An erotic, dreamlike novel that reads like a memoir.
Hazel Jane Plante does a lot of worldbuilding for someone who’s not writing speculative fiction. She brings her fictional world to life by sprinkling in vivid descriptions of the art and music that inform and inspire her protagonist, Tracy St. Cyr. When I caught myself googling the fictional to see if they really existed, I was reminded of my ten-year-old self mounting a broomstick after reading Harry Potter to see if I could fly. In both cases I knew better but I felt compelled to check, just in case. If you’re looking for an intimate and searching story of music, love and heartbreak, written with candour and clarity, this book is for you.
A deep dive into the life of a malevolent impersonator.
My guilty pleasure is true crime, but I’m not always in the mood for something gory and brutal. In fact, the criminals I find most compelling are those who play with people’s hearts and minds and wield incredible control over their lives, sometimes without ever meeting them in person. The person at the centre of this book confounds his victims by creating webs of fabricated people that communicate with them and vouch for one another. When the authorities get involved, they have a hard time believing that one single person could be behind such an operation. If you’re a true crime aficionado who thinks you’ve seen it all, I recommend you give this one a try.
A who’s who of New Age quacks & the damage they wreak.
At the beginning of the pandemic, many people were shocked to watch their liberal hippie friends and relatives disappear down the 5G-QAnon rabbit hole. But for the hosts of the Conspirituality podcast, who were intimately familiar with the magical thinking common in these communities, the development was not so surprising. Their book lays out exactly what makes New Age people so vulnerable to conspiracy theories and bad pseudoscience, and profiles the big names who’ve been profiting off this phenomenon. If you think that kooky beliefs about the curative power of essential oils are bizarre but ultimately harmless, I encourage you to read this book.
Illuminating the alt-right’s exploitation of leftist failures.
People have been confusing leftist intellectual Naomi Klein and (formerly) liberal feminist Naomi Wolf for a very long time now, and although it was always a source of frustration for Klein, the matter became more disturbing when Wolf began comparing covid restrictions to the Holocaust and appearing regularly on Tucker Carlson’s and Steve Bannon’s shows. It was almost as if Wolf became Klein’s mirror opposite: they both spoke about social issues, sometimes even the same issue, but whereas Klein’s perspective was informed by extensive research, Wolf was content to make wild and unsubstantiated accusations. Klein uses this as a jumping-off point to examine how, when the left refuses to acknowledge or address a social issue, the conspiratorial right is well-positioned to step in and provide answers.
A searing look at the tension between academia & activism.
This is the book that most profoundly affected my thinking this year. At different times over the course of her career, Dreger has found herself an activist, railing against the indifference of the academic medical establishment, and an academic under fire from activists, who fear the implications of her research. This gives her a unique perspective in regards to what should be done when scientific findings do not fit comfortably into the political moment in which they are published.
An unsettling short story collection full of misfits & creeps.
The characters populating Moshfegh’s collection have one thing in common: they are deeply unlikeable. This struck me as quite refreshing at a time when literalists are holding fiction under siege. These stories speak to a morbid curiosity shared by many: why do some people keep digging themselves into a deeper hole? In some ways these stories read as anti-fables—they contain no lesson. But they are a powerful reminder of the darker impulses we each pretend to not possess.
A system to improve writing, using the science of learning.
This book suggests that effective note-taking is both rarely practiced and crucial to the writing process. Ahrens introduces a writing technique called the Zettelkasten method, which is based on an index-card system that German sociologist Niklas Luhmann credited for his prolific publication record. The goal is to reinforce learning and understanding through the process of writing original notes and finding connections between them, creating an external resource that becomes more and more useful over time, and which makes it simple to create first drafts. Ahrens focuses on the educational research that supports the Zettelkasten method, and the book is lacking in concrete examples. Those, however, are abundant online, and are more easily understood with the theoretical foundation that this book provides.
An intimate look at the pitfalls and possibilities of grief.
I first read this book a decade ago, and it survived many bookshelf purges in order to jump out at me again this summer. This book tells the story of a young woman who’s just lost her mother, and the events that follow. Yoshimoto has this way of infusing the mundanities of daily life with a supernatural, otherworldly quality. This book was Yoshimoto’s debut novel and was a sensation in Japan when it was first published in 1988. Simultaneously comforting and unsettling, I’ve never read anything quite like it.
A lyrical account of love across borders and languages.
This was a spontaneous pick at the library, and not something that I would normally gravitate towards. But under the skilled guidance of Guo, a simple premise leads to a vibrant depiction of the act of loving: the never-ending attempts to understand another and to be understood, and to discover what it is to be in the world together. If you’re looking for a book that is touching without devolving into sentimentality, that is rich with description and reflection, here it is.
A delightfully odd novel of sprawling ambition.
Although I’d been attracted to this book and its simple cover a number of times before, it wasn’t until I was nursing a broken heart that I finally bought it. Heti bucks the convention of contemporary novelists to zoom in tight on their subject; she begins, for example, with an original creation myth of humankind. We then follow a woman from birth until death in the context of this cosmology. Readers with a philosophical or spiritual bent will find much to appreciate in Pure Colour.
Last but not least, this list would be incomplete without How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by
, which I review here:What did you read this year that entertained you, or provided you with a fresh perspective? Do the rest of us a favour by sharing below:
Last year my New Year’s resolution was to read Ulysses by James Joyce. I read an annotated version, which was essentially like reading two books. When the annotations started referring to other annotations, sometimes even two or three other annotations, I thought of forgetting about it. But I’m nothing if I’m not persistent. Also, how could I live with myself if I didn’t follow through on a NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?
It took me ten months, but I got through it. Would I recommend it? Nope. Not unless you have a deep knowledge of Irish history and a slightly masochistic bent.
Mind you, when I think of the people who took twenty eight years to get through Finnegan’s Wake as part of a book club, (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/12/california-venice-book-club-finngeans-wake-28-years), I realize I might have taken the wrong approach altogether.
Next year I may well read one or more of your recommendations, Kier, as they seem eminently sensible and I no longer trust my own judgement in these matters.
By the way, Happy Holidays!!
P.S.: Beware of New Year’s Resolutions. They can be a bitch.
I luv that you include Homesick for Another World, that’s basically the book that made me realize I could definitely write short stories and the passage about the guy who pours his own pints in the bar where they play Joanna Newsom is a continual source of inspiration.