Kickoff Conversation to Season 2 of Slow Read!
Aug 18, 2026 · 30 min · 8 segments
We hopped on live in the middle of a Tuesday to officially kick off Season Two and hundreds of you showed ready to talk summer reading and get excited about *Outlander*. Laura and I had two very…
We hopped on live in the middle of a Tuesday to officially kick off Season Two and hundreds of you showed ready to talk summer reading and get excited about *Outlander*. Laura and I had two very different reading summers. We talked about that and which books we both really loved or really didn’t. We talked about the books of the summer (looking at you Yesteryear!). We talked about the fall lineup of new releases which is *insane*. Also, we talked about what you need to know to tackle *Outlander* with us. *Outlander* is broken into seven parts, and we’re doing eight episodes because we split one of them. Our first episode, covering Part One, drops **Monday, August 31st**. Part One is about seventy pages. If you want to stay with us, have it read by the 31st. The Slow Read *Outlander* season is **members only** this time. Bookmark slowread.substack.com for the reading schedule, the meeting schedule, the Zoom links, and replays of anything you miss. The printable bookmark is here. If you’re a slow reader who’s sitting *Outlander* out, we’re not going anywhere — we’ve got other episodes and goodies sprinkled through the fall. But if you want in on these episodes, come join us. We don’t know yet whether we’re going to love this book. We do know we’re going to have fun. Every book we mentioned **Overview** \* American Hagwon — Min Jin Lee \* Partita — Barbara Kingsolver \* Peck & Peck — Bonnie Garmus \* The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict — Priya Parker \* Exit Party — Emily St. John Mandel \* Under Story — Chloe Benjamin \* Big Little Truths — Liane Moriarty \* The Pirate Queen — Ariel Lawhon **The big three of the summer** \* Yesteryear — Caro Claire Burke \* The Calamity Club — Kathryn Stockett \* The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion — Beth Brower **Literary fiction** \* Land — Maggie O’Farrell \* Whistler — Ann Patchett \* The Things We Never Say — Elizabeth Strout \* North Woods — Daniel Mason \* Country People — Daniel Mason **Nonfiction** \* How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University — Theo Baker \* This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History — Beverly Gage \* G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century — Beverly Gage \* Famesick: A Memoir — Lena Dunham **Everything else** \* Mad Mabel — Sally Hepworth \* Dear Monica Lewinsky — Julia Langbein \* Kitten — Stacey Yu \* June Baby — Shannon Garvey \* Girl’s Girl — Sonia Feldman \* The Shampoo Effect — Jenny Jackson \* The Great Wherever — Shannon Sanders **What we’re slow reading** \* Outlander — Diana Gabaldon \* The Stand — Stephen King \* War and Peace — Leo Tolstoy **Next Up:** Our first *Outlander* episode covering Part One drops Monday, August 31st. It’s about 70 pages — read it however slow reading works for you. The reading schedule and printable bookmark are both waiting for you at slowread.substack.com. Thank you Stacey Loscalzo Reads, Jessie Benkert, Juli Clarner, Denise, Readingroberts, and many others for tuning in! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit slowread.substack.com/subscribe
We hopped on live in the middle of a Tuesday to officially kick off Season Two and hundreds of you showed ready to talk summer reading and get excited about *Outlander*. Laura and I had two very…
