July 21, 2025

Introducing... the Sword and the Sandwich Book Club!!

This is an announcement, and also a plea.

I know times are hard all around, but it’s a particularly dismal time to be a journalist of any stripe right now. This newsletter supports two journalists, David and me, for the price of one—and we’re asking you to consider becoming a paid subscriber. If you can’t afford $5 a month or $50 a year (roughly a latte or a full tank of gas, respectively), as a non-premium subscriber you’ll still get access to all of our political and sandwich writing for free. But if you support us, you’ll let us breathe easier in a world where it’s becoming harder and harder to write true, scalding, thoughtful things, and more and more expensive to live. Plus, you’ll be part of a little tribe of people parting with a few bucks to let other people go nuts creating art, spilling scoops, and making the world a little weirder, wilder, and lovelier, one newsletter at a time.

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So that’s the stick. Here’s the carrot:

If you become one of our paid subscribers, you’ll get a whole new feature just for you! We’re introducing a book club, where once a month, David and I (alternating) pick a book that piques our interest, and a month later, we host a discussion. Right now, what the book club posts will look like is still a work in progress—a chat between the two of us, a straightforward book review, an author interview, a Q&A of discussion prompts, or all of the above—so feel free to weigh in. What we will be looking for, and responding to, is lots of comments from you! I love when the comments section of the newsletter is hopping, and I can’t imagine a lovelier group of people to talk about a book with. (We’re also considering launching a Discord for paid subscribers to chat in—let us know if you’re interested!)

Which brings us to the very first selection for the Sword and the Sandwich Book Club. This one is picked by Talia, and could not be more Talia-coded. In fact, when I first encountered it, I wondered whether it had been lab-designed for me. I’ll be cracking it open alongside you, and will be delivering my first impressions on this date next month.

The book is All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes, a tale of polar horror, World War I trauma, and transmasculine identity. Here’s the publisher’s description:

In the wake of the First World War, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Antarctic expedition, determined to find his rightful place in the world of men. Aboard the expeditionary ship of his hero, the world-famous explorer James “Australis” Randall, Jonathan may live as his true self—and true gender—and have the adventures he has always been denied. But not all is smooth sailing: the war casts its long shadow over them all, and grief, guilt, and mistrust skulk among the explorers.

When disaster strikes in Antarctica’s frozen Weddell Sea, the men must take to the land and overwinter somewhere which immediately seems both eerie and wrong; a place not marked on any of their part-drawn maps of the vast white continent. Now completely isolated, Randall’s expedition has no ability to contact the outside world. And no one is coming to rescue them.

In the freezing darkness of the Polar night, where the aurora creeps across the sky, something terrible has been waiting to lure them out into its deadly landscape…

As the harsh Antarctic winter descends, this supernatural force will prey on their deepest desires and deepest fears to pick them off one by one. It is up to Jonathan to overcome his own ghosts before he and the expedition are utterly destroyed.

You can pick it up anywhere books are sold, or your local library.

Transmasc yearning in the icy wastes with a supernatural horror at play, plus the lingering trauma of the trenches? I cannot freaking wait. Actually I can—for you to join us!!! The book garnered rave reviews from Esquire, the Guardian, and Vulture, plus a bevy of authors with enthusiastic blurbs, but the opinions I really care about are right here—yours. 

So if you want in on this ride, hit subscribe, and let’s get cracking (the endless polar ice)! I am so excited to cast off on this journey with you, and get iced into it. And thank you for your support thus far—without it, we wouldn’t have three years of sandwich essays, countless heartfelt political and personal jeremiads, and so much more. 

With a lot of love,

Talia and David