September 2025 Book Club: How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler

Our meeting is September 24, 2025 (note: it’s the 4th Wednesday instead of the second). Per April’s enthusiastic recommendation (“this book is about queer feminist fish!”) we’re reading How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler (non-fiction essays, 263 pgs). A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments.

Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature, including:

• the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs,
• the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams,
• the bizarre, predatory Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena),
• the common goldfish that flourishes in the wild

Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth. Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age, How Far the Light Reaches is a shimmering, otherworldly debut that attunes us to new visions of our world and its miracles.

And it got some awards and acclaim when it was published in 2022:

• Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award
• WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE in SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
• One of TIME’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year
• SHELF AWARENESS Best Book of 2022

Social half-hour starts at 6:30 and the book discussion starts around 7:00. We will be inside in the usual room - the tasting room. It's inside, past the bar, up the stairs, left through the door, and past the restrooms. Ask at the bar for directions. Second Line should have a food truck/ vendor out there or you can bring your own.