Books I Read and Loved in January

and two incredibly nourishing substacks

‘Blue Eyeliner (2020)' by Genieve Figgis from the cover of Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin (also a representation of how frazzled I felt at the end of 2023)

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Friends,

Every December I delete social media from my phone as part of a self-care sabbatical as I head down to Southern Africa. December turned into January and now February and the sabbatical continues because I’m feeling so damn good. 2023 ended with me feeling a lot like the painting by Genieve Figgis I’ve shared above - exhausted and dangerously close to burning out.

So what started as an annual month off social media has now grown wings and turned into a mini life change where I’m reassessing not just my attitude towards work, but the amount of time I spend online, and the ways in which I’m spending my energy. I’m saying no to everything that feels rushed and time-poor, substituting time on my phone with long beach walks, and best of all, I’m reading a lot more books than I usually do. It’s been life changing for me, and it may not create the same magic for you, but I highly recommend it.

Here’s a few of my favourite books¹ I’ve read this January plus two wonderful Substack newsletters I get excited about when they arrive.

• Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir - Alba Donati (translated from the Italian)

• A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster - Rebecca Solnit

• Dead Girls - Selva Almada (translated from the Spanish)

• The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction - Atef Abu Saif (translated from the Arabic)

• The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure - Katherine Rundell, Talya Baldwin (Illustrator)

• The Orange - Wendy Cope

• Everything, Beautiful: A Guide to Finding Hidden Beauty in the World - Ella Frances Sanders (I share Ella’s Substack below)

• One of The Good Guys - Araminta Hall

• Home Cooking - Laurie Colwin

• A Life of One's Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again - Joanna Biggs

• Innards: Stories - Magogodi oaMphela Makhene

• Art Monsters - Lauren Elkin

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As mentioned, two incredibly nourishing Substack recommends from me:

The Sometimes Newsletter by Ella Frances Sanders

From Ella’s About Page:

The Sometimes Newsletter is a curation concerned with paying close attention, the relationship between beauty and the mundane, sustaining a long-term creativity, and the things that are fallen in love with. The regular (numbered) edition of the newsletter gets sent out on (most) Saturday afternoons, and there are also additional posts sent out to paid supporters, like short fiction stories, longer illustrated essays, and previews of what I’m currently working on.

A post I enjoyed very much:

No.224

Day Acupuncture Newsletter

Rachel Day is an acupuncturist and herbalist practising in California. Her posts are always thoughtful and tender and my favourite, on Gaza, is below:

Ways to take care:

1. I track and rate all my books here - 4 & 5 stars are exceptional reads that I raced through and will hold onto, 3 stars are those that were good but tedious/boring and hard to finish, 1 & 2 stars are books I did not enjoy at all and only finished because my OCD means I have to finish every book I start.