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The Bad Review of Books's avatar

This has such different recs! I don’t think I’ve seen very many people talking about these books!

John Madrid's avatar

Love’s Work is one of those books that doesn’t just “influence” you—it quietly recalibrates the instrument you’re writing with. Rose’s gift is that she refuses the false choice between tenderness and intellect; she makes feeling answerable to thought, and thought porous to feeling, without letting either become performance.

Reading it always leaves me with a bracing permission: to try to write about love without sentimentality or cynicism—to find a syntax for attachment that can hold contradiction, embarrassment, devotion, terror. It’s less a model to imitate than a standard that changes what you’ll accept from your own sentences.

Ronan's avatar

The copy on the landing page for your ‘general submissions’ states: “There are presently no open calls for submissions.” The submissions menu tab is updated and navigable. Just a head’s up!

Old Book Smells's avatar

Love these choices!

Hey everyone! I’m Kendall Here’s my latest piece on a prediction about the style I think everyone will be writing in for 2026 : Magical Realism!

https://substack.com/home/post/p-184670900

Amani Hope's avatar

Peaces is a wonderful book

Aaron McNally's avatar

Over a decade ago, Midwinter Day set me on a path I’m still following.