Introducing the Burnt Toast Bookshop!
Plus your best and worst puberty books and Friday Links
Hello to many new folks getting this email today! Most of you came here via
’s lovely shout out on yesterday. If you’re new here, here’s the About page where you can get caught up. The TL/DR: I publish an essay or Ask Virginia piece every Tuesday, a podcast episode every Thursday, and this mish-mash of a thread/links/recs post on Fridays.Most of those things are free to read, but you will encounter some paywalls and if you value the conversations we have here, I hope you’ll pay for them. And here’s a discount just for Emma Straub fans, which is good until Monday.
Introducing the Burnt Toast Bookshop
It is extra fun that a bunch you came here via Emma, because she is a certified book icon and today we are going to talk about bookish things.
A little-known fact about me is that I worked in a bookshop for six years. (It was this magical place and you bet I’ll be back in May for a book tour stop, details TBD!) That was over 20 years ago, but I think once you’re a bookshop girl, you’re maybe always a bookshop girl? (You’re also, forever, a very fast gift wrapper.) Bookstores are sacred spaces. They serve as community hubs and open up our worlds. They are also a ton of work to run well. So when an amazing independent bookstore opened up where I live now, I more or less forced myself on them a lot of probably borderline-creepy “hi we will be friends now!” energy. That bookstore, of course, is Split Rock Books, which regular readers will have heard me shout out zillions of times. They hand-delivered books all over town during the pandemic. They host the best toddler story hours. They have a shop cat named Georgie.
They are also the place to go if you want to preorder a signed copy of FAT TALK, and, as of today: They are the hosts of the Burnt Toast Bookshop!
The Burnt Toast Bookshop is a master list of every book we have loved and recommended here on the Burnt Toast Podcast and in essays and other interviews. So if you’re trying to remember which books on aging we talked about recently, or if you need a book to help you navigate picky kids and intuitive eating, or picture books that talk about bodies in a joyful way, we’ve got you covered.
AND if you preorder FAT TALK from Split Rock, you can take 10 percent off any of the books on that list with the code FATTALK.1 They ship anywhere in the United States. (Yes, you can also get that discount if you’ve already preordered from them! They are keeping track.)
Friday Thread: Your Best and Worst Puberty Books?
Since we just finished updating the Burnt Toast Bookshop with all the puberty books we talked about on yesterday’s podcast, I thought it would be fun to do a Friday Thread devoted to this particularly wild niche category of publishing.
So tell us: Which puberty books did you grow up reading, and were they helpful, harmful, or just hilarious? If you didn’t read puberty books, where else did you get your information on periods and wet dreams and what not?
I definitely read the What’s Happening To My Body Book For Girls from cover to cover many times, but I also remember watching Growing Up On Broadway in 5th grade, where the cast of “Annie” inexplicably explained menstruation to us. I can only assume the working title was Cramps: The Hard Knock Life and if it wasn’t it should have been.
I’m opening comments up to the whole list this week, so I’m trusting you all to be cool and kind to each other! Follow our Thread Ground Rules. And if you like chatting with us, don’t forget to subscribe so you can do it again next Friday.
Friday Links and Recs
Speaking of puberty, obviously Judy Blume.
I am closely following the Campaign for Size Freedom, which is urging legislators to pass bills prohibiting discrimination based on body size in a bunch of states and cities. If you live in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York City, New York or Vermont, let your reps know you want these laws!
So appreciate
's super honest look at how successful authors make money (or don't). Now you get why we talk up preorders so damn much!
After extensive research, I treated myself to a tilting puzzle table and it is, indeed, life changing. I also brought in some patio furniture to audition having a little puzzle corner in our living room, and I feel vaguely like a Jane Austen heroine while I perch there and puzzle (and watch Gilmore Girls, but I could be listening to a pianoforte?). Will report back on whether this transitions to permanent set-up or remains a passing, late winter whim.
These bras (which I learned about from Marielle Elizabeth) are liberating me from underwire and when I tell you I never thought I would see the day.
PS. FAT TALK made the Next Big Idea Club’s list of April 2023 Must-Read Books.
Hi! This is unrelated to today's thread but I wanted to shout out that Melanie Fields, who plays Jo in League of Their Own, was on Cameron Esposito's podcast Queery. She talks about advocating for her body as a fat actress and I loved the conversation. They start out talking about watching Rosie in the original and kind of tip toeing around weight... I was holding my breath about where we were going but Melanie rocked it and maybe she wants to come chat with Virginia too 🙂
gah, I just really hope we get another season of League! Thanks for indulging my side bar Butter. Happy Friday everyone
My mom kept a copy of the original Our Bodies, Ourselves on the living room bookshelf and that was my primer - along with Seventeen, YM and Glamour magazines. She was a health teacher and I don’t remember big puberty talks but there was zero hidden information in our house which I greatly appreciated. I distinctly remember sitting on the living room floor looking at that book and of course, to my friends it was an absolute treasure trove.