Stone Soup Digest 08.26.22

Sarah Gailey -

Sale, exorcism, Wiswell

Welcome to the Stone Soup Weekly Digest! This is where I share what I'm up to and some of my favorite things from around the internet. Subscribe to Stone Soup to get this in your inbox every week.

This week, Just Like Home broke a thousand reviews and three thousand ratings on Goodreads! That’s just thrilling. If you added a five-star rating to that number, thank you so much! Ratings, recommendations, and reviews are some of the best ways to support an author whose work you’ve enjoyed.

If you’re reading this and thinking “this is great but I wish there were recipes, book recommendations, monthly coworking dates, and a huge backlog of exclusive content,” I have great news for you! Supper Club subscriptions are currently 40% off!! Get yours now for access to some extremely rad content.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism is coming to film

Anyone who has spent more than five seconds in my company has heard me talk about how phenomenal Grady Hendrix is. I was first introduced to his work through My Best Friend’s Exorcism, a stunning book about friendship, demonic possession, and coming of age. A trailer was released for the adaptation, coming out on September 30. I am fucking feral. Watch the trailer above and buy the book so you can get as excited as I am!

Rebecca Solnit on Rest as Resistance

D.I.Y. by John Wiswell

Our city was in the top three worst hit by the drought in the entire country. The governor arranged a deal with magical institutions from around the globe to help. We begged for somebody to come stop apartment buildings from burning down.

The lowest bidder was the Ozymandias Academy. There were so many videos of their cavalcade of black cars rolling up to the capitol. Vamon Kinctuarin held a press conference from in front of an empty dam and said, “We are here to ensure no one suffers further indignity.”

Tomorrow's Parties: Life in the Anthropocene, edited by Jonathan Strahan

This anthology collects twelve stories about what it might realistically be like to live in our future. I’m in it with a story about life in an undersea company town, paying off medical debts to a company that requires surgical modifications in its employees. Go check it out!

Visit a Neighbor: Ordinary Plots: Meditations on Poems + Verse by Devin Kelly

If you’re like me and have been wanting to dive deeper into poetry but haven’t been sure where to start, this is the newsletter for you.

The most recent installment is on Michael Kleber-Diggs's "Embouchure" – you can read it here. Sign up for more!

I’m Reading: And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts

Upon its first publication twenty years ago, And The Band Played on was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of investigative reporting. An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, this exposé revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years. Now republished in a special 20th Anniversary edition, And the Band Played On remains one of the essential books of our time.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation – also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working – the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars – has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide...

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

Add Babel to your tbr here. Order it from your local independent bookseller, or order it via Bookshop.org to support independent booksellers throughout the US and the UK. For international shipping, you can try Barnes & Noble. If you prefer audiobooks, here’s a Libro.fm link. You can also request Babel from your local library — here’s how to get in touch with them. And if you need to order from the Bad River Website, here’s a link that will leverage your order for good.

If you’re a paying subscriber, come by the Stone Soup Supper Club for our weekly chat! I can’t wait to find out how you’re doing. And if you're not a paying subscriber yet, Supper Club memberships are on sale through September 1st! This is a great opportunity to join a growing community and celebrate the things we share. I'll see you in the chat!

—Gailey