Dear Inky Phoenix members,

Courtney made our members an amazing apocalypse/THIS IS NOT A TEST companion guide as a special thank you for all your loud support. Please enjoy this whimsical guide, and share your answers and enthusiasm on our Discord! And please continue to share about her book online and with friends and family.

ACCESS YOUR Reader Preparedness Guide + Bonus Content HERE!

xo Kathryn and Courtney

Hi there Disco Dancers!

Today I wanted to share some brilliant Black sci fi with you all. Growing up, I loved sci fi. I devoured books by Brian Aldiss, Philip K Dick, Frank Herbert. But I didn’t see authors or people like me in that space. Things are thankfully different now! Here are some recent favourites:

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

This is a wild ride of a book set in a future South Africa, featuring:

An AI uprising

South African demigods

A crazy mutant virus

Black queer love

A trans politician

A pop star with multiple sclerosis and powers

It’s a crazy mish mash but it really, really works!

Clap Back by Nalo Hopkinson

This is a fantastic short story about an artist with uses nano technology to make ‘African inspired’ art which recounts African people’s memories, and the Black activist who suspects there’s exploitation involved.

Augmented by Kenechi Udogu

This is a YA book set in a post apocalyptic London where people live in bubbles to protect them from the heat, and some people can sing to plants to make them grow. When a girl discovers she had that ability, she must decide whether she wants to be ‘augmented’ and use her power for the state, but she doesn’t have the whole picture.

I thought this was really fun, but did end a little too conveniently for me, obviously setting it up for a sequel. Too many things happened ‘by chance’ and took me out of it right at the end. It’s worth it for the sci fi concepts though, the vision of alternative London is really captivating. I definitely want more!

Love,

Disco

Hi all! I've been thinking about what book we should read together this year. Last year, we read Psychic Witch and it took almost the whole year due to the exercises and density of the book. It is also a well known witchcraft book that a lot of people were interested in. For this year, I'm less able to pinpoint a witchcraft book that has as wide of appeal. A lot of the books I'm interested in reading personally are much more niche so they work less well for a buddy read. So I was thinking of pivoting a bit and reading another type of non-fiction book that is still witch-y adjacent in some ways (think Braiding Sweetgrass). With that, I have a few in mind that may work so please vote in the poll for what you are most interested in! I'm thinking we will read a few books together this year, instead of just the one, but we will base that on the pacing for everyone.

It’s time to vote on our February book club pick! We have three awesome options here. I’ve heard wonderful things about Red City, a new fantasy romance and the first book in an incomplete series. A few people in the book club have also requested to read Daughter of the Empire, the first book in a complete science fiction fantasy trilogy written by two widely respected authors! We can also choose to continue on with The Dandelion Dynasty series together. Full disclosure—I’ve already read Wall of Storms and I LOVED IT. It’s better than Grace of Kings and very action packed.

Happy voting everyone!! Can’t wait to see what you pick!

Red City by Marie Lu

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Blurb: The Godfather meets The Magicians in the sweeping adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu. Perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab, Red City is a dark and deadly contemporary fantasy of magical warfare, star-crossed ambition, and the pursuit of perfection at any cost, set in a glittering alternate Los Angeles.

Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. First and Janny Wurts

Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy

Blurb: Magic and murder engulf the realm of Kelewan.  Fierce warlords ignite a bitter blood feud to enslave the empire of Tsuranuanni.  While in the opulent Imperial courts, assassins and spy-master plot cunning and devious intrigues against the rightful heir.  Now Mara, a young, untested Ruling lady, is called upon to lead her people in a heroic struggle for survival.  But first she must rally an army of rebel warriors, form a pact with the alien cho-ja, and marry the son of a hated enemy.  Only then can Mara face her most dangerous foe of all--in his own impregnable stronghold.  An epic tale of adventure and intrigue.  Daughter of the Empire is fantasy of the highest order by two of the most talented writers in the field today.

Wall of Storms by Ken Liu

Genre: Silkpunk Fantasy

Blurb: Kuni Garu, now known as Emperor Ragin, runs the archipelago kingdom of Dara, but struggles to maintain progress while serving the demands of the people and his vision. Then an unexpected invading force from the Lyucu empire in the far distant west comes to the shores of Dara—and chaos results. But Emperor Kuni cannot go and lead his kingdom against the threat himself with his recently healed empire fraying at the seams, so he sends the only people he trusts to be Dara’s savvy and cunning hopes against the invincible invaders: his children, now grown and ready to make their mark on history.

Hi everyone, and happy Sunday! And of course, congratulations for those of you who have been doing some form of a time audit over the course of the last two weeks! Having done a few of these over the years, I know these can be tedious (and sometimes even stressful), and in some situations difficult to look at and realize how much time you're dedicating to certain things. But hopefully you got some good insight into your time and how you are using it.

So now comes the fun part! For this week, the goal is to analyze your results, and come up with a plan for when and how much you'll plan on reading. To analyze your results, you are going to categorize your time, and calculate average time and percentages spent in each category each day. in doing so, you can then figure out how much time you have to devote to reading, and where you can shift some priorities. If you need help, feel free to reach out. Here is what was provided previously in terms of your audit analysis:

• For your time audit, I would suggest the following categories as labels for what you are doing during your days. This will help you at the end see what proportion of your time is spent in different areas. Of course, feel free to make your own. 

  • Sleep: This is obvious I hope 🙂

  • Personal: Activities that we all have to do: eating, grooming, exercise, personal maintenance

  • Family time: Time spent with significant others, kids

  • Work: Again, hopefully obvious

  • Hobbies: Non-reading hobbies

  • Screen time: Time spent on your phone, watching TV, on a tablet

  • Reading

Once you have an idea of where you can fit in some reading time (or expand your reading time, depending on your goal), we can then pick out a book for you to read to start working on a daily reading habit. If you want, you can test some different things out this week (try some different times, see what works for you).

As I mentioned before, for each month of these reading challenges, one person gets a $25 bookshop.org gift card. To be eligible for January, you'll need to prove that you did the time audit, and share your book and reading plan.

You can share your results here in the comments, on Discord in the challenge channel, or if you don't want to share publicly, send me a DM on Discord. Excited to get to the fun part and figure out how to help you read more in 2026!

~ Bob

Hi team!

Just a reminder that if you have signed up on one of our paid tiers (we appreciate you guys so much!) then make sure you have joined our discord. When you join our discord your name will be a colour depending on which tier you signed up to:

First Sword - Green

Bright Star - Red

If your name is white then discord and Bindery are having an argument, so shoot either Ed or Will a message and they will sort it out for you!

You will have exclusive access to our Booksworn Club channels to talk about the club readalong as well as many other things.

Truth and Courage!

Ed and Will

Reading Presumed Guilty felt like sitting at a table where every chapter slid a new piece of evidence into the middle and dared us all to argue about it. Scott Turow drops us back into Rusty Sabich’s world older, retired, and finally hoping for peace only to yank the rug out from under him in the most Turow way possible.

What I loved most for a book club read is how deeply personal this story is. Rusty isn’t just defending a client he’s defending his fiancée’s son, the fragile future they’re trying to build, and his lifelong faith in the law itself. That tension makes every courtroom scene crackle, because the stakes aren’t abstract. They’re emotional, messy, and painfully human.

Aaron is the kind of character who sparks instant debate. Is he unlucky? Is he reckless? Is he hiding something? And Mae’s disappearance and later, her murder casts a long shadow over the story that had me constantly reevaluating what I thought I knew. Turow is very good at making you feel confident and then quietly pulling that confidence apart.

This book also shines in how it examines presumed guilt not just as a legal concept, but as a social one. Bias, reputation, past mistakes, and public perception all collide, making it impossible to separate truth from assumption. I can already picture the heated book club discussions about whether justice is even possible when the system and the people inside it are so deeply flawed.

Smart, tense, and emotionally loaded, Presumed Guilty is one of those novels that keeps the conversation going long after the last page is turned and might even make you rethink every true crime podcast you’ve ever loved.

❓️When you’re reading a legal thriller, do you trust the system or your gut? ⚖️📚

If Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow had you questioning motives, morality, and the meaning of justice, this one’s for you.

The Presumed Guilty Book Club Kit is now live and it’s designed to take your discussion far beyond the verdict. Inside you’ll find a thoughtful discussion guide, a themed menu with easy recipes, engaging activities, and door prize ideas that perfectly match the novel’s tension and courtroom drama.

👉Tap the link for access and let us handle the planning while you focus on the debate. Your next book club conversation is about to get very interesting.

🔗https://tinyurl.com/4d8fk9ah

❗️And don't forget to come back and tell us all about your book club meeting!

Hi everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the book so far. We have had some great discussion about the book overall, and am really loving the back and forth on Discord. This week, the focus is on parts 2 and 3 (Up through Chapter 12). I also wanted to poll you all regarding an in person discussion option.

Regarding the book, some focused questions - feel free to answer in the comments, or just talk about whatever you want!

• Were you surprised by the tone of the book, or is there anything you were surprised about in terms of the writing?

• How do you feel about the structure (alternating present day and past) now that you have gotten into the meat of the book?

• How do you feel about the level of violence in the book - too much, not enough, just right?

• What do you predict is going to happen in the final section?

• If you DNFd at some point (which is totally ok), when did you stop and why?

• How do you feel about the level of fantasy elements in the book?

As always, feel free to chat about whatever, and for more real time discussion, make sure you're over on Discord! Just remember, if you go to the comments there may be spoilers through chapter 12 and the subsequent interlude.

Regarding an in person discussion, I have a poll below - would love to see if anyone is interested in Doing a wrap up discussion. I would likely do it on a Friday evening, weekend daytime or weekend evening the weekend of January 30 - February 1. Times would be eastern standard time. We can run it through Discord, and I can record it so anyone else interested can watch later.

Thanks again for all the great discussion. I'll be sending out the final post next week, and will start setting up for February!