Happy Saturday Links
12-11-21
Hi readers,
I don’t know about you, but this week has been a long one for me. I woke up with a bad cold on Monday and have been fighting it ever since; finally, after several days, I feel halfway human and ready to conquer the world again. Welcome to all the new readers that found their way here through Jeremy Anderberg’s newsletter Read More Books and Elizabeth Marro’s newsletter The Spark. I just love both of these newsletters and all the books and other bookish goodness each of them writes about. A more in-depth look at both of these newsletters is coming up in two weeks; stay tuned. Thanks, Jeremy and Elizabeth, for the lovely shoutouts; you both are so kind.
This week has been a slow week for fun and interesting story links and new books releasing; the closer it gets to the holidays, the fewer books are released, so I’ll be pausing on the upcoming new books after this newsletter. It’ll come back after the first of the year as many books are publishing in early 2022 that I’m really looking forward to. Let get to this week’s interesting finds.
Weekly Links
This young woman made her national debut on one of the largest venues in the world, and her star continues to shine brightly. She shares her early writing influences and explains why procrastination can be good.
I’m always looking for ways to improve my reading life, and this article gives many tips on doing just that. So many of these ideas are excellent and worth trying if you want to get more out of your reading.
Librarians encounter all kinds of people and weird things daily. Here are some secrets and stories shared by a former librarian. Some are funny, others are downright rude, and a few are concerning. Be sure to read the comments, as other librarians have also shared more juicy tidbits.
I love Libro.fm and its mission to help the independent bookstores that we all love and support. In this article, Libro.fm announces their top 10 audiobooks of 2021. I’ve read some of these, and most I want to read; maybe I need to listen to one or more of these instead of reading.
Many magazines, newspapers, and online sites are releasing their “best of 2021 book lists”; here are links to a few that I’ve found: Time Magazine, The Guardian, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Five Books, and many more. Some of the same books repeat on many of the “best of” lists; these are good articles to introduce you to books you might not be familiar with yet.
New Books
The Fortune Men: A Novel by Nadifa Mohamed - This novel, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is based on the real story of “the unjust death of an innocent black man executed in Cardiff, Wales.” The author takes the real event and fictionalizes the story by changing the names of the characters and creates her version of the people in the story. The reviews are good, media is calling it “a masterpiece of storytelling” and the author is receiving many accolades for her writing skills to draw the reader into the story. I haven’t read this book, but it sounds like a book that both fiction and nonfiction readers would enjoy reading.
Count to Three by T.R. Ragan - This book is labeled a thriller by the publisher, and it’s about a five-year-old child Tinsley, that disappears without a trace on her first day of school. For local private investigator Dani, Tinsley’s mother, finding her child is an obsession. While investigating another case, Dani receives new information about Tinsley’s disappearance that leads her and her assistant down twisting paths with clues related to both disappearances along with others crimes. This book is also getting good reviews. I haven’t read it, so I don’t know if there should be any trigger warnings, but I do not see any in the reviews that I’m reading so far.
Gifts for the reader in your life when time is running out
With all the shipping delays we’ve been hearing about the last several months, let’s look at electronic gifts that you can give up to the last minute:
I loved the Masterclass Subscription a couple of years ago when I had it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to make use of it as I had hoped to, but it is on my list to try again once I retire. The variety of classes available are sure to please almost everyone and for a limited time Masterclass has its popular 2-for-1 subscription sale going on. Buy a subscription for yourself and give the free one to a reader in your life.
If you have a reader in your life, they will love a subscription to the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club. This is a fantastic online book club with monthly book club books, and author chats for most of the books read. There are also various book club events about bookish goodness such as journaling and bookstagram, book school, ways to become a better reader, and various other topics. One of the best parts of the book club is the vibrant online community, forums, and conversation option where you can join with others to chat about all things books. There are monthly, quarterly, and annual subscription options to fit every reader’s needs.
Another online community for books and reading is Patreon. There are many bookish membership sites on Patreon, and most have different membership levels for small monthly fees. Here are a few you can check out: What Should I Read Next, Sarah’s Bookshelves, Strong Sense of Place, and Currently Reading Podcast. These are associated with podcasts, but you do not have to be a podcast listener to enjoy the Patreon communities. However, you may become a podcast listener after being a part of the Patreon community, as it is so much fun.
I was introduced to book subscription boxes a few years back, and I’ve tried several of them. If the reader in your life is a paper book reader vs. an e-book reader, a monthly or quarterly book subscription might be just the thing for them. There are book subscription boxes that contain books and other items such as bookish trinkets, coffee, teas, chocolate, all kinds of stuff. Then there are book subscriptions that include books and maybe a bookmark or letter from the author, but no gifts or extras. A few book subscription boxes containing the book and extras are Once Upon A Book Club, OwlCrate, BlackLit, Unplugged Book Box, and The Wordy Traveler. A few book subscriptions that contain only books are Book of the Month Club, The Book Drop, The Book Hookup, and The Shelf Subscription. Most of the subscriptions have multiple age ranges and genres to choose from. There are a few book subscription services for e-books, but I do not have any experience with them; you can search for those if they might interest the reader in your life.
I’d love to know if you have tried a book subscription box. Which one(s) did you try, and what did you think about it? Are you a “just the books please person,” or do you like subscription boxes with gifts and other things too?
Coming up in the next couple of weeks is a newsletter about library cards. Can a reader have too many library cards? In my world, the more, the merrier is the motto, and I’ll tell you why that is and where to find more library cards than just your local library. The week after that is a newsletter devoted to other Substack creators that write excellent bookish newsletters that I look forward to seeing in my inbox every time they publish one. There are several different authors with their own take and style about books and reading along with other bookish topics; there’s something for every reader to enjoy.
Reading brings joy to my life, and I know it does to yours too, or you wouldn’t be here sharing this journey with me. As a reader, I love to share newsletters I find with my reader friends; I’d love it if you would share my newsletter with your reader friends. I appreciate you being here; thank you. 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.
I receive two subscription boxes. The first one I subscribed to is The Wordy Traveller. It is quarterly, there is a book and a couple other little things, focused on a certain place in the world, the latest being Ireland. The subscription choices are fiction or nonfiction and how many books you receive (one, two, or three). I have enjoyed it and have renewed my subscription. After really enjoying that one I wanted to try another one, with monthly boxes, so I now subscribe to Sweet Reads. It is Canadian (I live in Canada) and I have been very happy with it as well. Monthly book plus a few other little goodies. A happy gift-to-self every time the boxes arrive. I tried a three month subscription, liked it so much I have moved to an annual subscription (there is a cost savings to do so). Both companies also offer limited timed themed boxes, as extra purchasing options. I really liked all the ones I have purchased, ex coffeelovers, tealovers, Christmas, Women helping women. I didn’t think I necessarily wanted all the little extras, really just liked the idea of receiving book mail, but I do really like the little gifts, little pick me ups.
Hope you're feeling better. As for those poor librarians -- babysitters and typing out resumes? Oy vey! I would have zero patience for that. Looking forward to the tips about more library cards!