#GoodReads Galore
People often ask what I’m reading. Instead of watching the Super Bowl, I’m taking a break from reading to pen this blog answering that question.
Books
I just finished reading Salt Houses by Hala Alyan. It’s a really wonderful debut novel, a multi-generational saga that follows a Palestinian family across decades and different locales. I learned a great deal, and the story moved me. Highly recommend…it’s sad in parts, but it’s lyrical and relates universal truths.
I’ve shared that our family has an informal book club, started during the pandemic. We use Pirate Ship to move #GoodReads around our little community of related readers. A reader of this blog reached out to me asking what I was enjoying from the stack of gifted books snapped on Christmas Day. Her query inspired this blog post, and I used Pirate Ship to mail her Salt Houses. Welcome to the book club, Laura!
I was honored to be asked to be a beta reader for a book written by a friend from the Thriving Authors Academy (Dallas Woodburn’s dynamic writing program, which is really a writing community that goes on and on in the best possible way). The book is an absolutely compelling and authentic read about a personal journey, and it is giving me all the feels. When it’s available in print, I’ll share the link. But I just want to say to Olive Mazerolle: you are brilliant, and it is such a privilege to know and write with you. Your book is going to help and inspire people and I can’t wait to have a signed copy on my shelf.
Last night I started Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling. This climate thriller set in a dystopian future has me hooked and I expect to finish it in a couple of days. Thanks, Natalie, for such a great gift! (I’ll mail it to you when I’m done reading it).
This book - a Christmas gift from Natalie - has me hooked.
Newspapers and Magazines
I read lots of things besides books, including newspapers, magazines, and Substack newsletters. I am mostly reading newspapers online these days, because the shrinking paper editions delivered to my door make me feel so very sad. Plus, I can frequently access stories a couple days earlier than the print version. Reading online also enables me to take advantage of the “gifting” feature that some newspapers provide for subscribers. The magazines I subscribe to now offer daily and weekly newsletters, so my print copies often go unread until I’m traveling and want to dive again into a long read.
Here are the newspapers I subscribe to:
The Los Angeles Times (The first newspaper I ever read, along with The Bakersfield Californian. One of my favorite columns in the LA Times was “On California”, written by Peter King. Years and years later, it was Pete King who conceptualized the UC Food Observer and suggested me as editor. He was my writing coach and best advisor for that work.)
The Oregonian (a new subscription for me)
The Washington Post (highly recommend!!!!)
The Ventura County Star (essential for living in the #805)
My favorite magazine is The Atlantic. I also subscribe to Better Homes & Gardens, which alternately inspires me and makes me feel bad about my decorating skills. Ultimately, BH&G ends up cut into pieces, recycled into a collage in my junk journal, inspiring me in other ways. We still receive Westways magazine with our AAA membership, and it’s a great little travel guide.
Substack
Increasingly, I’m paying for Substack content, because there is incredible content on the platform and I believe content creators should be paid.
Here are my paid Substack subscriptions:
Heather Cox Richardson - Letters from an American. This was my first Substack subscription. HCR is an amazing American historian. This is how she describes the purpose of her blog: “Historians are fond of saying that the past doesn’t repeat itself; it rhymes. To understand the present, we have to understand how we got here.” YES. If you want to understand where we are as a nation (and why), this is an essential read. Super excited that she’s adding audio versions of her posts! Bonus: Beautiful photos posted on days when the blog doesn’t run.
Joyce Vance - Civil Discourse. An attorney/law professor with an amazing resume (former federal prosecutor), you may have seen Joyce Vance on cable news, providing measured legal analysis. If you’re worried about our Republic, you’ll value her informative analysis, delivered with reassurance (“We’re in this together.”) Bonus: Chicken and knitting content. Paid subscribers get access to her Five Questions interview series.
Eric Topol - Ground Truths. I first encountered Dr. Topol’s work on the platform formerly known as Twitter during the pandemic. He describes his Substack as “Facts, data, and analytics about biomedical matters”, but it’s really also about helping connect the dots. He is also an incredible interviewer, and you can listen to/watch his interview with Nobel Prize recipient Katalin Karikó here.
Connie Schultz - Hopefully Yours. Novelist, columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner. One of my favorite authors. She writes about family, books, writing, politics, and dogs…all the things I love! The best thing I can say about her writing is that it always meets me where I am.
Austin Kleon. He writes a weekly post about art, writing, and all things creative. His book - Steal Like an Artist - is one of my favorites. I love his Friday piece, which contains links to things that are helpful and inspiring.
Elizabeth Wainwright’s RedLands. I met Elizabeth at the Rural Writing Institute a good number of years ago. She’s a gifted young writer based in Devon, England, sharing thoughtful and heartachingly beautiful and yearning narrative about things that are vitally important to me: motherhood, nature, community, books, and what our responsibility is to the larger world.
Jeff Chu - Notes of a Make-Believer Farmer. Jeff was in the same cohort of the Rural Writing Institute as Elizabeth and me. He writes a lovely Substack that is about faith, food, family, travel, writing, music, books, and Fozzie (his senior dog). He has an uncanny ability to group seemingly disparate topics together in a compelling way. (Example: his most recent post…Here Be Dragons - Some fragmented thoughts on the Lunar New Year, the misappropriation of the Chinese zodiac, dumplings, and an ancient legend about the loving dragons).
Novel Update
I continue to edit away, some days with great energy and other days with a high degree of frustration. This is hard. I’m using a new “reminder to write” system, incorporating washi tape across the center of the weekly page in my RoteRunner Purpose Planner. On it, I’ve written some affirmation words that I change up each week. This week’s words are:
Create, Write, Dream, Breathe, Joy, Solve, Story, Urgency, Forward.
Co-writing sessions with my friend Amy and the London Writer’s Salon (best $11/month, ever) also keep me moving forward.
What are you reading? What are you writing?
Until next time, all blessings.