Five Things to Tell You vol. 7
Three book recommendations, fascinating jobs, book clubs and more
Hello readers! Yet again, I am sharing five things I simply had to tell you, and would love if you would respond either in the comments or via email with something you simply have to tell me in return ♡
Before diving in today, I want to share this excellent and personalized list of ways to help people in the Los Angeles area right now via
. I’ve been sprinkling money around all week, and while all small amounts, they’re something. And you could also choose to spread some love to trans kids AND get some cookies by buying cookies from trans Girl Scouts (via ). I bought … a lot.
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In a December 19th newsletter from
, implored readers NOT to buy last minute gifts, and included this line:And AMERICAN BULK is maybe the best antidote/companion for a holiday that centers so firmly on consumerism.
You all know that made me source a copy of the book RIGHT QUICK. I went into this essay collection expecting a rant against capitalism and shopping, essentially a Buy Now in written form. Instead, I experienced a collection of essays that veer much more into memoir than I anticipated, a family history, so much about hoarding, a thoughtful and take on class and wealth disparities, and also, yes, musings on consumption. As a Midwesterner myself and all too familiar with the landscape of both the rural town Mester's father and grandmother lived in as well as the suburban landscape Mester herself was raised in, I was able to see so much of the society I know intimately.
Mester writes in an observational and dispassionate tone, to the point where I wanted to text her and ask if she realizes just how incredibly harsh this book is about her father and did she realize the world is going to read it? I read books like this one with one eye a bit squinted, cringing at the vulnerability and family secrets that are laid bare in the name of art and literature. I appreciated it deeply, though, nodding along over and over.
page 6
Where my cousin saw waste as a form of excess—it was having something you didn’t need—my grandma saw waste as the act of a careless and unimaginative person. It was looking at something that could easily be yours, and assuming that you’d never need it. A type of rejection.
page 40
Woolf disdained middlebrows in part because they looked to other people to dictate their tastes. They saw taste as a commodity rather than an earnest and personal response to culture. By contrast, she said, We highbrows read what we like and do what we like and praise what we like. An editorial in Punch magazine around the same time called middlebrows people who are hoping that someday they will get used to the stuff they ought to like.1
If you want to learn more, you can read this Vogue interview with Mester, this excerpt in Electric Literature, and of course, the New York Times review (gift link). Or, of course, read the book!
I first encountered The Pudding in the
piece titled A Different Way to Think About Ideas on the Internet. I naturally immediately subscribed to their newsletter and was fascinated with this interactive essay about standing vs. sitting jobs that I received last week.I highly recommend clicking through, and while you can watch a five-minute video as well, the interactive piece was so neat, as it places you on the spectrum so you can see how your job compares to others on a myriad of fronts, based on your answers to several questions at the beginning of the experience.
The piece compares sitters vs. standers on income and race and injury and ability to pause work when needed and work remotely. I am fascinated by different professions and thought this was one of the most interesting things I have interacted with in ages.
Somewhat related ~ when I was visiting my brother’s family in November, one of their Thanksgiving guests had the fascinating job of ship inspector at the port in Seattle. She went to college for ocean engineering and is going to be transferring to a port in Perth, Australia and I could not get enough of that conversation. Thinking about what people do all day at work is fascinating.
RELATED
I haven’t been a part of an in-person book club for almost a decade and don’t even know of any to join right now if I would want to. However, the internet has more book clubs than we could ever ask for ~ truly one for everyone. Here are a few that I pay attention to; not so much reading all of their picks, but keeping an eye out for any titles I might be particularly interested in reading along with. I also use their archive resources for books I end up reading in the future.
I also have really liked the picks from Indigenous Reading Circle book club in the past. In 2025, however, they are focusing on Indigenous HORROR, which is a major stretch genre for me. I want to try to read at least one of their picks this year, though. A good stretch goal.
If you haven’t heard yet, the juiciest story of 2025 just released on Tuesday and it is so good on audio2 that I feel sad for anyone who reads it in print. Ice dancing! Sabotage! Romantic obsession! Olympics! Catty commentators!3
No, for real. The audio production of The Favorites by Layne Fargo is like an impeccably produced documentary podcast and has a full cast, but only for the documentary-ish bits so it doesn’t feel like a gimmicky radio play. It is DELECTABLE and drama-filled and allowed me to check off “a novel about obsession” from my Read Harder Challenge 2025 list.
The Favorites helped me finish a quilt top, go for a super long walk (and three more short walks) with the dogs in the freezing cold and snow, make cookies4, change my bedding, do laundry, prepare a week’s worth of lunches and MORE last weekend ~ you know that any 13+ hour audiobook that incentivizes all of that in just two days is damn good. If you liked Carrie Soto Is Back or were held captive by Olympic gymnastics last summer, this one is for you. I can’t wait to hear what you all think of it.
I just realized this week that I forgot to tell you about my very first fiction book finish of 2025. I finished Between Friends and Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi on New Year’s Day, having dipped in and out of it, along with James and Soldiers and Kings since before Christmas.
This is the type of romance-focused fiction that reminds me that the candy-pop-cookie-cutter romances that flow in and out of my brain like sugar water are just simple filler in my reading life. Romances like THIS are what I want more of.
Romantic stories with complexity, with a swoon-worthy love stories and sometimes-frustrating characters. The fact that this romance involves my inexplicable obsession with the medical field (written by a physician!!) AND a super hot male romance author? Well, that's just not even fair.
Between Friends and Lovers manages to tackle so very much ~ social media, a love triangle, racial tensions, childhood trauma, depression, and so much more ~ while never seeming over-burdened with ThEmEs. And while there were moments of me wanting to scream at characters about communication and "don't you dare", the narrative never veered into the frustrating place that so many romances do, the ones that rely heavily on a predictable manufactured conflict to provide some friction to the narrative.
I really liked Obuobi's previous novel On Rotation, but this one sealed her spot on my must-read list for all future releases.
Do really personal memoirs make you cringe a bit? Are you a sitter or a stander? What’s the most fascinating job you know of? Are you planning to read The Favorites or Between Friends and Lovers? Got a book rec for me??? Please do share!
That’s all for this week ~ thanks for reading!
I love to hear from readers, so please do reach out to me with questions or feedback at mindfullibrarian@substack.com . If we aren’t already connected on Goodreads, I would love to see you there as well!
I feel personally attacked? Ha
Thanks to Libro.fm giving me early access to this title via their ALC for influencers program!
The Favorites is a reimagining of Wuthering Heights, but I have absolutely nothing to say about that given that I have never read Wuthering Heights. Read this interview if you want to know more about that part of the novel.
No recipe this time - it’s my uncle’s SECRET RECIPE and I dare not share it
I just started The Favorites yesterday on audio. You are 100% right - I spent all afternoon in the kitchen just to keep listening! The production is incredible!
I’ve been waiting for someone I follow to read American Bulk so I could hear their take! Fascinating! Thank you! Can’t wait to pick it up!