on reading: quality over quantity

It’s that time again: a look back at my top reads of the year. In 2024, I focused more on the quality of my reading versus sheer quantity (reading 100 books in 2023 was a fun challenge but for now that can stay in the rear view mirror). I found that I retained more and enjoyed more — imagine that!

2024 was for bringing in the element of community and a lot of that was through book clubs. I was in three to four different book clubs over the course of 2024 and I even started my own!

My cardinal rule of reading: if you don’t love it within the first couple chapters, move on guilt free — slap a DNF on there and pick up something else. More tips on getting back into reading here.

I managed to narrow down a list of my top twelve reads, one for each month, in no particular order (links to local booksellers included!):

1. The Once and Future Witches. This was reccomened to me by a friend who is an excellent writer so I knew I could trust her taste, and I was not disappointed. Beautifully written, this is not a light, cozy, witchy read but a deep exploration of themes such as feminism, queer culture, and sisterhood. I love Alix E. Harrow, Starling House was one of my top reads of ‘23.

2. The Night Guest. I read this in a haunted hotel around Samhain (AKA Halloween) and finished it by flashlight with my mouth agape. Eerie and page turn-y. Set in Reykjavík and translated form Icelandic which adds to the dark flavour. A quick novella. The ending had me clawing my eyes out and needing to discuss, and for that it makes the list. The cheery pink cover is a trap.

3. The Heiress. I guess I had a thing for dark glamour this year. This book was chilling and delicious. I can’t and won’t say more, take yourself on a trip with this one.

4. 28 Summers by the Queen of Nantucket, Elin Hilderbrand, wins the award of The Most Unexpected because I signed up for a beach read and it ended up pulling at every heartstring and made me cry. While I have natal placements in Cancer, that doesn’t happen often with books. That’s what I love about Hilderbrand’s work: beachy is not necessarily synonyms with light. I read it while on Nantucket, but even if you can’t go there, you might as well have because this book is so transportive you can practically feel the sand between your toes. The Perfect Couple, Swan Song, and other Hilderbrand books kept me company this summer but nothing quite broke me like this one. It sounds like the Queen of Nantucket is hanging up her flip flops and switching to dark academia projects, so get in the beachy vibes while they’re hot.

5. Mad Honey. Beautiful and surprising, this is probably my favourite Jody Picoult book. It also made me want to become a bee keeper. Or maybe a queen bee.

6. Listen for the Lie. I read this with a friend and that made it all the more fun. All good text messages start with: “have you got to the part where…”. The podcast theme is becoming a bit popular but this was twisty and well executed.

7. The Year of Magical Thinking is critically acclaimed and famous for a reason. Joan Didion really is that girl. I owe her a lot because this book was the inspiration to start my own book club (shout out to The Main Course!) which has kept me intellectually fed and has nourished some beautiful friendships this year. One of my girlfriends described it so honestly when she said that she wouldn’t have been able to finish it without the accountability of a book club, because it just explores grief so rawly and vulnerably that it would be easier to put it down than emotionally “go there”. But when you do, you are changed.

8. Is there an afterlife? Do we come and go as we please? Do we do a few (hundred? thousand?) laps around the sun in a human carnation? Michael Newton’s Journey of Souls changed my relationship with death, my perception of life (huge claim!), and was the book I talked about most to anyone who would listen this year (shout out to Anna, my nail girl, who literally held my hands while I externally processed this book). Without being hyperbolic, Journey of Souls made me feel better about the undeniable truth that awaits us all: death.

Have you ever met someone and felt like they’re just an old soul? They possess a type of wisdom, calm, overall aura of… this isn’t their first rodeo? We see this a lot with kids — they are ahead of the curve, pick things up easily, say things we couldn’t have possibly taught them, and in some extreme cases recall memories from other lifetimes. Journey of Souls is a collection of case studies from psychologist and master hypnotherapist Michael Newton, spanning his career. Essentially, he puts people under deep hypnosis and they are able to connect with exact details of not only their previous lives but also the space in between lives. What I found most fascinating was that all of his clients, over the course of decades, from all walks of life, were able to verbalize and describe the exact same place in their own words. Essentially a school in the sky where we have guides, teachers, and peers where we are sorted according to our “level” AKA how many incarnations, lessons learned, wisdom gained etc. Newton was able to extract information and compare data to find something amazing: uncanny similarities between everyones experiences across the board. I also loved the ranking of souls as different colours of light, the description of how we are greeted on this other plane when we leave earth, and the overall sentiment that we choose our lives. If you read one book from this list, let it be the Journey of Souls. I am literally begging you.

9. I recommend Anxious People by Fredrik Backman the most this year because of it’s sheer originality, dark quirky humour, and Backman’s unique writing style. This is a book better experienced than explained. Thanks to my bff Sammy for putting this one in my orbit. Fall in love with Backman below, in this hilarious speech. (PS: Hey Freddy, can I call you that? Maybe we can meet up when I go to Sweden this spring? Meatballs on you).

10. A must read for fans of Isabella Stewart Gardner, The Lioness of Boston was my Roman Empire this year. Beautifully transportive this made me fall even more in love with Isabella and the archetype of the before-her-time badass woman. I found myself retracing her steps, standing in front of the site of her house on Beacon Street just absolutely awestruck. The book describes her painstakingly designing the house brick by literal brick and by doing so, embarrassing her husband because how dare a woman speak to a contractor and better yet, how dare a woman have an opinion or god forbid an idea. Fun fact, in real life Isabella had the home torn down and the address changed permanently after her passing so that no one can ever have the same address as her again. Pretty epic. Bonus points if you read this and visit her museum here in Boston for a totally immersive experience of the eccentric force that was and is Isabella Stewart Gardner.

11. THIS. BOOK. Wow. The Only One Left tanked my sleep score. I clutched this book ‘til the wee hours of the morning just dying to know what happens next. I inhaled it. Twists, shocks, dark glamour — this book has it all. Fast paced, creepy, mysterious. DO. IT.

12. And finally, my top rated book of the year. The book that has my heart. I am a huge fan of Matt Haig’s work and this is no exception. The Life Impossible follows the story of a retired mathematics teacher who mysteriously inherits property in Ibiza and vividly describes her mystical journey as she wades through grief and dare I say, alien life. PICK THIS UP for a heartfelt and beautifully bizarre story.

Wishing you plenty of cozy reading time this year. Remember it is not about how many books you tear through, but the books that tear ya up.

In quality,

ty

on inspiration: your teacher's teacher

Story Time.

The Rabbit Hole.

Referencing Alice in Wonderland seems like one of the most unoriginal things one can do, but I can't help it. We can all understand the imagery of tumbling down, down, down and one thing leading to another all based off of a single moment of curiosity. Right?

Last year, I had three hours to fill as Pinot was at a groomers appointment. It was on the other side of town and bla bla bla I found myself in a neighbourhood we wouldn't otherwise necessarily spend that much time in, you know?

Okay, focus. Three hours. Weird 'hood. Rabbit hole.

I was sitting in a sunny window seat of a cute juice cafe (unrelated to the story but lol's side note, it is the kind of juice place that runs out of juice??? The cooler that was once beautifully stocked with fancy, colourful juices was empty on my second visit? It's like a cupcake shop not having cupcakes? Or a bookstore not having books but just pushing puzzles and scented erasers instead???). Anyways, this day they had juice. They also had delicious macro-bowls, with portions so huge they warrant an hour stay while you wait for your dog to be groomed.

Okay, juice, bowl, you get it.

While I enjoyed my vegetable situation, I began to listen to a podcast. On this particular podcast they were featuring a self-help author I had never heard of. For most people this would be kind of normal, not knowing a best-selling self-help author, but for me it was a bit weird. I live in that genre. I have since I was a preteen.

I don’t know why, it just feels soothing to have someone spill their guts and give you some advice, even if it’s in the form of ink and paper.

Anyone who knows me can probably guess that it was Glennon Doyle's Podcast, We Can Do Hard Things (WCDHT), which she hosts with her wife Abby Wambach and her sister Amanda Doyle. The famous self-help guest was Martha Beck (episodes 66 and 67 if you are interested).

Essentially, the interview was so fucking good that I scrambled to find some surface for note taking (my phone is not one of them... I needed something for flowy, unedited longhand). The only surface I had was the back few blank pages of a book on Greek and Roman mythology I was reading. Sure, I could have paused the pod and waited until I was home with my handy dandy notebook (someone tell me you got that Blue's Clues reference?) but the sense of creative urgency was too strong. I had to commit the crime. I had to deface the book. Martha Beck had too many good things to say. There was too much gold to go undocumented. right. now.

So, Martha drops her gold, blows my mind, and all between huge bites of tahini broccolini and slugs of overpriced juice, Glennon credits a lot of her professional success and early writing to Martha.

This unlocked something for me.

I had used this theory in the yoga world, so why hadn't I thought to apply it to the writing world?

Follow your teacher’s teacher.

That's it.

Except, it's not it because your teacher’s teacher will have a teacher. Her teacher will have a teacher and so on.

So here is this particular map of teachers:

Phew.
The thing about this particular rabbit hole is that all of these writers were:

• Prominent in the late 80's early 90's

• Female

• A couple of them are queer/lesbian

• Had gone through wicked struggle

• And are all legendary, powerhouse creative beings

Martha Beck references Julia Cameron, Julia Cameron has a forward written by Natalie Goldberg and somehow, I was tumbling down a research and reading rabbit hole of one inspiring woman to the next.

Why had no one presented me with a list of these genius women and their work years ago?! Everyone has heard of The Artist's Way?! It is so popular, once it was on my radar, I even saw a meme about it, poking fun at how every struggling actor in LA has it tumbling around the back of their Toyota Prius.

Perhaps they came to me now because I had so much time to delve deep and learn from them?

But, Universe, one note: it was kind of overwhelming to receive them all at once. Next time can you sprinkle the geniuses on me one-by-one instead of dumping them on me in a span of mere weeks?

While I was making my way through some of these books, I posted about them and I got some messages affirming that they were, indeed, gold. At first, I felt a resounding sense of BETRAYAL (just kidding) but I felt a sense of WHY DID YOU ALL NOT TELL ME ABOUT THESE EARLIER!?

So, two things:

1) It might sound obvious but if you are inspired by someone, find out who inspired them. Boom. Another teacher.

2) Things are classics for a reason. Go back in time a little bit, especially for some reason the early 90's, because there is so much gold to be found that is still relevant today. Plus, you get a little boost for going out of your way to find it and you get a false sense of discovery because it isn't necessarily what your modern-day peers are consuming.

Here is the list of the Rabbit Hole books from the aforementioned badass women that I have either read, made my personal bible or am working through. Either way, highly recommend.

1) To absolutely nobodies surprise, the first book that really set it all off was Untamed by Glennon Doyle (you have probably already read this, it was basically the book of the Pandemic).

Glennon was inspired by:

2) Finding You Own North Star by Martha Beck

Martha was inspired by:

3) The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

4) Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

5) Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

I am sharing this with one clear lesson and one clear message: follow your teacher’s teacher. A teacher is anyone who inspires you, no matter how briefly.

That one afternoon of salad-eating-podcast-listening has led me to several invaluable books, notebooks full of notes, motivation to pick up a pen myself, and even a writing workshop hosted by Anne and Julia next fall.

Allow yourself to fall down the rabbit hole. You’ll be better for it.

Deep in inspiration,

ty