An ask from us
Love our books recs? Tell us what you think and help shape Verse
One of the greatest joys of being a reader is the thrill of discovering your next book. Sometimes a recommendation from a friend leads to a favourite. Other times, a book finds you. Perhaps our newsletter has led you to some of your recent favourites?
At Verse, we’re obsessed with how people find and choose books, and we want to make that process easier, better, and more fun for you. After our successful beta test, we are working on improvements to the experience ahead of launching the public-facing site.
To support with this, we have a small but mighty ask of you:
We’d really love your feedback. Do our recommendations make it to your shelf? Do you add them to your list? Buy them? Read them right away? We’d love to know!
As a reader of this newsletter, we’d love to hear what works for you, what you love, and what more you’d love to see.
Can you spare us 3 minutes? 👉 It's a super quick form, we promise.
As a thank you, you’ll get early access to the app.
Book recommendation of the week
If you’re looking for something to add to your list right now, here’s my favourite recent read.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
My recommendation for you this week is a short, recently republished and translated work. This was gifted to me for my birthday and I had never come across it before, but in true frequency bias I am now seeing it everywhere. Written in 1995 and originally published in French, I Who Have Never Known Men is a science-fiction novel by Jacqueline Harpman. It is an account of 40 women who live imprisoned in a cage under the constant surveillance of guards. And yet, despite the heavy subject matter and the influence of the author’s own experience during WWII, this short novel is about hope, knowledge, loneliness, friendship and humanity. It also denies being placed in a category—it’s sci-fi, but feels different; it’s dystopian, yet not quite; it’s hopeless and yet full. I loved it.
TikTok is, as ever, all over it. Rave reviews are pouring in, comparing it to The Handmaid’s Tale and calling it life-changing.
Support us through books 📖
If you love what we’re building, consider support Verse through our shop. Every purchases helps to fund our development efforts—at no extra cost to you! Thank you if you choose to do this! 💙
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Say goodbye to bad recommendations and hello to a better reading experience 👇