2026-06-26 00:00:00
Going by the solo travelers who book free walking tours, the most popular cities in the world for people going it alone include Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sao Paulo, and Belgrade. Along with some oddball places that are head-scratchers. That’s because it was compiled by the walking tour company GuruWalk and sorted by the percentage of solo travelers booking tours, regardless of sheer numbers. That’s how a small city in El Salvador made the top 5. Still, if you’re traveling solo, this list might be a good starting point on where to meet others like you, especially if you’ll join a free walking tour. See the details here.
The question of taxes trips up a lot of expatriates, as well as nomads who spend more than six months in one place. In some countries you owe nothing if you’re earning income abroad, in some you only pay if their rate is higher than where you’re filing, and in others you may need a really good accountant to sort out filings in two different nations. This article lays out the countries where you don’t have to worry about it unless you’re getting paid within the country. Latin America has more in this column than not, but in Europe there are only two and in Asia your best bet is The Philippines.
If your remote working travels are taking you through Canada, you’d better not be doing any work for Canadian clients. A new ruling posted in May says that digital nomads now “must provide sufficient documentation to demonstrate that their income is earned entirely outside Canada and that they will be working remotely for a foreign employer or, if self‑employed, that they will be providing services exclusively to clients outside Canada.” That seems difficult to track down and sort out for an immigration officer looking at freelancer receipts from Wise, Paypal, and a bank account, but best to figure out (and reroute) any red flags before you land in Toronto.
I reported in a 2024 issue that the UK has closed its last coal-powered electricity plant. We’re not there in the USA, but there was a big milestone this month: clean solar energy surpassed coal and became the #3 energy source nationwide. With 90% of new installations being solar, the lead will keep widening. Buried way down in the story: “States won by President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election accounted for 74% of all solar capacity installed in the first quarter, according to the SEIA report.” Take a deeper breath this month.
A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.
2026-06-25 00:00:00
City Builder, Investor, 3X Founder, Negotiator, Mentor & Author who helps solve problems before they happen — and pilots planes in between.
Links:
linkedin.com/in/alladamartin
facebook.com/alladamartin
allaadam.com
Project I’m working on: How Hobbies Change Lives [For over 20 years, I’ve been fascinated by people who do wonderfully unexpected things in their free time. The deeper I go, the more convinced I become that hobbies, taken seriously, are one of the most underrated forces shaping our lives. And, hey, if you have one (the weirder, the better), I’d love to hear about it!]
PHYSICAL
Genius is the opposite of expectation.
I wrote this one down at least twelve years ago and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. We tend to associate genius with intelligence, talent, credentials, or achievement. Increasingly, I suspect genius is the ability to see what everyone else overlooks because they are busy looking where they were told to look. It hit me when I realized that some of the most interesting people I know are also the least constrained by expectation.
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2026-06-24 00:00:00
The Bestiary
by Ann VanderMeer (editor) and Ivica Stevanovic (illustrator)
Centipede Press
2016, 277 pages, 5.5 x 7 inches
Since all the antipodes have been discovered and exploited, there is very little natural mystery left in the word. As Jeff VanderMeer points out in the introduction to the delightful new book The Bestiary, we are left with Bigfoot and Nessie. A little further out into the fringe of the cultural imagination is the dogman and reptilian illuminati operatives, but these also inspire less a sense of wonder than pushing conspiracy theory buttons. But natural history as a genre to conceive of things like the stomach-faced blemmyes and the fiery salamander is all but lost. I find table-top RPG bestiaries often satisfy that itch, but they are still too confined to their own internal world-building.
What is needed is a bestiary that comes from the literary imagination, and to this end, the weird-fiction editor extraordinaire Ann VanderMeer has compiled a catalogue of the fantastic, 26 entries (from A to Z) by writers across the speculative fiction spectrum, and lovingly illustrated by Ivica Stevanovic. Centipede Press has a reputation for finely crafted editions, and while small in size, The Bestiary reflects their attention to detail with rich paper stock and ribbon marker.
I don’t want to give away too many of the surprises, but it’s worth noting a few of the standout entries. There is the “Daydreamer by Proxy” by the novelist Dexter Palmer, a spine-grafting parasite offered by a corporation to its employees to help them deal with the too much daydreaming in the middle of the afternoon. The Iranian writer Reza Negarestani offers what appears to be an excerpt from a bestiary from another dimension, with the “Nolus Barathruma (Homo sapiens sapiens)” an otherworldly entity that induces visions in its host. “Bartleby’s Typewriter” by Corey Redekop describes a turtle-like creature that can mimic inanimate objects, whose classification causes etymologists to declare “the whole profession a mockery.” – Peter Bebergal
Mean Girls Club
by Ryan Heshka
Nobrow Press
2016, 24 pages, 6.8 x 9.1 x 0.1 inches
If your understanding of what a Mean Girls Club consists of is defined by the 2004 Lindsay Lohan film, then Ryan Heshka’s new release from Nobrow Press (as part of their wonderful 17 x 23 series) is going to blow your mind. In Mean Girls Club, Pinky, Sweets, Blackie, McQualude, Wendy, and Wanda aren’t the popular girls in an Illinois high school, rather they are a gang of sociopaths who revel in murder, mayhem, pill popping, and depraved dereliction. Heshka’s 1950s bombshells start their day with ceremonial insect venom transfusions, snake worship, a pill buffet, and a fish slap fight, then go on to wreck havoc in a hospital, movie theater, boutiques, and the streets, only to finish off by jacking a lingerie truck, kidnapping patients and nurses along the way.
In a nod to the pulps and pin-ups of the past and rendered in fluorescent pinks and inky blacks, Heskha upends the conventional idea of the B-movie Vixen by adding a layer of such over-the-top brutality and vehemence that it transcends the possible, bringing the trope into the post-ironic age where we have lost the ability to discern what we are meant to take seriously.
Is Mean Girls Club to be read as satirical social commentary? Is it just flat out bonkers? Or is it a combination of both? When viewed through various critical lenses, Mean Girls Club demands that the reader ask certain questions: issues of gender and power, fringe vs center, entertainment vs social order. But this sort of critical response probably misses the point of Heskha’s intent.
Heskha doesn’t seem to care how we approach his work; this book swings to its own pop-culture rhythm, flat and full of energy and horror – perhaps the perfect narrative for precarious times. The viciousness in this book stands starkly in contrast to the stylized elegance of Heskha’s lines and layouts. Its publisher, Nobrow Press, says it has “A vintage throwback appeal with modern sensibilities … with appeal to an alternative subculture eager for art that continues to subvert the conventions of the old guard of comics.” It’s all this and more. But one thing for sure, in Mean Girls Club we have an artist making the art he wants to make. And although it may be a bit uncomfortable for some of us to read, it may just be the art we deserve. – Daniel Elkin
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
2026-06-23 00:00:00
Mark Elbroch is a young tracker quickly gaining a reputation for his obsessive devotion to craft and comprehensive style of seeing. He once spent a whole New England winter tracking a single red fox — which wound up tracking him! More than stories, Elbroch offers an astounding encyclopedia of observed animal signs and visualizations that are the most helpful I’ve ever seen. Pages and pages of life size paw prints, a whole long chapter of diverse specialized burrows, dens, nests, and cavities — many in life size — and all photographed. Elbroch is not only an ace naturalist, but a fabulous communicator. He must sleep with his camera because he captures every nuanced disturbance on film. There’s distinguishing scat, urine and other secretions, by species. And most wonderful of all, several hundred pages on feeding patterns left by each mammal on vegetation and prey. This immense guide (almost 800 pages of full color illustrations and images) is by far the most ecological of any tracking guide ever written. It shows you how to see animals through their effects upon the other living organisms around them. The amount of knowledge, respect, and insight packed into this brick of a book is stunning. I’m sure it will become a classic.
Equally astounding is a companion book on bird signs. Imagine going birdwatching without looking at birds. All you inspect are the ripples each bird makes as it disturbs the environment in its daily routine. At first the ripples are faint, but soon with practice they swell in size and plenty until they seem a wave that all but shouts out the bird’s identification. That’s the Elbroch way of seeing.
These fat books, lovingly published by Stackpole Books, will change the way you walk in the woods. — KK
I’ve had meager success in tracking animals using other guide books. This one employs color photography which matches what I see on the trail much closer that black and white sketches. Also it emphasizes animal scat and browsing patterns. It includes primarily North American mammals. — KK
Since white-tailed deer have only bottom incisors, they leave rough, torn, or squared-off cuts when browsing.
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
2026-06-22 00:00:00
My sister has one of these Nightstick rechargeable floodlights and uses it for crawlspaces and poking around the yard after dark. It throws a strong beam — 600 lumens on high, 225 on low — and the single push-button switch is easy to find by feel. What makes it extra useful are the three built-in magnets and the detachable hook, which rotates 360 degrees so you can clamp it onto a pipe, car hood, or garage door and work hands-free. It recharges from either AC or DC power. — MF
I have recently been enjoying a tool I did not know I needed in my workshop. It’s a no-name high powered blower. When working in a shop, there is a constant need to clean away bits, sawdust, shavings, and other detritus that accumulate on a surface or tool. One blast from this and it is all sent to the floor. This replaces air hoses, or even other dedicated blowers because it fits onto any of the cordless batteries I already own, and because it is charged it is always handy. It also works for cleaning up patios and driveways. This delight in blowing stuff clean might be a dad thing. So I nominate this as a very dad-ish Father’s Day gift. Get one that fits his particular color batteries. — KK
Searchable Attenborough is a nature documentary archive that has indexed nearly 5,000 episodes across 90 of David Attenborough’s series. You can search by animal, habitat, location, natural phenomenon, or theme, and it accurately points you to the streaming service where you can watch. It feels like having direct access to learning about Earth and all its kingdoms. — CD
Far Out Company is a curated archive of 1960s–70s counterculture visual art — concert posters, TV shows, underground newspapers, commune newsletters, comix, hippie business advertisements, and album art. I love the DIY design aesthetic of this era: hand-lettered type, day-glo colors, psychedelic illustrations. Artists and designers like Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, and Milton Glaser were doing world-class work for free newspapers. It’s a good resource for design inspiration or a trippy rabbit hole to fall into. — MF
Kids are so naturally creative they should be our art teachers. And their creativity is boundless as long as you don’t hamper them by calling the assignment making “art.” It’s more fun than that. Those two premises enliven artist Austin Kleon’s newest book, Don’t Call It Art. Kleon’s mission is encouraging creativity in kids and adults by means of stories, reminders, examples, and bits of his own art. His little tome is charming and inspirational. — KK
I’ve been looking for a replacement Pomodoro app for over a year, ever since my old browser extension stopped being supported. After trying a few that all wanted subscriptions or felt too distracting, I finally found a truly free one called Breaks. It runs quietly in the Mac menu bar, is easy to use, and lets me customize my focus and break times. — CD
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2026-06-20 00:00:00
Get Thoughts Without a Thinker
Mark Epstein is a psychiatrist who also meditates, and in Thoughts Without a Thinker he uses both practices to make the point that the solid, permanent self we work so hard to build and protect is the same self that keeps us anxious. If you loosen your grip on it, a lot of everyday suffering will decrease.
We spend enormous energy projecting an image of being complete and self-sufficient. Epstein argues that the feeling of a solid, unchanging “me” behind all of this is something we assemble, not something we find. He describes the self as stitched together out of the gaps in our emotional experience, the raw spots we rush to cover up instead of looking at. Seeing how the assembly works is the first step toward holding it more lightly.
Much of our pain, Epstein writes, comes from being afraid to experience ourselves directly. Feelings are fleeting and constantly shifting, but we treat them as fixed, solid facts about who we are. A passing wave of anger becomes “I am an angry person.” A moment of doubt becomes “something is wrong with me.” When we let experiences stay as fast as they actually are, they have far less power over us.
The central tool Epstein draws from Buddhism is “bare attention”: noticing exactly what is happening, moment by moment, before you pile your reactions on top of it. There is the cold of the air, and then there is your story about the cold. Bare attention watches the raw event and the reaction as two separate things. The goal of this practice is not to feel calm or blissful. It is to watch the sense of a fixed self loosen as you observe it.
Epstein calls the Buddha a kind of original psychoanalyst, using a method of self-inquiry centuries before Freud. But he points out a key difference. Much of Western therapy hunts for a “true self” hidden under our defenses, waiting to be set free. The Buddhist view says there is no such self underneath, only layers of constructions to see through. The work is to stop polishing a better self-image and start noticing how the image gets made.
“We do not want to admit our lack of substance to ourselves and, instead, strive to project an image of completeness, or self-sufficiency. The fabric of self is stitched together out of just these holes in our emotional experience.”
Book Freak is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run Recomendo, the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, and Book Freak.
