What I’m Reading Like My Life Depends on It
Some Esoteric Lovelies
It’s been a while since I talked about my new writer-finds.
For all the squawking about Substack’s “thousands of writers,” or celebrity overkill, it’s hard to find beautiful consistent work. Here, or anywhere!
If you see select veteran 20th-century news journalists doing well here, it’s because they had years of JOBS: sadistic deadlines, screaming editors, smoke-filled rooms— to toughen and smooth them like fine Corinthian leather.
I can’t find enough treasure to read on this platform! I’m frustrated.
Yesterday, I deleted about 100 blogs from my feed who want me to know, NEWS FLASH: Trump-Sucks-Facism-is-Here-Publishing-Nightmare-Pineapple-on-Pizza.
That is not good enough.
My needs are few:
the author shows up
with something original
and their writing, the poetic fire in their craft, is SO GOOD that I don’t really care where their train takes me
It turns out, that is a high bar.
In that light, let’s proceed to a few new discoveries. Some of them are pretty esoteric— but that’s their charm.
Keep the Sabbath with Me
by Andrei Codescru
Do you know I met Andrei in New Orleans in the 80s, at a Mardi Gras bender? Well, why not? It was a great party.
He edits an underground publication called Exquisite Corpse, and turned me onto some great writers whom I subsequently published in Best American Erotica.
He’s always got his eye on art and commerce:
“A few years ago, a guy from Des Moines, Iowa, was selling his soul on E-bay, opening bid 99 cents.
“Bidding was up to $400 before E-bay officials pulled the auction from the site. What I like is the guy’s modest original price, which is about right in a seller’s market.”
From: The Soul Market
French En Poesie
by Morgane Andersson
My French teacher took a sabbatical this winter.
I got the idea to see who was teaching language on Substack— and sure enough, I bookmarked a dozen. Well, YUCK. Most of them turned out to be cold sales for “Around the World in 90 Days with the Worst of Berlitz!”
Then one day, I found an original: French en Poesie.
Morgane asks, why not luxuriate in French aesthetics? The music and literature, the poetry, the VIBE.
She suggests we stop flipping flash cards and get into an intoxicating bath of Cartesian sensibility.
“On 21st February 1944, a few hours before his execution by the Nazis, Missak Manouchian, an Armenian poet and communist, wrote a farewell letter to his wife, from Fresnes prison.
‘My dear Mélinée, my little beloved orphan,
‘In a few hours, I will no longer be of this world.
‘We are going to be shot this afternoon at three o’clock.
‘It comes to me like an accident in my life, I do not believe it, and yet I know that I will never see you again.’’
From: A Last Letter Before Death
Your Local Epidemiologist
by Katelyn Jetelina
20 years ago, I got cat scratch fever. It’s triggered by kittens.
During my recovery, I became enamored with lay writing on epidemiology. These author-scientists speak to my urge to KNOW THINGS ahead of the saturation.
Recently one of Jetelina’s contributors, Kristen Panthagani, wrote about how women were dying from lack of correct CPR because some hospital staff and paramedics are afraid to handle women’s breasts with their life-saving equipment— you may have seen the recent episode about this situation, on The Pitt.
“Shall we put it to a vote?
“Ladies in the room— show of hands— would you prefer death with modesty?
“Or life, with brief nudity?
“The vote from the women is clear: they want to live.”
From: Why women are less likely to receive CPR—and less likely to survive
Adrian McKinty’s Substack
Welcome to a sect of readers of which I am a member: People who pretend that n’er-do-well poet Belfast police detective Sean Duffy is real.
But Duffy is sadly not alive as Joe Hill— he is the creation of bestselling author Adrian McKinty, who finally has a blog on Substack. —Rather undiscovered if you ask me. His blog includes has occasional vignettes of Sean Duffy you can’t find anywhere else, which of course keeps me on my toes. I wish Duffy was a daily comic strip like Dick Tracy!
Adrian is consumed with poetry and fiction; he has no-lie taste for quality. I can’t tell you how many titles I’ve read because of his recommendations.
Here is his great book review of The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science, and the Crisis of Belief”:
“The previous century has inferred a divine watchmaker from the perfection of the celestial machine . . .
“It was now discovered that not only was there no watchmaker, but the spring was running down.”
From: 19th Century Blues: When Science Killed God and Made Some Englishmen Sad
King Arthur Baking
by David Mamarkin and Jessica Battilana
Yes, this blog consists of well-written enticements from a commercial baking company. Go ahead, mock me! Arthur wants to sell me flour.1
I bake bread, I make cakes and biscuits. I love esoteric flours and baking tools. I can discuss a “crumb” for an hour.
The thing is, King Arthur hired good food writers and let them loose.
They’ll write a story like “When It Comes to Vanilla, We’ve Got It All Wrong” — and I cannot resist headlines like that!
L.E. Mullin
It’s hard to find great illustrative art on the Stack. There’s some super editorial cartoonists, but finding graphic short stories or illustration with bite, is something else. Let me introduce you to L.E. Mullin:
Woman of Letters
by Naomi Kanakia
Naomi writes about neglected classics, literary criticism, fucking around when you have writer’s block, and belonging to a book club I never heard of.
I would read her grocery list, she’s that good.
“For much of 2024, I was writing about an unabridged translation of Mahabharata, which is one of two foundational Hindu epics.
“The book is so bananas, it is so wild.
“I am Indian, so I was very familiar with the story of the Mahabharata, but this unabridged translation contains much, much more than the story I was familiar with—it’s about ten times longer than The Iliad and The Odyssey combined.”
- On Reading One of the Hindu National Epics
Good Thing Going
by Lena Dunham
I am not oversaturated with Lena Dunham.
She has a better ear for dialog than just about anyone here. Sherman Alexie and her.
Lena is another reader w/ great taste— per her essay on 7 Essential Books In Which Women Lose Their Minds.
Best, her adventures make me laugh every day.
“I saw Lena Dunham in Philly and there was a Q&A.
One woman asked her how a 64-year-old divorced Jewish woman might find a husband.
Lena said, Maybe go to a Michael Buble concert, and the woman said, I have.
Lena said,
Go again with a new vibe.
In Case You Missed It
If Bob’s Red Mill had a Substack, I’d read that too.