Links, almost #10
Horrible husbands, beauty-standard brain rot - and Campari cocktails
Hello, hello.
Before we get into this week’s reading/watching/listening recommendations, I want to ask for your help with two things.
The first is by answering this (brief) poll about you, where you’re at in life and what you like about this newsletter. (It was meant to go out in an email to you all on Monday, but a Substack glitch – or possibly just a Me glitch – meant it didn’t go to everyone 🤷🏻).
The second thing concerns the paperback release of my book Life, Almost: Miscarriage, misconceptions, and a search for answers from the brink of motherhood, which is just under six months away. It comes out on September 26th.
When Life, Almost came out in hardback last year, I really should have asked for more help, both help with getting the word out and also help with how it might make me feel: the strange combination of achieving a life’s ambition (publishing a book) only fused with a story I sometimes wish hadn’t been mine to tell (recurrent miscarriage).
The paperback release feels like a lot less pressure. Even so, I would like to make a bit of a song and dance about it, when September comes around. So, I’m casting aside any pretence of pride, ignoring how uncomfortable this makes me feel, and asking for your help.
This assistance could be almost anything: if you’ve read the book, could you leave a review online somewhere? Could you mention it in your own newsletter? Could I come and speak at your book club or support group? Could you ask your library or local independent bookshop to order it in? Could you add it to a syllabus – or can I speak to your students, if you teach healthcare trainees? Could you pre-order a paperback copy and leave it in your local little library for someone to find? Could we do an Instagram Live together?
I’m open to suggestions!
A difficulty, I think, with trying to promote a book about a subject like pregnancy loss is that it’s often read in a very private way, still. Despite all the progress that’s being made in terms of openness around fertility and reproductive loss, to share that you’ve read a book like Life, Almost can feel like you’re revealing something about your own life that perhaps you’re not ready to share yet. So, with that in mind, I’m trying to be extra creative about how I can help it find its way to the people who need it.
Anyway, on with this week’s recommendations.
