY: THE HALFLING'S HARVEST

For most halflings, the annual harvest festival is a time to revel in life's simple pleasures—hearty feasts, flowing wine, and warm hospitality. But for Marigold Bramblefoot, owner of the Dew Drop Inn and Vineyard, it’s the busiest—and most stressful—time of the year.

Juggling an inn full of quirky guests, preparing for the bustling festivities, and managing her vineyard would be enough to overwhelm anyone. But Marigold has her sights set on something bigger: winning first place in the annual wine competition and finally stepping out of her father’s shadow.

The only problem? Her rival, Darkroot Cellars, has dominated the competition for a decade thanks to the druidic magic behind their wines.

With her hands full and her heart set on success, Marigold must balance the chaos of the festival, a budding romance, and unraveling the vineyard's hidden mysteries, all while discovering what it truly means to craft her own legacy. Because in Willowbrook, the harvest festival is more than a celebration—it’s a season for transformation, and Marigold’s is long overdue.

JUNE: SCORCERY & SMALL MAGICS

Leovander Loveage is a master of small magics.

He can summon butterflies with a song, or turn someone’s hair pink by snapping his fingers. Such minor charms don’t earn him much admiration from other sorcerers (or his father), but anything more elaborate always blows up in his face. Which is why Leo vowed years ago to never again write powerful magic.

That is, until a mix-up involving a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime nemesis, Sebastian Grimm. Grimm is Leo’s complete opposite—respected, exceptionally talented, and an absolutely insufferable curmudgeon. The only thing they agree on is that getting caught using forbidden magic would mean the end of their careers. They need a counterspell, and fast. But Grimm casts spells, he doesn’t undo them, and Leo doesn’t mess with powerful magic.

Chasing rumors of a powerful sorcerer with a knack for undoing curses, Leo and Grimm enter the Unquiet Wood, a forest infested with murderous monsters and dangerous outlaws alike. To dissolve the curse, they’ll have to uncover the true depths of Leo’s magic, set aside their long-standing rivalry, and—much to their horror—work together.

Even as an odd spark of attraction flares between them.

JULY: FOR WHOM THE BELLE TOLLS

Lily isn’t exactly thrilled with her arrival in the Afterlife, but what awaits her there is more fantastical than she ever could have imagined: Deities wait in line at the coffee shop. Fae flit between realms. Souls find ways to make death a beginning.

As she explores the many corners of the Afterlife, Lily finds herself surprisingly drawn to a place most people would avoid at all costs: Hell. Armed with years of customer service experience and pent-up sarcasm, Lily carves a job out for herself amongst Hell’s demons, sending souls to their rightful circles with more than a hint of sass.

Lily’s expectations are subverted every day in Hell—especially by Bel, a demon general with a distractingly sexy voice. The two meet by chance and form an immediate, deeply healing friendship, but the undeniable heat between them threatens to combust.

Meanwhile, something stirs beyond the boundaries of their world, threatening to destroy everything they’ve known and everything that could be…unless they fight like Hell to stop it.

This debut novel from BookTok sensation Jaysea Lynn invites you to lose yourself in a world where love ignites in the unlikeliest of places, magic defies the rules, and the Afterlife proves more thrilling than anyone could imagine.

AUGUST: A WITCH'S GUIDE TO MAGICAL INNKEEPING

An enchanting novel about a witch who has a second chance to get her magical powers—and her life—back on track, from the national bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches .

Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her magical Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Aunt Jasmine run an inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep the talking fox in check, and longs for the magical future she lost.

When she learns about an old spellbook that holds the secret to restoring her power, she turns to Luke Larsen, a gorgeous historian who might just be able to help her unlock the book’s mysteries. Luke, who has his own reasons for staying at the inn, never planned on getting involved in the madcap goings-on around him and certainly had no intention of letting certain grumpy innkeepers past his icy walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he not only agrees to help, but also finds himself thawing .

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone... and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.

SEPTEMBER: THE ENCHANTED GREENHOUSE

Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.

This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.

But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.

This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

OCTOBER: THE GHOSTS OF ROSE HILL

Sent to stay with her aunt in Prague and witness the humble life of an artist, Ilana Lopez—a biracial Jewish girl—finds herself torn between her dream of becoming a violinist and her immigrant parents’ desire for her to pursue a more stable career.

When she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage, she meets the ghost of a kindhearted boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin’s grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague, where ghosts walk the streets and their kisses have warmth.

But Benjamin isn't the only one interested in Ilana. Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with her and the music she plays. He offers to share his magic, so Ilana can be with Benjamin and pursue her passion for violin. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Wassermann and how Benjamin became bound to the city, she resolves to save the boy she loves, even if it means losing him—forever.

A love letter to Latin American and Jewish diasporas, based on the author's experiences working to maintain Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe. The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a tender and empowering read that you will devour in one sitting. Steeped in history and the experiences of immigrant families, especially Jewish families, each carefully-chosen word of this magical verse novel casts a spell.

NOVEMBER: RECIPES FOR AN UNEXPECTED AFTERLIFE

Rottgor is worn out. Literally. Barely held together by dark magic, he has protected the Necropolis for centuries. When he’s forced into retirement, he’s faced with a new to forge a future guided not by obligation, but by passion.


Following his heart (and stomach), he decides to open a restaurant where the city’s undead and living residents can share food and community. He’s helped in his quest by an unlikely assortment of neighbors, including elves, skeletons, vampires—and a young orphan girl named Astra, whose ancestry, if discovered, could put her and the entire Necropolis in danger. To protect Astra and the life he’s building, Rottgor must face his past and form new alliances built on friendship, loyalty, and love. As comforting as warm pumpkin bread, this gentle fantasy traces how even a dark history can rise into a bright future.

DECEMBER: BRIGANDS & BREADKNIVES

Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!

If only things were so simple…

It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.

A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior surviving on inertia, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.

As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when there isn’t a job to get in the way.

A few Cozy Quill announcements as we enter a new year! 🎉

DISCORD:

Tomorrow our Discord will look a bit different! We’re simplifying channels, combining some spaces, and making it easier to navigate so everyone can find their cozy corner quickly. This means, yes, some of your favorite channels may go "poof!", but we combed through each channel to ensure we're embracing the ones most used while creating some new options that set us up for a better user experience overall.

We’re also adding a Suggestion Box! Simply type /suggestion in any channel and share your thoughts. It’s completely anonymous, and only the mods and I will see it.

We hope these changes make Cozy Quill even more welcoming, magical, and easy to explore. Can’t wait for you to see it! And shout out to our amazing Cozy Quill mod team for helping me with this makeover and ensuring all of us have a kind, accessible experience in this space!

PAID TIER UPDATES:

I will put out a video announcement next week sharing our upcoming paid tier changes. As we begin our Twig's Traveling Tomes season, I want to create a member experience that's specific to this story and it's lovely heart. This also means we'll have all new behind the scenes content from myself and Gryffin, plus some exclusive, meaningful ways to connect to one another all year long.

Another paid tier bonus I wouldn't want you to forget: YOU GET EARLY ACCESS TO TWIG'S! You'll be the first to read and review this story! I'm over the moon that this is now being offered.

I hope you'll be as excited as I am about all the special things we have planned for you in 2026!

YOUTUBE:

I'm excited to share I'll be diving deeper into Youtube this year as well, yay! This means paid members will get access to those videos 24 hours before they go live. I can't wait to get even cozier with you in 2026 with hobby vlogs, event recaps, and longer tea room content.

TEA ROOM CONTENT:

This year my goal is to vary my content a bit more to include some day-in-the-life ideas as well. My goal is to share little ways we can take that tea room heart and energy outside into our real worlds through cozy hobbies, gaming, stories, and community. We'll be testing all kinds of things this year, so bear with me!

2026 is going to be so FULL & FUN! I am grateful you'll be along this journey with me, it really does make it all feel so meaningful. Can't wait to get cozy with you this year!

xx,

Meg

2025 was a big year for me. For us. I may have started this imprint in 2024, but it was this year where we built our little community into a force to be reckoned with. Not only did we publish our first title--Cry, Voidbringer--but we signed several incredible authors, grew our community by several thousand members, and spent the year championing not only our authors, but Black and brown authors as a whole.

I could not be prouder of the work we have done together and I am so excited to see how our impact blossoms as the years go by.

When I first began telling people in my life that I wanted to disrupt the publishing industry, they smiled and offered their support, but they didn't really see a way for that to actually happen. That has changed. Now, when I talk about change, the people in my life dream with me. Because they have seen the impact of what we are doing here and they, like us, have complete faith that our efforts will pay off.

For me, 2025 has been filled with a series of personal challenges, exciting breakthroughs and incredible growth. I have learned so much about how this industry works, what it takes to successfully produce and market stories, and just how much of a disadvantage Black and brown authors have in this industry. And all of that has worked together to make me even more committed, and even more equipped, to be a massive pain in the ass to every structure standing in our way.

I say all of that because I want you to know that if you thought I was loud this year, you should prepare yourself for whats coming in 2026. I am more focused, more determined, more equipped, and more angry. in 2025, my primary focus was building this community so that we were equipped to do this work effectively. In 2026, my primary focus is to fuck shit up.

And there is nothing I would love more than for you to be a part of that.

Here are some things you need to keep on your radar for 2026:

We have two books launching in 2026. Devil of the Deep and Buzzard. Each of these books come with a TON of work. Including:

• Pre-Order campaigns

• Building street-teams

• Cover reveals

• ARC campaigns

• Netgalley campaigns

• Growing the book's Goodreads TBR and early reviews

• Finding unique bookish collaborations to spread the word

• Constant content and conversations about the books

• Secret book club (shhh)

• Seeking out book boxes, etc

In addition to all of the work that comes with successfully launching each of these books, we are also focused on championing Black and brown authors as a whole. Which means:

• Keeping our bookclub growing and engaged so that we can support new authors every month

• Regular book reviews and bookish content, supporting a variety of authors

• Collaborations with other publishers

• Collaborations with bookstores, bookish businesses and other content creators

• Author interviews

• Bookish events

There is A LOT that goes into the work we are doing and almost all of it depends on community engagement. Which is why so much of my efforts have been directed toward growing our community. Because the larger our community, the more certain it is that we can rise to any challenge and sufficiently show up collectively. No one can do everything. But the stronger our community, the more voices are available to make sure everything gets done.

In 2026, you can expect to see:

• More content in Bindery

• More content on my socials

• More intense marketing for our books

• More intense conversations about the state of publishing

• More author interviews and bookish events

• More, more, more, more, more!

I have spent the last month plotting and planning what is next for Left Unread and I am EXCITED to dive in. My hope is that, with more effort and consistency, we can have an even deeper impact and hopefully create space for even more authors in the margins.

So yeah, thank you for being here. Because of you, we have been able to accomplish SO MUCH. And the goal is to not just continue doing this work, but to make sure we go even harder. So thank you for being here and I look forward to fucking shit up even more with you!

Today is the last day that you can subscribe to a paid tier for 50% off using DISCOUNT CODE: LEFTUNREAD. Check out what it is like having the earliest access to publishing news and opportunities for as little as $2.50.

Our paid subscribers help us to fund our publishing projects and we are currently working to build so that we have the resources to add a third book to our annual publishing schedule. So consider upgrading if you have the ability to.

Hi everyone! I'm Erika, and I am starting a series where.... well, I want to read the series I own or am in the middle of, and I want to see if I actually finish the series or will it finish me?

The first book in this series is "The Stars are Dying" by Chloe Penaranda.

Well… let’s get into it. I really can’t talk about this in depth without spoilery-ness. I will try to keep super specifics out. You’ve been warned lol  

Review:

Astrea is not a typical main character that I connect with or get excited about reading. Under Hektor’s control for 5 years, she was manipulated. Combine that with having no memory of who she is or who to trust before meeting Hektor — this makes it an interesting read. Astrea is compliant with uncertainty of her true power and identity. 

I was able to see glimpses of who she truly is in the first 25% and throughout the book but we don’t get to stay in those moments long enough. I get frustrated bc despite the ultimate need to figure out who she is and what that means, as a reader I still don’t think we really understand the full gravity of who and what she is. 

I think one of the reasons for this is bc while she may get a flashback (I think its just one… or two?) they weren’t revolutionary. It was clouded bc Astrea is in another position where she has to trust someone else who is also manipulative in their own way. 

It’s frustrating bc it seems as if “everyone” around her knows who she is but they do not tell her until wayyyyyyy later. I am still not fully understanding on what benefit it was to delay telling her about herself. What did the story gain from the delay? When we find out much later (or even some chapter transitions) makes the story feel disjointed and some moments lack significance. 

I was hoping she would continually progress to uncover who she is, continue to tap into her power, and come out on the other side being a badass while still having things to overcome and heal from — instead I feel like we get slightly disjointed scenarios with melodramatic interactions w/Nyte. 

Sometimes something will happen, but instead of addressing it then, it’s put off until later but whats the point of that? I don’t think anything is gained from that. 

I enjoyed Nyte’s character more than most. However after so many times of him asking “do you trust me” / “do you believe that (me)?” — it just feels like another annoyance and manipulation. 

I was conflicted bc here and there interesting things happen in this book but how it is woven together and how we get there …. Something is definitely missing. The characters sometimes talk in a vague manner but the problem is…. It isn’t just Astrea who doesn’t know what’s going on… the reader doesn’t either. Some things are explained but not clear enough for me (imo), to make it matter in the magnitude I think the author is wanting to get it across.. 

All in all. It’s decent. Annoying (sorry not sorry its my review…. I gotta be honest). Frustrating. Interesting. 

I am hopeful and will read the second book bc I am thinking maybe this was a interesting way to set up the story but I hope for more in the second book. 

Have you read the series?

The Night is Defying (Book 2 - Readalong)

I am starting to read the second book: "The Night is Defying" and I have created a public readalong for all to join in on the fun discussion along the way! Feel free to join anytime between now and through 02/28/26 (even if you have already read the book, I'd love to see you there!)

Readalong (on Storygraph): https://app.thestorygraph.com/readalongs/b703213c-8535-40cb-b2da-525350162332?redirect=true

So you want to dive into some horror graphic novels but you don't know where to start? Or you've read some graphic novels and are looking for some more to sink your teeth into? Well here are some that I've personally read and love. And I've thrown in a few that are on my tbr as well.

1. Bad Dreams in the Night--this one takes urban legends and turns them into fun, fresh, beautifully drawn stories.

2. Uzumaki--I started with this Junji Ito manga and it completely sucked me in. This was my first every graphic novel and I will never not recommended it!

3. Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees--Think Dexter meets animal crossing. This one is so much fun!

4. The Me You Love In The Dark--A struggling artist rents a haunted house for inspiration...

5. Wytches--A family starts fresh in a new town to get away from the tragedy haunting their daughter. But the wytches are coming...

TBR

Beautiful Darkness--dark fairytale

Saint Catherine--religious horror/possession

Wait Til Helen Comes--sisterhood and creepy ghosts

The Pit--Fresh start, folklore, rural setting

The Autumnal-Small town, fall focused, folk

Fruiting Bodies--Trip gone wrong, nature

Double Walker-- Trip gone wrong, Murder

Nocturnos--a collection of stories set at night

What are some of your favorite graphic novels?

Here is the link for tonight's discussion of The Names!

https://meet.google.com/roa-vsjv-vwp