Let’s get the book recommendations out of the way.

I thought about putting together a list of my top ten favorite books from the past decade, but it’s one of those things where I want to invite Jhumpa to the party but then I can’t NOT invite Roxane or Mira. Elif, Erin, Nathan, and Amy absolutely have to be there. Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz. Olja Savicevic.

Ah, but then it occurred to me that no one is depending on me for a list of books. The pressure? It is off.

Fiction. I loved many, but especially these:
1. The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern
2. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
3. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
4. The Nix by Nathan Hill
5. Adios, Cowboy by Olja Savicevic
6. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
7. Amp’d by Ken Pisani
8. 2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino

Here is a photo to break up this post a bit. Meredith ordered a few piercing kits and I know it’s super dangerous and terribly dirty and probably immoral, but I sat on the toilet and let her pierce my ear (after she pierced her own, obviously). Fun Fact: It’s not the first time I’ve sat on a toilet to let someone pierce my ear.)
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Memoirs always spark me.
1. Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal (AKR inspires me every single day.)
2. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
3. Hunger by Roxane Gay
4. In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri (When I finished the book, I could sort of read Italian, and I’m not kidding.)
5. Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz (I recommend the audiobook. Crazy good.)
6. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
7. Calypso by David Sedaris

This woman was on Jeopardy a few weeks ago, and I just KNEW she knit her shawl, so I did a little research, and I now have the pattern. Knitters, man.
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I really should read more non-fiction.
1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2. How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

Tell me some of your favorite books from the last year or decade or whatever. Or don’t. 2020 is not the year where I tell you what to do.

5 thoughts on “Let’s get the book recommendations out of the way.”

  1. How am I the first to comment?!

    Circe – Madeline Miller
    Normal People – Sally Rooney
    Are we doing the DECADE or just the year? Circe would be on my decade/lifetime list. Not sure about Normal People. Talking about piercing, my 15 year old confided in me the other day that she had pierced her own ear. I was really upset – she had been pushing for a nose ring or some other sort of piercing and we had told her she had to wait until she was 18 to decide on additional piercings (beyond single ear piercings) so it was so upsetting to have this conversation and to agree on it, then for her to somehow go into her bathroom and shove a needle through her ear? Maybe I was making too much of it, but I was just so hurt that we had had an agreement that was so easily violated. I don’t know. If we’re talking DECADE books, I would add the following:
    Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman
    Between the World and Me – Ta’Nahesi Coates
    The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
    They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us – Hanif Abdurraqib (listen to the music as you read each essay)
    An American Marriage – Tayari Jones
    I’m sure there are more that I can’t think of right now. Happy new year! xo

  3. I saw that woman on Jeopardy, too, and recognized that she was A Knitter. Fun fact: I was on Jeopardy (12/27/18) and wore a hand-knit cowl one day (Hawick; my photo with Alex Trebek is on the pattern page) and a hand-knit sweater the next (Tappan Zee from Knitty). Amazingly, I got messages on Ravelry from other knitters who had seen me.

  5. Almost anything by Barbara Pym but especially: Quartet in Autumn and Excellent Women. She was “rediscovered” in the 70’s ….. Sadly, she passed away years ago. I visited her grave in the small English town of Finstock, and cried, which I rarely do.

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