I always enjoy your book recommendations! I read George Saunders' Tenth of December collection this year. The eponymous story touched me so deeply in light of recent discussions about MAID around the world. I've almost committed this quote to memory and felt it resonated particularly well with your work on the dignity of dependence:
"Why should those he loved not lift and bend and feed and wipe him, when he would gladly do the same for them? He’d been afraid to be lessened by the lifting and bending and feeding and wiping, and was still afraid of that, and yet, at the same time, now saw that there could still be many—many drops of goodness, is how it came to him—many drops of happy—of good fellowship—ahead, and those drops of fellowship were not—had never been—his to withheld."
I also really enjoyed How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold Story of Beauty & Female Creativity by Jill Burke. A really fascinating dive into the world of Renaissance cosmetics with recipes included!
The Body She Had was a wonderful essay. I sent it to 3 young women that I love (my 23 year old daughter who teaches 'special ed', my 15 year old granddaughter who lives with a brother with 'special needs', and my grand niece who works in an 'woman's assistance' non-profit). As a retired physician I connected very strongly to several different aspects of this difficult topic...
All my favorite books of the year come, coincidentally, from what I was reading in May/June this year. It was just a really good month for books somehow. In the order I finished them:
- Tehanu, by Ursula Le Guin. This is an amazing book and I wouldn't have found it if this newsletter's 2023 book club hadn't gotten me to finally pick up A Wizard of Earthsea, so thank y'all for that. I loved the story itself, and also found that something about Le Guin's way of framing the questions around her themes was very helpful for kick-starting my own thoughts on them.
- Persuasion, by Jane Austen. I'd never read it before or heard much about it, but I enjoyed it very much. It's subtle and sweet.
- Cahokia Jazz, by Francis Spufford. Alt-history isn't a genre I've tried until this book, but I loved it and was really impressed. The amount of thought and attention to detail that shows in both the story's plot and the landscape/history of Spufford's alt-Roaring-Twenties-city is incredible.
I was struck by the adaptation of buildings book and may buy it for my husband, an architect. I'm working on an article for Comment about the limits of single family homes. In the back and forth on edits I was asked for more practical guidance on house sharing and one suggestion I made was that function follows form; if houses were designed to share, then sharing would be easier. Pre war housing often had servant areas, which conveniently now can be adapted for house sharing with house mates. Post war housing, on the other hand, meant to be more democratic and affordable, also had only the nuclear family in mind, and is much harder to adapt. In my home, the strange, large attic became an opportunity for a new adaptation in to our modern life and values, and we've had many long term guests up there. Alas, since most of the new design I do is with affordability in mind. I think design for changing lives really could solve a lot of the housing crisis, especially if people were able to share space in ways that also allowed for flexibility and privacy.
I can fix this and other lies… by Kristina Kuzmic is a raw and beautiful book about humility and releasing control in the service of recognizing her son’s innate dignity in times of extreme struggle.
> what if we look honestly at the world as it has been (Snyder) and is, and on that foundation think through the what (Schulte) and how (McAlevey) of making our world truly more humane?
Favorite fiction:
The Terraformers, Annalee Newitz
> exactly what I look for in science fiction: exquisite world building, a compelling multi generational story and a unique perspective. In this case corporate-made & corporate-owned slaves asserting their independence (and perosnhood) as they create a custom world.
Favorite re-read: A Psalm for the Wild Built, Becky Chambers
> a hot cup of tea on a crisp fall evening. A perfect little novella to facilitate dreams of an abundant and gratefully human future.
Essay* first: "The universe suddenly hates satire" - Erik Hoel, "The Intrinsic Perspective."
Amazing book: "Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships" by David Schnarch.
My blurb: Imagine a marriage book written with the assumption that trying to grow in having a more loving and enjoyable sexual relationship (in marriage) is totally worth it - not for purely hedonistic reasons - but BECAUSE it's impossible to do so without one (really both) of you growing in maturity. And that sexual desire for ones spouse is not an isolated variable, but is related more holistically to how the couple is functioning in all parts of the relationship. (This is like the antithesis of something you'd posted awhile back - ah, it was the Christine Emba book interview - about men and women worrying that they need to "study porn" to learn "how to do good sex" and thinking of it as "learning to be generically good at sex.")
* Ooof! My life has been too-devoid of taking in books I've never read before this year, methinks!
RE the whole "Will this book be 'TMI'?" question: The author thought really carefully about what to include and what not to include w.r.t the intimate details of couples' relationships from counseling sessions.
I'm a "more-sheltered" sort of person than lots of OtherFeminisms readers, I think, and... with that for context, I will say it would have been "TMI" for me to be comfortable with 10 years ago, but... (Not to mention the struggle to think through which things I disagree with; on a topic this serious, you're not going to agree, morally, with any given author's calls 100% of the time!) ..now that I'm getting older and have been married over 20 years, it's within the bounds of the knowledge I can reasonably handle hearing about - at least given the right tone of the conversation!
Have I already insisted that you read John Lee Clark? I read both his major-press books this year and they were major 2024 discoveries for me (as was, uh, Ulysses). “Touch the Future” is a series of revelatory essays about his experience as a DeafBlind person growing up in a signing Deaf household; “How to Communicate” is an innovative collection of poems, especially drawing on the expressive richness of Braille and ProTactile.
1. Nonfiction - I Never Thought of It That Way by Monica Guzman - Monica has an organization I volunteer for called Braver Angels, and the book has the same goal as the group - to teach people how to disagree better - to be against ideas and not against each other.
2. Nonfiction - Dear Heart, Come Home by Joyce Rupp. Subtitled "The Path of Midlife Spirituality", perfect for the time of life I'm in, with its challenges of hormonal changes and letting go of grown children.
3. Memoir - Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz. By a Puerto Rican women who moves to Miami with her schizophrenic mom. It's heartbreaking and gritty and hopeful.
4. Fiction - Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. I love Doerr, his writing is beautiful but some work to read. I am always touched and always glad I put forth the effort.
5. Fiction - The Maid by Nita Prose. The main character is on the spectrum, and is written with sensitivity and fun.
6. One more memoir - How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. Safiya is Jamaican and her dad is an extremely strict Rastafarian. We hear about what it's like to grow up under that specific kind of strictness, and how she reconciles it as she reaches adulthood.
Nothing to see Here by Kevin Wilson. I didn’t read it this year, but I was reminded of it reading this post and the comments. It was probably my favorite book of the year the year I read it, and in a way it is a very Other Feminisms book.
I always enjoy your book recommendations! I read George Saunders' Tenth of December collection this year. The eponymous story touched me so deeply in light of recent discussions about MAID around the world. I've almost committed this quote to memory and felt it resonated particularly well with your work on the dignity of dependence:
"Why should those he loved not lift and bend and feed and wipe him, when he would gladly do the same for them? He’d been afraid to be lessened by the lifting and bending and feeding and wiping, and was still afraid of that, and yet, at the same time, now saw that there could still be many—many drops of goodness, is how it came to him—many drops of happy—of good fellowship—ahead, and those drops of fellowship were not—had never been—his to withheld."
I also really enjoyed How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold Story of Beauty & Female Creativity by Jill Burke. A really fascinating dive into the world of Renaissance cosmetics with recipes included!
That quote is beautiful. I've never read any George Saunders, but maybe I should now.
LOVE Tenth of December! This post just reminded me of it. I think I’m going to start rereading it.
The Body She Had was a wonderful essay. I sent it to 3 young women that I love (my 23 year old daughter who teaches 'special ed', my 15 year old granddaughter who lives with a brother with 'special needs', and my grand niece who works in an 'woman's assistance' non-profit). As a retired physician I connected very strongly to several different aspects of this difficult topic...
All my favorite books of the year come, coincidentally, from what I was reading in May/June this year. It was just a really good month for books somehow. In the order I finished them:
- Tehanu, by Ursula Le Guin. This is an amazing book and I wouldn't have found it if this newsletter's 2023 book club hadn't gotten me to finally pick up A Wizard of Earthsea, so thank y'all for that. I loved the story itself, and also found that something about Le Guin's way of framing the questions around her themes was very helpful for kick-starting my own thoughts on them.
- Persuasion, by Jane Austen. I'd never read it before or heard much about it, but I enjoyed it very much. It's subtle and sweet.
- Cahokia Jazz, by Francis Spufford. Alt-history isn't a genre I've tried until this book, but I loved it and was really impressed. The amount of thought and attention to detail that shows in both the story's plot and the landscape/history of Spufford's alt-Roaring-Twenties-city is incredible.
I was struck by the adaptation of buildings book and may buy it for my husband, an architect. I'm working on an article for Comment about the limits of single family homes. In the back and forth on edits I was asked for more practical guidance on house sharing and one suggestion I made was that function follows form; if houses were designed to share, then sharing would be easier. Pre war housing often had servant areas, which conveniently now can be adapted for house sharing with house mates. Post war housing, on the other hand, meant to be more democratic and affordable, also had only the nuclear family in mind, and is much harder to adapt. In my home, the strange, large attic became an opportunity for a new adaptation in to our modern life and values, and we've had many long term guests up there. Alas, since most of the new design I do is with affordability in mind. I think design for changing lives really could solve a lot of the housing crisis, especially if people were able to share space in ways that also allowed for flexibility and privacy.
Make sure you send me the piece!
What a poetic essay "The Body She Had" is. I will remember it.
I can fix this and other lies… by Kristina Kuzmic is a raw and beautiful book about humility and releasing control in the service of recognizing her son’s innate dignity in times of extreme struggle.
An author/books recommendation:
Steven D Smith
The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse
Fictions, Lies, And the Authority of Law
The Disintegrating Conscience And the Decline of Modernity
I'm curious about that one! Anything else you'd like to share?
Not understanding - “I’m curious about that one’ ? I likely would share more if you clarify…
I'd love to hear more about Fictions, Lies, And the Authority of Law
Favorite nonfiction:
Overwork, Brigid Schulte
No Shortcuts, Jane McAlevey
Bloodlands, Timothy Snyder
> what if we look honestly at the world as it has been (Snyder) and is, and on that foundation think through the what (Schulte) and how (McAlevey) of making our world truly more humane?
Favorite fiction:
The Terraformers, Annalee Newitz
> exactly what I look for in science fiction: exquisite world building, a compelling multi generational story and a unique perspective. In this case corporate-made & corporate-owned slaves asserting their independence (and perosnhood) as they create a custom world.
Favorite re-read: A Psalm for the Wild Built, Becky Chambers
> a hot cup of tea on a crisp fall evening. A perfect little novella to facilitate dreams of an abundant and gratefully human future.
Essay* first: "The universe suddenly hates satire" - Erik Hoel, "The Intrinsic Perspective."
Amazing book: "Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships" by David Schnarch.
My blurb: Imagine a marriage book written with the assumption that trying to grow in having a more loving and enjoyable sexual relationship (in marriage) is totally worth it - not for purely hedonistic reasons - but BECAUSE it's impossible to do so without one (really both) of you growing in maturity. And that sexual desire for ones spouse is not an isolated variable, but is related more holistically to how the couple is functioning in all parts of the relationship. (This is like the antithesis of something you'd posted awhile back - ah, it was the Christine Emba book interview - about men and women worrying that they need to "study porn" to learn "how to do good sex" and thinking of it as "learning to be generically good at sex.")
* Ooof! My life has been too-devoid of taking in books I've never read before this year, methinks!
RE the whole "Will this book be 'TMI'?" question: The author thought really carefully about what to include and what not to include w.r.t the intimate details of couples' relationships from counseling sessions.
I'm a "more-sheltered" sort of person than lots of OtherFeminisms readers, I think, and... with that for context, I will say it would have been "TMI" for me to be comfortable with 10 years ago, but... (Not to mention the struggle to think through which things I disagree with; on a topic this serious, you're not going to agree, morally, with any given author's calls 100% of the time!) ..now that I'm getting older and have been married over 20 years, it's within the bounds of the knowledge I can reasonably handle hearing about - at least given the right tone of the conversation!
Have I already insisted that you read John Lee Clark? I read both his major-press books this year and they were major 2024 discoveries for me (as was, uh, Ulysses). “Touch the Future” is a series of revelatory essays about his experience as a DeafBlind person growing up in a signing Deaf household; “How to Communicate” is an innovative collection of poems, especially drawing on the expressive richness of Braille and ProTactile.
You did recommend Touch the Future and it was excellent!
Best books of 2024 were:
1. Nonfiction - I Never Thought of It That Way by Monica Guzman - Monica has an organization I volunteer for called Braver Angels, and the book has the same goal as the group - to teach people how to disagree better - to be against ideas and not against each other.
2. Nonfiction - Dear Heart, Come Home by Joyce Rupp. Subtitled "The Path of Midlife Spirituality", perfect for the time of life I'm in, with its challenges of hormonal changes and letting go of grown children.
3. Memoir - Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz. By a Puerto Rican women who moves to Miami with her schizophrenic mom. It's heartbreaking and gritty and hopeful.
4. Fiction - Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. I love Doerr, his writing is beautiful but some work to read. I am always touched and always glad I put forth the effort.
5. Fiction - The Maid by Nita Prose. The main character is on the spectrum, and is written with sensitivity and fun.
6. One more memoir - How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. Safiya is Jamaican and her dad is an extremely strict Rastafarian. We hear about what it's like to grow up under that specific kind of strictness, and how she reconciles it as she reaches adulthood.
Nothing to see Here by Kevin Wilson. I didn’t read it this year, but I was reminded of it reading this post and the comments. It was probably my favorite book of the year the year I read it, and in a way it is a very Other Feminisms book.