CLAIRE POLDERS RECOMMENDS LUNATICS' BALL

I love Claire Polders' Substack "Wander, Wonder, Write," really a series of essays (not just blog entries or travel pieces) written during her nomadic travels. She's a prolific writer (memoir, novels, essays, flash) and also a prolific reader who recently recommended her favorite fiction from this year's reading, and today her favorite nonfiction.  THE LUNATICS' BALL heads her list of twelve books (eleven of them published) in "2025 Best Books Part Two: Nonfiction and Hybrids"!

The Lunatics’ Ball by Jacqueline Doyle
"Let’s begin with a book that’s… not yet published. If you’re lucky enough to have talented author friends who trust you with their work in progress, you may get to read amazing books long before they’re available to the public. This was the case for me when I was given Doyle’s masterful book The Lunatics’ Ball. It’s a riveting memoir on her bipolar disorder—the discovery, the struggle, the acceptance—and a lyrical, sometimes speculative exploration of how women throughout history have dealt with their mental illness and how men and the medical establishment have mistreated them horribly. The book is also much more than that. I have every reason to believe that The Lunatics’ Ball will be published in 2026 or 2027, and when it does, you’ll hear about it from me again!"

My San Francisco writing group read most of the flash and essays in THE LUNATICS' BALL,, some more than once as I revised them, but my husband Steve and Claire are the only writers who read the book from beginning to end after I completed the manuscript. Claire's critiques were so helpful! (Steve's too, always.) I am so grateful to her. And I'm grateful that she included me in today's Substack.

I also read her memoir about an eldercare crisis with her father-in-law during the pandemic, which is beautifully written and I'm sure will find a publisher. Her flash collection WOMAN OF THE HOUR, recently published by Vine Leaves Press, is wonderful. (It's on sale at the moment, and would be a great holiday gift.)
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I have a Substack that I started so that I could read other people's Substacks and have never used. (That is, I see a few posts there that I must have "re-stacked" by mistake as I was learning how to use it.) I just followed more people to get more followers as I'm about to make a big announcement that I've been sitting on since just before Thanksgiving. Bursting with the news, but I don't think I should say anything until it's been announced. I'm ecstatically happy.