I made a list of my favourite books of 2017.
While the reading year didn’t blow me away, I did discover two new favourite authors. There were also a couple of novels that surprised me.
Have a watch and do leave a comment if you have any thoughts on my selections!
Happy Friday!
I’ve been feeling pretty sluggish lately, an annoying symptom to have when the weather is so beautifully green and blue. I took the week off from the newsletter because… Since I’ve been gone, I got KITTENS! We adopted them from a local foster home via a shelter and they’re sweet little things. We named them after our favourite Scottish whisky-making islands, Islay (pronounced Isla) and Skye, and it suits them. Islay is pretty reserved and super cuddly when she’s in the mood. Skye is more gregarious and my brother has nicknamed her “Face Cat” because she likes to curl up on my collar and lick my nose. I think we’ll keep them.
Meantime it’s been a busy week with an editing project on top of my usual work. I’m also reviewing books for a column so this week’s selections are a little more random than usual. I hope you enjoy them regardless!
Did someone say “more kittens”?! Jkjk but if you want more follow me on Instagram.
Do You Want to Be Known For Your Writing, or For Your Swift Email Responses? Melissa Febos really got me with this one: less because of email, more because of this part about offering free editing and advice: “Institutional sexism (like racism, ableism, and other isms) teaches us to feel indebted to anyone who acknowledges our value, because they also have the power to take it away, because our value only exists in the esteem of others. Your job is not to repay the people who acknowledge you by giving them what they want. Your job was to write the thing they read, and you already did that.” Touché.
After 20+ years of research, scientists are ready to say that Unknown humans were in California 130,000 years ago. That’s 115,000 years earlier than previous findings of humans in the Americas. Nuts.
I also belatedly enjoyed this Lit Hub piece about Why Literature and Pop Culture Still Can’t Get the Midwest Right – some of which will be familiar to anyone living in a place whose narrative is often shaped by the countries surrounding them.
Eula Biss’ Confessions of a reluctant gentrifier also looks at cultural perceptions and the danger of stolen narratives. P.S. Her essay collection, Notes From No Man’s Land, finally has a UK publisher. Buy it!
The other day it was the third seasonal Cosy Reading Night. Unfortunately for me, it takes place at about noon, but I joined in for an hour before heading off to my real-life book club.
I’m currently reading a personal essay collection, One Day We’ll All Be Dead And None of This Will Matter by Saachi Koul, who also writes for Buzzfeed. It was my April Book of the Month pick and is released in May, so I’ll be reviewing it and a novel for the Big Issue so I will refrain from saying much here.
I finished The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy, which was good, but I think I’d have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t already heard the best bits in interviews. I also read Nasty Women from 404 Ink, an anthology of essays about what it’s like to be a woman in the Western world in 2017. I’ve written about it before, and it was everything I’d hoped – serious, sometimes funny, thought-provoking, varied, and intersectional. You can still pick up a copy directly from the publisher, here.
What’s on your nightstand? Hit reply and let me know!
Your turn! Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me, won’t you?
Have a lovely weekend!
Nicola x
Happy Friday!
This week’s missive comes to you from sunny Pacific Grove, California. It’s days like today when I particularly love having (being?) a mobile office unit. Sleeping in and working in my jammies is already delightful; taking off for a sunny seaside town mid-week and knowing that I’ll have all the time I need to finish up my work for the week is just… *chef’s kiss*.
We drove up yesterday. Heading north through the mountain passes, watching the green mountains and filled-to-the-brim reservoirs fly by, I almost felt like I’d never left home. California has had a record amount of rain this season (its second-wettest on record, and in 122 years) and has so much lush green countryside to show for it. I’ve been driving up and down this state for over 10 years now, and it never gets old.
What’s been going on in your world this week?
Dina Nayeri describes life as The Ungrateful Refugee, and calls bullshit on the idea that immigrants should have a debt to repay. If you only read one piece from this week’s letter, make it this one.
I didn’t realise how much I was missing Leslie Jamison’s writing until I came across this new piece – In the Shadow of a Fairy Tale – in which she reckons with the experience of becoming a stepmother. Her literary references are legion: she seems to find one for every possible situation.
Sheila Liming writes In Praise of Not Not Reading. While I agree with her points, broadly, I’m also wary of the characterisation of all activities as types of work to better make them fit into the American adherence to the Protestant work ethic.
I recently read the original version of Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions. Coffee House Press recently published a new version of the text. NPR says it Offers A Moving, Humane Portrait Of Child Migrants. (And I agree.)
Which reminds me that Book Riot recently posted a list of 11 Mexican Authors to Read Right Now. I’ve read 3 of them so far, and thoroughly enjoyed them all.
I was also taken with Hadley Freeman’s descriptions of What women really mean when they say they’re feeling fat.
I’ve had a light reading week, but did begin Ariel Levy’s recently-released memoir, The Rules Do Not Apply. She wrote the remarkable essay Thanksgiving in Mongolia, in which she told the story of an ill-fated trip which she embarked upon 5-months pregnant and returned from alone. I believe the book hinges on this story while sketching in more details of her life, relationships, and career. There’s also a good interview with her on the Lit Up podcast if you want a taster.
In place of audiobooks, S Town has been accompanying me on my walks for the past couple of weeks. Produced by the team from This American Life and Serial, it follows John B. MacLemore, an Alabaman fuelled by rage and disappointment for his hometown, the titular Shit-town. I enjoyed and largely agreed with Sarah Larson’s take on the series, which describes the series as novelistic. It’s an ultra-polished production, which gives me pause, but its thematic concerns and storytelling aesthetic really worked for me, and I’ll never be able to hear Bocelli without thinking of it again.
What’s on your nightstand? Hit reply and let me know!
Your turn! Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me, won’t you?
Have a lovely weekend!
Nicola x