All My Love, 🍸 2024
Best Books we read this year, plus music, art, dance, movies, and other fun stuff as we tie up 2024. 🌷
Momentum, 2011, Lorna Simpson (Edges of Ailey/Whitney Museum)
Dear Writers,
Happy, happy, and merry, merry, whatever, wherever and however you observe, if you observe. Tis the season to celebrate and socialize, and also, hunker down with our writing. Last week, I heard a student sing Handel’s Messiah with the Oratorio Society at Carnegie Hall, saw the Edges of Ailey exhibit at the Whitney, and watched Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform Sacred Songs, Me, Myself and You, Solo and Revelations at City Center (Solo and Revelations were highlights). After that whirlwind, I spent three days rewriting a short story I thought I had finished a year ago. The days blurred together as I revised.
✶ End-of-year reflections 💡✶
How many times do you revise a short story or an essay? The chapter of a memoir or a novel? A zillion? One thing I tell myself when times get tough is, how will I write about this? The best advice I give and have been given is:
Find a way to write about it 📝
Write your way through it 🧑🏻💻
Plant the seeds of truth in your fictional garden 🪴
Revising is like embroidering a pillow you’ve stuffed with old stockings: You’ve done the hard work of packing the story with everything you’ve got, now all you have to do is make it pretty. Easy peasy! I probably spent 100 hours writing and rewriting this story and (think) I finally got it to work. What is your writing process? Do you write every day? Whenever you have time? Every weekend morning? Who inspires you? Let us know.
When I’m writing, I listen to the music that my characters listen to, and “attend” the same movies, plays, and dance performances they do. Last week, I listened to Cold Play’s We Pray and All My Love, Snoop Dogg’s Beautiful, Ms. White’s Arizona, and Looking Glass’s Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl.) And because I devoted half a sentence in the story to a scene from NYC Ballet’s The Nutcracker, I watched Kathryn Morgan’s Ballet Deconstructed, which analyzed the Snow, Flowers, and Arabian Coffee scenes. These pleasant diversions make the hell of finishing a hard piece of writing almost heavenly.
Speaking of pleasant diversions, here are the best books we read in 2024:
Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Long Island Compromise (novel) — This book has everything: S&M, drug addiction, kidnapping, screenwriting, tarot cards, plus the perils of Hollywood, Long Island suburbia, sibling rivalry, parenting, bar mitzvah planning, and inherited wealth.
Percival Everett, James (novel) — Wonderful retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but sharper and funnier. The book is being turned into a movie, by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners.
(We discussed this in Blueprint Book Club.)
Julie Fingersh, Stay: A Story of Family, Love, and Other Traumas (memoir) — Beautifully written, tragic and surprisingly funny story about one family’s struggle with mental and physical illness.
Roxanne Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (published in 2017) —Whenever I take on a book editing assignment, I ask the writer what book they’re trying to emulate. One writer mentioned Hunger. Gay is funny, brutally honest, sharp and sad as she describes her happy childhood and the gang rape that changed her life forever but didn’t ruin it.
Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds (novel, published in 2023) — Girl on the run in 17th century Jamestown. One of the novel’s final scenes is one of the most devastating pieces of writing I’ve read. Groff is a genius. Read her new, sweeter story, Between the Shadow and the Soul, about the perils of midlife marriage.
Nathan Hill, Wellness (novel, published in 2023) — Interesting take on marriage, told from the points of view of a husband, wife, and Facebook algorithm. The book is reminiscent of Groff’s novel, Fates and Furies.
(We discussed this in Blueprint Book Club.)
Leslie Jamison, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story (memoir) —
Polarizing story of Jamison’s decision to leave her marriage after having her daughter, with flashbacks to what made her marriage succeed and fail. Jamison teaches creative nonfiction at Columbia. Read an excerpt, The Birth of My Daughter, the Death of My Marriage.
(We discussed this in Blueprint Book Club.)
Leanne Morgan, What in the World?! A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings (memoir) — I must be living in a cave because I had never heard of this comedian or this book until a friend sent me a link to it. If you want to laugh your butt off this holiday season, read this.
Paul Murray, The Bee Sting (novel, published in 2023) — Story told from the points of view of a son, daughter, wife, and husband, each one sadder and funnier than the prior. Gripping family drama about the price we pay for keeping secrets. The ending will make you worry and wonder.
Colm Tóibín, Long Island (novel) — Sequel to Brooklyn, though you don’t have to read Brooklyn to love Long Island. Early in the novel, protagonist Eilis Lacey learns her husband has gotten another woman pregnant. Beautiful story about what happens when friends, lovers, and spouses keep secrets.
(We’re discussing Long Island for Blueprint Book Club on January 9.)
Han Kang, The Vegetarian (novel, published in 2007) — Dark story about marriage, food, family dynamics, control and gender expectations, among other things. Kang won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024. Check out Kang’s bracing, new story, Heavy Snow, from her forthcoming novel.
(We’re discussing The Vegetarian for Blueprint Book Club on February 6.)
Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything (novel) — Tell Me Everything is exquisite and extraordinary—a love story, murder mystery, and paean to friendship. The message: Love sustains us; therapy helps too.
(We’re discussing Tell Me Everything for Blueprint Book Club on April 3.)
Virtual Q&A with editor Erik Harper Klass, founder of Submitit, Thursday, January 23, 6 P.M. ET
Virtual Q&A about our Park City, Utah writing retreat, Monday, February 10, 7 P.M. ET.
Q&A with artist Barbara Friedman in February
Q&A with author Lynn Schmeidler in March
Q&A with journalist Cindy Handler, author of A German Jew’s Triumph; Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Europe, in April.
Donald Antrim, Lost Stories (nonfiction, The New Yorker)
Rachel Aviv, Alice Munro’s Passive Voice (The New Yorker)
Sloane Crosley, The Tail End (nonfiction, The New Yorker)
Paul Yoon, War Dogs (fiction, The New Yorker)
Babygirl: Nicole Kidman at her most intoxicating, even as you spot the bones in her back. This is an erotic feminist fairytale, wrapped in a ribbon of masochism: A smart, ambitious woman gets everything she wants, without penalty. Antonio Banderas, Harris Dickerson and Esther Rose McGregor are affecting as the husband, lover and child who love and are confounded by her.
Better Man: Biopic about singer/songwriter Robbie Williams, who almost blows up his life multiple times.
Edges of Ailey (Whitney Museum): Fabulous exhibit devoted to dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey and the artists he inspired. Art by Benny Andrews, Karon Davis, Jennifer Packer, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Charles White, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and others. A loud, exuberant multi-screen video installation shows Ailey and his dancers, dancing (through February 9.)
The Fire Inside: Intense, inspiring movie about Claressa Shields, two-time Olympic gold medal winner in the women's middleweight boxing division in 2012 and 2016. Shields overcomes a challenging childhood and struggles to pay her bills after winning because nobody wants to reward a woman boxer for excelling at what she does. Ryan Destiny’s performance as Shields is muted; though the character says she likes to, “beat people up,” we never quite believe it. It isn’t until the closing credits when we see the real Shields fight that we see true rage and exhilaration cross her face. Outstanding performances by Brian Tyree Henry as Shields’ coach and Oluniké Adeliyi as Shields’ mother.
Martha: Fun, funny, sassy and sometimes sad documentary about flawed and fabulous Martha Stewart.
Will & Harper: Wonderful documentary about the road trip Will Ferrell takes with his friend, Harper Steele, former head writer at Saturday Night Live, after Harper transitions.
Maybe Happy Ending: Extremely clever, funny, thought-provoking musical by Hue Park and Will Aronson, about two retired “helper bots” in Seoul.
