Hi everyone,

A few days ago, I informed on my YouTube community page, Instagram Story, and posted a message in Discord letting my audience know that I had a death in my family and will be stepping away to grieve and be with my family during this hard time.

I'm posting here as well in case the message got lost.

I'll be pausing my content plans until further notice. I'm hoping by the end of January I'll feel up to posting again and sharing my 2026 content plans for YouTube, Patreon/Bindery.

I appreciate all of the kind messages and love I've received over the past few days. I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

This is such an unfathomable loss and I'm truly so heartbroken.

---Alex

Hi Disco Dancers,

Happy New Year! I hope you’re all doing well.

Something different to start the year off, my top movies and TV shows of 2025. Don’t worry, this is a one off! Things will stay book focused going forward, but I wanted to share because there were some real diverse gems in there.

Not all of these came out last year, but that’s when I discovered them…

Top 10 queer movies and TV shows

Lesbian Space Princess

I Hear the Sunspot

Femme

Interview with the Vampire

Cinderella Closet

Pillion

10 Dance

I Cannot Reach You

Medusa Deluxe

My Stubborn

Top 10 movies with BIPOC MCs

Exit (Korean film)

Femme

First Love

10 Dance

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

IP Man

The Raid 2

Nope

Kpop Demon Hunters

Sinners

Top 10 TV shows (overall)

Crash Landing on You

Shogun

Supacell

Physical Asia

Andor Season 2

Rome

The Artful Dodger

Rivals

I Hear the Sunspot

My Stubborn

Top 10 movies (overall)

Sinners

Klaus

Exit

Kpop Demon Hunters

Conclave

Beyond the Infinte Two Minutes

The Wild Robot

Ip Man

First Love

The Lair of the White Worm

Let me know your favourites in the comments!

Disco xx

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder and heads up that we are doing our first book club starting here in January, reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Here's how the book club works:

• The book club is for free and paid members only, so if you are seeing this and want to participate, either become a member here on Bindery or join our Discord.

• We have our book club discussion set up by chapter over on Discord. This will depend on each book and its structure. For this book, there is a forum to discuss organized by each Chapter and its following Interlude.

• The discussion forums are spoiler zones, so no need to censor spoilers in those sections. The assumption is if you are reading the chat and participating, you have read that chapter/section and are ready to discuss.

• I am reading as well, and will shoot to be done in the next week or so, at which point I'll post some general discussion points and questions in the "Overall Discussion" post. Again, assume this is a spoiler filled zone (and the questions may hint at or contain some spoilers), so don't enter if you don't want spoilers!

• This is completely read at your own pace! Read as fast or slow as you want, and participate when and how much you want.

• If you have previously read the book, you are welcome to participate as well, whether you are rereading or not.

• Please be respectful of everyone's opinions! Some of us may like it, some of us may not, but we should all be willing to have a fun honest discussion. I have a zero tolerance policy for any bullying behavior or inappropriate comments, so don't do it unless you want to be banished!

• For those who do not want to participate on Discord, I will be posting weekly posts here on Bindery. I will indicate which sections of the book each post will be for. Treat each post like the forum discussion - if I say a post will discuss Chapters 1-4, do not enter or read unless you have read/are ok with spoilers for that section.

• About halfway through the month, I will post a poll in here to ask if anyone is interested in doing a Zoom wrap up discussion.

As always, since this is all new, I am always open to feedback and input. Let me know what is working or not. Also, feel free to drop in or out each month. No pressure - if there is a month you don't want to read, don't feel like you have to! I will also be taking input for our book club books for April - June over on Discord in late February.

Can't wait to read and discuss this book with you all. Welcome to the Book Club, and Happy New Year!

~Bob

aaaand the winner for our first bookclub book of the year is …..

Jade City by Fonda Lee !!

this is going to be a reread for me (i loooove the greenbone saga) but i’ve been meaning to reread it for a while so this is perfect! i hope you all love it as much as i do (or are joining me for a reread👀)

Happy Friday, mis internet amigxs!

I'm so happy you're here supporting my passion for Latine literature in 2026 as well as my YouTube challenge of 31 YouTube videos this January. As a thank you for joining me and following along my journey, I wanted to give you an EXCLUSIVE LOOK at the 2026 Latine Book Bingo Card Bien Leidos member, Celeste and I put together for 2026. This is a low-stakes Bingo challenge for you to expand what Latine literature you pick up.

I'll be posting a longer video with book suggestions for each category plus the bingo card itself on social media tomorrow, but I wanted to give you an exclusive look EARLY as a thank you for being here. Keep these cards between us for now and I'm very much looking forward to you tagging me in your progress in 2026!

Felicidades!

xoxo,

Carmen

Hi guys,

With the start of the year, we have concluded our first official giveaway and the winners have been contacted for more info and to let them win! This was a lovely giveaway and thank you all for not only participating but for being part of the paid tier in here. I appreciate you guys more than you'll ever know and can't wait to see what 2026 brings us!

Our next giveaway will be in March and while I do have some great items and theme, I'm also here for any suggestions you all may have

Can't wait to share more of what we have in plans for this year

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