Aaaaaaand we’re back! For the first A+ Read a Fucking Book Club of 2023! What’s the book? None other than the ravely reviewed I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by M. Crane. The jacket copy deftly describes the book as “Dept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance state.” And in her review, Yashwina told us “That’s why I’ll ride for this book forever. It’s not just that I want all of you to read it; it’s that I want all of you to have read it already, so that I’m not so alone with the enormity of my feelings about it and you’ll already know exactly what I mean.” So, what I am saying y’all, is that we should probably all go read this book.

Then, once you’ve surfaced from plunging into this dystopian world, you can connect with your fellow A+ members and the author M. Crane during a 90-minute question and answer session on an A+ popup discord on February 27th at 5pm PST / 8pm EST! Anyone who’s come to one of our book clubs before can attest that they’re a lot of fun and pretty darn unintimidating because no one has to go on camera, no one has to speak up, we can all just sit together and type with the comforts of home or wherever we are nearby.

The details:

How do I read I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself?

You can buy it from Bookshop or purchase the audiobook via Libro.fm, where both options support Autostraddle and indie bookstores! You can also request it from your local library!

How do I get on the pop-up Discord?

First, you’ll need to make sure you’re an A+ member! A+ members support everything Autostraddle does, and they get all kinds of bonus content as thanks — now including access to the A+ Read a Fucking Book Club!

A post will re-appear on the day of the event, behind the A+ paywall, with the link and join widget, about fifteen minutes before it starts at 4:45pm PST, so that A+ members can join.

When is this again?

It’s taking place on Monday, February 27th, so you have plenty of time to dig into the book! It’s happening from 5pm PST to 6:30pm PST. Times in some other zones are as follows:

• 8 – 9:30pm, Eastern Standard Time
• 1am – 2:30am, London, UK
• 2am – 3:30am, Berlin, Germany
• 8am – 9:30am, Tuesday, February 28th, Hong Kong
• 9am – 10:30am, Tuesday, February 28th, Australian Central Time

The discord will close down after the book club finishes, but we’ll definitely have a general A+ popup discord in March…so get excited.

What if I can’t make it? The time doesn’t work for me :(

I’m sorry (especially if this is in the middle of the night where you are)! This is always so hard. We have to host most events within times that are reasonable for the team working them and the author participating. However, I will publish the transcript the following week behind the A+ paywall, so you will still be able to catch up on the chat!

P.S. If you’re in Europe (truly being hit the hardest by the time zone situation here) or anywhere else where this is straight up in the middle of the night for you, and you have a question you’d love to see asked, you can email me at nico[at]autostraddle.com with the subject line BOOK CLUB QUESTION and I’ll collect them all and ask them on your behalf, and then the transcript will be available the following week for you to check out! I know it’s not a perfect solution, but when it comes to events with live humans who go to sleep at night within their respective time zones, it’s the best we can do right now.

What will the event be like?

It will be a text-based Q&A within Discord. I (Nico) will be there to moderate / help with flow. Basically, read the book (or as much as you can), bring your questions for the author, and ask those questions in the chat! I think that you all will probably be able to come up with some really interesting ones for this book!

Accessibility

We want Autostraddle events to be as accessible as possible and we opted to go with a text-based chatting format via Discord in large part because it was one of the most accessible ways to hold this virtual event, not just in terms of audio/visual accessibility, but also because we know it can be hard to ask a question out loud or know when to jump into a conversation. We hope this helps things go as smoothly as is possible for a virtual event. That said, if there are accommodations that would make it easier for you to attend this event, please reach out to me at nico[at]autostraddle.com to let me know. Also, here’s a link to a guide on using Discord with a screen reader. 

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!