The cards don’t lie, except when they do
Three books featuring, well, cards of various sorts
I can’t stop thinking about The Square of Sevens! And a week ago, I was like “Come on, Square of Sevens, you are dragging a little bit, let’s pick up the pace.” Then, like skirts through the mud, that pace got picked RIGHT up.
My theme this week is a little LOL, but as I always say, my newsletter, my rules. And speaking of my newsletter, this is my 50th issue! So I’m rolling out a couple of new things.
📕 Book covers! It’ll make it longer but better, I think.
🧑🤝🧑 I’m getting more involved with the Substack ecosystem — the book community in general is pretty rad — so you’ll see some more guest posts and stuff. The more you can help by sharing and liking, the more EELS gets to more readers. And I always want feedback! Let me know what you want to see next.
🍦 In other news, the funniest food writer in the land,
, just let me do a guest post for her Substack But Wait, There’s More. It’s all about why you should make ice cream at home, how to do it, and includes my extremely easy recipe for Thai iced tea ice cream. Check it out, and subscribe to her newsletter! She develops recipes! Who does that? (Not me, just that one above.) She’s amazing!👀 Did you KNOW?! I have all my past EELS recommendations with links to all my past EELSes in one easy-to-scan spreadsheet! Click the button below, hit “request access,” and if you’re on the subscriber list, I will give you access! Pro tip: It is excellent for finding a gift.
♠️ The Square of Sevens
Laura Shepherd-Robinson, 2023
Last year, I went to Bath on a trip to England and couldn’t shut up about the bookstores there. When asked to sell me whatever they felt like selling me, all the cheerful purveyors at Mr. B’s Emporium shoved this tome into my hands. She had just been there the day prior! Signing books! Augh, I had just missed the glorious Laura! Oh no! Well, I got her signed book, anyway, which takes place partly IN Bath, and now I have just got around to reading it.
OK, it takes place in the 18th century (check), it starts out with a little girl named Red (my dad’s name! check!) on the road with her cloak-wearing, fortune-telling father (that’s pretty fun, check check), when a disaster occurs. Fast forward somewhat, and Red’s on a mission to crack through the bewigged, bejeweled facade of London’s richest, shadiest family with the help of the pack of playing cards she uses to tell fortunes.
TSqO7 has a gripping first act, a somewhat slow, sort of drawing-room-stilted “Who’s that approaching in the carriage? Could it be he?” second act, but the third act will have you forgetting TV exists. And I was reading it during the Olympics. I have forgiven the glorious Laura and her editor a whole lot.
Recommended for: Those who like very richly drawn historical fiction and… procedural dramas? You’ll need a head for details, some patience, and a clear calendar.
♠️ The Annotated Alice
Lewis Carroll, Martin Gardner (editor), 1999 (via 1871)
In my very first issue of EELS, my head exploded about The Annotated Little Women. This series is straight incredible, and it upsets me that the Alice iteration, which I believe is the first one, is no longer in print. You can find it on AbeBooks or eBay, though, and I highly recommend you do, as the classic you think you know and remember being weird as hell is many, many layers deep.
That thing is jam-packed with political satire and jokes that are just lying there waiting for someone to explain them to you prettily in the margins! And, as any good Dickens fan knows, Victorian jokes are hilarious. The Annotated Alice covers both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I read this in my very first semester in college and could not fathom how English majors got away with such delightful work. Then someone plunked Our Mutual Friend in front of me and was like “Btw this must be read in one week” and I was like “Oh.”
Recommended for: Those who are into going, “Did you know that…?” obnoxiously to everyone they know. Or, hey, those who like doing close reads of things they thought they knew and coming away from it with lots of new information!
♥️ There Is No Good Card for This: What to Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love
Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell, 2017
I don’t often recommend books like this. But I strongly believe every human being should be required to read this book. They should teach it in schools! They should hand it out with driver’s licenses! Ma’am are you registered to vote? Have you read that book on how to treat people who are grieving?
Someone told me to read this, and I was like “Ohhh I have done some things wrong,” (but the idea is, it’s OK, that’s why the authors wrote this book). And then that same year, my dad died (aforementioned Red!) and I was like “Ohhh genuinely nobody knows what to do!” People — including probably you! — are afraid to misstep around grieving people. That’s normal! But grieving is a part of life, and you will know someone who suffers a loss just like you will suffer a loss. What if there were a whole manual that you could buy and keep in your home to refresh yourself on how to be helpful, kind, and there for those who need it? Trust me, when you are that person, you will know exactly what I mean.
Recommended for: Those who exist. Particularly men. Just saying. Sometimes you aren’t good at reaching out.
♦️ And now, a look back
On this, my 50th issue (though Substack thinks I am miscounting), here’s a list of some of my most popular EELses!
🧑✈️ Working title — featuring people doing their jobs super well (James Herriot, George Saunders, Beryl Markham)
🚸 Children at your feet — featuring excellent books about kids, but not for kids (Maggie O’Farrell, Betty Smith, Ian McEwan)
🔪 Murder, she wrote (UK) — featuring British ladies writing murder mysteries (Kate Atkinson, Agatha Christie, Sarah Waters)
🔥 Do you reckon? — featuring protagonists reckoning with troubling pasts (Ann Patchett, R.F. Kuang, Percival Everett)
⚔️ Who can even remember that long ago? — featuring historical fiction set a long way in the past (Lauren Groff, Lauren Groff, and T.H. White)
🚺 Women talking — featuring women having important conversations (Miriam Toews, Mieko Kawakami, Leni Zumas)
🔖 Reading snacks — featuring short story collections (Stephen King, Yiyun Li, Ted Chiang)
🐉 Giant paperbacks with maps at the front — featuring huge tomes with… maps at the front! (Sarah J. Maas though now I somewhat regret this, Diana Gabaldon, N.K. Jemisin)
That was the fiftieth EELS! If you liked it, please share it with a friend and like it by hitting the heart! It’ll help others find it and maybe they’ll like it, too.
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📚 Susan
I earn a small commission from books purchased on Bookshop.org through links from this post.
Hi Susan, congratulations on your 50th EELS, and another great post! Following the theme of cards, I'd like to bring to your attention Pushkin's short story "The Queen of Spades" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queen_of_Spades_(story) (1834), a classic of Russian Literature.
Congrats on 50!