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Slow Read: OUTLANDER: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Sarah Stewart Holland & Laura Tremaine
Sarah Stewart Holland & Laura Tremaine slow read the books you've always wanted to tackle, at a pace you can handle. 🔹 Fall 2026: OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon https://slowread.substack.com slowread.substack.com
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- 3 weeks ago53 min
Fall Reading and Literary Drama
We’re nearing the end of our Outlander Slow Read, but we also needed a minute to talk about everything else on our nightstands. Fall is Laura’s favorite reading season, partly because the big, weighty books land this time of year and the awards lists start rolling in.We started with what we’ve been reading. (Sarah is head over heels for Kingsolver’s Partita, which feels like a writer with nothing left to prove showing you exactly how good she is anyway. Laura is 12% in and not hooked, so I’m working on her.) We talked into the literary controversies of 2026. We covered AI in publishing, Rachel Cusk’s Life of M and the Natalie Portman of it all.We closed with Sarah’s son Griffin, who is 500 pages into It and ready to quit. Laura explained why it’s her all-time favorite, so I’ll be delivering a pep talk and reporting back.Book club is this week, and we’ll announce our next Slow Read before Thanksgiving. It starts in January and is open to everyone. Head to slowread.substack.com to nominate what we read next!Books We MentionedWhat we’re reading* Partita by Barbara Kingsolver* Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver* So Big by Edna Ferber* Giant by Edna Ferber* Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus* Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus* Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel* Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel* The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel* Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler* Under Story by Chloe Benjamin* Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert* John of John by Douglas Stuart* Mestra by Madeline Miller* Circe by Madeline Miller* An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten* Hollywood Ending by John GreenThe controversies* Life of M by Rachel Cusk* Outline by Rachel Cusk* The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger* The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus* Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott* Famesick by Lena Dunham* The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson* The Tell by Amy Griffin* How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan* Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi AdeyemiAdaptations and Stephen King* Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders* East of Eden by John Steinbeck* Carrie by Stephen King* It by Stephen King* The Stand by Stephen King* Outlander by
- Aug 31, 20266 min
SLOW READ: Outlander (Part One: Chapters 1-5)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit slowread.substack.comThe OUTLANDER adventure begins!In this first episode of our Slow Read of Diana Gabaldon’s OUTLANDER, Sarah & Laura discuss their first impressions of the novel, make guesses about where it’s going to go from here, and, of course, dissect the book chapter by chapter.FIND THE FULL READING SCHEDULE HEREReminder that you can watch the video version of our conversation on Substack HEREWe’d love for you to join us in the comments on Substack or in the Slow Read chat. (Remember no spoilers beyond the sections we’re discussing!!)Looking forward to spending the next few months with you through the stones!
- Aug 18, 202630 min
Kickoff Conversation to Season 2 of Slow Read!
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 mentionedOverview* 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 LawhonThe big three of the summer* Yesteryear — Caro Claire Burke* The Calamity Club — Kathryn Stockett* The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion — Beth BrowerLiterary fiction* Land — Maggie O’Farrell* Whistler — Ann Patchett* The Things We Never Say — Elizabeth Strout* North Woods — Daniel Mason* Country People — Daniel MasonNonfiction* 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 DunhamEverything 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 SandersWhat we’re slow reading* <a target="_blank" href="htt
- Jun 22, 202631 min
Your official invitation to the next Slow Read
We finished The Stand. Six months in Boulder, and we made it out alive — well, most of us did.And now we get to tell you what we’ve been dying to announce: our next Slow Read is Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander.Here’s the part you need to hear first, because it changes things. Unlike The Stand, which we gave away free to everyone, the entire Outlander read this fall lives behind the paywall. Every main episode breaking down the chapters, every book club meeting, every unhinged side quest — members only. If you want to take this journey with us, now’s the time to join.The Stand episodes, we had to edit ourselves — pull whole sections, watch what we said, because the internet is the internet. Outlander has one of the most intense, passionate fandoms out there (they call Diana herself, like a deity — we’ll get into it). Behind the paywall, it’s just us and you. No torching on Twitter, no walking on eggshells. Our true feelings, full unhinged selves, the way a book club is supposed to be.A few reasons we are genuinely thrilled about this one:It’s Outlander. It’s been everywhere for a decade, the TV show just wrapped, and it sits right in the cultural water — but it’s also double-intimidating: a 50-million-copy series with nine books, novellas, graphic novels, a whole universe. Reading the first one together means you finally get to be conversant in this giant piece of pop culture, without committing to all 10,000 pages alone.Diana herself is a delight. Marine biology and zoology degrees, a PhD, a side hustle writing Scrooge McDuck comics, and she wrote Outlander on a lark as practice — never thinking anyone would read it. “Science and art are two sides of the same coin,” she says. “What they both rest on is the ability to draw patterns out of chaos.” We fell a little in love.And this time, both of us are going in blind. With The Stand, Laura knew the big picture and led the way. For Outlander, neither of us has read it — so we’re discovering it right alongside you. People say it’s intense. Possibly even slightly traumatizing. (Laura says that’s a selling point.)Here’s what to do: Join as a paid member now, and you get everything. Spend the rest of the summer catching up on our side quests from the first half of the year — the one we did on death is, no exaggeration, some of our best work. Plus, we’ll have a couple fun summer episodes for you. Then our whole Outlander adventure officially kicks off August 3rd, when we release the reading schedule. Book club meetings, watch-alongs, all the bonuses — it’s all included once you’re in.We’re all going to need a good, healthy, entertaining distraction this fall. Let this be it.Happy summer reading, y’all — see you in Scotland. 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
- Jun 15, 202645 min
SLOW READ: The Stand (The Circle Closes)
Welcome to SLOW READ, where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle.Hosted by Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura TremaineWe are currently reading The Stand by Stephen King (unabridged version)You can find our full Reading Schedule hereJoin the SLOW READ community on Substack for bonus episodes, book club meetings, and Side Quests with Sarah & LauraWe have come to the end of our journey with The Stand by Stephen King. In this episode, we dissect what it all meant and what we’ll remember about this experience. Make sure to subscribe on Substack for our next SLOW READ!Mentioned:Wolf HallWar and PeaceDon QuixoteBrothers KaramazovBlazing Eye Sees AllSister Helen Prejean / Dead Man Walking The Circle That Doesn’t CloseLaura: We are here today at the end of The Stand by Stephen King to close the circle.Sarah: But I think it’s a lie. Why did he say the circle closes? That’s not what happens at the end of this book.Laura: That’s true. That’s totally true. But it starts with “the circle opens.” That’s the opening. So he has to close it.Sarah: Or is it just that the circle continues? That would have been a more accurate title for this epilogue. Just saying.Laura: I do have to say that I purposely, when I made our reading schedule for The Stand — we knew we wanted to do it for six months, like January to June, which we did — I planned it to close our circle here the same week the book opens, which is the second week of June. Just because I liked that symmetry.Sarah: I love it. I love a symmetry.Laura: We have a few little pages to get through, but before we do that — we will be continuing the slow read. We have picked our next book.Sarah: I picked it and I forced it on Laura. That’s the truth.Laura: We’re going to tell you all about that next week, where you’ll hear the reveal. If you cannot wait another second to find out the book, our paid members learned last week during our book club meeting. So you can go watch the replay of that if you just can’t stand it another second. But today we’re going to tackle “dusk of a summer evening” and the circle closing — which is a lie, because it doesn’t actually close.Sarah: It doesn’t actually close, but there are things to say about how King ended this whole thing. Because if you do any sort of Reddit search, any sort of Googling about The Stand, what people want to talk about is the end.Laura: Pretty much. Whether it was a true stand, or a letdown for some people, or if it’s what people expected. There’s a lot of that.The Split Epilogue: An Epilogue for the Good GuysSarah: We get this kind of split epilogue, right? So we get “dusk of a summer evening.” The people we get to see from the Free Zone contingent — the good side — are Stu and Franny and Peter.Laura: I’m sorry, three people. Babies are people too. On their journey back to Maine, they stop at Mother Abigail’s house.Sarah: I don’t know if that path makes sense, for the record. Geographically I’m always like, where are you guys going? What are we doing? But whatever, it’s fine.Laura: Maybe there’s something about the way you’d have to travel by foot. I’ve always thought this is weird. I’m going through all this area of the country, including Nebraska, this summer on my RV road trip with my family. So maybe I can report back to us. But
- Jun 8, 202652 min
SLOW READ: The Stand (Chapters 74 - 78)
Welcome to SLOW READ, where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle.Hosted by Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura TremaineWe are currently reading The Stand by Stephen King (unabridged version)You can find our full Reading Schedule hereJoin the SLOW READ community on Substack for bonus episodes, book club meetings, and Side Quests with Sarah & LauraREMINDER: Our final book club meeting discussing The Stand will be THURSDAY, JUNE 11 at 6pm PT / 8pm CT / 9pm ET and we’ll be announcing our next SLOW READ! You don’t want to miss it. Mentioned in this episode:* The Shining by Stephen King * Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel* The Crocodile Hunter * “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (”…if the fates allow”) * Noah Kahan, “Maine” * Steel Magnolias The Stand, or The Walk?Laura: How are you feeling?Sarah: Well, it’s giving Sopranos. You know how in The Sopranos it was the penultimate episode that usually contained the most action? I feel like that show set up that structure — although apparently not, because The Stand has been around a lot longer. The main action, especially a majority of the violence, the falling out between Randall Flagg and members of the Free Zone, the nuclear bomb — all of that happened in our last section. So now we’re getting that real finale. We’re caring for the characters we really loved. We’re seeing where they ended up. We’re tying up some loose ends.Laura: I felt like these last chapters post-nuclear-bomb were so arduous. I felt like King is personally trying to remind us that this whole thing is about the journey and not the destination, which is such an annoying message. I was just like, we are still walking. It should have been called The Walk, not The Stand. Honestly, the whole book is just about journeying.Sarah: Well, I will say this. It’s not standing still, that’s for sure. But there’s a moment near the end where Stu says they’ll have to stand a watch for him. So it really felt like this conclusion of the book was more a philosophy: it’s not that you have to walk forever, but that you do have to stand watch. Maybe the stand wasn’t some sort of high-noon final battle between good and evil, which is what I expected when I started the book. It’s more like standing watch — standing watch for our worst instincts, standing watch for the ways in which humans can perpetuate great cruelty and harm on each other. We’re standing sentry, keeping an eye out. And even though I’m an Enneagram One and I love a black-and-white conclusion, I thought this was truer, wiser. I really liked it.Laura: It also seems to be saying that nothing is ever really over. It might be over for you individually, if you come to the end of your story, but life just keeps on keeping on. I have always quibbled a teeny tiny bit with how we spend these last chapters with just Stu and Tom — and even primarily Stu. We’re in Stu’s mind mostly. It’s no longer an ensemble cast. We started all the way back in Arnette, Texas, at the gas station — Stu is our first point man — and then we also end with so much Stu. I love Stu as a character. It’s just, oh, he wasn’t the one I was the most attached to. How did you feel about Stu being the final stand?Sarah: I loved it. I thought it wasn’t just Stu — it was the combination of Stu, Tom, and Kojak, who I believe is the real hero of this novel. I really liked the way King put the strengths and weaknesses of these three creatures together. It didn’t feel arduous to me. I was excited to see the ways in which they were stripped away and rebuilt. I liked that Nick kept appearing. I liked that we were worried about Franny. And I liked the changing threat — that we went from the heat of the desert and the nuclear fallout to this incredible winter hellscape. And Tom is such a great addition to every scene he’s in. The way they were facing very openly “we might not make it” felt like real learning, as opposed to how people were orienting themselves when Captain Trips first started wreaking havoc.Kojak, the Rea
- Jun 1, 20261h 1m
SLOW READ: The Stand (Chapters 72 - 73)
Welcome to SLOW READ, where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle.Hosted by Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura TremaineWe are currently reading The Stand by Stephen King (unabridged version)You can find our full Reading Schedule hereJoin the SLOW READ community on Substack for bonus episodes, book club meetings, and Side Quests with Sarah & LauraMentioned in this episode:* Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger * 1984 by George Orwell * Paradise Lost by John Milton* Carrie by Stephen King We StoodSarah: We have been reading Stephen King’s epic The Stand, and I think we’ve come to the part where we stood. Did we stand?Laura: I think we’re still standing.Sarah: Are we standing?Laura: I think we stood. I think we did it. We are wobbling in our woo!Sarah: We would love for you to join us for our final book club meetings for The Stand. There’s obviously going to be a lot to say as we wrap up this epic novel. All of those are coming up in June. You need to check our Substack for details of our book club meetings, our final episodes, and maybe some announcements for what we’re doing next. All of that is going to be on Substack. You can join us there at slowreadbookclub.com and we’re going to have side quest conversations for you. Tomorrow our side quest will be on summer reading and summer plans. We can’t wait to talk about that with you.Laura: Yep. If you join us at the Slow Read Substack, you will get all of our side quests that we’ve been covering through this time. And they have been wide ranging, friends.Sarah: They really have. Sometimes they go along with the book. Sometimes they don’t.Laura: They don’t. But they are excellent conversations with Sarah and I, only for our Substack members. Over on Slow Read, go to slowreadbookclub.com for all of that and more.Sarah: And more.“Is That It?” — First Reactions to the EndingSarah: We’re going to talk about chapter 72 and 73, and I deserve an award for not texting you the second I finished the section. It was hard. If I had finished this section before we saw each other in person for the first time in 12 years, I wouldn’t have been able to resist. I didn’t really plan to not read it until after, but I’m glad it worked out that way or I would not have been able to keep my mouth shut.Laura: Because you would have wanted to talk about it.Sarah: It’s so talkable. We stood. Of course I want to talk about it. I’m curious what you think reading it for the first time. Did you feel like dun dun dun? Did you feel the music swell in your head?Laura: Yeah, I definitely did. I wanted to just bare minimum text the wide-eyed emoji, but I didn’t — again, because I deserve an award. And my husband, who had been doing a good job kind of keeping pace with us, sped ahead and finished the book, so he’s been saying some cryptic stuff. It got me all keyed up. But yeah, it kind of snuck up on me, but not really. By the time you get to chapter 73, by the time you’re in Larry’s head, you’re like, okay, we’re here, we’re gonna stand. But then it’s over kind of quickly, and so you’re just like, what just happened?Sarah: I know. That’s what I kind of wanted to ask slow readers — if you’re like, “is that it?” Nicholas was defin
- May 28, 20267 min
Join Laura for STEPHEN KING SUMMER 2026!
The 6th annual Stephen King Summer Book Club kicks off next week and I want you to be a part of it!Stephen King Summer is part of Laura’s Secret Stuff Substack and when you sign up for it, you’ll get the Stephen King Summer Book Club + all her other Secret Stuff content AND the full Stephen King Summer archives.JOIN STEPHEN KING SUMMERFor Stephen King Summer 2026, we’re reading:HOLLYThe Life of ChuckCUJOand we’ll do watch alongs each month in addition to our zoom book club meetings. I would love to see some Slow Readers over on Secret Stuff this summer! 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
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