3 book recommendations from Eliot Peper
Whether you're struggling to find the perfect present for a special someone or looking for a reliable escape hatch from the Kafka-esque clusterfuck of holiday travel, my novels are here for you.
And now, books I love that you might too:
The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander shares the paradigm-shifting life lessons of a veteran therapist and celebrated conductor. Reading it challenged me to question deeply held assumptions and reframe my worldview. This book is a gift to the world—and makes a great gift for absolutely anyone. (With both authors narrating and integrated clips of referenced classical music, the audiobook is in a league of its own.)
The Book Business by Mike Shatzkin and Robert Paris Riger is a concise, comprehensive guide to the publishing industry based on many decades of insider experience. An absolute must-read for aspiring or experienced authors, editors, publishers, analysts, reviewers, or bookworms curious about the story behind their favorite stories.
Barbarian Days by William Finnegan is a memoir that follows the dangerous, sublime thread that surfing wove through the author's deeply examined life. It is a story of dark and redemptive obsession rendered in luminous prose that capture the seductive power of waves whose terrible beauty is ephemeral, but—as this extraordinary book proves—no longer ineffable.
Bonus recommendation: SKYWATCH is a fantastic science fiction short film complete with top-notch special effects and a thought-provoking journey through a cyberpunk near future. I'm proud to have been a Kickstarter backer for the project since the very beginning. Fun fact: SKYWATCH was shot in the apartment of a dear friend who's given invaluable notes on all my novels.
In other news:
Maize Magazine interviewed me for a feature on futurism and science fiction: “Now that technology is changing our world at an unprecedented pace, science fiction is building a mythology of the 21st century—a mythology shaped by technology and climate change.”
When is a project done?: "When you glare at it, and it glares back—proud, unafraid, demanding to face the world on its own terms."
My conversation with Omar El Akkad, author of American War: "Despite all the mythology around American exceptionalism, the recipe for avoiding ruin in this country is no different than in any other country. It contains only two ingredients: ensure that your systems of power reflect the diversity of your population as a whole, and acknowledge the entirety of your history, no matter how painful."
Bestselling author, blogger, and podcaster Seth Godin gave a generous shout-out to Bandwidth and the Analog trilogy during this interview about podcasting.
If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support it, tell your friends. 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 earned praise from the New York Times Book Review, Businessweek, Popular Science, Boing Boing, TechCrunch, io9, and Ars Technica. I'd love to hear what you think if you give them a read.
Cheers, Eliot
---
Eliot Peper is the author of Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Cumulus, Neon Fever Dream, True Blue, and the Uncommon Series. Subscribe to his blog here.
"Cumulus is a prophetic Bay Area thriller, a Jason-Bourne-meets-Silicon-Valley story of escalating technology, inequality and a crumbling state. When a former CIA-operative-turned-hired-gun joins forces with tech giant Cumulus, cracks in the digital facade emerge, laid bare by a powerful and simple analog alternative. In today's world where intimate personal details are just another row in someone's 'big data,' Cumulus is a stark reminder that data are power—and absolute data corrupt absolutely."
-Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D., Chief Economist, Glassdoor, on Cumulus
If this email was forwarded to you and you'd like to sign up, just click here.