Monthly Archives: August 2017

Cats I’ve Known

From deep friendships to brief encounters, this is the story of the cats in Katie Haegele’s life, or rather the story of her life in relation to the many cats she meets in Philadelphia’s streets, alleys, houses, apartments, and bookstores. Through Haegele’s sharp, wise, and at times hilarious gaze, we see cats for what they truly are: minor deities that mostly ignore the human foibles being played out around them. They accept our offerings with equanimity and occasionally bestow some nice thing on us. Haegele, author of White Elephants and Slip of the Tongue, has a unique and compelling sensibility, and it’s a treat to see the world through her eyes as she shows us all the meanness, weirdness, and vulnerability of humans, against an ever-shifting backdrop of the cats we often take for granted, and who ignore us all democratically in return.

August’s Bike Books for Uncertain Futures

Happy Wednesday!

It’s officially August, and this month we’re thinking a lot about the possibilities of the future. We’re thinking about independence and freedom, oppression and diversity, healing our selves and our pasts, and all the little things we need to work on to change the world.

The books we have pubbing this month reflect these thoughts, with dystopic bike stories and self-care through bikes and yoga.

First up is the new Bikes in Space collection, Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction in Extreme Futures. Edited by Elly Blue and featuring writing by herself, Jessie Kwak, Sarena Ulibarri, Leigh Ward-Smith, and more, this collection takes on the possibilities of extreme futures with 10 bike-centric stories (and 1 mini-comic) of freedom, rebellion, and survival, by bike.

Get the book today.

Also officially out this month is Pedal, Stretch, Breathe: The Yoga of Bicycling by Kelli Refer. This charming, very useful little purple book is your one-stop guide to yoga perfect for bicyclers.

Sections include:

How to breathe your way up the steepest hills (and the science behind bike paths and air quality);

a flow chart of stretches to ease your achy knees and sore back;

a guide to your and your bicycle’s chakras that will charm any skeptic’s heart; and more.

This has been available on our site and in our shop for quite a while, but August 8th is its official new release, with a fresh ISBN and all the same informative charm.

Get the book now.

 

Finally, to celebrate this month’s rad, bike-centric releases, we’re giving away…

10 copies of Biketopia over on Goodreads, August 4-11th, and

50! copies of Bikes in Space Volume 2 — one of the zines that began it all — August 14th- 28th

So keep an eye out for those and get lucky!

 

Also this month, we’ve launched the Kickstarter project for Dr. Faith’s radical, swear-filled new book on taking back your brain from anxiety, depression, anger, trauma, and more: Unfuck Your Brain

Check out the video below and the kickstarter here, and help us make this Do-It-Your-Fucking-Self metal health book a reality!

 

Stay strong out there,

Cyn & the Microcosm team