Hi everyone! Hope you’re all staying safe and healthy!
Two emails from me in one week? No, this isn’t a sick joke. And no, this isn’t bad karma catching up to you. I’m writing to you again because I have exciting news to share: Spilt Milk is expanding!
Say hi to Book Bites, a new Spilt Milk series dedicated to giving you the fresh, tailored book recommendations that we all know you need in your life right now. And who better to recommend books than the most voracious reader I know, Chloe Halpenny! I’ll leave Chloe to introduce herself to you all below, but what I will say is that Chloe is one of the brightest, wittiest, and most alarmingly well read people I have ever met. Each month she’ll be sharing with you book recommendations that will be sure to entertain, distract, and of course, get you thinking.
I’m very, very excited for Book Bites to launch and to have Chloe join the Spilt Milk team! I’m also very, very excited that I didn’t have to resort to blackmail or coercion tactics to get Chloe on board. She said yes. Voluntarily (I know, I’m still reeling). Anyway, look out for the first official Book Bites post next week, and have a read below to get to know Chloe!
Sending love,
Arielle
Hi! I'm Chloe, and I like to read books. Yeah, that is potentially one of the corniest sentences I've ever written, but I've never been great with intros.
After completing two back-to-back Master's degrees in 2019 (in social policy and gender studies - yes, my parents were *thrilled*), I dove headfirst into the world of reading for pleasure, a luxury that student life very much complicates. When I'm not at my real-life job as a social policy researcher or keeping busy with community and activist work, I can usually be found with my nose in a book and my beloved dog close by.
My path crossed with Arielle's during one of those Master's degrees - insert comment about Canadians finding each other wherever they go. Upon seeing my near-constant Instagram posts and newly-created YouTube channel dedicated entirely to books, she reached out kindly asking if I'd be interested in sharing reading recommendations with Spilt Milk readers. Will she regret it? Likely! But one of the few things I love more than a good book is the chance to share said book with other people, so here we are.
So, Spilt Milk-ers, here's what you can expect from Book Bites: 3-5 book recommendations each month, that I basically guarantee will not suck. Books that might not make it to the front table at your local bookstore. Romance, thrillers, contemporary, young adult, non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels, fantasy - we're not picky about genre here. Books for those who are avid readers or who haven't cracked a cover in years. Recommendations where authors who are straight white dudes will be the minority. And, perhaps most importantly, books that embrace what you expect from Spilt Milk: the messiness of life, sprinkled with some critical thinking.
What are you waiting for? Let's get reading. 🤓