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Housekeeping

Kristen Hall-Geisler

• 4 min read
Housekeeping

Sadly for you, dear readers, this is not a post about Marilyn Robinson's novel Housekeeping, which I have been meaning to read for years and have not. This is about the Wingback Workshop and some changes I've made (don't worry, they're good!) so that you're in the loop.

Best part first: I'm going to host a guided discussion of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own online June 11, 2025, at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. This is a test of a series of discussions I'd like to do, this one is free. I want to make sure the tech works and that readers like the format. You're the first to know about, newsletter folks, and I want to keep this test run small. I picked Room because a lot of people have read it at some point, and if they haven't, it's a short read. If you are interested, email wingbackworkshop @ practicalfox . com using the email address that works best for contacting you, or use this link to fill out an extremely short form: https://tally.so/r/nPgJz0

As I mentioned before in this newsletter, the AI net has caught my non-AI translations of Celeste Mogador's memoirs and I cannot sell the ebooks via most online retailers. So if you would like the ebooks of Volumes 1-3, they are all available on the publisher's website, PracticalFox.com. All of the paperbacks are available there too.

While I was straightening out that mess, I decided to deactivate and delete the Practical Fox account on Amazon. I don't personally use Amazon anymore, and the books I publish sell better on Bookshop.org and via independents like Powells.com, as well as at local, physical shops like Two Rivers Books in Portland, Oregon. Because my distributor makes books available everywhere all the time, I'm pretty sure you can still order paperbacks of Practical Fox books via Amazon. I'm just not putting any effort into that channel.

I've also been considering my little literary life and how I'd like to live it going forward. My first step is to ever so slightly change the focus of my book reviews here on the Wingback Workshop in that I will for the first time have a focus besides my current guiding light, "That looks neat." I'm going to review books from smaller presses, preferably independent of the Big 5 or 4 or however many there are now. I like literary titles and books in translation, so that's what I'll be reviewing. It's not a radical change from what came before, but I thought you would want to know what you were getting, and it might make it easier for you, dear readers, to recommend the Wingback Workshop to your bookish friends when you, like me, know what it's actually about now.

I'll still be reading whatever I think looks neat, regardless of publisher, so those books will still be in my monthly roundups. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to stats on this website, but I have noticed that you all like those monthly recaps of my reading, so I'll keep doing them.

You may have noticed, too, that I'm putting all the links at the bottom of the page. This is not some trick to get you to read all the way down; you can skim and scroll as quickly as you like. It's to provide transparent links so you know where on this hellscape of an internet I am pointing you. If the text says it's a link to a book on Bookshop.org, then you can see for yourself that the URL says www.bookshop.org followed by usually the ISBN of the book or something. It's not hidden behind an in-text link, and I'm not secretly sending you to my cryptocurrency scheme page.

Links to stuff in this post:

(I receive an affiliate commission from Bookshop.org if you order using these links. Thank you!)

All of Practical Fox's books are available on Bookshop.org, including the latest volume of Mogador's memoirs.

Bookshop.org