Welcome to Mommy’s El Camino. I’ll be taking a brief break so the next newsletter will appear on Sunday, January 12, 2025.
Here’s what I read and what I remember of the books read this year. There were numerous others I didn’t finish reading, some I opened and only after a few pages returned to the library. I reread some, or most of, a couple of favorites, in part because they were texts I assigned to my fall class at CalArts.
Some of the books I read this year were sublime, several were excellent, and maybe “bottomed out” at very good. I don’t spend much time anymore with books I don’t love; it’s a precious energy I use to read.
January-June 2024
I read Day by Michael Cunningham because the premise—the same date, in different years, meticulously detailed—was intriguing and because it’s by Michael Cunningham.
Because I’ve read The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche and How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them by Barbara F. Walter (both in 2022), I read The Undertow: Scenes From A Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlet. I guess I took 2023 off from reading about the potential end of the republic, but I’m back again.
After reading Fariha Róisín’s incredible book Who Is Wellness For (2022), this year I read their poetry in Survival Takes A Wild Imagination.
“…talking myself gently and painstakingly through every microstep like I was coaching a baby bunny through defusing a bomb…"
A chapter titled “Imagined Reviews for, Ahem, This Book”—from Unreliable Narrators: Me, Myself, and Imposter Syndrome by Aparna Nancherla
“Writing a book is about letting everything in.”
“Sometimes the best writing is the writing about not writing. How telling the definitive story reveals that the story can never quite be definitive. Inside the exhaustion there are words, and on the other side there is language. Sometimes all it takes is a few sentences, and then I feel like another person. Expansive and awake, alert to thepossibility of language activating the body. Please let it stay this way.” —from Touching the Art by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
I’m haunted by the story in Minor Detail by Adania Shibli.
Voice of the Fish by Lars Horn reminds me of how much the nonfiction genre can stretch and flex, and I love that potential.
This book has a title that might make you pause, and I highly recommend it: The Case Against Free Speech: The First Amendment, Fascism, and the Future of Dissent by P.E. Moskowitz
I didn’t know it when I read it, but later this year I would end up reading other books that bore similarities in theme as Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jameson.
Reading Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millnerreminded me how much I love atypical stories well-told in verse.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar knocked my socks off.
Always love seeing a new Morgan Parker book in the world, and You Get What You Pay For was a readers’ gift for 2024.
I read Fervor by Toby Lloyd based on a book review I read and I wasn’t disappointed.
Auto/Body by Vickie Vértiz is explosive.
“The more she practiced she found it was possible: to live one life in your mind, furious and predatory, and another out in the open, quiet and untouched by foresight.”—Kathleen Alcott, America Was Hard to Find
I have not stopped thinking about America Was Hard to Find by Kathleen Alcott since I read it—I borrowed it from the library and as I’m constantly weeding my library I think about whether I need a hard copy—and I almost started re-reading it when I finished…
I loved the constraints of Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti! This was such a fun read!
I happened to read Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler on/around the very dates that the events of the novel take place…
Bad Habit by Alana S. Portero, translated by Mara Faye Lethem—another unforgettable book.
Yes, I read All Fours by Miranda July.Yes, I read it in about 48 hours time.
I found Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham strangely compelling—especially liked the voice.
I’ll always recommend Emma Copley Eisenberg, and this year it’s her novel Housemates.
América del Norte by Nicolás Medina Mora was a ROMP.
I was totally absorbed by All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews.
I read Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillipswhile in the throes of my first time having covid in June, and it was the appropriate book to accompany fever dreams and isolation. Also, I love Jayne Anne Phillips.
I had some ambivalences about Wayward by Dana Spiotta…and I also realized I have read several books now that feature perimenopausal women who take up weight-lifting…and I kind of want it to stop lol.
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And the Next) by Dean Spade is a book I’ve been recommending to folks who want to start working on this trash fire we find ourselves in, and it’s a book I wish I had when I was in my twenties working with various social justice groups.
Hombrecito by Santiago Jose Sanchez made me cry.
I read Liars by Sarah Manguso while staying in an immaculate, luxe airbnb our friend had rented in Palm Springs, and I finished it, like I did Splinters, like I did All Fours, over around 48 hours. Disturbing.
To be honest I can’t even tell you what What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez was “about”—I was reading it around the time we were sitting with the cancer news and on the verge of major surgery…but I loved this book?!
I should have listened to Elle Reve read her book Black Pill but I read it on my e-reader, imagining her reading it to me, pushing her glasses up on her nose.
The brevity, the sharpness, of Opacities by Sofia Samatar.
I read The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley when I really needed a detailed, all-encompassing novel to throw myself into, to take me completely out of place and time.
I’m not sure why I picked up Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, but once I did, I had to know how it ended.
Read Song of My Softening by Omotara James—and I hope you read it, too.
Colored Television is the first book of Danzy Senna’s I’ve read, and I want to read more.
Loved the narrator of Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio.
The Minotaur at Calle Lanza by Zito Madu reminded me of ways to write the interior.
So much complicated, beautiful, and tragic territory is covered in Magical/Realism by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, plus reading it also made me want to take up gaming.
Memory Piece by Lisa Ko reminded me of my life in the 1990s, and when I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about the storylines constantly—a compelling book, read it now.
As I read Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace I was reminded to take slow, deep breaths. The pace of the voice felt like it was reminding me. This book went to places that surprised me and I appreciate it.
And last, but absolutely not least, maybe even most: In & Out of Place by Gabrielle Civil. I personally needed this book, right now. I’m planning to write something longer in a future issue of MEC about this important book.
And that’s my year in reading! I hope you’re all getting some time to enjoy reading what you love. Take care, and see you in 2025.
