Good afternoon!
It’s the last day of 2023, which means I’ll be ‘wrapping up’ my favourite things this year,leading with books but also other bits that I spent my time with. I am a person who likes looking backwards (I am a Cancer) so I enjoy this kind of thing, both when I do it and when other people do it. It makes me feel more equipped for the future, somehow, and I like reflecting on what I was doing or feeling in the past and how it compares to now. (I do think that ‘wrap ups’ by companies is getting a bit extreme -- it’s fun when Spotify do it but banks and coffee shops? Please, I don’t need to know all that).
Without further ado (what a funny phrase), here are my favourite books that I read this year:
Inside Daisy Clover by Gavin Lambert (1963)
My Tender Matador by Peter Lemebel, translated by Katherine Silver (2003)
In the Cut by Susanna Moore (1995)
American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)
Sarahland by Sam Cohen (2021)
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor (1947)
West of Eden: An American Place by Jean Stein (2016)
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan (2022)
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (1971)
Revolutionary Acts: Love and Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain by Jason Okundaye (2024)
Ingrid Bergman, My Story by Ingrid Bergman and Alan Burgess (1980)
Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo, translated by Leah Janeczko (2023)
Death Valley by Melissa Broder (2023)
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (1999)
Penance by Eliza Clark (reread) (2023)
Love, Leda by Mark Hyatt (2023)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (2024)
This is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes (2023)
Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery (2023)
Vehicle by Jen Calleja (2023)
The White Album by Joan Didion (1979)
And a special mention to Rachel Connolly’s Lazy City, a book I read in 2022 but was published this year and I spent a lot of time gladly celebrating.
Looking at this compiled list, I realise that I was drawn to a few things. The first would be reflections on the condition of America (especially Hollywood), usually by women. Scanlan’s Kick the Latch and Oates’ Blonde couldn’t be more different, but they’re both keen reflections on different parts of American culture, especially women’s place within it in the case of Marilyn Monroe and a female horse trainer. Blonde, West of Eden, Inside Daisy Clover and Ingrid Bergman, My Story are all pretty damning looks at Hollywood and how it exploits young women, making them feel insignificant while also profiting from their bodies, lives and performances, while also maintaining there is an inherent magic to the industry. Nothing Special is a great look at Warhol’s Factory and one young person’s place within it, that has a lot of reflections and themes that could be applied to today’s culture, while also remaining true to its central premise. In the Cut and American Pastoral are two novels that I’m extremely glad that I finally got to, offering excellent storytelling as well as writing at a line-level that is so particular to the individual authors.
I read, and loved, a lot of writing by gay men this year, all looking at different facets of culture. Lambert’s novel, as discussed, is about Hollywood, which is especially interesting coming from a British person who lived out there. My Tender Matador was published in 2003 but written ‘on scraps of paper’ many years before, as Lemebel lived under Pinochet’s regime in Chile. This is a book I would like more people to read -- it’s a really stunning reflection on radicalisation and queerness. Love, Leda is another book that was written years before but only published in 2023, centring on a very loveable but flighty young gay man as he navigates through love and work in mid-century London, simultaneously trying to hide who he is while seeking out spaces in which he can be himself. Revolutionary Acts is a fresh, important book on Black gay men in Britain, written out of interviews with several figures who partook in and led the scene in the twentieth century up until the present day. The last three books I mentioned -- My Tender Matador, Love, Leda and Revolutionary Acts all hinge on hidden histories in that the first two have been published many years after they were written and the third details information that could have been lost if not properly recorded.
This is also true of a lot of the translated books I read this year, like This is Not Miami and Lost on Me, which were published earlier in the native countries of their writers (Italy and Mexico). As ever, I am indebted to the translators who work on foreign-language fiction and bring it to English-speaking audiences.
Lastly, another running theme that brings together a lot of my favourite reads of the year is that of form. Vehicle, The Ministry of Time, Penance, Sarahland, West of Eden, Ingrid Bergman, The White Album, This is Not Miami and Revolutionary Acts are all books that are also ‘documents’ -- texts that are compiled from testimonies or written in different forms like letters, reflections or prose-poetry. This is Not Miami and The White Album are technically essay collections, but Melchor’s book is actually a set of crónicas, a Latin American form of writing that blends essay, narrative nonfiction and reportage, and The White Album has the running theme of Didion’s breakdown and how she attempted to rebuild her life in its aftermath. Sarahland is a short story collection, but every story has a character called Sarah, and all of the stories feature or are centred on being Jewish and queer. The Ministry of Time, Penance and Vehicle are works of fiction that present their readers with different voices in different forms, largely leaving us to form our own opinions. Revolutionary Acts is prose non-fiction, built from extensive research and testimony, and split into themes. West of Eden stands on its own as an odd but thrilling book, entirely made up of quotes from interviews with people who have connections to different families that resided in Hollywood from its inception to the late twentieth century. Ingrid Birgman is another odd book that is told from Birgman’s perspective in prose, her letters and prose from collaborator Alan Burgess.
Books I haven’t mentioned in these summaries are the two Elizabeth Taylors, a writer that I now love very deeply. There is a real sadness to her novels, whether that be in the post-war period or in a woman’s loneliness in her older age, but there is also a lot of humour. I’m very excited to read more of her.
Moving on from books, here are my favourite films that I watched this year:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Easter Parade (Charles Walters, 1948)
Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)
Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, 2023)
Love Affair (Leo McCarey, 1939)
Carefree (Mark Sandrich, 1938)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin, 1915)
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (Eric Rohmer, 1987)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, 2023)
A big Billy Wilder year for me it seems. I watched an inordinate amount of Cary Grant films, some excellent, some not so much, but he was the highlight of all of them (joint-highlight in the case of Ingrid Birgman in Notorious). Also a lot of Fred and Ginger films which are either extremely genius or just absolutely not, but all of them do have excellent dance numbers.
I’m not a huge music person (I listen to a lot but am no expert on new releases or genres etc), but my favourite albums that I listened to this year were:
Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, Bad Bunny (2023)
Stereo Mind Game, Daughter (2023)
Preacher’s Daughter, Ethel Cain (2022) - I saw Ethel Cain in Manchester this year and nearly ascended, she was so good.
Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard, Lana del Rey (2023)
Inbred, Ethel Cain (2021)
Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana del Rey (2019)
Finally, some other things I enjoyed spending my time with in 2023:
Leo Messi: A very funny obsession considering that I categorically did not like this man until 2022, because I did not want him to be the best footballer in the world, I wanted someone who plays for Liverpool to be. Also very funny to think that would ever happen considering Messi’s career and technique. I now love watching this man via videos of his past appearances because the way he plays football defies the laws of physics. Getting obsessed with him had the side effect of seeking out more Argentinian and wider Latin-American writing, which led to some of my favourite reading experiences of the year.
Crocheting: I’ve been knitting since I was 7 and learned how to crochet not long after, but invariably went with knitting as my preferred method. This year I wanted to expand my horizons and take up crocheting again and I’m glad I did because it’s been a nice way to spend time, as well as providing quicker validation because it doesn’t take as long as knitting does.
The Basement Yard: I’ve been crocheting while listening to/ watching this podcast, which is essentially two childhood friends chatting shit and yell at each other for an hour every week. I came across them on Tiktok when a couple of their clips went viral (you’ve probs seen the pop tarts one) and when I was trying to stay off my phone a bit more I sought out their episodes on Youtube. They are, quite simply, extremely funny and endearing. My favourites episodes are It Goes Down in the Steam Room and Euro Joe is Back.
Caramel Chai: delicious beverage.
Working in coffee shops: I honestly can’t go a couple of days without doing this, I am addicted to the cafe culture it seems.
Vinted: I’ve had some real gems from this website, which I treat like a game (that I often win).
Honey and lemon in hot water: Another delicious beverage.
There’s probably more but I can’t think of it right now and I’ve probably bored you enough. Happy New Year, here’s to another year of reading good things!
You’ve inspired me to check out the podcast and try the honey and lemon drink!!! Thank you!