BOOKS BOOKS & BOOKS! WHAT ARE WE READING TO STAY SANE? Book club recap, my forthcoming, and NEXT UP on the reading list...! 📚🔥🐳 (Patreon)

Hello dear ones.

Lots below…please add your book recommendations in the comments! I’m reading and so is everyone else so pitch it out there hard!

Also, if you missed it, this past summer, on August 22nd, I played a concert in Bearsville, NY, just for friends, neighbors and local patrons. This post is the ONLY place to view the concert; I’m not putting it on YouTube or releasing it elsewhere. https://www.patreon.com/posts/full-film-drop-q-140125689

Greetings from the within....holiday blitz impedning, house full of people and kids....happy, overwhelmed, you know the drill. I'm working on a little piece I'll try to publich tomorrow or Thursday am: my lost traditional annual "Holiday Survival Guide" (2025 edition), I miss doing that, so brace yourselves. I have a lot to say this year about getting through this season with your sanity and heart-health intact.

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The book club / long webhang meeting this past weekend was pretty wonderful....let me just give you a little summary if you missed it or were wondering!

We had about 200 intelligent, compassionate souls floating in and out from all over the WORLD...Australia, Europe, UK, Europe, (Transylvaina!), and all over the states. The biggest warmness, besides feeling pleased that my fellow citzens are READING, was just....being together with everybody. The community talking about ANYTHING all at once is really stiching up my heart right now. I think it's the same for many out there, and little did I know that this community would grow so far past the cliffs of just art-supporting and turn into such an important gathering place of connection for me, and for many. So: hats off to all of you for being the builkding blocks of one of the most unique and increidble communities of all time. I'm not saying that just to blow smoke up your asses. It's just....true.

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As I crack into writing my next big book - and maaaan, is it an exciting, challenging, and complicated relationship I have with writing at the moment - I'm also so happy to know that I've got the support of these 24,000-odd souls who are here for the amusement-park-ride of my words on the page. This patreon is slowly going to morph - this year, at least - into a bit of a lab as I get a lot of pitch-black and blinding-white thoughts out of my heart and head and into something that's going to be of true USE to other human beings (and hopefully, my publisher proud). I'm exploring topics and themes that, on many days, simply haunt me. Writing them down feels like the only way out. This is why I know the book will be extraordinary: I can't not write it. But I hate writing alone. (I mean, I hate being alone).

So.....

Don't think for a moment I don't understand the value of having a little community like this who are actual thinkers, feelers and readers.

Liz Gilbert (whose new book "All the Way To The River" is a fascniating work of art, I'm reading it right now and recommend it) used/uses her facebook followers as her cheerleader labratory while she wrote/writes. So does Brené Brown. I used twitter a lot while I was writing my last book (The Art of Asking. I literally had my phone open beside me while I was writing my first draft. I'd ask EVERYTHING.

I thanked my twitter followers, en masse, in my last book. Now? Now I have....YOU. Twitter is a sad dead bird rotting in the road, being picked at by scavangers. It's sad. But?

Here we are. You all, whether you are avid readers or not, are going to be my companions as I go on this writing journey. I haven't written a real (long) book in ten years. It's....hard. But it feels necessary the way this new batch of songs felt necessary. I need it all out of me; I'm a catharsis artist. Cathartist? Excuse me while I go add that to my instagram bio.

Anyway.

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Currently recommending from the recent hit list....these are things I'm recently done reading or just cracking into….I’m ADHD, people. I read 10-26 books at once and I’m not kidding.

"All The Way To The River" Liz Gilbert

"All Fours" Miranda July - my top recommendation this year - I’ve already given it to 11 people.

"Emporer of Gladness" Ocean Vuong…started….gorgeous Ocean as always ….

"Re-Food" from my Waiheke pal Emily King….super local but inspiring for sure….especially for my NZers…

Found this at a random shop…."How Are We Going To Explain This" by Jelmer Mommers....

For the graphic novel fans…omg. "American Cult", a comp of artists. I grabbed this for Ash at our wonderful little local comics shop (Omar's!) but I test-read everything before I'll let him read and.....EEK, it was far too grown up....so I stole it for myself; it’s a genius compilation.

If you grew up in a cult, escaped one, have trauma from being adjacent, or are just fascinated by cults and their impacts.....this one's for you....

Always love Roxane Gay…OPINIONS!....I haven't started this one yet but it's near the top.

The first chapter of this blew me away and I’m getting back to it..

"Rage Becomes Her" by Soraya Chemaly:

I love Lidia Yuknavitch as a human and haven’t read this one yet …THRUST. She's also a fab follow on socials, her watercolors of late have been giving me hope.

....this one - "Slow Productivity" by Cal Newport - also caught my eyeballs recently at a bookstore….haven't cracked it yet....

And last but not least.....GET AMIE'S NEW BOOK!!!! It really is inspiring...I JUST finished it. GREAT holiday gift for any of the creative people in your life.

"We Need Your Art" - Amie McNee

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TO THE CAST!!!!!!!!

I asked at the beginning of the chat if anybody wanted to come up on stage, and we wound up with three spontaneous co-captains of the book group, all of whom stayed on stage til the end even though not everybody had read every book (except Amanda WouldGo! Go HER). So thank you to Amanda, Sadie and Tess for bringing their perspectives and humor to the book group....I just love how these things organically HAPPEN. It's nice.

You can watch/listen to the whole recap HERE (it's open to ALL patrons, including the free level):

https://www.crowdcast.io/c/6k79mtcvenof

I know some people here on the patreon like listening to these pod-cast style, so remember: there's no rules. You don't need to look at the talking heads to listen to the talk. :)

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What did we cover? My god...what didn't we. Parasocial relationships, honesty and integrity in memoir and art, difficult family estrangements, grief rituals (and the lack of them), cancel culture, sexism in book reviews, and more and more and more.

We also disucssed what we are (*and are avoiding) reading at the moment, what sorts of books are drawing us in right now (fiction was the winneR) and we wrapped with a discussion about WHAT TO READ NEXT, alongside a little bit of discussion about whether or not it's a good idea to read multiple books at one time.

Someone also chucked this question at the group: what's your most RE-read book?

I think more than one person answered "Slaughterhouse 5".

So?

We decided to compromise and choose two matching-themed books for the next Ampersander book club meeting ..... and they're both SHORT and REALLY EASY TO GET:

FICTION:

Kurt Vonnegut's classic: "Slaughterhouse 5".

I took my band's name (The Dresden Dolls) from this book. It's apt this season.

NON-FICTION:

Timpthy Snyder's "On Tyranny"

As usual: try to order from your local indie bookstore!!! These should also be easily findable used (off or online) or at the library. Easy to download, or listen to....They're both books with millllllions of copies in print.

I'll write a little more after the holiday with some homework questions and more about the books themselves....but if you wanna get a headstart this week, GO!!!

And let's keep meeting in the Ampersander chat in the chat section of the Patreon...it's been nice to hang out there while we read:

The meeting will be set for late January/early Feb: hold for a time!!

More soon.

Love you all madly.

XX

A

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UPCOMING SHOWS:

Dec 4th: CAMBRIDGE, MA.
Author Book Talk w Amie McNee @ The Brattle Theatre w/ Harvard Book Store.

6-7pm. All ages, $15. OPEN AFTERPARTY TO FOLLOW!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/amie-mcnee-at-the-brattle-theatre-tickets-1963603539044?aff=oddtdtcreator&utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio

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Dec 19th: NORWOOD, MA. Holiday Show at The Magic Room....I haven't put this up on sale to the public yet, so we are veering into last call for tickets to the patrons!

https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/magicroom-7/holiday-music-party-with-amanda-palmer-and-friends

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