A random assortment of good things
Hellooooo and happy Friday! WE DID IT! We made it to another weekend!!!
Here’s some stuff I’m into these days, which you might like too:
Dune is in fact quite good!!! Am I the first person to tell you this? Probably not!!! Am I glad to have finally watched the movies? Yes! Did I like them enough to decide to read the 21-hour audiobook??? YES! It’s got a full cast and some mood music!
I cannot say enough good things about Johanna Hedva’s newest book, How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom. If the sentence “Do not speak to me about self care unless you also speak of revenge” GIVES YOU GOOSEBUMPS, you should read this book. If you worry about over-positivity, ableism, your own health, or capitalism, you should read this book. If you’re angry, you should read this book. If you love witches and hags, you should read this book. In other words, YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.
I’m still collecting your favorite fall recipes for an upcoming newsletter! Fall recipe callout. Send over links!!! I want soups! Sweets! Slow cooker feasts!!!!!
Two book club announcements
FIRST, our book this month is Kate Stayman-London’s frothy vampire/fanfic/romance novel Fang Fiction, which we will discuss on Zoom on Sunday, October 27 at noon CT! Email me for a link. (I must repeat: please do not email greta m johnson!!!!)
SECOND-OF-LY (as Gob Bluth would say), I’m just going to go ahead and spill the beans (“bees???”) about November’s book! We will read Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red. I can’t wait to discuss this with you!
Homework from Daniel Lavery!
Author and advice columnist Daniel Lavery is a goddamn delight, and I can’t wait to read his new novel, Women’s Hotel, which comes out this Tuesday! To celebrate, here’s some homework from him:
I recommend the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint every chance I get, but really all of Dean Street Press is worth your time. The Furrowed Middlebrow specializes in reprinting "lesser-known British, Irish, & American women writers [from] 1910-1960," while DSP also republishes crime fiction, literary fiction, and non-fiction. I've found some of my favorite authors here -- D.E. Stevenson, Ruby Ferguson, Frances Faviell, Susan Scarlett, Margery Sharp, and of course Rachel Ferguson, whose "Evenfield" is like a perfect, slightly comic, suburban Rechercé. I can't recommend it highly enough. "A family, a house, and time." I don't often like novels where "very little happens," but in this case I'm entranced by it.
But if you need more action, DSP has republished the wonderful Diabolic Candelabra, by E.R. Punshon, with an absolutely glorious old cover. All mystery covers ought to look like this, in my opinion. DSP has excellent covers, as a rule; I used A Harp in Lowndes Square as a reference for the Women's Hotel cover, which I've been very pleased with.
I am giving away two copies of Women’s Hotel to two lucky paid GRETAGRAM subscribers! I’ll do the drawing on Monday, so if you want your name to be in the hat (and all future drawing-hats), upgrade your subscription now.
As you know, this newsletter is totally paywall-free so that everyone can read it whether or not they pay for it. That said, if you’re able to support my work, I would certainly appreciate it!!!
One more giveaway!
ALSO!!! I am moderating a conversation with THE Jenny Slate at the Athenaeum Theater here in Chicago on Monday, October 28, and I have TWO tickets to give away! This is the same drill as the book giveaways — if you’re a paid subscriber, you’re in the pool! This drawing will also be on Monday.
That’s it for this week -- talk to you sooooon!
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