Hi Hello and Welcome to the Lost Friends Literary Club newsletter!
As the summer heats burns on and we all diligently continue to social distance so that the world doesn’t end, I thought now was a good chance to highlight some of my favorite indie bookstores (with great online ordering systems) for you to order your summer reading from. Indie bookstores are such an important part of the communities that they serve and are often much more than just bookstores, serving as gathering places and cafes and a zillion other things. With the economy up in the air, now is a great time to skip Amazon (PLEASE SKIP AMAZON) and order your books directly from actual humans who are genuinely stoked to have your business.
Malaprop’s:
Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, NC is the bookstore that started it all for me. I make it a point to search out a bookstore anytime I travel somewhere new, but none have ever felt as immediately magical or welcoming as Malaprop’s. I’ve loved it since I was a kid, and first discovered it in downtown AVL on a day trip from the summer camp I spent a week at every year. Malaprop’s has been around since 1982 and they’ve aged like fine wine, with the best staff picks shelf I have ever laid eyes on, and an atmosphere that makes you feel like you could spend all day inside and never wonder where the time has gone.
A Capella Books:
A Capella Books is located in Inman Park, Atlanta, GA. They squeeze a whole lot of options into this tiny storefront and they sell new, used, and rare/antique books, so honestly you’d be hard-pressed not to find something here that you’re interested in. They have a great selection of signed books and a very cool music section, and every single time I visit their shop or their website I come away with something new on my to-be-read list (today’s find was this New York: Confidential! book which I just found under their mystery section and have now decided my little collection cannot live without- my birthday is in two weeks, that’s a good enough reason to buy another book, right?).
Elliott Bay Book Company:
Elliott Bay Book Company is… hard to describe. All encompassing and so inviting, with the best gigantic windows and cedar shelves and probably one million options. This place is huge and fantastic. I’m not even going to include a photo because it can’t possibly do the bookstore justice. It is BEAUTIFUL. They have options for every reader AND they’re offering free shipping for US orders right now, so reach out for a recommendation and be sure to stop by next time you’re in Seattle.
Also: If none of these options seem like the one for you, I highly encourage you to take a look at bookshop.org which allows you to shop a huge selection of books online while also supporting locally owned, independent bookstores. It’s like Amazon just for books, but without all of the shady business practices.
Here’s 10 things I read this week:
Beach Read and The Worst Best Man, my vacation books for last week’s beach trip. Beach Read was fantastic, TWBM was cute but not my favorite.
Liberation Library’s mission statement: “Liberation Library provides books to youth in prison to encourage imagination, self-determination and connection to outside worlds of their choosing. We believe access to books is a right, not a privilege. We believe books and relationships empower young people to change the criminal justice system.” …which is freaking COOL.
Texts from this delightful bot which will recommend a title of a book written by a Black author based on your preferred genre AND recommend a Black owned bookstore for you to buy it from!!
The recipe for A Savory Loaf Packed With Cheese and Olives. I haven’t actually made this yet, but the easy way this recipe was written reminded me of cooking dinner with my friends, which is obviously something I haven’t done in far too long. I think I’m going to read it again right now.
This Vulture column titled: This One Line From Jackie Plays On A Loop In My Head. It seems like the author is making fun of the line but honestly it was kind of beautiful and it reminded me that I haven’t really accomplished anything since March and that’s probably okay.
Model/Actress Emily Ratajkowski’s Instagram highlight titled “read.” I’ve recently learned Emrata is a big reader, and this highlight was full of interesting quotes from books and authors, as well as some reading recs that I’m excited to get to.
The subtitles on this video of an 11 year old who is trying to follow a Bob Ross painting demo.
An earnest essay from a Tonya Harding Apologist.
Langston Hughes’s "Let America Be America Again" which I strongly encourage you to read. Given that we just passed July 4th, and our country feels messier than most of us have ever seen it, I think this piece by Hughes is important reading. It’s long, but worth the time it takes to read.
And lastly, a new section of this newsletter- your first ever vocab word of the week:
I truly love the English language. Words are weird and interesting and strange and I think its so fun to discover new words and colloquialisms, but most of the big words I know, I learned from reading as a kid. Which means I frequently pronounce them wrong and someone has to correct me. Learning is great.
Anyways, this week’s vocab word is milquetoast, pronounced like “milk toast” and means exactly like what you’d think if you dipped some toast in milk: bland. There are other definitions depending on where you look it up, like “a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, especially one who is easily dominated or intimidated” but I like to use it to describe boring people.
example A of me loving words in a strange way
That’s everything! In the next few weeks, I’ll have updates on the business side of LFLC, suffragist book recs, and another featured reader. If you enjoyed this dispatch, please forward it to every single person you know or follow us on social media at the buttons below. Every book I recommend can be found on this Goodreads shelf. If you want to chat, ask for book recommendations, or correct my punctuation, you can reply directly to this dispatch or leave a comment on substack, where you can also find an archive of every dispatch I release. Thank you for reading!