This time, the special theme is Frontiers, inspired by a recent book-research trip out to California, a place referred to by some as the farthest place you can run from your problems without getting wet. Originally published August 31, 2022.

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride month, so -- since historical writing is one of the many foci of this newsletter -- let's celebrate some titles that served as important historical landmarks in the eventual creation of good queer literature. You may not decide that these books are good, or that their publication was entirely helpful to the community or to gay rights, but they're only featured here because, for a long time, they represented almost the only information about queer lives available to a cis audience. Originally published June 29, 2022.

This month's theme is Creative Nonfiction and of course it's another semi-bizarre hodge-podge of titles, none exactly new, but representative of what has been preoccupying the thoughts of one particular writer and teacher, mainly of fiction but also -- aspirationally -- nonfiction, with whom you happen to be acquainted. Originally published April 28, 2022.

In honor of March, Women's History Month, the four books highlighted in this newsletter are all stories in which a female hero triumphs. Originally published March 31, 2022.