Hello friends far and wide and WELCOME to the very first LFLC dispatch of 2021!
I’m so glad you’re here. This newsletter comes to you a day late, because I honestly just straight up forgot to write it this week. I’m not sure if that’s an indication of how relaxing my holidays were or an indication of how unfun 2021 has already been. Either way, here we are. This week’s dispatch is a link-heavy one, a review of sorts, a list of all my favorite things I read last year- books, articles, newsletters, etc.- and I hope that you find something new to read.
Upon review, a lot of last year’s “things I read this week” recommendations are directly related to last year’s big themes; there’s a lot of COVID related reading, multiple fantasies about parties that didn’t exist, political writings (both serious and satirical), and one particularly insightful piece about burnout. I started this newsletter last May with the intention to keep momentum in my quest to open a bookstore, a plan which was moving along swimmingly until COVID lockdowns turned my brain off semi permanently. Instead, this newsletter has turned into a bit of a time capsule, saying more about the world surrounding it (at least, to me) than I expected it to. Anywho… I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you, for subscribing and following the instagram, for reading my recommendations and talking with me about books. I am deeply grateful for this community of book people.
Alright, let’s get into it⬇️
Here are my top 5(ish) favorite books from 2020:
I think first place must go to 84, Charing Cross Road: an epistolary memoir about a bookseller and a book collector, it was everything I love about books. I started weeping 9 pages in.
The second on this list is Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling). This book got a lot of truly awful reviews before it even came out because Rowling is very controversial, but I thought it was incredible. A private detective and his assistant try to solve a decades old disappearance and oh my gosh I can’t tell you any more without spoiling it!!! The attention to detail in this book was absolutely bananas and exactly what I needed at a time when I literally couldn’t focus on reading anything.
Number three is a trilogy, but I’m only giving it one slot: Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, and The Hand on the Wall- the most perfect YA whodunnit that I have ever touched. I devoured these so fast they really might as well have been one book.
I absolutely cannot leave out Normal People; I think I’ve thought about it more since finishing it than possibly any book I’ve ever read. It was beautiful in a rambling kind of way, in that it made me miserable and brought me back to loving it more times than I can count. The ongoing relationship between the two main characters grows and evolves and fails and stretches and it reminded me of so many relationships in my own life.
Last but most certainly not least, is Find Me, the follow up to 2007’s Call Me By Your Name (the movie of the same name came out in 2017 and the book gained a lot of traction again afterwards). Split into three short stories, it could definitely be a beautiful stand alone book on relationships because it takes like 3/4 of the book to get to the part that actually follows up CMBYN.
The Top 10 (non book) Things I Read This Year, in no particular order:
The Henry Sotheran Ltd twitter feed. Rare book selling should always be this fun.
It's only a coup if it comes from the coup d'état region of France, an issue of Aminatou Sow’s newsletter and a lighthearted view on the state of our country (still as pertinent now as it was at time of publishing).
Langston Hughes’s Let America Be America Again- the most striking poetry I’ve read in a very long time. I’m kind of mad we never studied this in school? Timely and important, I think.
F*ck the Bread. The Bread Is Over. One of the first pieces of pandemic literature I read this year.
Another newsletter, this one about a very normal fictional party that I really want to go to- a common theme in these readings. I miss seeing all of my friends without internally panicking every time someone leans near my glass or clears their throat.
Chrissy Teigen’s essay after losing her son, Jack.
This whole webpage explaining the difference between epidemic and pandemic.
One more newsletter about another party that we can’t go to, which again makes me think about how much I miss my people and how much I miss parties.
This Bon Appetit article about how people deal with burnout in America vs how they deal with it in other countries.
Every single issue of this entire newsletter, At The Bottom Of Everything. The author lost her young husband unexpectedly back in August, and her exploration of grief is beautiful and heartbreaking.
Examining my favorite reads- both books and non- feels a little too much like examining myself. Some of these things were like literary comfort food, and some of them just made me sad. I was filled with so much gratefulness for those long ago parties that I did get to go to, and simultaneously a deep chest ache for the parties that will come again. Probably not soon, but they’ll happen. Until then I will keep reading, looking for answers to everything and also looking for absolutely nothing expect a brain numbing afternoon on a couch with a book. And that’s okay. I’m really thankful for those afternoons. And those books. And for all of you guys reading, too.
Lastly, a few things I read over the break:
This blog post entitled "Reflections on Last Christmas" by my really lovely friend, Lacy. If you’re into home renovations, DIYs, or super honest feelings, I highly recommend her blog.
This investigative piece on the great bucatini shortage of 2020.
I flew through (and loved) the Truly Devious Series based on to your recommendation. Thank you!