Mid-Month Reading Update: All Aboard the Bookish Express
Plus a metric TON of links that I've bookmarked for you over the past month.
Hi, book friends.
My December reading got off to a bit of a slow because I spent the first week of it digging out of all the life and work backlog I’d accumulated in November. But the bookish train is chugging along now, and I’m off from work all next week, so I’m still feeling good about hitting that 100-book benchmark.
I’ve also (finally) been re-bitten by the crafting bug. I started a crocheted baby blanket for my daughter early this year, but I put it on hold when my third trimester brought carpal tunnel (which, I learned, is a very common pregnancy symptom! What joy!). Then, of course, I had a newborn.
Anyway, I’m eager to spend as much of my vacation as the baby will let me crocheting on the couch with an audiobook in one ear, so that will help me hit my goal too. Side note — I’m looking to add knitting to my yarn-arts repertoire in 2025, so if you have a favorite YouTube teacher or other learn-to-knit resource you recommend, please tell me about it in the comments!
What I’ve read so far this month
The Voyage Home (Women of Troy, #3) by Pat Barker*† 📖🎧: I loved this, especially the voice acting in the audiobook. Another great literary retelling by Barker!
How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom by Johanna Hedva 📖🎧: Whew. This essay collection is just as good as
said it was (no surprise there!)Held by Anne Michaels 📖: This was a reread ahead of our Booker of the Month Zoom chat later this month, and I am SO glad I did it. It’s such a gorgeous book with so many layers, and as expected, it was even better on a reread.
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win by Jessica Valenti† 📖🎧: Required reading. More to come in my first Conversation Pushers column later this month!
Currently reading
The Bone Season (The Bone Season, #1) by Samantha Shannon 📖🎧: I’m only a few chapters into this so far, but wowza am I excited to keep going. I can already tell this is going to be extremely my jam.
Still on my December TBR
After I finish The Bone Season, I’ll need to read six more to hit 100. Here’s the menu of options, in roughly the order I think I’ll read them:
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (another reread for Booker of the Month)
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De Léon† (library book)
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang*†
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss† (also a library book)
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst*†
Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal†
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (publishes 1/14, so it’s okay if this gets pushed to January)*
We Do Not Part by Han Kang (publishes 1/21, so same)*†
*print copy gifted to me by the publisher
†audiobook gifted to me by the publisher
A holiday party full of links
George Saunders is doing A Christmas Carol in his Story Club newsletter this month! Yes, I became a paid subscriber this month just for this discussion because A Christmas Carol is on of my all-time favorites. Side note, the audiobook read by Jim Dale is really excellent!
From LitHub: “The 167 Best Book Covers of 2024, According to 54 Book Cover Designers.”
Also from LitHub, because they’re excellent: “Luigi is Currently Reading:
What Can We Really Learn About the UHC CEO’s Alleged Killer Based on the Books He’s Read?” I also listened to some LitHub staffers discuss this on their most recent podcast episode, which was fun too.
“The Twenty-first Century’s Best Works of Native American History,” as opined by Ned Blackhawk for The New Yorker.
Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study podcast is doing a series on romance books and bookstores, and I’m late to the party, but I started with the fourth one: “The Expansive World of Queer Romance.” The previous episodes in the series, now in my queue, are on running a romance bookstore, changes to the publishing industry thanks to romance authors, and marginalized joy in romance novels.
A very good rabbit hole on queer fanfiction on The Pudding: “Who Gets Shipped and Why?”
Please subscribe to
’s substack so I don’t have to tell you about every single one of her posts. But also please read her latest post on bookish advocacy action items you can take right now.Speaking of favorite Substackers,
of is having a sale on her paid subscription — $40 instead of $50 for the whole year. It’s very worth it because her work is excellent, and a really really cool mood reading guide planned for next year.A character map for Held by Anne Michaels! Bless the internet for creating these things for us.
Braiding Sweetgrass fans, you might be interested to read about Onondaga Nation’s plans for 1,000 acres of recently reclaimed land! (Gift link)
ICYMI (somehow), here are the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2024. I’ve read 18, but there are two more on that TBR list above, so we’ll see if I make 20! (Gift link)
A very very good “reflection on Wicked, fascism, Black womanhood, and white feminism.”
As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, too.
Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.
See you next time!
— Deedi (she/her)
I’m at 92 and currently wondering if I can fit 8 more in before the end of the year to hit 100. lol
Deedi! Thank you for sharing my post about pre-ordering books, especially amongst all these other great goods! I have so many tabs open now after clicking on all your links and I can't wait to read them all. And now I'm tempted to be a paying subscriber (again) to George Saunders. He's brilliant and so generous with his work.
Thank you!!