For eight years now I’ve been drawing everything that I read. I don’t think there’s any particular reason for it. I think, maybe, I’ll stop when I’ve done ten years, I’ll lay all the drawings together in one great big mass. Everything I’ve read over a decade. That’ll do pig I’ll think.
Except it won’t be everything I’ve read because every year I forget one or two, and for the first few years I didn’t include graphic novels or poetry for reasons that I can barely recall now. This year the list doesn’t include the many, many books I’ve started and abandoned; sometimes forever and sometimes with every intention of returning when I feel more awake/focused/intellectual. This pile (the abandoned books pile) is more enormous than ever and my hope for Christmas is to return to a few of them and finish the job I started. This past year, more than ever, I’ve been a scattered and chaotic reader. I’ve felt my attention roaming around, trying to find the thing; the thing that will keep me rapt, hooked, wide awake into the small hours allowing myself just one more chapter before sleep.
I thought, when I began the drawing, that this had been a really bad year for my reading (not that the books were bad, more that I had rarely fallen totally in love with ant of them) but, actually, when I went through the list there are some real treats in here. Also a little nod to my book club (called ‘cook blub’) which I think had quite a strong showing this year. Last year, to celebrate hitting thirty (one) books, Anna (blub founder) commission me to draw everything we’d read. Which looked a bit like this.
Anyway! Ongoing thanks to book club/cook blub for being a constantly enjoyable facet of my reading life.
I’ll go through some favourites from this year for you, in case you’re interested. There’s still…two shopping days before Christmas so, who knows, this might be useful (more than likely it isn’t, sorry).
All Fours- Miranda July- You’ve read it, all the women in your life have read it, maybe some of the men too. All Fours is the literary phenomenon of this year, as well as being a sort of revelatory moment in conversations about women and aging. It’s a marvel, honestly. It’s one of those books that will exist so vividly in your imagination it’ll plant memories of places you’ve never been, places that don’t even exist. If you’ve not read it, treat yourself. If you have, maybe join me in a re-read next year?
Loved and Missed- Susie Boyt- I’ve recommended this already. Here’s what i said- ‘In March Lisa Owens recommended me this book and now I am recommending it to you. We have made it our mission in to be the Susie Boyt/Loved and Missed street team and we’re doing the hard sell. It’s so good, folks. Deeply lovely, very moving and, inevitably, quite sad (edit- it’s really sad, I shouldn’t play this down). Yet this story, about a Grandmother raising her Grandaughter whilst recalling her frayed relationship with her troubled daughter is also gently funny, matter of fact and oddly cosy. I love a London-based novel, especially if it takes place before 1999, and this one ticks so many boxes for lovely interior details and attention to the domestic. Honestly, it’s a lovely time. I’m handing out copies to people I think need it. Maybe you should do this too?’
The Echoes- Evie Wyld Evie Wyld is one of those writers who can be relied upon to deliver. Every time. I’ve read all of her novels and I think this is maybe her finest. The balance is just right. Smart and funny and full of mundane terror in equal measure. I forgot I was reading a novel and genuinely believed I’d just been dropped into someone else’s thoughts. Knockout stuff, I think. Also in the final pages I challenge you not to feel as though your entire body hasn’t been opened up and exposed to a celestial level of golden sunlight. Beautiful and painful.
ALSO
Ordinary Human Failings- Megan Nolan. Maybe not a festive read but such sharp, empathatic and well-observed writing I can’t not recommend it.
The Dig- Cynan Jones Same as above really. Again maybe a bit brutal for Christmas but definitely worth your time if you can cope with some very, uh, vivid descriptions of the more violent aspects of farm life.
Any Helen Garner you can get your hands on is a good time.
And, next year, keep an eye out for Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley. I suspect you’ll have to work hard to miss it, it’s surely going to be huge. Which is deserves to be, a truly delicious delight which I read quickly and greedily!
What about you? What were your favourite reading experience this year?
I’ve been very awful at the free side of this substack this autumn BUT if you fancy hopping over to the paid side of things there are nine parts of my ten-part picture book writing module available to watch at your leisure. The final part will be up after Christmas! So it’s a good time to sign up and get the whole lot in one go, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
Lizzy
Oh say nothing, I’ve heard of that one, it’s about the troubles, right? In Ireland
🩷