Five Things to Tell You Vol. 30
stellar nonfiction, weighing in on Materialists, July releases, and more!
Well, hello there! So happy to see you today!
I am currently in Philadelphia for the American Library Association Conference having an amazing time ~ rest assured I will be reporting back on the experience once I get home and have had time to process!
For now, please just settle in with your favorite snack and let’s dive in …
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I have been sharing pretty light reads lately, so it’s time for some stellar nonfiction recommendations! I read these two books over the last two weeks, and I highly recommend BOTH of them. They fit right into my niche nonfiction preferences of anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, housing crisis, eat the rich … and Bad Company even includes content about hospitals and the medical field!
Read Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai’i by Sara Kehaulani Goo for a nonfiction historical account, a personal memoir, and a tough look at colonialism, heritage, housing and ownership on the Hawai’ian islands. I can’t recommend this highly enough, especially for those Americans who like to vacation on the islands and who may not understand the true cost of colonialism and tourism.
Read Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream by Megan Greenwell for an in-depth analysis of how private equity has had massive negative impacts on four specific industries (retail, local newspapers, healthcare, and housing) told through the stories of four influential workers in those industries. This book is a must-read for anyone wondering why we’re all hating on private equity these days.
Want more?
Don’t miss the recent Culture Study Podcast episode with Megan Greenwell - it’s all about private equity and Bad Company. And my sister just sent me this video, which ties in perfectly.
The Memoir Nation podcast hosted Sara Kehaulani Goo to talk about Kuleana ~ this episode is a great introduction to the book and a bit about the craft of writing memoir.
In Wisconsin, June = strawberry season = jam season!
Our local berry farm suffered damage from the unseasonable winter weather this year, and wasn’t able to offer pick-your-own due to low volume. However, I purchased a flat of berries from them and was still able to make some freezer jam with the oldest when she was home last weekend.
Here’s to yet another year of jam, albeit much, much less than I have made in years past!
Want to make strawberry freezer jam? Here’s the recipe!
Friends, I am late to this party (as usual), but I must weigh in on Materialists.
Last Saturday, during our heat wave, I sent my husband and daughters to watch a zombie movie while I watched Materialists solo.
Please note that this was the first movie I have EVER attended by myself!!! Highly recommend. 10/10 stars.
Readers, I LOVED IT. LOVED. IT.
I loved (LOVED) the message. I loved the clothes and entire aesthetic vibe. I loved the the music, the silences, I loved the dialogue, I loved Dakota Johnson, I loved Chris Evans, and I loved Pedro Pascal. I LOVED the commentary on capitalism. And, oh my goodness did I adore the ending. This movie made me fizzily happy, and truly, what more could I ask for?
I only found out through Nina just how divisive this movie is, and I have to admit that I’m baffled by some of the reviews. But as I say every month about my movie consumption: I am no critic, and I don’t want to be one. I just want to unapologetically love what I love.
I don’t want to spoil anything for you by saying too much, but this spoiler article is my favorite analysis of the discourse. Please watch the movie before reading!
Also, am I the only one who had this song on repeat in my brain for the first half of the movie?
I meant to share this article last week, but there were just too many things to tell you already! Joshua Rothman wrote on June 17 in the The New Yorker about the changes AI is bringing to reading, in a piece titled What’s Happening to Reading: For many people AI may be bringing the age of traditional text to an end:
Today, the nature of reading has shifted. Plenty of people still enjoy traditional books and periodicals, and there are even readers for whom the networked age has enabled a kind of hyper-literacy; for them, a smartphone is a library in their pocket. For others, however, the old-fashioned, ideal sort of reading—intense, extended, beginning-to-end encounters with carefully crafted texts—has become almost anachronistic. These readers might start a book on an e-reader and then continue it on the go, via audio narration. Or they might forgo books entirely, spending evenings browsing Apple News and Substack before drifting down Reddit’s lazy river. There’s something both diffuse and concentrated about reading now; it involves a lot of random words flowing across a screen, while the lurking presence of YouTube, Fortnite, Netflix, and the like insures that, once we’ve begun to read, we must continually choose not to stop.
I want to share so many passages from this piece, but I think you should just read the article yourself!
And finally, it’s time to highlight July book releases I am excited about! There are so many new books I can’t wait to read (remember, this is my favorite book release season!) ~ I hope you find a few to put on hold or pre-order as well.
You can just tap on the image above or click through here to see all of the titles over on Bookshop. When you get there, remember to page through at the bottom, as there are two pages of titles this month.
Remember, this is not a list of ALL the books releasing in July 2025, just a list I spent hours and hours curating over the last six months of the books I personally am excited about.
Want some new releases that are already on shelves? Take a look at my past months’ release lists!
That’s all for this week ~ thanks for reading! Please feel free to reply to this email or use the link below to leave a comment to chime in about any of these things, or to share one of your own things ♡
Thanks for stopping by!
Just watched the f1 movie last night since we have a kid-free weekend since they’re spending a long weekend with my mother in law in the southern part of the state. It had been the first movie I had seen in theaters in years. Was actually a lot of fun. We braved the heat wave (with lots of ice cream, water, and Gatorade) to watch the Indy car race at road America last weekend. Thankfully my kids thought ice cream at 10 am was great.
Ha, as you know I am on the 2/10 end of the Materialists spectrum. I am thoroughly enjoying the hot takes whether positive or negative. It's fascinating when something is this divisive, and I love to hear all reactions. People love it or hate it--nothing in between. Loved all the fashion, and despite Dakota Johnson's lack of acting ability (how did she not inherit any charisma from her dad), she is somehow a likable human.
This was an interesting take this week--referencing Weezer's panned second album which is now viewed as a masterpiece. https://open.substack.com/pub/annagoldfarb/p/the-unbeatable-power-a-flexible-mindset?r=7akzb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
I also think when you go into a movie where people are saying "This is terrible" then you're like "no it wasn't." Or like when I finally saw "The Sixth Sense" late in the game I was like "meh." Expectations can make or break a movie.
Michelle I had to look up reviews to feel VALIDATION. Like when you read a book and it's really not good but everyone loves it, and you're confused and full of self doubt. Does anyone else feel this way? Is there something wrong with me? Or maybe I'm a contrarian? Of I just have no taste or standards.
Have a lovely (work() trip Katie! I'v never been to Philly.
I also loved Materialists! I’ve heard it’s been a bit divisive, but I haven’t looked into why yet—so I really appreciated the article you shared and bookmarked it to read later. I think you’ve touched on this before, but since I’ve been spending less time online, I’ve found myself tuning out of the broader pop culture discourse. And honestly, it’s been kind of refreshing? There’s something really joyful about experiencing a book or a show and just sitting with your own reaction, without feeling the urge to immediately look up what everyone else thinks.
Oh my goodness, I can totally relate to being tuned out of the broader pop culture discourse, Michelle. It used to be that I learned about TikTok trends via Instagram Reels, then I learned about them when they made it to Substack, and now that I have pared WAY down what I'm reading, it takes even longer! I appreciate discourse about media, but only in very small doses. I told my closest people to watch Materialists immediately, and then be VERY gentle with me if they hated it ;-)