3 book recommendations from Eliot Peper
We've had a couple hundred new folks join our number since my last missive. Welcome! I'm guessing many of you may have signed up after reading my new near-future thriller Bandwidth and I hope you enjoy these recommendations.
Speaking of Bandwidth, it debuted on May 1 at #3 in science fiction on Amazon, right behind Ready Player One and The Handmaid's Tale! It's always scary when something you've poured yourself into goes out into the world and it's exciting to see the story resonating:
"Eliot Peper’s Bandwidth is a riveting novel exploring the dark side of feeds and geopolitics... an engaging, electric read that forces us to confront the state of the world today." -TechCrunch
"Technology, not only social media but also the news feeds we consume, changes the ways we look at everything. Good and bad actors manipulate us via that technology in ways that we're only now beginning to appreciate. Bandwidth tells a really good story and illustrates exactly how that happens." -Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist
"The techno-thriller novel that we need right now, Bandwidth explores a terrifying world where we are all consumed by 'the feed.'" -Ars Technica
Word of mouth determines a book's success, so what thrills me most is that in the three weeks since the book came out, nearly 400 readers have posted reviews on Amazon. That's absolutely incredible and I know it's all thanks to you, my closest friends and fans. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If you haven't read Bandwidth yet, snag your copy right now. Early sales give books invaluable momentum. Once you take the story for a spin, please make sure to leave a review and tell your friends about it. It really makes an enormous difference.
If you want to help spread the word, this review and this review are great for sharing. And you can find out more about the inspirations and creative process behind the book here and here.
And now, books I love that you might too:
Sourdough by Robin Sloan is moving, whimsical adventure that I consumed with the ravenous enthusiasm its eponym inspires. It captures the emotional magic of stepping through the looking glass to explore a new world, while remaining rooted firmly in the San Francisco Bay Area. The story is deeply hopeful without being naive, and a refreshing reminder that human nature is so much kinder than the headlines contend.
When by Daniel Pink is a fascinating and accessible guide to the science of timing. It explores how time's rhythms shape our lives in counterintuitive ways and provides straightforward advice for using this deeper understanding of the impact of timing to improve everything from health to decision making. From test scores to judicial sentences to Fortune 500 stock performance, this book shows that when can sometimes be an even more critical question than what, why, or how.
American War by Omar El Akkad imagines a bleak future, painting a raw and haunting picture of the compounding nature of violence and the dark places into which the road of divisiveness leads. El Akkad spent a decade as a journalist covering the Arab Spring, Black Lives Matter, and the U.S. War in Afghanistan and he synthesizes insights gleaned from war zones, detention camps, and mass protests into this debut novel. The story is at once a warning and a demonstration of how critical empathy is to building a future we actually want to live in.
Bonus recommendation: Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes, shares profound creative insights in this 1990 commencement address.
In other news, I'm in the midst of the book release maelstrom. If you have an organization, podcast, publication, book club, or audience of your own and would like to schedule a talk or interview about Bandwidth, let me know and we can try to work it into the schedule. You can find more information in the press kit.
If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support it, forward this email to a friend. I love sharing amazing stories that explore the intersection of technology and culture. The goal of this newsletter is to recommend books, both fiction and nonfiction, that crackle and fizz with big ideas, keep us turning pages deep into the night, challenge our assumptions, help us find meaning in a changing world, and make us think, feel, and ask hard questions. In an age of digital abundance, quality is the new scarcity. The right book at the right time can change your life.
I also pull back the curtain on my creative process. When I'm not reading books, I'm writing them. If you're interested, you can find my books right here. They've been praised by Businessweek, Popular Science, TechCrunch, io9, and Ars Technica. I'd love to hear what you think if you give them a read.
Cheers, Eliot
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