My Favorite Substacks of 2023

and, hopefully, of 2024 and beyond!

Next month this newsletter turns 1 and although I’m entirely not sure what this Substack will be, I am happy to be here. Mostly because I love the content here. The book reviews here are more thorough and well-written, books recommendations are more diverse here, and, most importantly, people interact more genuine here. Which brings me to the topic at hand - my favorite Substacks of 2023.

Letters of Note

I have been following Letters of Note long before I heard of Substack. So when I saw it on the Explore Page, I took it as a sign to take this newsletter thing seriously. I love reading letters of actual people and I’m really jealous I haven’t thought about this newsletter idea first. Shaun Usher curates these letters well. Sometimes you get funny letters, love letters, customer complaints, or holiday-themed letters like St. Patrick’s Day. Probably my favorite newsletter to date is the one where the New York Public Library found a box of cards full of questions that people asked the library in person or on the phone. Some of the questions are really funny. But then again, what’s your Google Search like?

SoNovelicious, Books & Reading & More Books

I love Gayla’s Happy Friday links! Most of the quotes in my commonplace book are from the articles she shares in her newsletter. I always find a gem in whatever she shares. I also love her Peeks sections where she interviews other bookish newsletter authors about their reading life. In fact, she’s opening up slots for this section right now. Come check it out!

A little backstory. This newsletter was the first Substack I subscribed to when I first signed up. Then, I was really surprised when Gayla subscribed back! Back when I started Substack, I didn’t tell anyone about it. I didn’t ask friends or family to subscribe to this newsletter. I relied purely on somebody finding me organically. And so Gayla subscribing back was an important milestone for me. Gayla, if you’re reading this, your likes means so much to me. It means that somebody somewhere out there is reading my newsletter even though I didn’t tell a soul about it. Thank you, thank you!

Books on GIF

I always look forward to Mike’s book reviews. The GIFs are funny (I never see a GIF used twice!) and the dash of humor in his writing makes reading a book review enjoyable. I know that Mike posts every other Sunday so I always count the days until the next post arrives.

Through this newsletter, I became aware of authors outside of my radar. I would have never known them if not for this newsletter. I think I would be stuck in Instagram’s algorithm of only showing really trendy books. Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh is not the most enticing of books out there but no other book review has convinced me to add this to my TBR.

Martha’s Monthly

Martha is my go to source for diverse reads. I look forward to her monthly recaps and when the end of the month arrives, I always think to myself “What did Martha read this month?” And I know, her recaps is waiting there for me in my inbox. Her buy, borrow, bust recommendation is so helpful when deciding to BUY a book because books can be a very expensive hobby you know. But we buy the book anyway right?

When I said earlier that the interactions here in Substack are more genuine, I was thinking of Martha. She leaves really engaging comments that opens more discussion. I love that. We both follow the same newsletters so I sometimes see her lengthy but engaging comments on other people (I’m not stalking I swear!) I also love her new section called Martha’s Map. Check it out!

The Books That Made Us

I love the idea of this newsletter. I love reading about somebody else’s important books. I love to read other people’s experience reading about a particular book. Most of the time, I shed a tear or two while reading these essays. They pack so much love for books and why they are loved.

My favorite post to date is The Declining Academic’s experience of a reading A Wrinkle Time across different life stages. It’s about celebrating what the book meant in the past and what it is now. It’s an awesome piece. I think about it all the time.

Tell me about your favorite Substackers down below!