The Enchanted Forest #2 - August 2023
Enchanting reads and listens from Substack in July
Come one, come all to another edition of The Enchanted Forest, a monthly collection of enchanting posts on Substack. The hummingbird moths are in the flowers. Ripening blackberries bend the brambles. Come, wander the figurative campsite by browsing featured posts copied from author websites below.
Subscribers receiving this email in their inboxes will need to click on the title to open the website and see all the recommendations. The list of enchantments outruns the space allotted for email.
Unexpected
For U.S. Independence Day on July 4th,
of offered his American friends a little-known story about a Battle for Independence that took place — yes, your vision is fine — in Yorkshire. Right. England. of had this to say when she nominated “The (Mostly) Forgotten Battle for American Independence . . . in Yorkshire” for The Enchanted Forest:I was enthralled by Mike’s own enchantment with place, his ability to convey the narrative history of which I was completely unaware (with tremendous good humour), and his depiction of the East Yorkshire coastline.
My morning was enchanted by being transported back to a familiar place through an unfamiliar perspective.
The Art of Place-Making . . .
Speaking of northern England,
makes art and a home in Durham. Anyone who has moved and built up relationships in a new place will understand her illustrated post about moving from sea to soil and slowly acclimating:More of Gillian’s enchanting artwork appears in this short video.
. . . And Peace-Making
from faced the last few years’ malaise head-on this month, with the help of other people’s poems and her own poetic cast of mind. See if you don’t agree that she knocks that malaise right on its back end, wondering what hit it. Nominated by of , who succumbed to the enchantment when Summer wrote, A person could stretch those last two lines between two trees like a hammock and lay down in them.
And I’m rooting for her when she says, “I’d wash away the grime of the past few years, this bad mood that I’ve only recently begun to notice, and be free.”
Homes for Books
and both shared memories about libraries in the context of larger posts this month.At
, Mark’s “Public libraries are awesome and here are things you might not know about them” is part history, part library tour, and part love song to the changing ways that libraries create and serve communities: remembers lending libraries in grocery stores when she was growing up in Mumbai (then Bombay). From childhood reading, she swirls up an enchanting narrative based on the structure of an archetypal journey, her interest at :P.S. If Mark and Priya’s writing about libraries reminds you that you’ve been meaning to clear some shelves and donate the best volumes to library book sales, check out the advice from librarian
of on how to do it.Amazing Animals
at shared this wise and nourishing post about the need for spaces-between. Be sure to watch the one-minute video with the turtles and the butterflies. A Restack in Notes by of brought this to my attention.Cat-lovers,
spoke our language on July 25th. If you consort with these furry friends, you’ll recognize the charm in these pictures:Poetry and Song
posts an original song every month, distilling and interpreting the sounds of the U.S. Pacific Northwest into small and lovely vessels, 2-5 minutes each. Here is July’s well-named “Slow Bloom” in D-Flat Major. It grows, as you would expect, from a small beginning: started in May and announced that she crossed the 100-subscriber mark in late June. 🥳 Global journalistof nominated her poem “Coffee and Dresses” with appreciation for the poem’s distinct and skillful voice. Don’t miss Alexa singing the poem on the embedded audio track!
The World in Books
At
, provides introductions to global books in English translation. Her July 2 post on Javier Marías' novel A Heart So White not only entices the reader toward a novel of secrecy, marriage, and translation, but meets the difficult challenge of describing a challenging prose style in a way that is curious and literary, not hasty or dismissive. After quoting a long, dense, and complex sentence to illustrate Marías' style, as translated by Margaret Jull Costa, Kalpana explains of the “infinitely long sentences that barrel” and “gush” in a “torrent”:Reading Javier Marías can only be compared to my whitewater rafting experience on the Russian River two decades ago. I may have lived to tell the tale but I won’t be sailing down that raft again. I’ll be reading Marías again, however, especially if he’s translated by Margaret Jull Costa whose work I enjoyed tremendously.
Kalpana recommended some posts she found most enchanting in her archive (this about a “spell-binding novel” with a hero whose “spine was really lego-fitted from mung-bean noodles”; this Tamil novel about revenge and a bullfight in southern India) , but from her July material, I find myself drawn to the chewy sentences she describes in a book where the very subject is listening and translation. See what you think:
Now for your opinion
Do you like the idea of a badge for authors and artists to place on their selected posts? I envision a badge with a hyperlink back to the Forest. Good idea? See the two choices below and please provide your opinion in the poll. (Click the poll to enlarge it for reading on a mobile device.)
To Nominate a Post for Next Month’s Forest
📣 There are plenty of other enchanters on Substack to watch for next month. You might be one of them!
When you see a post that enchants you at any time in August, Restack the post in Notes and tag Tara Penry(@ Tara Penry). Mention that you are nominating the post for The Enchanted Forest. If you like, say a bit about why you think it’s a great addition. Featured posts should be free, so all viewers can enjoy them.
Self-nominations are welcome.
Thank you for reading this edition of the Forest! 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲
Thank you SO much for the shoutout, Tara!!! I’m so glad it drew you in!!!
❤️ Thank you so much for the mention here, Safar and Tara!