A book lover’s best-kept secret: the Substacks and BookToks every reader should know

Calling all bookworms! Welcome to the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter.

I’m Meg. I write shut up and read, a book newsletter. I am also known to wade into the waters of BookTok on occasion. Books are hot right now — Dua Lipa has a book club, as do Dakota Johnson, Kaia Gerber, Emma Roberts, Emma Watson and Florence Welch, and that’s in addition to heavy-hitters Oprah Winfrey, Jenna Bush Hager and Reese Witherspoon. In today’s newsletter, I’ll be your guide to online bookish communities before we take a look at what’s happening in the lit world and catching up with Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena.

I’ve cultivated an audience of readers for outlets like Variety, Vulture and Time, but in early 2021 I started my own BookTok (TikTok parlance for accounts all about the world of literature) with my friend Princess. Our reading levels had plunged during the pandemic and we were desperate for connection. BookTok was a way we could connect with other readers, plus crack a joke or two along the way. I yearned for the hum and buzz at Skylight Books before an author reading, or the discussions born out of Lina Abascal’s Junior High Book Club (which held its last meeting in December after five years). But we were stuck inside and reading a lot less.

The cure? Touching grass — or at least going outside. I love to read on public transit, and I adore seeing what others are reading on the train even more. Turns out, the antidote to any reading slump is just being nosy. It delights me to see trends happen in real time as one book pops up multiple times throughout the month. How can you not feel a kinship with a stranger when they’re reading the same book you are? My imagination runs wild when I see people reading their Kindles, and my respect goes through the roof when I see people reading smut, unabashedly, in public.

Even though I’m sure all of us here already add books to our TBR lists without having any time to read them, these are some of my favorite — and some of the most inviting — book clubs.

Three must-join book clubs

Yearning for the hum of a crowded bookstore before an author reading? Meg Zukin has the online book clubs you’ll want to join.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

TikTok has helped me discover online bookish communities, like subreddits where I could fall down a rabbit hole of theories after finishing Paul Murray’s “The Bee Sting,” or blogs dissecting every deranged and depraved bit of “Rejection” by Tony Tulathimutte. If you’re looking to read more, here are some internet destinations you’ll wish you knew about sooner.

Women vs. the void by Zoë Jackson: One of my first BookTok friends started a book club for the intellectually nihilist crowd, “hot girl books,” if you will. Right now, the group is reading one of my favorites from last year, “Perfume and Pain” by Anna Dorn. Check it out if you find yourself contemplating the meaning of life with Bravo in the background.

Extracurricular by Tembe Denton-Hurst: All of our inboxes are oversaturated with Substacks, but writer and reader Denton-Hurst’s newsletter cuts through the noise. She offers book recommendations and reviews, plus shopping trips to bookstores with guests like Roxane Gay, and interviews with authors like Yaa Gyasi. Participating in an extracurricular activity has never been easier.

Mackenzie Newcomb’s Bad Bitch Book Club: Founded in 2018, Newcomb’s club connects readers across the country through monthly reading selections and IRL retreats. Readers can find regional and genre-specific subgroups, and Patreon members receive perks such as first notice of upcoming picks and access to recorded author interviews.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

The Week(s) in Books

Local bookstores have become tiny beacons of light, drawing Angelenos seeking solace and consolation following the L.A. fires, writes Marc Weingarten.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

As the L.A. area slowly begins the process of rebuilding after the Eaton and Palisades fires, Marc Weingarten reports on how bookstores have become a vital “third place,” beacons of light drawing Angelenos seeking solace.

In an interview with The Times, “Cleavage” author Jennifer Finney Boylan addressed President Trump’s “two sexes” executive order: “They can make all the laws and proclamations they want, but nothing is going to change the truth.”

Joan Didion is getting her first posthumous release. The writer’s diary of post-therapy notes, addressed to her husband, is going to be published in “Notes to John.” The never-before-seen writing was found stashed in a filing cabinet in her Manhattan apartment.

Sonya Walger, whom TV fans might recognize as Penny on “Lost,” is releasing her first book, “Lion.” But the celebratory moment also comes at a time of unimaginable loss for the actor and her family, as she tells The Times that their Malibu home was razed in the Palisades fire.

Actor Naomi Watts launched a menopause-focused wellness brand in 2022. Now she’s a first-time author. “This will definitely end my career,” Watts tells The Times of her initial response to the prospect of writing “Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause.”

Bookstore Faves

Nikki High, owner of Octavia’s Bookshelf, tells us which book is flying off the shelves at her Pasadena bookstore.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

This week, we talk with Nikki High, owner of Octavia’s Bookshelf, a bookstore named after author Octavia E. Butler and located in the same Pasadena community in which she lived and found inspiration for her novels.

The store was not directly affected by the Eaton fire, but it suspended normal business operations for three weeks after the start of the wildfire to become a donation hub and distribution center for people in need. “We decided to pull all the books from the shelves, put them in the attic and then stock our shelves with donated items so that there was a central location for people to get the items that they need,” says High.

What are the most popular titles at your store lately?

The majority of our customers are coming in to get “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler. Many customers had said that “Parable of the Sower” had been on their list for a while and after the wildfires, we can’t keep the book in stock. Everybody’s coming in for it.

What are some of the upcoming releases that you’re excited about as a reader?

• “In Open Contempt” by Irvin Weathersby: It came out last week. That’s a book that I’ve been excited about. It takes a look at white supremacy in our arts and public spaces.
• “Junie” by Erin Crosby Eckstine: I’m looking forward to reading “Junie.” It was just named the “Good Morning America” Book Club pick. It takes place during the Civil War, so it’s historical fiction.”
• “The Life of Herod the Great” by Zora Neale Hurston: It just came out, but I haven’t had the chance to read it yet. It was rescued from a house fire 130 years ago and it’s finally being published.
• “Death of the Author” by Nnedi Okorafor: I’m obsessed with it. She did something I’ve never seen before: She wrote a book inside a book. It’s a book about a woman who wrote a book, and that book is also a part of it. It’s just spectacular.
• I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention “Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler” by Susana M. Morris. Cannot wait for that one.