Let’s tend to your reading life.
Welcome to The Booktender. I’m so glad you’re here.
You’re in the right place if you have a love-hate relationship with your book club. We’ll go beyond the algorithms and best seller lists to help you discover new reads and backlist books worthy of your in-depth attention. Choose one of the monthly recommendations that speaks to you most, and join in the discussion.
I mostly recommend literary fiction, world literature in translation, and juicy memoirs. Occasionally I dip into genres I know less well and let you watch me fumble and learn. I love to discuss books that stand up to the reality we’re living in, books that push beyond the boundaries of what I already know— but I never want reading to feel like an assignment.
Start here to learn more about me, how The Booktender came to be, and how writing this helped me make an exciting change in my life. It helped me get to place where I now get to promote literature like it’s my job and I can’t stop smiling about it.
Hello, Readers
How Substack works: you give me your email address and I send monthly themed reading lists and some commentary about the books I’m reading straight to your inbox. This is free and will help you know something about current books without having to read them all.
The Booktender is also home to the BookStack Directory, where you can browse for other book related newsletters to follow.
For $5 a month, you can earn my eternal gratitude and help contribute to keeping the freedom to read free through collective donations from The Booktender readers to librarians and organizations mounting legal challenges to public book bans. All 2024 subscription fees will be donated. We’ve donated $430 so far and I hope to triple that by end of year. If you are reading this publication a few times a month and finding it’s influencing your reading life, please consider upgrading to support the work.
If you want me to create some bespoke book recommendations for you, sign up for a $50 annual subscription and I’ll work with you to create a list tailored to you and whatever is coming up in your life. It’s easy and fun. We get as deep, or deeply frivolous, as you want. Who knows, maybe you’ll unlock a new dream or opportunity, too?
Cheers,
P.S. If you write a Substack newsletter and would like to exchange paid subscriptions, please reach out. I love to make meaningful trades and new contacts.
The Booktender includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
You can also make a one-time contribution to The Booktender’s donations to resist public book bans at Buymeacoffee.com.
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