the turning of the year
Hello friends,
The silly thing about writing, at least the way I do it, is that it consists of very long stretches where there’s nothing to talk about.
A couple months ago I did an event celebrating the works of Renee Gladman and had a blast; that event was in fact recorded, and my piece is up for you to read here if you don't like video. Please let me know how it lands if you haven't read Renee Gladman's Ravicka novels. (But also, they're short little books, so go read them!)
Since then there’s nothing to talk about! Which is why this isn’t a newsletter about writing news. It’s about the fact that I like books, which sometimes expresses itself through the news of me creating books, and sometimes through the fact that I read books, all the time, forever. And it might in the future be about other forms of art and media because those are also important to me as a writer. You wouldn’t mind, would you? Getting a letter about music or visual art?
It's low-hanging fruit to do a year-in-review and/or looking-ahead letter, but low-hanging fruit still has its merits. It's still there, on the tree, ripe and tasty. If I had sent you letters throughout the year, I would probably have little to say at this point about the past year in reading, but luckily I've been inconsistent and forgetful.
I read 60-something books last year, not counting any unfinished or idle half-re-reads that I didn't log, and here are some books that stand out to me when I glance over my log, in no order:
The Faces by Tove Ditlevsen
The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane (my precious nonfiction)
How to Be Both by Ali Smith
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
Lirael by Garth Nix
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
I would strongly recommend any of these to the right sort of reader, but I particularly want to call out two: The Tainted Cup is a weird and wild murder mystery in a fantasy world where the magic is all plant based in an alchemical sort of way, and where there are also leviathans. It put me in mind of Jeff Vandermeer and also Nero Wolfe, and really look forward to any sequels.
Another 2024 release I loved was The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain, which is a short science fiction story set on a space station after Earth has been abandoned, with a hierarchical society and also a spot-on skewering of academia. Samatar is one of my favorite writers for both her inventiveness and her deep, thoughtful attention to craft, by which I mean the putting together of sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into pages. Beautiful.
I regret to inform you that it appears that one of my tiny reading goals last year was to read 5 books that came out in 2024, which I promptly forgot about and then missed by one. Maybe this year I'll remember I set the goal! Hope springs eternal, and my new planner will fix me. (But really, it might: so far I have made note every day of what I read, with maybe a thought or two about it. This is a fun use for a planner.)
We're already well into another year of reading. I'm thinking of taking a page out of a friend's book, so to speak, and picking a year-long reading project, because I've had a copy of Cien años de soledad on my shelf for well over a decade and now people are talking about this adaptation. I think if I measure it out over a year my reading comprehension skills in Spanish can handle it. Maybe!
Did you read something weird and wonderful last year? Are you looking forward to any particular books this year?
Thank you for reading.
from under a pile of books,
andrea
currently
listening: HEY WHAT by Low
watching: Black Doves
eating: chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting