Hi there. I have started a newsletter* (like everyone else it seems). You know this, of course, having received this email. I feel, perhaps unnecessarily, that I should offer an explanation. Or, at the very least, a guiding sense of what you have signed up for.

I am incentivized by two parts. One, I am interested in an alternative to social media. Quite frankly, I no longer feel motivated by, nor can I justify, continued use of Meta products. Oh sure, I may still have Instagram for the time being (at least to find local events), but sharing aspects of my life online, both professional and personal, is something I aim to migrate away from Meta’s increasingly despotic grasp.**

On a lighter note, I am motivated to organize my writing. Though I have kept a journal since 2008, and written intermittently my whole life, I now find myself increasingly drawn to writing as a means of expression. I hope to nurture that impulse through practice.

I am not yet sure the shape that this communication will take. Similarly, I am not yet sure of the frequency. It will not be weekly. Perhaps monthly. More likely bimonthly or quarterly. Almost certainly whenever I feel like it, or have something to say.

Now to the topic of this particular communication. It is the new year (as I am sure you are reminded incessantly). I have been told I give good book recommendations, which I pride myself on. I thought I would share some of the books I read in 2024 (the ones I rated 5 ⭐️ in StoryGraph). They are listed in no particular order. If you end up reading any, I hope you will reach out and give your opinion; you may bolster my good-book-recommending ego, burst it, or remain neutral (you can reply directly to this email, even).

Open Throat by Henry Hoke (fiction)

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue by Samuel Delany (nonfiction)

Make the Golf Course a Public Sex Forest edited by Lyn Corelle and jimmy cooper (essay collection)

America Composes Itself by Sam Gould (essay collection)

The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Gosh (nonfiction)

Honorable mention: Desgraciado by Angel Dominguez (poetry)

💛 emrys

*If you are interested, this newsletter is managed through Listmonk (open-source and self-hosted) and hosted on PikaPods.

**This goes for Google, too. Though, I have not yet found a comfortable alternative to Google cloud storage…

sent 1/22/2025