Great Substacks: My Recommendations

Plus a fun Spring Break podcast and a new article by Yours Truly

I’m all about books here—book marketing, book reviews, book events, authors, you name it, if it is about books, I probably love it. And I love me some book- and writing-related Substacks, as you know, like Spark by Elizabeth Marro (a sort of book club plus insight into a brilliant writer’s process) which was my initial introduction to Substack way back in…2020, I think and which I still look forward to reading each time. Spark connects me to a community of writers and readers in a special way. I also love Jami Attenberg and her CRAFT TALK because she inspires me to write and to connect with other writers. Rona Maynard’s Amazement Seeker is everything the title promises, and Memoir Land and Lupita Reads will usually turn me on to new (to me) book and authors.

I like to keep up with Ben at BookDNA.com on his Building Book DNA because I am convinced BookDNA is a better model for a book recommendation site that benefits readers and writers than the dreaded Goodreads, which seems to truly please no one. And I am fascinated by the process of trying to take a good thing—a free site that promotes books and reading—and turn it into a money maker or at least a self-sustaining thing.

One of the best Substacks I read is Mexico Soul by Jeanine Kitchel which obviously focuses on Mexico’s culture, history, beauty and so much more, but also has a book connection. Jeanine and her husband actually opened a bookstore in a tiny town called Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula, back in 1997. It was quite an undertaking, as you can well imagine. They’d just retired from their “real jobs” in San Francisco, moved into a newly built house in Puerto Morelos, and had no idea what their hobby-project would entail when they began creating the book shop.

Last Friday’s post on Mexico Soul, one in a series that tells the story of the couple living their dream (also told by Jeanine in her book Where the Sky is Born), was a great example of the highs and lows of starting a business in a beach village set at the edge of the jungle. I’ll paraphrase: Yes, it is an amazing bookstore, thanks for saying so—excuse me but a hurricane is on the way and I have to board up all the windows!

I imagine most of you are already familiar with Heather Cox Richardson and her Substack Letters from an American. If you aren’t, go subscribe to it; you can thank me later. No one puts the current chaos of our disintegrating democracy into perspective like historian HCR does, and now that Meta is hiding some of her recent posts on Facebook, you’ll want to be subscribed here to make sure you get to read every letter.

My long-time readers all know how much I love Womancake Magazine and its EIC Alicia Dara, who writes, requests, and edits posts specifically for women in midlife. She also finds and curates info that appeals to us, not just from her columnists, like me, but from the women she meets and interviews for Womancake. If you are not already a subscriber and you fit the Womancake demographic, go check it out!

My most recent favorite Substack is Dementia Times Two by Kirsten Silva Gruesz who writes about what life is like when both of your parents are suffering from dementia. You won’t believe me until you read it yourself, but this is not a sad or depressing Substack. Reason one, Kirsten has an ironic sense of humor—her ‘stacks subtitle is “Witnessing Mom, Dad, and half the country lose their minds.” Second, she doesn’t get maudlin. Third, she is a really talented writer. And I’d say so even if Kirsten wasn’t my beloved cousin and her parents weren’t my dear aunt and uncle. Here’s a pic of Cheryle and Dave back in 1984.

Needless to say all of us could be dealing with a dementia patient soon, if we haven’t already been tasked to do so. And some of us might have to deal with being a daily caretaker, and being a patient one day as well. Okay, now I’m getting depressing!

Speaking of downers, I am so tired of being downhearted about the state of our democracy. But I am also unwilling to ignore the situation, so I won’t stop reading the newspapers I support (NYT and Guardian online) and listening to the news (though I do prefer listening to Heather Cox Richardson or the amazing Cory Booker to watching any TV broadcasters). And I will be out on the street with my “Hands off Libraries, Medicare, and Social Security” sign tomorrow for the Hands-Off National Day of Action. It should be nice weather for the big protest, cloudy but dry, except for the tears being shed for our democracy and our future.

Here’s a map of the Hands-Off event locations in the US, there are others abroad:

If you feel like hiding and reading today in preparation for marching tomorrow, I get it. You might want to check out my newest article about editing, in the current issue of Well-Read Magazine. Find the whole issue online here; you’ll soon be hooked on it.

If you want to take a break and think about sailing away on a honeymoon instead, you can listen to (or watch, though I am a bit out of focus) a fun short podcast I was on the other day. Here is a link to The Sherard Show, which is currently on the Pure Essence Television YouTube channel and coming soon, I hear, to IHeartRadio. It’s the first time I was on a live interview that featured call-in questions I had to answer on-air…and I answered one in degrees of latitude and longitude, so there’s a teaser for you!

It was nice and sunny here in Port Townsend today—all of the spring flowers are blooming and the bare trees are budding. Professor Redmond and I are celebrating Spring Break with some fun: a day trip to Silverdale yesterday with a friend, and a Mexican lunch out today in downtown. Of course, we are also spending time checking out our boat systems and meeting with some boat geniuses about preparations for our planned summer cruise to the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia (that’s in Canada).

Then on Monday it will be time to go back to work. But no matter where I am in the world, you’ll see me here again next Friday, as always.

hasta pronto!