a constellation of GoodReads

It’s boxing day1 and after a nutritious breakfast of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange2 (iykyk) and panettone (if you know me you know - the lesser known iykmyk) I picked up my phone and updated my goodreads. I was feeling lambasted because I got a notification informing me that I was behind on my reading goal of 40 books for the year. I knew FOR A FACT that I had reached this goal but I’ve been lax about tracking my book intake. Insert some sentence or something here about the hamster wheel of/ fatigue thereof for all the tracking we do in our lives etc. etc. So like the good little student I am (do NOT worry - my reflection on my academic disposition as triggered by my duolingo year in review IS coming). I sat down and dutifully recorded all the missing œuvres from my list. I’ve read some truly wonderful books this year so I thought I’d write my reviews of my 5-star reads here (plus one honourable mention)3. I am also not including rereads - on the off chance you cross reference this with my goodreads.

I should start by talking a little bit about the ranking. I am not an English Lit major nor qualified in any way to decree what is “good”. But I do live in my brain (yikes) and am hopefully qualified to tell you what I enjoyed. A close friend of mine once told me a story about how a professor graded his papers and I have adopted this method for many things4. This is the way I remembered it:

D - made him want to stop reading

C - made him want to keep reading

B - made him want to edit

A - made him want to go write

This is roughly how I rate books. With the one star being a truly dismal experience or a DNF (listen life is too short to finish books you don’t like - yell at me later if you’re one of those people who disagrees. I think I used to be. And now I can’t be arsed - there are good books and I want to spend my time reading those). A five star book is the experience I have when I’m reading and I suddenly feel like I’m curled up in the centre of the action as the story springs to life around me. It makes me laugh or cry or both and it makes me want to make.

So without further ado:

1. The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Shwab

V.E. Schwab is destined to always be on this list. If I’d done one last year, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue would’ve been front and centre. Maybe that’s a post unto itself. However, here we find ourselves 7 years after the events of the A Darker Shade of Magic Trilogy (so this rec comes with homework but honestly - get stuck in - you won’t regret it). I was thrilled to be returning to this world. I also think it can be difficult to introduce a new central character at a stage like this but Tes is a glorious addition to the familiar faces of Lila, Kell, Rhy, and Alucard. They’re all a bit older and darker and more twisty - an element that really resonates with me at the moment (being dark and twisty myself). The world building only gets better and all I can say is that writing this has made me want to escape into the first book again.

2. The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir by Kelly Bishop

This was a memoir that I listened to - I am including audiobooks in this (and that’s okay? get on board. love an audiobook). I especially love a memoir as an audiobook because it just brings the whole story alive (obviously). There is a rather romanticised element to this five star review that I will come to. Firstly, Kelly Bishop is a tour de force and you discover her journey from her Tony award for A Chorus Line to her time filing Dirty Dancing to OF COURSE Gilmore Girls. There’s also an incredibly heart shattering and moving chapter about her experience with grief and losing her husband.

However, my secondly is that I took myself on a little romantic sad girl walk in March. I’d met a friend for coffee in Williamsburg and decided to walk to the East Village for my next social rendezvous. I had a couple of hours going spare. Walking along looking at the Manhattan skyline listening to how At the Ballet was created (with Ms. Bishop giving me a small reading of it) filled my little yearning dramatic heart to the brim.

3. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Because how could you not really? I’m such a(n5) historical fiction girly and obsessed with World War Two to boot. And women’s stories in war. So it ticks all the boxes really. This book is a harrowing account of two sisters and their differing experiences (and choices) in France under the Nazi occupation. Faced as my brain has been with IfTheEvilYouFearIsTrulyEruptingAndWhatTheShitAreYouGoingToDoAboutIt question, I clung to the exploration of these two very different and very fallible in their own ways angles. Heartbreak is, of course, expected. As is beauty.

4. The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon

My love. My light. My hero. I hope there is never a year without a new Samantha Shannon book. I don’t actually mean that - the woman should rest. But if she’s writing them, I am going to read them. I actually went to listen to Shannon speak in Politics & Prose in DC earlier this year upon the release of this book. I was struck STRUCK by the sheer intelligence and imagination coming from this woman’s brain. Oh to be her when I grow up. This rec also comes with homework as this is in fact the fifth (plus two novellas) in the Bone Season series. A dystopian fantasy that bears so much relevance to our lives currently and the ever growing beating drum of Impending Doom™. To give a FIFTH book five stars was a delight and yes I am biased because we do start in Poland and (finally) we are outside of Scion. Also there’s (finally finally) a little chapter for the romantasy girlies in this one.

The Bone Season follows Paige Mahoney as she battles against the oppressive Republic of Scion. I can’t say anymore really but the magic revolves around clairvoyants and you’re just going to be delighted too when you take my word on this one and get stuck in.

5. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I am overall a huge Taylor Jenkins Reid fan and this newest of her publications is - brace for a grand declaration - my absolute favourite. The structure of this book captivated me and would not let me breathe.

Joan Goodwin is working in a NASA control centre as a space shuttle mission goes wrong. The book intersperses events that happen over the next five to ten minutes with background on Joan - a woman working for NASA in the early eighties - and the rest of her team. Shuttling (pun intended THANK YOU) us between the present crisis and the events that lead us there twisted my brain and heart. Crying is not an essential element of a five star book but it certainly helps. I cried. This is a book destined for a reread in 2026.

6. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

There is always a sense of dread and fear when someone hands me a book and declares it is their favourite. “Oh no” I think, already worried I might hate it thereby (obviously) ruining any possibility of friendship.

The first 50 pages of this book did nothing to assuage that fear as, alas, I was confused and not enthralled. In fact, it took me so long that I started the book again. And then. Dear Reader. And then. The book flipped on me and I accidentally fell into a thrilling narrative with a beguiling narrator. Something Monumental Happens just after you fall down the rabbit hole and it caused me to gasp out loud. I ended up forcing myself to read more slowly as I got towards the end of the book because I wasn’t ready to leave (and I don’t have the next one yet). My crying barometer is especially true when on public transport6. This book had me laughing audibly and then ugly crying on Amtrak. There’s the most beautiful scene around music and storytelling that came as a beautiful surprise in a fantasy grappling with the hero’s story, poverty, dumb luck, and monsters.

HONOURABLE MENTION:

Albert Einstein’s Why Socialism?: The Enduring Legacy of His Classic Essay

This one is an honourable mention because it’s part of the basis of my new play (spoilers - specifically in a River Song voice) and I’m going to be rereading it and studying it further. I had no idea that Einstein was a socialist. Did you? Along with his brilliant essay - in turn both illuminating and terrifying against the backdrop of These Unprecedented Times - there is historical context to Einstein’s Life and political work which I found fascinating. They touch on (among other things) his priorities in education, his views on Israel, and his (v relevant) fears around capitalism. This one is short, digestible, and will really make you think.

If you got this far, thank you. I have ~mixed feelings~ about New Year’s and recaps and resolutions. But a little book recap I can get behind. Maybe even enjoy. Not sure I’m brave enough to leave them on goodreads though. Maybe that might be one of my New Year’s Resolutions.

Merry Christmas xx