3 book recommendations from Eliot Peper
You're invited to the official Bandwidth launch party on Thursday, June 21st in Oakland. It's always scary sharing something you've poured your heart into, and it's a delight and a relief to see the story resonating with readers. So let's get together, drink beer, eat pizza, and set Bandwidth free!
Time: Thursday June 21 at 7PM.
Place: Novel Brewing, 6510 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA.
Food: Zachary's pizza, my treat.
Drink: Delicious local beer.
Entertainment: Bandwidth salon, Q&A, and signing.
Bring: Friends!
The good folks at Novel Brewing have volunteered to host. They are my favorite local brewery and if you haven't yet tasted their wares, you're in for a treat. I will bring a pile of Zachary's pizzas for all of us to enjoy. If you already have Bandwidth on your shelf, I'm happy to sign your copy if you bring it along. We will also have a limited number of hardcovers for sale at the event.
We will kick off at 7PM on Thursday June 21 with a salon format discussion of the book followed by Q&A. I'm super excited that Cyrus Farivar has volunteered to MC. Cyrus is the senior tech policy reporter at Ars Technica and covers precisely the kind of real world issues that Bandwidth extrapolates into the future. He recently came out with a new book of his own, Habeas Data, which is an accessible, compelling, and comprehensive history of privacy and surveillance law. This conversation is really going to be a special treat and I can't wait to dig in.
Oh, and if you want a preview, Cyrus reviewed Bandwidth for Ars Technica, calling it, "The techno-thriller novel that we need right now, Bandwidth explores a terrifying world where we are all consumed by 'the feed.'" You can read his review right here.
As enthusiastic friends and readers, your support over the years has made all the difference. Books thrive on word-of-mouth and you are the biggest champions of my stories. This party is one small way for me to thank you. If you happen to be in the Bay Area next week, I'd love to see you there. :)
And now, books I love that you might too:
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is a profoundly moving novel that imagines a future shaped by accelerating human migration. The story follows two refugees whose intertwined lives reveal many of the forces already at work in the world today. Hamid illuminates the hearts and minds of the protagonists with clear-eyed empathy and his prose is sprinkled with insights that stuck with me long after reaching the end. Engaging, philosophical, and full of pain and wonder, this is speculative fiction at its best.
Levels of the Game by John McPhee is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction. The book narrates a 1968 tennis semifinal point-by-point, while simultaneously profiling the two players, Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, and exploring America's politics, history, racism, class structure, and psychology with surgical precision. In following the course of a single tennis match, McPhee illustrates an entire nation.
The Travelers by Chris Pavone is a rollicking international espionage thriller where nothing is what it seems and you can't trust anyone. The hero is a travel magazine writer who gets sucked into an intricate web of geopolitical intrigue and traverses half the globe unravelling scheme after scheme after scheme. It's a high-octane ride full of lies, sex, betrayal, disaster, and dirty little secrets.
Bonus recommendation: My very first short story, True Blue, came out one year ago. It's a tale of persecution and self discovery set in a world where eye color is the primary basis for discrimination. If you want to immerse yourself in a twenty minute adventure, give it a read and let me know what you think.
In other news, Cory Doctorow reviewed Bandwidth on Boing Boing, calling it "science fiction that grapples with power, consent, manipulation, equity, duty and friendship, where no one is entirely irredeemable and even the heroes need redemption." I've been a fan of Cory's award-winning books, essays, and activism for years so it meant the world to me to see how much he enjoyed Bandwidth. His review is worth reading even if you've already read the book yourself. Incidentally, and I interviewed him about it for Scout. Speaking of interviews, the Seattle Review of Books interviewed me about Bandwidth and it was a ton of fun to return to Lucas Carlson's podcast to discuss the book. This was my fourth time coming on Lucas's show and taken together, it's pretty cool to see how our conversations track my personal journey so far as a writer. Even better, Lucas and I have become close friends and he has given amazing notes at every stage of every book along the way.
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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