Happy Friday Links

6-7-24

Hi readers,

Happy first official week of summer! School is out (or almost out) for much of the US, so not only is it summer, the kids are home, and some may already be saying, “I’m bored; what can I do?” I remember saying that to my mom, and her answer was, “Go read a book” or “Go outside and play.” Such simpler times.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last Happy Friday Links, and I’ve collected quite a few of them since then. This week’s links include Nostalgia, Garfield, a Plan, and more summer reading guides. Let’s get started.

• According to this LA Times article, even though overall book sales were down in 2023 (they were?), independent bookstores continue to open across the US. I’m happy to see more bookstores opening every day, but I need to do more research about book sales being down in 2023. I hadn’t read that statistic before.

• The Preamble began this week on Substack, and I couldn’t subscribe fast enough.

  Sharon McMahon
  says she is “profoundly disinterested in telling you what to think.” Instead, she wants to “give you the history and context about an issue and help you understand how to think critically about it, so you can make educated choices for yourself.” Head over using the link above, check it out, subscribe, and begin learning about stuff you never knew you wanted to know more about.

• I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s often; usually, only when I see the monthly “Flyer” in my email with some new sweet treat I think I must have. I was surprised (then again, not much surprises me anymore) when I read this article about some of its practices with small food brands they courted and then ghosted. Maybe readers know more about this than I do at this point.

• Sign me up for “Finder’s Camp.” I can spend hours in a Homegoods store, come out with nothing, and still say I had a good time. Sometimes, it’s the simplest things that amuse me.

• One of my favorite Bookstagram creators is TheLitHomebody. Like me, she’s a “Kindle gal” and has more than a few Kindles to choose from. If you follow her, you’ll discover why and what role each one plays in her reading life. She’s a graphic artist by day and, in her spare time, makes some of the best bookish content for her Bookstagram. Her latest creation is her Summer Reading Challenge, and even though I don’t usually pay much attention to these, I’m going to give Tessa’s a try. You can find the link to the challenge in her bio.

• When you read blurbs or reviews of a new book, do you pay any attention to comps—”readers of XX book will enjoy this one?” LitHub critic Maris Kreizman tells us what’s wrong with “comps” that are referenced throughout the entire publishing process.

• When you subscribe to as many newsletters as I do, you run across the funniest, strangest, silliest things, and this one is high up on one of those lists. Motel 6 means cheap (but not inexpensive anymore) and close to the highway for easy off-and-on, but never did I think it would have a themed room available of any kind, much less Garfield. And that there would be people fighting over a double-booked suite.

• Several years ago, I went to Natchez, MS, to see the area I had been reading about in Greg Iles's Penn Cage novels, secretly hoping to run into him somewhere in town. That never happened, but seemingly, at every historic place I went to in town, someone knew him and wanted to tell me everything they knew about him. In this Crime Reads article, he talks about his career in crime writing, his life-threatening illness, and so much more.

• I remember many alien or dinosaur roadside attractions my dad wouldn’t stop at on our way across the country to visit relatives. On CBS Sunday Morning, Steve Hartman goes down memory lane with this look at a “summer vacation and delayed gratification.”

• A “beach read” means different things to different people, and I especially enjoy reading books that sweep me away to the water’s edge. I don’t read a lot of romance, but I did read this author’s first book and really enjoyed it. Here is more about her publishing journey.

• A few more Summer Reading Guides landed in my inbox since the last list I shared. If you didn’t find the right one in last week’s “Links,” here is more bookish goodness for your summer reading: The Bookmark, What Maddie Read, The Rad Recap, Zibby’s Highlights, and Marginalia.

• If your kids want ideas for summer reading fun, check out these ideas from BookRiot. There is no reason a big kid like you and me couldn’t get ideas from these, too.

• One of my favorite authors and podcast creators, Kendra Adachi, has a new productivity-type book publishing in early October. Here is a quick look at her thought process behind why she wrote the book.

• I’m all about friendship (such a complicated topic), and Anna Goldfarb has opinions on “making this the golden age of friendship.” Her newest book, Modern Friendship, was published just this week.

I hope your weekend is filled with everything that provides fun and relaxation and fills your soul—including reading, of course. Happy reading!

Some of the links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. That means that if you click through and purchase anything, I may earn a small commission. This costs you nothing and helps me feed my voracious reading habit, and for that, I thank you.