You're part of an exclusive group

While we wait for copies of this month’s pick to arrive with club members—it’s Strata: Stories From Deep Time by Laura Poppick, if you didn’t see the announcement a couple of days ago—I thought I’d take a moment to catch up on a few bits and pieces.

First, let’s talk a little bit about the club itself. 

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This thing started back in April 2024, after I left my last job and was looking for a way to channel my energy into something productive. It was a way to share interesting books with people who care, and support authors—who mostly get very little support in selling books—along the way. Since then I’ve let it grow pretty organically to see what happens. That means so far I haven’t done any advertising and honestly not even very much promotion.

The result? Pretty good. Membership started small and has grown in fits and starts as some folks join and others leave. Right now we currently have 40 paying members.

That’s been pretty stable for the last couple of months. Some of you may think this is a huge endeavor, but it’s really not. The mailing list is many times bigger, but this group is pretty exclusive! Right now, with a few extras that I send out, that’s enough to buy 50 copies of our monthly pick each time—which is good news for authors, and puts a few dollars in their hands. But I’d love to make that number higher, of course.

Who are the other members? A few folks who have signed up are friends, but most of you are people I’ve never met and honestly I don’t know much about. I do know that you come from 19 states, not just bigger places like California, Texas and New York, but smaller ones like New Hampshire and West Virginia too. There are clusters here and there, and individuals in other places. Here’s a little map.

Where do people find out about the club? I don’t track this, although I do know we’ve had a couple of significant recommendations: one from Oprah Daily (!) led directly or indirectly to a spike in new memberships in the spring. And why do people leave? Not everybody tells me why they go, but those who do get in touch say they have largely enjoyed the picks, but have other things getting in the way: often travel or relocation (that is, not being able to receive books) or, more commonly, just being overwhelmed and not having enough time to keep up with the reading. 

I’ve been trying to think of a good way to solve that last one—and you can always buy individual titles in our shop if you don’t want the full monthly subscription—but I think there’s a smarter solution I haven’t worked out yet.

Anyway I’m so glad you’re all here!

If you have any recommendations or suggestions, I’m listening. Should I advertise? Switch up subscriptions? Gather testimonials? Interested to hear what you suggest.

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Now let’s catch up on some news from around the Curious universe.

I’ll start with two big climate-related stories from some of favorite authors. Ferris Jabr (CUR003, Becoming Earth) recently published a long story in the New York Times magazine about a little bit of geo-engineering that’s attempting to save one of the greatest structures on the planet—the Great Barrier Reef—from the impacts of climate change. (You can also read it at the Pulitzer Center, which helped fund the story, if you want to avoid paywalls.)

Another Pulitzer-funded story came from Lauren Markham (CUR001, A Map of Future Ruins) who took to the pages of Bloomberg Businessweek to look at the crisis unfolding in the olive oil industry. Heading to Greece (readers may spot a theme in Lauren’s storytelling) she looks at how this crop is hitting hard times because of climate change, leading to surging prices, tough times… and olive heists.

Last up, a mention for Henry Grabar (CUR012, Paved Paradise) whose latest paywalled column for Slate looks at the explosion of “double duplex” buildings around LA—large dorm-like properties masquerading as ordinary homes that are appearing as a response to housing shortages.

Look at this, for example: two buildings on one lot that carry a total of 17 bedrooms. Wild stuff.

All three stories look at people facing troubling situations—whether in the natural world, the built environment, or the interface between the two—and looking for adaptations to solve their crisis.

That thread probably says something about the state of the world right now, but it also makes for compelling reading. I hope you enjoy.

Onwards

Bobbie