Let's Talk About Books With Tara Bañuelos
a practicing attorney and mother by day ~ a hobbyist Substacker by night
Hello readers!
Welcome to the very last edition of my Let’s Talk About Books With….. interview series! It has been so much fun featuring so many writers who love books as much as I do. Starting next week, this Tuesday space will be filled bi-weekly with my summer reading program check-ins for my paid subscribers ~ we would love to have you join us!
I was so excited to meet Tara Bañuelos via Substack right after listening to her podcast episode on What Should I Read Next with Anne Bogel ~ you really do need to read Tara’s piece all about that experience! Tara has so much to say about books in her newsletter, but also culture in general ~ one of my favorite pieces of hers is about recommendation culture.
I hope you enjoy meeting Tara ~ let’s jump right in!
A Bit About Tara
I am a practicing attorney and mother by day and a hobbyist Substacker by night ~ I write the Substack, highbrowlowbrow, which launched this spring. And of course, I am a voracious reader at all times.
What inspired you to start writing about books online?
I was a guest on Anne Bogel's podcast "What Should I Read Next" and I realized how much joy I derive from connecting with others over books. I don't have much a bookish community in my day-to-day life so I moved my aspirations online.
Tell us about your bookish newsletter or blog!
I have always been someone who equally loved high-brow and low-brow art and culture. I prioritize both Booker prize short-listed books and less-lauded writing in my free time. And my newsletter is really about connecting with like-minded individuals. I know there are a lot of us out there but I'm not sure where we congregate--and whether we are all sufficiently comfortable sharing our love of smutty romance as we are discussing high literary fiction.
I'm hoping my newsletter will be a safe and fun space for this kind of sharing. In short, my Substack is a place to connect with other readers about Fourth Wing AND The Bee Sting. I also wanted a space to process my own feelings about everything I was reading, listening to, and watching and the newsletter serves this purpose as well. I publish personal essays and reviews twice a week, and they're intended to start conversations in the comments or in chat. It is wonderful to connect with a reader about a good (or bad) reading experience.
Which of your newsletters / blog posts / book lists are you most proud of?
I am particularly proud of my reading roundups because I include the mood you should be in to approach the book. As a mood reader myself, I am trying to create something I have always sought: a place to easily find the atmosphere or headspace you need to be in to enjoy a book. I firmly believe most books are worthy of readers. It is just about finding the perfect match, or moment. My reading roundups are intended to help with that.
Tara recommends ……
Sundowners by Lesley Lokko. When I was 16, I found a copy in a sale bin in the Crossword bookstore in Chennai, India (iykyk) and read it one big gulp. If you’re a fan of Robinne Lee’s Idea of You or Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta’s The View was Exhausting, you will enjoy this doorstopper (coming in at a mere 654 pages). The book follows four women from adolescence (largely at boarding school in Malvern, England) through adulthood. There are all sorts of entanglements but I have always thought the beating heart of the book is two love stories. The first between between glamorous, spoiled, and at least to start, bigoted Rianne and, the scion of a Black, South African political family, Riitho. The second between Gabrielle (Gabby), a sweet, smart English woman with daddy issues, and Nael, a handsome, also smart, half-Palestinian man, with relatively fewer, mommy issues. All four of the women face difficulties, and trauma—there is substance abuse and sexual assault, but what keeps you turning the pages is how each character’s story is interwoven with broader political headwinds. A glittering love story with anti-apartheid and anti-colonial themes, what could be more highbrowlowbrow than that?
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor. The Washington Post dubbed Kapoor the Mario Puzo of India (or the next Mario Puzo, I can't remember) and I think their observation was spot on. This hefty novel is told from three perspectives--a journalist, a domestic worker, and the son of a gangster. It is propulsive but also manages to capture the nuance within a very complicated culture--India on the rise. I'm Indian myself and give this to anyone who asks for a recommendation related the country. This is saying a lot because we have so many fantastic Indian writers (and writers from the Indian diaspora).
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. A guerrilla gardening group collides with an American billionaire in New Zealand and things get... combustible. The story itself is bonkers (and kept me turning the pages) but it was the sentence-level writing that provided so much satisfaction. Catton is such a sharp observer of human nature and relationships among women, in particular.
I hope you loved meeting
! If her work seems like it fits your reading style, definitely subscribe to so you can get more of her recommendations.
Thanks for reading,
I love to hear from readers, so please do reach out to me with questions or feedback at mindfullibrarian@substack.com . If we aren’t already connected on Goodreads, I would love to see you there as well!