Read 'The Mirror and the Light' with us!
Endnotes #13 • Substack Book Group Directory
footnotes & tangents: slow reads of great books
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Greetings!
This is endnotes, a monthly newsletter from footnotes & tangents. You can customise which emails you receive in your settings.
A quick update
It’s a short one from me this month as I’m taking a few days off to write. If you are interested in my reading and writing adventures, I have started a little blog on footnotes and tangents called footpaths. As with the book groups, you can get those posts in your inbox by editing your settings.
Our book groups are currently reading War and Peace, Bring Up the Bodies, and A Place of Greater Safety. We will read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe in September and The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald in November.
This week, I was astonished to see that the War and Peace podcast has topped 150k downloads since it began in January. And Wolf Crawl is almost at 100k. I can’t get my head around these numbers, so I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone taking part this year!
Read ‘The Mirror and the Light’ with us!
Starts: 23 July 2025 Ends: 30 December 2025
We shall not escape these weeks. They recapitulate, always varied and always fresh, always doing and never done.
Wolf Crawl, our year-long slow read of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, will start the final novel next month. The Mirror and the Light follows Thomas Cromwell from the beheading of Anne Boleyn in May 1536 to his own execution in July 1540.
If I must choose, this is my favourite book in the trilogy. The language is Mantel at the height of her powers; the first two books haunt the third as the story bends and flows to its inevitable conclusion.
The read-along runs from 23 July through to the end of 2025.
I wrote a detailed 23-week guide last year. I’ll be revisiting and re-recording that material for this year’s slow read, with additional archival material from
, maps by and artwork from Crow.In addition, there are summaries for all the characters and further resources about Wolf Hall and Hilary Mantel. There is a full reading schedule here.
Everyone is welcome to join us for the final leg in the Cromwell saga. You don’t have to have taken part in Wolf Crawl, but you should have read the first two books.
I know many people have put off reading The Mirror and the Light because they didn’t want the story to end. Consider this your invitation and opportunity to complete the trilogy in good company.
You’ll need a paid subscription to access the posts and podcasts. If you want a flavour of the experience, you can read and listen to the first episode of Wolf Crawl for free.
For more on Wolf Crawl, read the intro post here or visit the main page on my website.
July Book Groups
As usual, in our library of further reading resources, you can find the Substack Book Group Directory. I update this list monthly. If you run a book group or book club on Substack, get in touch so I can add yours to the list.
And here is a list of some of the books people will be reading in July:
- : Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin
The Austen Connection Read-Along with
: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Jul - Aug)The Big Read with
: Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Jun - Jul)The Burning Archive Slow Read with
: The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (Feb - Sep)Cambridge Ladies' Dining Society: The 20th Century Book Club with
: Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers (Jun - Jul)- : Chasing Fog by Laura Pashby (all 2025)
Close Reads HQ with
, , : Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Jul - Aug)Closely Reading with
: Middlemarch by George Eliot (May - Jul)- : The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Creative, Inspired, Happy: Read Like a Writer Book Club with
: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin KwanThe Creative Kingdom Book Club with
: by Julia Cameron (Mar - TBD)- : Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (all 2025)
Deep Reads Book Club with
: Homer’s The Iliad (Jan - June)Dostoevsky book club «Theta-Delta» with
: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (all 2025)The Eclectic Reader with
: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William ShakespeareElizabeth Goudge Bookclub with
: The Valley of Song by Elizabeth GoudgeEmily’s Walking Book Club with
: Persuasion by Jane Austen4,000 Ideas: The Oliver Burkeman Bookclub with
: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (Feb - TBD)FrizzLit with
: Joan Didion Book Club (Jul - Sep)Genius & Ink with
: Dante’s The Divine Comedy (all 2025)Guerilla Readers with
: Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy by Brian StelterInterpreting the Great Artificer: Close readings of the works of James Joyce with
: Dubliners by James Joyce (May - TBD)The Kindred Spirits Bookclub with
: Anne of Ingleside by Lucy Maud MontgomeryLove of Literature with
: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (Jun - Aug)- : Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber (continued)
More Magic Book Blub with
: The Web of Time by Flavia Brunetti- : When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron
Pirate Seminar with
: A General History of the Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (Jun - Aug)- : Chaucer Reading Challenge (continued)
Pomus Aureus with
: Arturo’s Island by Elsa Morante (Jun - Sep)Read the Classics with
: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (all 2025) / Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe- & : War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (all 2025) / Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Reading Revisited with
& : Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel NayeriThe Sixty-Minute Book Club with
: The Garden Party by Katherine MansfieldTo All My Darlings with
: Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young (all 2025)
Thank you!
And that’s all from me. Many thanks for subscribing to footnotes & tangents and joining our slow reads. And I’ll be back next month with more endnotes.
Happy reading,
Simon
Yes yes, I am one of those who has put of Mirror and the Light for fear of saying goodbye. But I'm putting my big girl pants on to join this in July!
Oh yay! I’ve already started, oops, but as your official read along begins on my birthday I will dive in feet first with you