Welcome @tamarawinter! Tamara is the Commissioning Editor for Stripe Press. I like to think of Stripe Press as a distribution channel for the most interesting ideas in the world. She has kindly agreed to do an AMA. Reply with your questions :)

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So, I’ve finished reading Katabasis and, since you asked, I wanted to share a few thoughts. This is a very personal take (just my opinion) so please don’t take it personally. I want to start by saying that I really like R.F. Kuang as an author. I’ve read Yellowface and Babel, and because of that I went into this book with fairly high expectations. Unfortunately, Katabasis felt a bit underwhelming to me. The characters are not fully developed, and the story overall feels unpolished, almost as if it was written in a rush. The core idea is actually very interesting, and the dark academia atmosphere really worked for me (probably because of my own background and studies). That part genuinely pulled me in. However, once the story moves into Hell, it started to lose its grip on me. Ironically, the infernal setting felt weaker than the academic one, and that was a major turn-off. I also think I would have preferred this story without the romance element, which didn’t fully convince me. Overall, it’s not a bad book, but it’s not Kuang’s best either. If you’re interested in this author, I would still strongly recommend Yellowface and Babel. Have you read this? Anything else from this author? Thoughts?

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Thanks Bob

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Next up suggestions? And please for the love of god, no '50 Shades of Grey but with dragons/unlikely 20-something heroine gets railed in great detail (repeatedly) by a 400 yr old vampire/magician'. So far this year I've read: - There is no anti-meme division (QNTM) 4/5 - Dating after the end of the world (Jeneva Rose) 3/5 - The Wrong Unit 4/5 (easy, cute afternoon read, Rob Dircks) - The Mistborn Series (no thank you Brandon Sanderson, we're done here) 3/5 - The Left Hand of Darkness (Le Guin) 4/5 - Artemis (Weird) 3/5 - The Secret Life of the Universe (NF Nathalie Cabrol) 4/5 Enjoy both Fiction and Non-Fiction, NF mostly in science, anthropology or history, been enjoying some AI reads as well. I read ~50 books last year, so a lot of the obv fiction writers have been covered, but open to anything!

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Read these while backpacking in South America in 2010. Feels like a good time to revisit them. Spoiler alert: imperialism is not good foreign policy. Getting to Know the General by Graham Greene Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano

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My brother and I were discussing how AI disrupts humanity. (yes, crypto & tech are the only topics we talk about) He heard the story on a podcast how AI will eliminate human beings as part of the mission to improve social efficiency. He says this is what happens when you ask AI to just "vibe it". I was like Yeah, Isaac Asimov already knew what its like 80 years ago.

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Whatever happens today, someone has probably written about it in a book. Books are powerful. Read more. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/10/mass-surveillance-the-metaverse-making-america-great-again-the-novelists-who-predicted-our-present?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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Flat Stanley isn't as good as I remembered it to be.

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The news is insane, so are the people in this book - my Mann read for this year.

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good book for chaotic times

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Hot off the presses 🤭 link to order in the next cast!

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you guys I have a new acotar pod! 🌹 if you want it, give a shout. and a new format, reflecting on the story from various stopping points as I read. i’m excited about this because it’s a way of capturing the magic before things are locked in and resolved. how can you convey the feeling of first discovery after you’ve traveled the entire world? you can’t. anyways, it’s not just about the thing, but also that the creative consolidation across audio, visuals, speaking, writing and reading is giving me life. in general i think this happens when we alchemize consumption into creation.

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just off a long call with an editor at a press. among many things, we talked about how publishing gravitates toward high-certainty book projects and projects which are illusory in their high certainty of success. (the large investment of time required for publishing is what makes publishers grasp for certainty that the investment is worth it) i wrote prev about the issues of publishing that seeks only sure-wins: https://uncertaintymindset.substack.com/p/43-a-new-market-of-ideas and heard about a book on the sociology of producing a book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691191874/under-the-cover and a famous author's challenges in publishing a book unlike the books that got her famous: https://substack.com/home/post/p-183345681 which reminded me of howie becker on ecosystems of art production: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/art-worlds-25th-anniversary-edition/paper and craig mod on creating his own production ecosystem: https://craigmod.com/essays/successful_memberships/

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the feminine urge to create a new substack/ podcast for every series I read

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