My four favorite books of 2024
& should creatives "force it" for consistency's sake?
The joke about recipe bloggers telling you their entire life story before they let you jump to a kale salad recipe (this one is my ride-or-die, btw) is about a decade old now, but SEO retains power over us all. If you’re not into rambling introductions, and want to skip straight to the book recs, scroll through the first six paragraphs of this newsletter. If you want to hear my thoughts on growing a Substack as a side hustle and the concept of “forcing it,” go forth and read the whole thing 💗
As a result of my prior two newsletters, I’m currently 7 days into the 75 Hard outfit challenge annnnd no more than ~35 pages into Anna Karenina. More on the outfits next week, and AK next month, but these two extracurricular pursuits are taking up most of my brain space for the foreseeable future.
It’s because of this that I almost skipped this week’s newsletter. Even before writer’s pay became contingent on churning out clickbait on a grand scale (or relegating writing to a side hustle while taking on a better-paying day job🙋♀️), there’s been a tension in the creative community. There’s the “don’t force it” camp, who encourage writing solely when you’re inspired, and never putting out work you’re not immensely proud of. Then there’s the “ship it” camp, the Seth Godins and Steven Pressfields of the world.*
There are myriad factors these days that back up “shipping it:” algorithms that reward consistency chief among them. You could produce one “great work” per month, but producing four “fine/good works” per month, one per week (or more), will likely bring you increased digital visibility—crucial for writers who rely on their creative work as their sole source of income (and why it’s often not recommended these days).
I want to grow on Substack (so plz do share w friends if you feel inclined😘), so I try to write consistently. I’ve always wanted to tackle a longer-term writing project—with real, considered research behind it—which I’m hoping to access via Play the Hits and Hot Historical Gossip. But for the weeks in between: sometimes, I’m simply out of ideas (although, literally as I typed that sentence, I remembered an idea I’d had last week for this week’s newsletter that I never actioned—whoops).
One of the reasons my newsletter was so sporadic in the early years is that I fell squarely in the “not forcing it” camp. If I wasn’t acutely inspired to write about something, I wouldn’t write. But with a move to Substack, increased exposure means every week I don’t write I could be losing out on an opportunity—to get pulled into the feed, attract the attention of an editor, or write a piece that encourages someone to pay for a subscription (while everything I write is currently free, I have a number of gorgeous paid subscribers who I ❤️). So, I write weekly now. That means not every newsletter is perfect, and there are more rambling introductions than I ever imagined, but, I’m “shipping it.”
As I was stressing about what to write today, I came across a quote that said “if you’re underthinking, read; if you’re overthinking, write.” (can’t remember where, so if you posted it, show yourself). And so, courtesy of the underthinker within me this week, I’m sharing my four favorite books of the year so far, all intense, inventive long-form projects that paid off.
2024’s Top Four (so far!)**
BTW: I write long-form reviews weekly on my website.
This brilliant biographical novel—two decades in the making—was exactly the type of long-form project I dream about.
In 2003, Anne Berest’s mother, Lélia, received a postcard that simply said: Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie, Jacques—the names of her grandparents, aunt, and uncle, all of whom died in Auschwitz. Lélia’s mother was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust.
In 2013, a decade after the postcard lands in their mailbox, Berest is on bedrest about to give birth and determined to resurface the story. Who sent the postcard? Why? Was it a threat, or a remembrance?
With the help of her mothers comprehensive but cluttered family archives, Berest pieces together her family’s history—from her great-great-grandparents escape from Russia, to her grandparents’ pursuit of a better life in Europe, to what happened during the Holocaust, and how her grandmother, Miriam, was spared by marrying into one of France’s grand bohemian families.
It’s captivating, devastating, and beautifully told by Berest.
For fans of: House of Glass, My Granfather’s Gallery
Full review here.
Penance was one of my first reads of 2024, post-My Brilliant Friend series, and I could not physically put it down. I found it horrifying, disturbing, at times even borderline unacceptable—but entirely gripping nonetheless.
Penance takes place in a seaside town in England, where three girls have just murdered their classmate via arson. It’s a book-within-a-book, a journalist’s account of what happened leading up to and in the aftermath of the murder.
It’s structured like a thriller, written like a serious work of literary fiction (Eliza Clark was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in 2023). It explores power dynamics in young female friendship, the detriments of a life lived online, sexuality, parenting, and the reckless impulsivity of youth.
For fans of: Three Women (for the exploration of the female psyche), My Year of Rest and Relaxation or The New Me (you need to be able to handle disgust), and The Florida Project (mainly because I’d picture a similar visual universe for the inevitable movie or series that comes from this).
Full review here.
Chain Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Simultaneously a searing indictment on the current state of incarceration in America and a dystopian vision of how bad it could get, Chain Gang All-Stars was a bleak creative triumph.
In Adjei-Brenyah’s vision of America, prisoners sentenced to the death penalty have the “opportunity” to join a program called CAPE. CAPE, which stands for “Criminal Action Penal Entertainment” is an arm of a big corporation that runs America’s prison systems, largely privatized in this vision of the future. The crown jewel in CAPE’s programming is a show called Chain Gang All-Stars, a televised reality series wherein prisoners sentenced to the death are given the chance to fight for their freedom. The caveat? They have to fight each other. To the death. The fights are televised as part of the structured reality TV program, which explores the “links” (the word for those in different chains partaking in the program)—and the show has a massive fanbase, millions strong.
We meet the prisoners who partake—we learn how they got there, why they joined CAPE, and, more importantly, who they are beyond the crime they’ve committed. It’s a work of fiction, but it’s also peppered with footnotes that contain affecting real-life statistics on incarceration in America.
We also see the spectators of Chain Gang All-Stars attempt to rationalize their obsession with the brutal blood sport. We sit in on the corporation board meetings where they discuss the program’s “importance,” and we hear from people who inadvertently contributed to the program before realizing they played a role.
It’s powerful, intense, creative, and desolate—certainly not light reading, but it’s the type of book everyone should read.
Non-fiction: Just Mercy, Hood Feminism (read these years ago, still deeply affecting)
Fiction: Transcendent Kingdom, Girl, Woman, Other (two all-time faves), Yellowface
Full review coming soon.
Let me just say: I loved Milk Fed. Let me also say: not for everyone! Rachel is a Jersey girl living in Los Angeles obsessed with one thing and one thing only: staying thin. She works at a middling talent agency where her sole source of daily excitement is her protein bar lunch and a plain frozen yogurt-NO toppings-for dinner. But one day, her usual fro-yo guy is gone, replaced by his sister, Miriam, who is curvy and determined to get Rachel to indulge in her decadent fro-yo concoctions.
Rachel caves, and her decades of tightly controlled calorie-counting unravel before our eyes. She starts eating again and she can’t stop. When she begins to forge a friendship with Miriam, and gets invited to her family’s Shabbat, Rachel is enamored with her family’s close-knit dynamic, which sits in stark contrast to the frosty relationship she shares with her own mother.
Rachel soon becomes infatuated with Miriam and they begin a clandestine affair, which consumes Rachel with pleasure and Miriam with shame and begs the question: what truly “feeds” us?
It’s sad, funny, and reflective—Broder’s voice is singularly charming, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of her oeuvre.
For fans of: All’s Well, Other People’s Clothes
Full review here.
**Honorable mention goes to The Shards, which absolutely falls in the top five. Just didn’t include here because I’ve already written about it.
*Julia Cameron might be the anomaly who falls somewhere in between, encouraging creatives to examine their inner worlds with brutal consistency to draw out the creativity, instead of “shipping” externally no matter what (and, of course, the external work often naturally follows. I created this newsletter during my first round of TAW, and redesigned my website during the second).
I’ve done The Artist’s Way twice, and I’m kind of itching for round 3…DM me if you want to do it with me!
Adds Penance, Milk Fed and Chain Gang All Stars to basket! Such great reviews without giving too much away 👏 thanks!