Reading in Public No. 68: Five year anniversary "Ask Me Anything"

I truly can’t believe that I’ve been writing on Substack for five years now! It feels like it was just yesterday that I decided to test the waters on this brand new platform. It’s been five years of slow and steady growth, trying new things, and building community, and I’m so glad you’re along for the ride. I love writing this newsletter even more now than when I first started and I feel so excited about continuing what’s going well and trying some new ideas out soon.

To celebrate, I’m answering some reader questions in a podcast with my wonderful assistant Maddie Stough. To be honest, I find soliciting questions and recording these things a little uncomfortable BUT you all ask the best questions and I always love listening to AMAs and mail bag-type podcasts, so I’m giving it a go. Maddie and I get a bit chatty about how we’re reading with the state of the world as it is, how we choose the books we read, and the books that made us readers. I also share a bit about planning content and acquiring books as a professional reader. And, of course, we also share some book recommendations. You can find the time stamp at where those begin and the entire list of books below.

Thanks so much for listening and thanks for subscribing to this newsletter. I can’t tell you how much every single reader means to me. You make all of this possible and I’m excited for all the great reading we have to come!

As a reminder, you can listen to this podcast on Spotify and most other podcast apps by enabling the RSS feed. The transcript and captions are available by opening this newsletter in a web browser.

1:00:24 - Books Recommendations

* On Beauty by Zadie Smith

* A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

* The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

* Possession by A.S. Byatt

* Jeanette Winterson

* Loved & Missed by Susie Boyd

* Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato

* Bear and Bird by Jarvis

* Sophie Mouse by Poppy Green

* Wellie Wishers by Valerie Tripp

* Moi Moi by Kazuo Hiraki

* Buffalo Fluffalo by Bess Kalb

* Poopsy Gets Lost by Hannah E. Harrison

* We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

* Shakespeare

* Toni Morrison

* Oh, Lewis by Eve Rice

* Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

* To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

* The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

* Wellness by Nathan Hill

* Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

* North Woods by Daniel Mason

* Arcadia by Lauren Groff

* May Our Joy Endure by Kev Lambert

* The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

* The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

* Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris

* Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

* Dream State by Eric Puchner

* This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell

* Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

For questions, comments, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out by emailing fictionmattersbooks@gmail.com or responding directly to this newsletter. I love hearing from you!

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Happy reading!

Sara

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