Tom Bentley
@bentguy.bsky.social
Fiction and nonfiction books plus a slew of travel, essays, content marketing and word stews | adept balderdash tosser | offers open mouth to classic #cocktails
Reposted by Tom Bentley
Speaking of which, with shoutouts to @elizmccrack.bsky.social, @mdbell79.bsky.social, @arealmattgreene.bsky.social, and indeed @sarahlkaufman.bsky.social!
It's your end-of-year listicle!
in conclusion
[a few last thoughts for 2025]
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Speaking of which, with shoutouts to @elizmccrack.bsky.social, @mdbell79.bsky.social, @arealmattgreene.bsky.social, and indeed @sarahlkaufman.bsky.social!
This beguiling writer sounds gifted, eccentric, and charming. And she knew how to cook a coyote. #recipes #cooking
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b...
A Last Meal With One of the Finest Food Writers in America
www.nytimes.com
December 24, 2025 at 11:44 PM
This beguiling writer sounds gifted, eccentric, and charming. And she knew how to cook a coyote. #recipes #cooking
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b...
Fascinating to hear these short snippets of famous authors (Baldwin, Didion, Vonnegut and more) speaking at presentations:
#JamesBaldwin #JoanDidion #KurtVonnegut
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/b...
#JamesBaldwin #JoanDidion #KurtVonnegut
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/b...
Joan Didion and Kurt Vonnegut Had Something to Say. We Have It on Tape.
www.nytimes.com
December 23, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Fascinating to hear these short snippets of famous authors (Baldwin, Didion, Vonnegut and more) speaking at presentations:
#JamesBaldwin #JoanDidion #KurtVonnegut
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/b...
#JamesBaldwin #JoanDidion #KurtVonnegut
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/b...
Beatiful and moving piece. Here’s to your friend’s memory.
December 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Beatiful and moving piece. Here’s to your friend’s memory.
Sad to hear that Betty Soskin died, but at 104, she moved through time, and with impact. I talked with her 10 years back in a very short profile for The American Scholar:
#BettyReidSoskin
theamericanscholar.org/riveting/
#BettyReidSoskin
theamericanscholar.org/riveting/
Riveting - The American Scholar
theamericanscholar.org
December 22, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Sad to hear that Betty Soskin died, but at 104, she moved through time, and with impact. I talked with her 10 years back in a very short profile for The American Scholar:
#BettyReidSoskin
theamericanscholar.org/riveting/
#BettyReidSoskin
theamericanscholar.org/riveting/
This is hilarious (but scary, since the robots are coming)/
December 17, 2025 at 11:31 PM
This is hilarious (but scary, since the robots are coming)/
A proud gathering of mushrooms under some pines at New Brighton State Park (CA) yesterday. No, we didn't eat any...
#mushrooms
#mushrooms
December 15, 2025 at 7:20 PM
A proud gathering of mushrooms under some pines at New Brighton State Park (CA) yesterday. No, we didn't eat any...
#mushrooms
#mushrooms
In a moment when censorship is spreading rapidly, and school libraries remain dramatically under-resourced, this bill sends a clear message:
Fund school libraries, stop book bans.
action.everylibrary.org/hr6640s3365 via @everylibrary.bsky.social
Fund school libraries, stop book bans.
action.everylibrary.org/hr6640s3365 via @everylibrary.bsky.social
SEND AN EMAIL: Support the Right to Read in the United States
In a moment when censorship is spreading rapidly, and school libraries remain dramatically under-resourced, this bill sends a clear message
action.everylibrary.org
December 14, 2025 at 10:19 PM
In a moment when censorship is spreading rapidly, and school libraries remain dramatically under-resourced, this bill sends a clear message:
Fund school libraries, stop book bans.
action.everylibrary.org/hr6640s3365 via @everylibrary.bsky.social
Fund school libraries, stop book bans.
action.everylibrary.org/hr6640s3365 via @everylibrary.bsky.social
Tonight’s respite: a Black Manhattan, w/ Restoration rye, Montenegro amaro, Antica vermouth, Angostura & Peychaud’s bitters, brandied cherry. Ooh, needed this one… #cocktails
December 13, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Tonight’s respite: a Black Manhattan, w/ Restoration rye, Montenegro amaro, Antica vermouth, Angostura & Peychaud’s bitters, brandied cherry. Ooh, needed this one… #cocktails
I love these structural and artistic breakdowns of how poems work, with the helpful visual highlighting. #Poetry
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/11/books/louise-gluck-poem-early-december-croton-hudson.html?rsrc=flt&smid=url-share
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/11/books/louise-gluck-poem-early-december-croton-hudson.html?rsrc=flt&smid=url-share
I Think This Poem Is Kind of Into You
Our critic A.O. Scott feels the heat of a wintry lyric by the Nobel laureate Louise Glück.
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 11:10 PM
I love these structural and artistic breakdowns of how poems work, with the helpful visual highlighting. #Poetry
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/11/books/louise-gluck-poem-early-december-croton-hudson.html?rsrc=flt&smid=url-share
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/11/books/louise-gluck-poem-early-december-croton-hudson.html?rsrc=flt&smid=url-share
Better late than …
https://www.writersdigest.com/all-it-took-to-get-that-scene-published-was-23-years
https://www.writersdigest.com/all-it-took-to-get-that-scene-published-was-23-years
All It Took to Get That Scene Published Was 23 Years
Author Michael Kardos shares how it took him 23 years to get a specific scene published in the right novel.
www.writersdigest.com
December 11, 2025 at 11:09 PM
So now typefaces are woke too. Our government, fallen so low into the pit of the pathetic, continues to plummet.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...
At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke
www.nytimes.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
So now typefaces are woke too. Our government, fallen so low into the pit of the pathetic, continues to plummet.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...
Good (if unsettling) stuff.
A story by Ariel Katz about the many visible and invisible cracks and fissures in a home.
A Severed Finger Is Rarely a Good Sign - Electric Literature
“Fissures,” flash fiction by Ariel Katz
buff.ly
December 3, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Good (if unsettling) stuff.
Nice chew by a NYT book critic of a novelist's single paragraph to taste all its colors and shapes, using visual prompts for the writing.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
From NYT’s 10 Best Books of 2025: A.O. Scott on Kiran Desai’s New Novel (Gift Article)
Our critic A.O. Scott breaks down a scene from Kiran Desai’s lavish new novel, “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.”
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Nice chew by a NYT book critic of a novelist's single paragraph to taste all its colors and shapes, using visual prompts for the writing.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
It has to be difficult to be a writer for The Onion these days, when the miserable antics of this administration are beyond irony.
Clown Car Diplomacy
open.substack.com/pub/steady/p...
Clown Car Diplomacy
open.substack.com/pub/steady/p...
Clown Car Diplomacy
Maybe Trump’s developer friends should stick to real estate
open.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:56 PM
It has to be difficult to be a writer for The Onion these days, when the miserable antics of this administration are beyond irony.
Clown Car Diplomacy
open.substack.com/pub/steady/p...
Clown Car Diplomacy
open.substack.com/pub/steady/p...
I wrote the Sims 1 guide and worked on Sims 2, and agree. #Sims #EA #MBS
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/some-of-the-sims-4s-biggest-content-creators-have-just-stepped-down-from-eas-creator-network-in-the-wake-of-the-usd55b-saudi-backed-buyout-this-situation-is-a-nightmare-for-our-community
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/some-of-the-sims-4s-biggest-content-creators-have-just-stepped-down-from-eas-creator-network-in-the-wake-of-the-usd55b-saudi-backed-buyout-this-situation-is-a-nightmare-for-our-community
November 24, 2025 at 10:41 PM
I wrote the Sims 1 guide and worked on Sims 2, and agree. #Sims #EA #MBS
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/some-of-the-sims-4s-biggest-content-creators-have-just-stepped-down-from-eas-creator-network-in-the-wake-of-the-usd55b-saudi-backed-buyout-this-situation-is-a-nightmare-for-our-community
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/some-of-the-sims-4s-biggest-content-creators-have-just-stepped-down-from-eas-creator-network-in-the-wake-of-the-usd55b-saudi-backed-buyout-this-situation-is-a-nightmare-for-our-community
This monarchical creature was a newborn yesterday. We have 10 other chrysalises hanging from various spots in the yard (we have lots of milkweed and the monarchs have laid lots of eggs) for their chances. #monarchs #butterflies
November 19, 2025 at 9:20 PM
This monarchical creature was a newborn yesterday. We have 10 other chrysalises hanging from various spots in the yard (we have lots of milkweed and the monarchs have laid lots of eggs) for their chances. #monarchs #butterflies
Retired trains and a mural from the Salinas, CA train station #trains #California
November 17, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Retired trains and a mural from the Salinas, CA train station #trains #California
A salute to my dad on #VeteransDay. He's now in the big B-17 in the sky, but flew many campaigns as a waistgunner both over Europe and Korea, and managed to come home with his warm sense of humor intact. Here he is with his brother Sturge (L.), and reacquainting himself with a machine gun.
November 11, 2025 at 10:48 PM
A salute to my dad on #VeteransDay. He's now in the big B-17 in the sky, but flew many campaigns as a waistgunner both over Europe and Korea, and managed to come home with his warm sense of humor intact. Here he is with his brother Sturge (L.), and reacquainting himself with a machine gun.
Words: Pablo Neruda's Love Letter to Language www.themarginalian.org/2025/11/05/n...
Words: Pablo Neruda’s Love Letter to Language
“Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer… feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it,” Ursula K. Le Guin wrote. Wo…
www.themarginalian.org
November 10, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Words: Pablo Neruda's Love Letter to Language www.themarginalian.org/2025/11/05/n...
The Relief of Being Ordinary tomer-rozenberg.com/2025/11/06/t...
Embracing the Ordinary: Finding Joy in Everyday Life
Discover the beauty of ordinary life and the freedom that comes with accepting that you don't have to be exceptional to be happy.
tomer-rozenberg.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:13 PM
The Relief of Being Ordinary tomer-rozenberg.com/2025/11/06/t...
Ignoring vile politics for the nonce, I was delighted to see this NYT recipe for intoxicating chocolate cake from a Lisbon bakery we visited in mid-2023. The memory tastes good, but this cake IRL, wow!
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020...
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020...
Lisbon Chocolate Cake (Published 2019)
cooking.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Ignoring vile politics for the nonce, I was delighted to see this NYT recipe for intoxicating chocolate cake from a Lisbon bakery we visited in mid-2023. The memory tastes good, but this cake IRL, wow!
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020...
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020...
A great day at the plaza in Watsonville, CA. Many hilarious signs (mine is a contender) and the marvel of famed labor activist Dolores Huerta, who addressed the crowd with vigor and a strong, persuasive voice. Dolores is 95. Heroes are made of this.
#NoKings
#NoKings
October 18, 2025 at 10:47 PM
A great day at the plaza in Watsonville, CA. Many hilarious signs (mine is a contender) and the marvel of famed labor activist Dolores Huerta, who addressed the crowd with vigor and a strong, persuasive voice. Dolores is 95. Heroes are made of this.
#NoKings
#NoKings