A Bounty of Bookish News and Links

While I (slowly) get back in the reading groove, here's everything I've bookmarked over the past month.

Hi, book friends.

Long time, no talk! As I’m sure you’ve assumed by now, baby girl is officially here and turning our lives upside down. 🥹 She arrived — dramatically — on the 4th of July, and not just because of the date. We’re both healthy, I’m recovering, and our little family of three is finding its footing one day at a time.

I skipped my usual mid-month reading update last week because — well, I didn’t finish my first book of July until the 17th 😅. But I’ve been collecting good links for you ever since I shared the last batch in my mid-June update, and I couldn’t let them languish in my notes forever. Behold!

From my (mostly) bookish bookmarks

• The New York Times did a cool piece on the rise of worker-owned bookstores with social missions (gift link).

• ICYMI: James by Percival Everett is heading for the big screen, and Steven Spielberg is executive producing!

• Also ICMYI: The NYPL won the fight!! I’m obsessed with the (obviously effective) meme campaign their social team put out over the past few months. Bravo, NYPL team!

• One of my favorite slow-drip blogs ever, How a Poem Moves (which, yes, is by the same author as the how-to-read-poetry book I always recommend), has a new post! This breakdown of “Con” by Domenica Martinello is top-notch, as always.

• I dare you not to smile.

• This piece on how the Olympics feeds 15,000 athletes was delightful and fascinating. (3 million bananas!)

• The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist was announced!

• Speaking of lists, The Millions published its third-quarter great book preview, and LitHub published its list of most anticipated books for the second half of the year. I’m still slowly making my way through these — I’ll let you know when my Bookshop list is fully updated!

• Lincoln Michel
  ’s substack, Counter Craft, is one of my favorites, and his commentary on the NYT’s list of the best books of the century was one of the best ones I read. (Among his good points: Where are all the writers under 40?!?)

• Last week, wide swaths of Upstate New York got hit by not one, but two storms that brought tornadoes. Rome, NY, which isn’t far from me, got hit hard. Their indie bookstore sustained damage and is looking for help via GoFundMe.

• I’m going to be 32.5 years old in less than two weeks, so this piece could have just @’ed me I guess, LOL.

• Possibly a bit niche to my current situation, but also genuinely fascinating: The Washington Post did an analysis of popular baby names over the past century and found some wicked cool patterns.

A few programming notes

First of all, friendly reminder that the 2024 Booker Prize Longlist will be announced one week from today! That makes now the most perfectly perfect time to join my Booker of the Month book club, which reads one longlister a month to get through them all over the course of a year. We’re kicking things off this Monday, July 29, at 9 PM ET — an extra half hour added on after our July book discussion where anyone can hop on, get to know one another, and discuss last-minute predictions. Perhaps, if the wake-window stars align, there will even be a guest baby appearance. Register for the Zoom chat here!

Finally, this weekend (ish), I’m planning to be back in your inbox with a belated list of my favorite books of the first half of the year, plus new releases from the second quarter that slipped through the cracks but remain on my TBR. And the week after that, you’ll get my usual monthly wrap-up post, with however many books I manage to finish by then!

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As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. And if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.

See you on Instagram!

— Deedi (she/her)