My Substack Summer
aka The Puppy Lady, the Dog Lady and the Cat Lady is what I read in Summer 2024
From left to right, Anna, Lily & Sam have written so many wonderful words in this space - in between feeding all their many animals - and I’ve come to look forward to their posting with all the eagerness and bouncy anticipation of a young and unregulated mammal.
has all eyes on her at the moment, both on the back of some sharp and now viral writing about transgression and what with the eight sets of puppy eyes from her wriggling fox red retriever litter on the cusp of opening to witness the world for the first time. I’ve been enjoying getting to know via her book Sins of my Father. Lily has been instrumental in the making of a documentary which is soon to release, Children of the Cult, and I am keen to scurry up the Southern mainline to London for the screening next month. She also has a rescue dog, as do I, so there’s a commonality of (sometimes) chaotic experience in that.The Shift With Sam Baker has been a revelation to discover. Every end of week, just ahead of the ‘S’ days, i.e. today (literally any minute now in fact!) Sam shares the Friday Round-up which is bulging with bountiful reads, listens and looks. I love these discerning lists that she carefully compiles. Sam also has a cat and wrote all about that here .
My writing on here has necessarily paused this month. I’m keen to get back to it at the earliest as can sense the tension within me rising. SEN transport failed to materialise for my LD son to attend college so it’s a 2hr round trip for the foreseeable and this cuts into my working day. It’s certainly untenable over the longterm but I’ve acquiesced for now. Hey, life is but a series of challenges strung end to end in a giant perplexing paper chain to festoon ourselves with after all. Things will shift soon enough and a solution will reveal itself. It always does. In the meantime, the silver lining to this unfortunate situation is glinting and glistening in the form of episode after entertaining episode of
which my ears are pricked to attention to throughout these new hours behind the wheel. I’ve pretty much consumed the entire archive along the B3006 to Alton and despite the key thread being the topic of women’s rage, I’m finding my driving is encouragingly calm for hearing their conversations.I’m not the biggest lover of stats but these apparently are mine for what that’s worth which is likely to be much less than any of the numbers that follow. In my anti-numeric opinion.
Highlights
☕ I read the most in the morning
💌 I subscribed to 39 new Substacks
🎧 I listened to 22 minutes of podcasts
📽️ I watched 316 minutes of video
❤️ I liked 173 posts
💬 I left 28 comments on posts
📜 I scrolled 707 meters in Notes
🕵️ I discovered 191 new posts via Notes
Top Substacks
White Ink with Anna Wharton by
An exclusive creative writing community blending feminist thinking with writing craft (memoir, non-fiction and fiction) and personal essays. Hosted by a Sunday Times Bestselling and Orwell Prize longlisted author.
Top post this summer: The Free Content Dilemma
The Shift With Sam Baker by
Women don't vanish after 40. Who knew?! Amplifying and celebrating the voices of women in midlife and beyond by the former editor of Red, Cosmopolitan (and Just 17!)
Top post this summer: The picture that prompted a life change
And a Dog by
I am an incurable memoir addict. I love reading it, teaching it, and writing it. Here you will find stories from a life, but you will also learn how to write it, and how memoir can be transformative beyond the page.
Top post this summer: And a Dog
Share your own Summer Recap
You can see your own summer recap in the Substack app. I’d love to see what you’ve been reading.