what i read this year

I am writing sick in Dublin. It’s a wonderful time of year to have a gruesome cold: nobody really needs anything of me and I have full permission on multiple accounts (illness + holiday) to laze around in my pajamas until 2, take an aimless walk, drink a vitamin water, and then eat food that someone else made (carrot soup from my mom, bread pudding from my brother). It would be unethical for me to spread my germs by unloading the dishwasher, which rocks.

Instead of getting up this morning, I made a list of books I’ve read in 2025 on my phone. It’s not chronological - just in the order I remembered them as I made the list. It also probably has left stuff out because I’m away from my physical book collection and didn’t put serious effort into locating my full reading history and also, I just left out most of the Freida McFadden type murder mystery audiobooks that I listen to while doing chores because there are too many to count and frankly, I find them a little embarrassing. Also, I included books I didn’t 100% finish.

1. Happening by Annie Ernaux

   1. Really liked it! First time I read Annie Ernaux. I had one of those white Fitzcarraldo Editions that look so beautiful in the book store but get dirty really easily. At one point, I had it on my bedside table and then I guess spilled some liquid so the paper adhered to the the table surface and got stuck and I had to rip it a little

2. Monkey grip Helen garner

   1. I loved it! Everyone around Melbourne kept talking about her and it felt great to read about the Fitzroy Pool as I sat by the Fitzroy Pool. I started it right after Christmas, which was, of course, summertime. I was biking through Edinburgh Gardens on the path that leads you to Napier Street and stopped and sat under a tree. Then, within the first pages, the narrator ALSO biked through Edinburgh Gardens, on the path the leads you to Napier Street. We occupied identical units of the universal grid. Then, very quickly, everyone back in America also started reading and loving Helen Garner and I felt very protective of her because she had so much to do with my brand new life. I wondered if they understood that this was the exact neighborhood where I had landed, that she belonged to me now. As beautiful as the book was, it took me a long time to finish because addiction narratives can be repetitive and relentless and the book was not very propulsive. It both inspired me and sent me into a reading rut.

3. Solstice Joyce Carol Oates

   1. We were living in a small fishing town and the bookstore had limited options. I’d never read Joyce Carol Oates but I remembered she was always being a little psycho on Twitter so I thought any novel she wrote would be juicy and propulsive, but this wasn’t really. This was one of her “early” novels aka her 18th and I was horrified to discover that she wrote 58 novels. That’s too many!! Contain yourself

4. George Eliot Middlemarch

   1. I loved this but it took a while and made me feel like I was missing out on lots of shorter reads. I started it because I thought a 700+ page victorian novel would recalibrate my attention span but it might have been my favorite read of the year.

5. The death of Vivek oji Akwaeke Emezi

   1. No strong feelings here! I took it in my running backpack when I ran down to St Kilda and took the tram back and I read it as I sat on the 96 for an hour, which was a pleasant memory.

6. Convenience store woman by Sayaka Murata

   1. Liked it

7. Bellies by Nicole Dinan

   1. Written by my sister’s friend’s ex-girlfriend - felt like trans Sally Rooney vibe (compliment)

8. Small things like these Claire Keenan

   1. Enjoyed it and also liked how it made recent history appropriately spooky and horrible

9. Martyr Kaveh akbar

   1. Ask me my opinions in person or on text and we’ll debrief

10. Widow basquiat Jennifer Clement

    1. Really enjoyed it! Was assigned it in Tisa Bryant’s workshop and didn’t finish it, regretted that.

11. Sunburn Chloe Michelle Howarth

    1. Got it at a book swap. Was told this was like Sally Rooney but lesbian, but I actually think it’s like Sally Rooney but dumber. Made me appreciate genuine Sally Rooney. It was fine; I didn’t understand why the writer was so allergic to using any contraction ever.

12. The likeness Tana French (audiobook)

    1. I got a bit sick of my bottom tier murder mystery audiobooks so I said what’s the same thing but a little more coherent? This was basically adaptation of Secret History, which is fine with me. It helped me pass the time on flights

13. Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein (audiobook)

    1. I forget how I felt when I read it. Mixed, I think, and chapter-dependent. I remember listening to it as I got caught in the rain

14. Intermezzo sally Rooney (audiobook)

    1. Felt a renewed appreciation for Sally Rooney. Everyone has such takes on her and I think it’s mostly that they want too much from her books and it keeps them from enjoying them for what they are. I think the fundamental core of the book was when Sylvia talked to the younger chess brother about the logic problem that simply doesn’t map onto language - the idea that some relationships work beyond the categories we already have. If you want this to be like the magnum opus of millenials, maybe it’s too pulpy, but if you want a commercial novel about relationships, I think it’s perceptive and smart

15. Butter askako yuzuki (audiobook)

    1. Actually i stopped half an hour to the end. I got tired of everyone explaining their takes on gender and the world. I did eat more butter

16. Ordinary human feelings Megan Nolan (audiobook)

    1. Loved it

17. God of the woods Liz Moore (audiobook)

    1. Liked it fine

18. Eileen otessa moshfegh (audiobook)

    1. Made me feel like writing

19. Breasts by jean Hannah edelstein (audiobook)

    1. I have a lot of say about Jean Hannah Edelstein, a writer who has been very kind to me and helped me out when I was figuring out what role writing would play in my life. At the core of this book, too, was kindness.

20. Under the bridge by Rebecca Godfrey (audiobook)

    1. I forget what I thought about the book

21. Prep Curtis sittenfeld (audiobook)

    1. Really enjoyed it. Feel personally hurt by every goodreads reviewer who despised the narrator, since I’ve never read anything that captured the experience of being a shy teen better. Curtis Sittenfeld wrote this book while at Iowa and I think it can kind of be read as a book about Iowa - living in this very insular community with its own set of intensely held values that don’t matter at all to anybody else

22. Orbital by Samantha somethjng (audiobook)

    1. Audio skimmed it because she was coming to Melbourne, never hooked me

23. Rainbow black by Maggie something (audiobook)

    1. I remember the plot but forget what I thought and felt while listening to it

24. Bullshit jobs by David graeber (audiobook)

    1. I actually still have an hour left or something but I think I get the gist. I know he says bullshit jobs are a spiritual violence but I’d love to get one

25. Some of us are very hungry here Andre Perry

    1. 40 pages to the end, will hopefully finish today

26. Blueberries Ellena savage

    1. I like reading stuff set in places I know, still have a couple essays left. I think it’s unfair to read this book in 2025. I’m too tired to keep reflecting