Ask HN: What do you use for mailing lists?

I'm working on a book[1] that I'm currently leaning towards self-publishing. I discuss the book here and on reddit. I've got an increasing number of twitter followers, and I get a decent amount of incoming email about it.

What I don't currently have is a mailing list so that I can send announcements to anyone who's interested. I'm thinking it would be good to fill that gap, and I'm interested in what software/services others are using for this.

Mailchimp is the one that first springs to mind, but what are the alternatives and how do they compare?

[1] http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/