A Year in Books, Which Were a Thing That Happened
A Year in Books, Which Were a Thing That Happened
Hi friends.
This is all I can tell you about disappearing for two solid months: when the nights get shorter, you have to start chucking things out of your metaphorical hot air balloon. My balloon has made it to the end of the year, which at this rate I am considering a first-order triumph. So, I presume, has yours.
The days are getting longer from here, my loves. We're going to make it out.
*****
I can tell that my balloon is getting low when I have one very specific Anxiety Thought. It is always the same one, and it is this: I don't read enough. This is a foolish and unhelpful thought ten months of the year, and in the other two months it still both of those things, but it is also very, very real, and there is nothing at all I can do about it. You can try to talk me out of it, but I have an answer for that - sure, I've read plenty, but they are the Wrong books, or they are too boring, too serious, too unserious, too old, too recent, they are either fiction or non-fiction when they should have been the other one, they were written in the wrong language. I want breadth and depth at once, and I can't have it.
This year has actually been a pretty great year for books. I've read some brilliant ones, and they've made me happy. I've taken more notes than I can recall doing for many years.
There are things I want to show you. Things I want to talk to you about. If we were going for coffee I'd lean forward over the table and say, "I'm about to go off on one - you must promise to stop me if I lose you, alright? I won't mind." I wrote out a list, you see, of all the books I've read in 2023. Before I did it they all felt so insubstantial and insufficient. Now I've written it out, it looks like a solid year of reading, actually. So I want to finish up with the satisfaction-by-degrees that I didn't know I had. I hope you can find yours. The wood for the trees, as it were.
(Putting them all in an email feels a bit exposing somehow. Isn't it funny how sometimes there's no space between "insufficient" and "too much"? Funny how you can be both at the same time much more easily than neither. Well, here they are, and here we all are as well.)
Bolded ones are my favourites, although I could easily have bolded twice as many. Ask me about any of them. Or don't, if you know what's good for you.
The Long Drop – Denise Mina
Mina does 80s Glasgow grit, sorta kinda true crime if you squint. She's so good at this.Into the Riverlands – Nghi Vo
Third in a series of Chinese-storytelling-inspired fantasy novellas. They're all so charming - I think there's a new one now, but I have to ration myself just in case.The New Plant Parent – Darryl Cheng
Fun fact! I have only killed two (2) plants this year. One of them was a fern and was asking for it.Haven – Emma Donoghue
Sometimes what you want is sad seventh-century Irish monks on a desert island by the author of Room.Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett
I read one Pratchett a year. This is a reread, of course, but such a solid one.The People in the Trees – Hanya Yanagihara
Some might call this an odd choice of honeymoon reading. It's an extraordinary book, and I will not ever be reading A Little Life, sorry. I'd implode.Climbers – M. John Harrison
This took me months to read - I started it last summer, but a few pages at a time actually worked in its favour, and it's followed me around ever since. Since February, it's without a doubt the book I've recommended most often.I Am the Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future – Michael Molcher
Don't be fooled by the title: this is a really, really good history of policing in the UK. Cogent, wide-reaching, accessibly written. I'm not a huge Judge Dredd person but more people should know about this book, it's great.The Road to Wigan Pier – George Orwell
The Orwell Foundation sent this out in real time by Substack newsletter. A couple of pages a day of Orwell noodling around mining towns passing comment on people's front rooms. You wouldn't let him in the house.Wylding Hall – Elizabeth Hand
A folk band in the 70s retires to a country house in rural Hampshire to write their second album, when their alarmingly ethereal lead singer goes missing. Told retrospectively in the style of an oral history. Wish I'd written it; mad I didn't. Entirely my jam.Legends & Lattes – Travis Baldree
Not to be the person who's like "I didn't like the cosy fantasy because its politics didn't stand up to scrutiny", but, um.The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
Around the time I read this book, I discovered that Lucy Foley and I went to the same college at Durham, a few years apart. I too have been to this exact party.The Lazy Dungeon Master – Michael Shea
If you run tabletop role-playing games and/or like telling stories in person to people, this is one of the best resources I know.All About Love: New Visions – bell hooks
There's so much I want to say about this that I don't know where to begin. You have to follow bell hooks where she leads you. Trusting her is extremely rewarding.The Trees – Percival Everett
Do you ever start reading something and become immediately aware that you're watching a master at work? This book punches very hard, repeatedly. It's perfectly controlled fury from start to finish. I'm going to work my way through his back catalogue, you see if I don't.Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang
I've been reading about two stories a year from this for nearly a decade. Now I've got to the end, I'm thinking of borrowing my husband's copy of Exhalation.Travelling Light – Tove Jansson, trans Silvester Mazzarella
One thing I love about Tove Jansson short stories is that her characters have tantrums and she often thinks they're right.The Moomins and the Great Flood – Tove Jansson, trans David McDuff
Finishing off Travelling Light, I found that this was on Libby too. Strange and haunting; somewhat lighter on the tantrums.Looking Glass Sound – Catriona Ward
If you're in the market for getting the rug pulled right out from underneath you, this is it, this is the book.How to Do Nothing – Jenny Odell
Gave me Solnit vibes in terms of its narrative voice and breadth of references. I enjoyed spending time with Jenny Odell.Your Handspinning – Elsie Grace Davenport
This is a little manual that came to me with my (second-hand) spinning wheel. Davenport is clearly an expert and an enthusiast. What a delight.The Witches of Vardø – Anya Bergman
I bounced off this one a bit, but that's okay. Sometimes "atmosphere like treacle" is an enormous recommendation and sometimes it isn't.The Arrival of Missives – Aliya Whiteley
I adored Skyward Inn last year, and now I want to read it again having finished this as well. Puts a whole new spin on things.Tofaidh, a bhò Ghaidhealach – Marghanita Hughes, trans Marghanita Hughes (from English to Gaelic, natch)
Toffee - Tofaidh - the Highland cow goes for an adventure on the farm, with his new friend Dileas the dog. I read it in Scottish Gaelic. Twice. Proudest achievement of the year.The Lamplighters – Emma Stonex
Another book where you just get the feeling you're watching someone very talented doing exactly what they're meant to be doing.Kierkegaard: The Aesthetic and the Religious – George Pattison
Came from the university library. Call it a chaser after the triumph of finishing Tofaidh.The Last Frontier – Alistair MacLean
DID YOU KNOW Alistair MacLean who wrote The Guns of Navarone also did a spy thriller set in Cold War Hungary? Took it on holiday over my birthday. Great decision.Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham
All I'm saying is that noted 1950s science fiction writer John Wyndham could 100% have got away with being much less of a balls-out feminist than he actually was. What a guy.Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
There are writers in the world who I think are wonderful people but whose work I can't abide, and there are others who wind me up on principle but UGH FINE, they deserve the hype, don't make me say it again. I'm mad that this was good. But it was extremely good.Conviction – Denise Mina
She has such range: after the 80s true-ish crime, this one's all yachts and podcasting. I hope she had as much fun writing it as I did reading it.Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans: Fishermen’s Sweaters from the British Isles – Gladys Thompson
I bought this, and the next one, from a woman in a shop in Whitby who sized me up immediately and proceeded to teach me how to design a jersey from scratch on the back of an envelope. Like the very best pattern books, this one is a Dover Publication with dodgy photocopying from 1969. But if you can decipher it, there's magic in it.Cornish Guernseys and Knit-Frocks – Mary Wright
As above but more Cornish.Every Version Ends in Death – Aliya Chaudhury
A slow-rotating kaleidoscope of a book. But make it goth.The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – John le Carré
Please will someone give John a hug.Astonishing the Gods – Ben Okri
I'm not quite sure that I understood this book, but I suspect that's half the point, and either way I had a great time trying out possibilities.Silver Nitrate – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Lost Nazi occult B-movies in 90s Mexico; run, don't walk.Mariko/Mariquita – Natsuki Ikezawa, trans Alfred Birnbaum
Compact but beautiful, barely a novelette but the kind where you have to stare absently out of a window for a good hour afterwards.Go Tell It On the Mountain – James Baldwin
Imagine trying to write something good while knowing that James Baldwin exists. I think we're all very brave.Spy Story – Len Deighton
The rollickingest good fun, but also, Deighton is deceptively good at observing people.How to Start Writing (and When to Stop): Advice for Authors – Wisława Szymborska, trans Clare Cavanagh
Extracts from Szymborska's advice column for writers - and let me tell you, she does not know the meaning of pulling her punches. Just terrific.Gideon the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir
I will not be over this book for a Long Time. I read it in, like, July, I think, and I'm still walking it off.A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD – Sari Solden & Michelle Frank
Bit frothy, bit self-helpy, do what you gotta do.The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying – Marie Kondo, trans Cathy Hirano
This is interesting: it was really difficult to track down the name of the translator. She is barely credited anywhere, not even inside the actual book. The book itself is pretty great in a lot of ways, but that left a slightly bad taste in my mouth.Three Eight One – Aliya Whiteley
This is coming out in the new year, and I bit Solaris's marketing manager's hand off for a copy at the first opportunity. It's really very good, and I wish I'd thought to describe it as "Pilgrim's Progress where the pilgrim is Patrick McGoohan's Prisoner". Thanks for putting it better than me again, Adam Roberts.The New Town of Edinburgh: An Architectural Celebration – ed Clarisse Godard Desmarest
Book of academic essays found, of all places, on the public library ebook service. Read for research for current work in progress; reminded me exactly why I love rocking up at other people's conferences.Where Decay Sleeps – Anna Cheung
Lovely little book of poetry. I'd read most of them in dribs and drabs, but it was worth going cover to cover too.The Black Prince – Adam Roberts
Don't talk to me, I'm busy feeling inadequate.The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
Read alongside The Black Prince. Don't talk to me, I'm busy feeling inadequate.Written Lives – Javier Marías, trans Margaret Jull Costa
I love reading writers talking about other writers. Marías's taste is so fun and now I have a list of other things to track down.The Gilded Crown – Marianne Gordon
It's a dangerous game, nabbing a review copy of a friend's book. This is Proper Good Fantasy, complete with court politics, assassins, anxious herbologists, and Death's own riddles. If you like the sound of that, you'll like this.Confidence – Denise Mina
Sequel to her yachts-and-podcasts one, this time with art theft and Youtubers. Denise Mina, I do believe we've frequented the same subreddits.Fun Home – Alison Bechdel
I can't believe it took me so long to get to this. As good as they all say.Cultish – Amanda Montell
Ostensibly "Cultish" in the sense of English or Spanish - it's about the language of manipulation. More anecdotal froth than substance.A Beleaguered City – Mrs Oliphant
Hello, did you know that Mrs Oliphant wrote supernatural horror set in the south of France in 1880? I would love to know if John Wyndham read this because I got real Midwich Cuckoo vibes.Findings – Kathleen Jamie
Another book in the genre of "following round someone interesting while they think about birds". I started out trying to write down the turns of phrase I particularly liked, but had to stop because I was basically writing out half the book.Ultra-Processed People – Chris van Tulleken
Could have been much more insufferable than it actually was. Actually a very solid bit of popular science writing.Comfort Me with Apples – Catherynne Valente
This is Cat Valente in full Uncanny Mode, which is one of her best. Go in blind with this book as much as you can.Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History – Julian Symons
I don't agree with all of his opinions (he doesn't like Dorothy Sayers at all) but I can't fault his enthusiasm.Harrow the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir
This is a WILD book to finish the last 100 pages of on Christmas Day. Did not help me get over Gideon in the slightest.Wild – Amy Jeffs
To begin with, I thought the problem was that it was too superficial for me to love it. By the end I just thought Jeffs and I were not interested in asking the same questions. So it goes.Wish I Was Here – M. John Harrison
If I've been waxing lyrical at you about MJH at any point in the last four months, this is why, so I'm sorry if I ruined it for you. Is it a memoir? Is it writing advice? Only if you squint. I finished it the other day and now I want to start it again.The Death of Sir Martin Malprelate – Adam Roberts
Adam Roberts wrote a Victorian crime novel where someone gets run over by a demonic train. Did he write it for me personally? I think so every time! So probably!The Memory Police – Yōko Ogawa, trans Stephen Snyder
I'm about to sit down with the last fifty pages of this. It's set on an island where things periodically disappear by decree, and whenever they do, everyone immediately forgets them. Birds. Roses. Fruit. Calendars. The people who don't forget are arrested. The main character is a novelist, whose editor remembers everything, so she tries to hide him from the Memory Police. It's beautiful, it's quite stressful, and fifty pages from the end her book is not going well. That's my evening sorted.
May your 2024 be precisely as you mean it to be, even if you don't notice it at the time.
Barnett over and out x