What Caught My Eye Online #26

A new bookstore, book fairs, Anne Lamott, and more

Photo by Jovan Vasiljević on Unsplash

Welcome! Hello to some new followers. Thank you to those who have shared some of my recent posts. I always remind myself that I’m my first audience and that numbers don’t matter, but it’s nice to have your work seen and appreciated, too. I love a good balance.

Now for this week’s links!

• Lauren Groff isn't just an author; she's also a bookstore owner. Groff just opened The Lynx in Florida in response to the state's extreme rise in book banning.

  • "Groff and her husband, Clay Kallman, had toyed with the idea of opening a bookstore in Gainesville for more than a decade, but the timing never felt right. Groff's writing career was taking off, and they had two young sons. But last year, as book bans surged across Florida, they decided that their town needed an independent bookstore where titles that had been purged from libraries and classrooms would be on prominent display."

• This is a fascinating yet disturbing look at attacks against Scholastic book fairs from Christian nationalists, including Kirk Cameron. (Learn more about Cameron here.) As a Christian, it saddens me to see people using name-calling, fear, and conspiracy theories to push narrow views of God on their communities. 

• Anne Lamott talks to The Guardian about “love, sobriety, and reaching 70.” I’d love to eavesdrop on one of Lamott’s Sunday school classes sometime.

• The Guardian also put together “a guide to the online books world.” I can’t keep up with how quickly the book world changes.

• FastCompany examined the difference between reading and being a reader. Virtual communities like Instagram, TikTok, and Substack play a role in the identity conversation. 

• I learned about “book husbands” this week, and now you can, too.

• Sara of Fiction Matters just released her 2024 Paperback Summer Reading Guide. It’s behind a paywall, but it’s worth your money and time.

• Lily Dancyger just released a new memoir called First Love: Essays on Friendship. (I can't wait to read it!) She shared her thoughts on the ethics of memoir with The Millions.

• This is a wonderful reflection on writing and essays from an author who was asked to read submissions for a magazine in which she was published. There's good writing advice in this piece, along with thoughtful musings on the essay form.

• Last week, I listened to I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. I loved the book, and I wanted to know more about McCurdy, so I did a YouTube deep dive. I found an interview she did on Drew Barrymore’s talk show that moved me. Both women are openhearted and brave. It’s like two friends having a conversation instead of a televised interview. This is over a year old, but I wanted to share it anyway because courage is contagious.

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin will be made into a movie.

• Alice Munro, one of my favorite short story writers, has died at 92. I was just talking about her yesterday.

• I enjoy Japanese fiction from time to time, so I was eager to read this book list featuring seven titles about life in Japan before cell phones or the internet.

• This New York Times article about child influencers was posted at the end of February, but I just read it this past week. It’s a difficult and deeply disturbing read about how men (and even some parents) prey on children, but I think it’s important to understand what can so easily happen to young people on social media without proper protection.

• How would you feel if your therapist was a TikTok star? This Bustle article talks to some patients for whom that's the case.

• Speaking of therapists, Scaachi Koul wrote a vulnerable essay for The Cut detailing her attempts to fix her marriage with counseling. I’ve been a fan of Koul’s for a long time. She’s a great humor writer, but her more serious pieces, like this one, are definitely worth reading too.

• NPR reveals that “writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning.” This is the excuse I needed to buy more pens and notebooks.

• I love one-pot recipes, and this tomato beef orzo was delicious. It made a lot, so it was great for meal prepping. 

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  What caught your eye online this week? Share below!