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I love to read.

On Twitter recently somebody asked what world they would like to inhabit, of the books they read in childhood, and my mind went immediately to Nancy Drew. The entire series. My own life felt unstable at times and Nancy’s world was stable. Even when she was in danger, she was never in real danger. She always found a way out of it. Her ability to follow threads past what the adults in her life were able to see and then solve the unsolveable crimes was something I admired. Looking back on it now I still see that and the comfort that I found in them, but I also notice that it was a very white world. The books I read, printed mostly between the 1930s and the 1970s, reflected a very white world. Which ok, that was a world I was familiar with anyway.

For a while I subscribed to the Haymarket Book Club and I was quickly overwhelmed by the number of books landing in my mailbox. That’s how We Do This Til We Free Us and Border & Rule landed in front of me at the same time. I couldn’t decide which to read first so I decided to alternate chapters which became a twitter thread which became an essay. And that became the substack aambe, in which I write about two books and see what they have to say to each other.

Ephemera is paid content. The world is worth saving, and sometimes we or maybe just I forget that. I get so caught up in the fight I forget about the magic. And I don’t just mean the magic of a baby’s smile or a sunrise although those things are indeed magical. I mean also those fleeting moments of community that happen or a song that makes you feel so perfect or any number of things that remind us that this world is worth saving.

Paid subscribers get aambe and ephmera as well as full access to the website, which includes archived posts about Becoming Kin. For a little over a year I reflected on outtakes and excerpts, so a paid subscription gives you access to those things as well. Founding members who donate $200 or more get my undying gratitude. I’m reluctant to offer pay for play kind of content, every time I think of something I think that it isn’t fair to offer something exclusive to people just because they have financial means. But I don’t mind offering founding members the opportunity to request essays about books I might have to purchase in order to write about.

Every new essay goes directly to your inbox. You are free to forward all emails, aambe and ephemera, but only paid subscribers will get ephemera emailed to them or be able to access ephemera on the web.

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