Welcome to my newsletter! If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you’ll notice that we have a new name! This newsletter began its life as Hot Girl Library, a fun name that was suggested by my friend Natacia. I think the name has run its course, especially now that I’m trying to take this more seriously and have non-smut search engine results. Hello from Tote Bag Library!
The true story of how this name came about is that I was cracking my head trying to think of a new one (everybody in my life suggested “Ruby Reads” which just didn’t sound like a clincher) and looked at the three tote bags on my floor. One of them holds some library books, one of them is stuffed with a medicine ball and more books (makeshift weight because my gym is closed…), and the other one is just full of junk I can’t figure out where to store. I have a perennial case of tote bag shoulder – a term I just made up but should become part of the medical vocabulary just like “tennis elbow” – from carrying my life around so it seemed fitting. I don’t want to pigeonhole my readers but I’d bet money that at least 80% of you are regular tote toters.
Goodbye soft launch, hello to my new hustle hobby. Is it still a hustle if I’m not making money from this?
![Much to think about. | Billy Ray Cyrus "Much to Think About" Tweet | Know Your Meme](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PLFE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2be4c27-aed2-4d58-9bcb-6b115883f8dc_731x716.png "Much to think about. | Billy Ray Cyrus "Much to Think About" Tweet | Know Your Meme")
If you’d like to follow the newsletter on social media, I’ve set up an Instagram and a Twitter where I’ll be posting pure newsletter and book updates. I’ll still be updating my personal social media with newsletter things because I like the sound of my own voice but I like giving people ~ options ~. Beyond a fresh look (coming soon), social media, and the occasional giveaway, is there anything else you’d like from Tote Bag Library? Let me know in an email (just hit reply) or in the comments below. I still have a day job so please go easy on me.
![Tsundoku," the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language | Open Culture](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0zOI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F963f61c4-4353-4691-b5b7-152389cee766_800x532.jpeg "Tsundoku," the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language | Open Culture")
Are you in these photos?
I am decidedly not. I love how a full bookshelf looks, especially when I’m spying on someone’s house over Zoom, but I don’t think they’re necessary. I’ve been privileged enough to live a fairly itinerant life so I have learned the skill of jettisoning books. I leave libraries behind with friends whenever I have to move and it’s actually quite freeing. Now that I’m in one place for the foreseeable future, I’ve been thinking a lot about when and why I purchase books.
I don’t have a precise system but I tend to buy books when I know I’ll refer to them multiple times (this tends to apply to non-fiction), I’ll want to lend them to friends (fiction favourites), or I just want to boost an author’s sales numbers (new releases). Realistically, I reread very few books. There are always new and amazing books being released and I love the contemporary. No time to look back! While I do love the look of a full shelf, I love giving somebody else the gift of a great book even more. In the past year, I’ve given books away to friends, sold some for mutual aid, and given books away to thrift stores. This will sound like a cliché but the memory of reading a good book is often enough for me. Plus, we live in the most information rich era of the world’s history. It’s easy enough to find a book if I really need it.
Here are some of the best books I’ve read but do not own:
Oh man, talk about a slap in the face. I wish I could go back and read this book for the first time. Freshwater is a hard book to describe. It’s written from the perspective of the spirit selves that make up Ada, the main character. Emezi is Nigerian and their work draws heavily from Igbo ontology, a cultural tradition and belief system I didn’t know about before reading their work. The book, therefore, is not one that makes many concessions to outsiders. I think that is a good thing. For me, at least, the steep learning curve produced a disorientation that made the emotional highs and lows of the story that much more rewarding. I’m trying to write this review without giving too much away because I’d love for you all to have a similar experience!
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Every now and again, one gets the privilege of reading a perfect novel. In my view, the perfect novel is immersive, gives the reader the gift of masterful prose and, this is my personal bias, does something so innovative with the novel form that it makes you mad you’ve never seen it before. This is A Visit from the Goon Squad for me. The novel is a collection of thirteen interconnected stories featuring a large constellation of characters. Each chapter provides a different, very human, perspective on a character who was previously just background fodder. It’s hard to make the reader care about all the characters but Egan is a deft writer. The form is inventive at many points too. Here’s a page from one of my favourite chapters; it’s structured like a Powerpoint presentation.
I convinced two other Mynah editors to read this and they both returned with positive reviews. Please read it.
I used to own a copy of this but left it to my then-boyfriend in Amsterdam when I had to move. I am a Deborah Levy stan. She has written some bad things, like this blah column about Paris from the beginning of the COVID era, but I will still read anything she puts out. I even bought The Man Who Saw Everything even though the cover was an abomination.
Hot Milk is about a mother and daughter. The daughter is listless. The mother is a hypochondriac. They travel to Spain together. What happens in the book is secondary to Levy’s delicious, metallic prose. When I think of Hot Milk, I think of still air and parched tongues. There is an alien quality to her writing that I just can’t get enough of.
Are you a compulsive book buyer? Do you hoard unread books or do you, like me, keep your books only for a season?
Thryft reached out to me recently to talk about their website and I think it’s a great option for both of the above readers (as long as you’re based in Singapore). They’re a secondhand online bookstore that takes trade-ins and donations. They also partner with various social causes which are too numerous to name (I lazy) so you can read about them here.
I like their website so much that I’ve curated a collection of their secondhand books for an online book fair that’s on from Friday until Sunday (18-20 June). My collection roughly follows the theme “what would Ruby read”, which is reason enough for you to check it out. More seriously though, I picked books that strike me as having a certain contemporary je ne sais quoi. There are some really good cult classics and emerging writers in the mix. Thrift stores can be really overwhelming so Thryft’s curated collections are a really thoughtful gesture. You can browse the collection here.
Thryft is also generously offering a Tote Bag Library giveaway. I chose three books from my curated collection for a lucky reader. It might be you!
The stack includes A Visit from the Goon Squad and is worth it for that book alone. We also have a collection of Dorothy L. Sayers’ stories in honour of the last newsletter issue on detective novels. Lastly, I’ve included Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings. I haven’t read the book but I have been bingeing James’ podcast (which he cohosts with his editor, Jake Morrissey) on the recommendation of a newsletter reader, Kirat. It is really fun.
To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is share your favourite moment from Hot Girl Library (RIP). You can do that by responding to this email directly BUT you’ll get extra entries if you do it on social media. You can tag or share posts from the newsletter’s shiny new Instagram or Twitter accounts. I’m a clout chaser, what can I say. The more people who start reading this newsletter, the more likely I am to be able to do fun giveaways like this. The giveaway ends on 25 June 2021.
This giveaway is for Singapore residents only, unfortunately. I’d love to plan some for international readers in the future so please let me know if this would interest you!
Two post-newsletter bonuses today: the most interesting things in my tote bag (I had to) and our usual adorable animal photo.
Now for the main event:
