I think they are such a particular time or place. I feel like if you weren't in the UK in the Brexit years, they don't have the same resonance. I just finished Gliff though and LOVED it, but I'm an Ali Smith stan.
Milkman was really good - I ordered No Bones by Anna Burns as soon as I finished reading it. I just didn’t want Milkman to be over, I wanted to keep hearing about all of the characters, especially Wee Sisters.
I just dont trust myself to follow a plot in audio form. I really dont. I love holding a book in my hands! lmk how the non fiction audio goes. If I was to ever do audio, it'll be nonfiction for sure
Regarding All Fours "The idea of cataclysmic self-indulgence being the path to self realisation makes me wary." YES. The only reason I included this book in my most memorable of 2024 is because it was just that, memorable. I can't stop my horrified marveling at that bananas hotel room redecoration??? I honestly was really unsettled by the "cataclysmic self-indulgence" and felt no urges to follow that path, despite being in that exact midlife white lady demographic. And also ~ intros and afterwards and acknowledgements are seriously some of my favorite parts of books! They often completely change how I feel about a book. Please give them a try ;-)
I think it is very healthy that someone in their 20s cannot really relate and that women of any age read the character not as a role model but rather as a cautionary tale, of exactly how not to lose it, maybe try something else instead. I don’t recommend marriage and kids to just anyone, and at the same time I think it’s that psyche, of becoming secondary to the needs of a family you made, rather than specifically white woman psyche, on display.
That's how I read it too. I think I would have found her pathetic in my 20s... 😂
I keep coming back to this passage from Dept. of Speculation:
How had she become one of those people who wear yoga pants all day? She used to make fun of those people. With their happiness maps and their gratitude journals and their bags made out of recycled tire treads. But now it seems possible that the truth about getting older is that there are fewer and fewer things to make fun of until finally there is nothing you are sure you will never be.
A cautionary tale indeed. As a child of parents who made choices I won’t share here, all I can see when I read stories like this is the impact on the child. Our own lived experiences will always impact our relationship with a fictional tale, so it has been fascinating for me to read the discourse about this novel and realize my lens is so different than that of others.
Haha, I felt exactly the same about All Fours, in spite of having had a pretty intense menopause experience myself I was astounded at the bananasness of the whole thing.
The recap of recaps!!! I love this collection of reviews - very very good! Each one fun and fresh, just like you <3 Also enjoyed the transcript w Pandora v much. I feel like you've given *just* the right amount of spoiler and intrigue that I really want to read it soon! Honestly need to read it just for the quote P shared at the end bc thats wild. I often find people pleasing characters a bit drab bc I am so anti that irl but I'm into it if you found it so funny.
Loved that you loved Pachinko & Master and Marg takes a certain headspace that idek if I was in when I read it.
also cant wait for Jan reads. its looking good! I cannot believe you did not like Pachinko. you told me before but now I've read it we need to discuss again!
Ochuko, we are close in age but you are who I want to be when I grow up! 100+ books in a year? wow wow wow!! and the pride and happiness I felt finding some of the books I’ve read before in this list, and seeing your thoughts on them 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
I'm new to this newsletter, but I loved reading this! Gilead and Lonesome Dove have been sitting on my shelf for eons, and I'm feeling inspired to actually pick them up this year. The Interestings is one of Those Books for me (deeply formative, read at a time when I was forming my adult taste), so my heart always gets warm when I see someone else pick it up and love it. Also: Ripe perfectly encapsulates what I want to read less of in 2025. I got sucked in by "new!" "relevant!" "topical!" "surreal!" "compelling cover!" and just found it grim and passive.
our reading tastes are so in synch I love ths. please pick up gilead and lonesome dove and lmk what you think. they are truly amazing works of literature
My boyfriend bought me Master and Margarita when we first got together. Wasn’t in the mood then or now tbh. It’s been 4 and a half years, I should probably persevere…
I don’t think I would have related at all to Miranda July’s book if I was young, and didn’t have kids. It’s a motherhood menopause novel essentially. She def reads a little spoiled, tho
you know, its not like I didnt get what the book was trying to do. kind of like our discussion, I read books about people so different from me all the time. most of the books I read fall under this category. I think I was quite shocked by how galvanizing it was for people. it made me alarmed. then curious!
no I get that, but I think *understanding* a book’s intention is different to *relating* to it?I think the galvanizing part is that she literally ran away in order to serve her curiosity (and hormones lol) and that is just not remotely possible (or, like, advisable) for anyone with care obligations so it’s kind of freeing to even read about that in a book which also eschews guilt, shame etc (so rare)
Excellent list. FWIW i found anna karenina much more fun to read and easier to get through (though it's long) than Master and Margarita, in case that helps with russian literature boyfriend bonding!!
I read my first Lispector last year too - The Hour of The Star - and felt similarly... Like... existential despair. Different and poetic and insane enough to want to keep reading but WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME?! Two things helped me: reading entire passages out loud, with FEELING... made the words sink in in a way that made them make SOME sense to me. And then... journaling my heart out at the end, writing out questions for myself like: ok, you didn't get everything but you got SOME things... what DID you get? I would just write out basic lists - like who the characters were, what the physical setting was, what were three scenes that have stuck with me... And the book started to emerge. It's not like all of a sudden I am a fan... but I could see glimpses of clarity around it.
P.S. I am still cracking up that you, Nic and Martha all hated Autumn and I just thought it was the most charming ever.
honestly thanks for the recs. im a bit resentful that it takes this much work! but I shall endure. I expected to like autumn because you did but Petya I dont know what to tell you, I could not get into it!
Adding Assembly to the list of things to read. Also, YES re: All Fours, the ww psyche on full display.
full display. please read assembly and lmk what you think. its such a Tembe book lol
I loved Assembly and can't wait for Universality. I love a snack of a book, which packs a punch.
Brilliant reflections (AS USUAL)!! I attempted to start an Ali Smith this month and.... Well.....
Also so happy to see In the Dream House in your top 10. My favourite book of all time!
ooof I want to say Ali smith never again but I bought all those damn books!
I think they are such a particular time or place. I feel like if you weren't in the UK in the Brexit years, they don't have the same resonance. I just finished Gliff though and LOVED it, but I'm an Ali Smith stan.
lmao
Brb, starting a support group
honestly pls count me in. I wouldn't want to speak for Ochuko... but she'll be there too.
Milkman was really good - I ordered No Bones by Anna Burns as soon as I finished reading it. I just didn’t want Milkman to be over, I wanted to keep hearing about all of the characters, especially Wee Sisters.
wait I havent looked into any of her other books. was no bones good?!
It is!
I'm the same with audiobooks. I had a long drive over the Christmas break and thought I would listen to an audiobook... Nope. I immediately hated it.
I'm also the same with reading non fiction books. I just can't get into it.
Sooooo this year I want to try a non fiction audiobook. I feel it might work
I just dont trust myself to follow a plot in audio form. I really dont. I love holding a book in my hands! lmk how the non fiction audio goes. If I was to ever do audio, it'll be nonfiction for sure
Regarding All Fours "The idea of cataclysmic self-indulgence being the path to self realisation makes me wary." YES. The only reason I included this book in my most memorable of 2024 is because it was just that, memorable. I can't stop my horrified marveling at that bananas hotel room redecoration??? I honestly was really unsettled by the "cataclysmic self-indulgence" and felt no urges to follow that path, despite being in that exact midlife white lady demographic. And also ~ intros and afterwards and acknowledgements are seriously some of my favorite parts of books! They often completely change how I feel about a book. Please give them a try ;-)
I think it is very healthy that someone in their 20s cannot really relate and that women of any age read the character not as a role model but rather as a cautionary tale, of exactly how not to lose it, maybe try something else instead. I don’t recommend marriage and kids to just anyone, and at the same time I think it’s that psyche, of becoming secondary to the needs of a family you made, rather than specifically white woman psyche, on display.
That's how I read it too. I think I would have found her pathetic in my 20s... 😂
I keep coming back to this passage from Dept. of Speculation:
How had she become one of those people who wear yoga pants all day? She used to make fun of those people. With their happiness maps and their gratitude journals and their bags made out of recycled tire treads. But now it seems possible that the truth about getting older is that there are fewer and fewer things to make fun of until finally there is nothing you are sure you will never be.
— Jenny Offill, Department of Speculation
“Nothing you are sure you’ll never be” - truer words have never been been written
A cautionary tale indeed. As a child of parents who made choices I won’t share here, all I can see when I read stories like this is the impact on the child. Our own lived experiences will always impact our relationship with a fictional tale, so it has been fascinating for me to read the discourse about this novel and realize my lens is so different than that of others.
Haha, I felt exactly the same about All Fours, in spite of having had a pretty intense menopause experience myself I was astounded at the bananasness of the whole thing.
it was s fun though!!! we love a bananas narrator
The recap of recaps!!! I love this collection of reviews - very very good! Each one fun and fresh, just like you <3 Also enjoyed the transcript w Pandora v much. I feel like you've given *just* the right amount of spoiler and intrigue that I really want to read it soon! Honestly need to read it just for the quote P shared at the end bc thats wild. I often find people pleasing characters a bit drab bc I am so anti that irl but I'm into it if you found it so funny.
Loved that you loved Pachinko & Master and Marg takes a certain headspace that idek if I was in when I read it.
10/10 can't wait for the January reads xxx
also cant wait for Jan reads. its looking good! I cannot believe you did not like Pachinko. you told me before but now I've read it we need to discuss again!
Ochuko, we are close in age but you are who I want to be when I grow up! 100+ books in a year? wow wow wow!! and the pride and happiness I felt finding some of the books I’ve read before in this list, and seeing your thoughts on them 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
thanks sab! which ones have you read? and which did you love?
I'm new to this newsletter, but I loved reading this! Gilead and Lonesome Dove have been sitting on my shelf for eons, and I'm feeling inspired to actually pick them up this year. The Interestings is one of Those Books for me (deeply formative, read at a time when I was forming my adult taste), so my heart always gets warm when I see someone else pick it up and love it. Also: Ripe perfectly encapsulates what I want to read less of in 2025. I got sucked in by "new!" "relevant!" "topical!" "surreal!" "compelling cover!" and just found it grim and passive.
our reading tastes are so in synch I love ths. please pick up gilead and lonesome dove and lmk what you think. they are truly amazing works of literature
The fact that your average rating is so high says a lot of great things about you 🫶
I like to think it means I have great taste!
My boyfriend bought me Master and Margarita when we first got together. Wasn’t in the mood then or now tbh. It’s been 4 and a half years, I should probably persevere…
we're in the same boat! let me know if you decided to pick it back up and what the verdict is
Why do boys love it so?! Clearly there’s something hidden in there. Will report back.
PS. You and your Substack incredible - I do a boogie when it lands in my inbox x
I abandoned Sex & Rage half way thru! I so wanted to love it
I should have abandoned it. I started skimming the pages half way as well. it wasnt a very good book
If I’m being honest I really hated my first Lispector and I’m gonna die someday so trying to let that go 😂
I'm so glad so many people are on the same page lol. which of her books did you read?
Near to the Wild Heart and I did not know what was happening ever.
I don’t think I would have related at all to Miranda July’s book if I was young, and didn’t have kids. It’s a motherhood menopause novel essentially. She def reads a little spoiled, tho
you know, its not like I didnt get what the book was trying to do. kind of like our discussion, I read books about people so different from me all the time. most of the books I read fall under this category. I think I was quite shocked by how galvanizing it was for people. it made me alarmed. then curious!
no I get that, but I think *understanding* a book’s intention is different to *relating* to it?I think the galvanizing part is that she literally ran away in order to serve her curiosity (and hormones lol) and that is just not remotely possible (or, like, advisable) for anyone with care obligations so it’s kind of freeing to even read about that in a book which also eschews guilt, shame etc (so rare)
Excellent list. FWIW i found anna karenina much more fun to read and easier to get through (though it's long) than Master and Margarita, in case that helps with russian literature boyfriend bonding!!
ooof its on my list. I'm just intimidated by the size tbh.
The chapters are so short which helps!
I love this!!! Always impressed not only by how much you read but how you do so thoughtfully as well
thanks Steph! I just love reading so much I guess. the reading itself, and all the fun stuff I get to do after like write about it :)
🥹🥹
I read my first Lispector last year too - The Hour of The Star - and felt similarly... Like... existential despair. Different and poetic and insane enough to want to keep reading but WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME?! Two things helped me: reading entire passages out loud, with FEELING... made the words sink in in a way that made them make SOME sense to me. And then... journaling my heart out at the end, writing out questions for myself like: ok, you didn't get everything but you got SOME things... what DID you get? I would just write out basic lists - like who the characters were, what the physical setting was, what were three scenes that have stuck with me... And the book started to emerge. It's not like all of a sudden I am a fan... but I could see glimpses of clarity around it.
P.S. I am still cracking up that you, Nic and Martha all hated Autumn and I just thought it was the most charming ever.
honestly thanks for the recs. im a bit resentful that it takes this much work! but I shall endure. I expected to like autumn because you did but Petya I dont know what to tell you, I could not get into it!