Hi Hello and Welcome to the Lost Friends Literary Club newsletter! My name is Olivia, and I am truly so jazzed that you're here. Within these bi-weekly dispatches, you can expect reading recommendations of all kinds, updates on the shop and the business (more on that below), and a lot of reading-related things.
For me, books have always been a primary source of joy. As a kid, my mom bought me every single Nancy Drew book we could find, and we had a full closet of mystery novels that passed back and forth between she and I in my college years. I've collected cookbooks as travel souvenirs my whole adult life. I've never once been to the beach without a paperback in tow. I cannot honestly think of a time in my whole life that I haven't had a book stashed in my purse or in the center console of my car, always within reach no matter where I was. Even when I've found myself in the deepest of reading slumps, books of all types have been the first thing I reach for as a source of comfort in tough times, and it turns out that I'm not alone.
I'd love for Lost Friends Literary Club (LFLC) to be a source of community, a (virtual, for now) gathering place for conversation and thoughts about what you're reading and what you want to tell others about. Every bit of this started because I wanted to share my bookish tendencies with others. I started posting on my personal instagram and sending book reviews into the abyss, and was shocked to get any kind of response- I still get so excited that I do a little shimmy every time someone replies with their own ideas about something I've read.
My husband and I are originally from Savannah, Georgia, so that’s where most of my friends/followers reside and through a lot of these recent book-focused conversations/my own personal literary ruminations, something became abundantly clear: Savannah needs a place for locals who love to read. Before the world caught fire and the pandemic set in, I was spending a lot of my spare time and energy in the beginning stages of opening a business- Lost Friends Literary Club, an independent bookstore. Ideally located in midtown Savannah, LFLC will one day be a haven of books, staffed by people who love to read all sorts of things and want to help you decide what you should read next. While we're all in survival mode, most of the planning that comes with opening a business is a little hard to do- which brings us here. While this newsletter aims to bring you new reading material (both in the function of the letter itself and also the content within), it also hopes to garner a little bit of interest in the all consuming project that I'm just beginning to embark on. Right now, LFLC is me, and my husband, and the things we're reading… But I'd love for you to join the club.
If you don't care what I'm saying and you just want reading recs, here are 7 things I read this week, most of which aren’t actually books:
A really well-written and thoughtful NYT piece by chef Gabrielle Hamilton about the potentiality of a post COVID world and what it means for her restaurant, aptly titled “Does the World Need It Anymore?”
This London rare book store’s twitter account. Their social media person is very funny and has provided so much joy and snark lately that I routinely check for new tweets from them before I look at anything else in the morning.
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack the Ripper (this one is indeed a book, which is very well researched and incredibly humanizing of women that have historically just been brushed off as sex workers.)
The subtitles on the movie Emma. because I am apparently watches-everything-with-the-subtitles-turned-on years old now. (Also you should definitely see this movie.)
Maybe Baby, a newsletter about complicated feelings by Haley Nahman, formerly of Man Repeller.
This chocolate cake recipe which was delicious, and that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
A breaking news story about this snake which is a brand new discovery and named after a Harry Potter character.
Thank you SO MUCH for reading this far. If you enjoyed this post, you can share using the button below. If you want to chat, ask for book recommendations, or correct my puncuation, 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. The header for this email was done by Sophie at Mod Bird Creative, and the doodles throughout are by Allison at The Small Creative.
I love this and I have enjoyed your instagram posts. I love to ready everything! My friends make fun of me because I read every sign, historical marker, flyer, menu, etc. And I love books- especially children’s books. You mentioned your Nancy Drew books and I still have mine from when I was a kid! I could talk about this for hours. Super excited for you and I can’t wait to read more! Leslie
Wow!! Proud of your work. Now I have to figure out exactly how to work on it. You know I read a lot of books.