Everything I Read During Capricorn Season

a binge!

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

I don’t remember if I finished this book at the tail end of Sagittarius season or the early days of Capricorn but I include it here because it feels like the beginning of this reading headwind I am on. I listened to the audiobook while working on an art project about snow and loss and never going home again. Sometimes, when I paused the book at the end of a chapter, I would realize how tight my chest had gotten.

I never really thought that I liked Joan Didion - I started reading The White Album a long time ago and struggled to get into it. But her matter of fact writing on the subject of grief touched me really deeply, and made me hungry for her perspective.

Impossible People by Julia Wertz

The best holiday in December is the day that NPR publishes their list of books of the year (or the day that I realize that their list has been published). I love the NPR list for it’s enormity - where some magazines highlight a dozen or so books, NPR has the decency to publish a list of about four hundred books worth reading every year.

Skimming through the list, the one I got my hands on the fastest was Impossible People, Julia Wertz’s graphic memoir about getting sober. It chronicles her first few years of recovery, and her last few years of living in New York City, celebrating the healing power of friendship and immature jokes. Finishing it made me sad, but I couldn’t put it down.

The Secret to Super Human Strength by Alison Bechdel

I read Alison Bechdel for the first time in 2023 - I read all of her memoirs last year, and a decent chunk of Dykes. I listened to any interview with her I could get my hands on for a while. She was a constant companion. And because of that, I pretty much knew everything that was going to happen in The Secret to Super Human Strength. She learns karate, she moves to Vermont, she finishes the book about her Dad. With my ambivalence to this specific work aside, it was nice to wrap up the calendar year with an artist who I got so much from in 2023; even if it just felt like a recap.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

It’s as good as everyone says it is! Listen to the Audiobook!

Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H

I was going to write a full review of this book, but I don’t want to talk about it with anyone who hasn’t read it. You should experience the way this book unfolds. Lamya H is an incredible writer and this book is a joy to read. Please read Hijab Butch Blues and text me throughout. Call me on the phone when you are finished. I will tell you my favorite chapters. This book is a classic.

On Wanting to Change by Adam Phillips

Adam Phillips’ interview on the LA Review of Books podcast is really incredible. It rocked my world. But it took me a second to get used to psychoanalytic writing; question after question after question, and Philips writes with a lot of qualifiers. But he does notice interesting things about people. Phillips examines the various meanings of the word “conversion,” through exploration of classic Christian tradition narratives, conversion therapy, liberal education, and political identification. I really enjoyed this book and gained a lot from it.

South and West by Joan Didion

South is a collection of notes that Joan Didion took for an article that she never wrote about life in the Deep South. The collection of notes speaks volumes about place, positionality, and just how much a person will say when he’s trying to convince a woman journalist of the validity of his point of view. The genders on display are something to behold- from pontificating plantation owners, to women who can’t tell how old Didion is because her hair isn’t in an up-do. Joan finds a way to be completely scathing, just by writing down verbatim what people said to her.

West is a tantalizingly unfinished essay about what the Patty Hearst trial says about California culture at large. I felt pretty disappointed that the essay didn’t get finished - it was refreshing to read a partially completed work by another writer. Sometimes you are truly cooking with gas on an idea, and the piece still doesn’t get finished.

This is a Book for People Who Love Birds by Danielle Belleny

A really fun nature guide book! Concise and inviting, lots of information about North American birds, with an intersectional perspective that acknowledged the ways whiteness encroaches on the outdoors (and that we don’t have to accept that!). My favorite fact from this book: there is an arctic bird called Dovekies (or Little Auks) who live in large bird communities and raise their children communally. Some of the babies don’t do well in the group setting, and so those little birds will go off with a male parent and come back to the group when they’re finished with their adolescence.

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

This is a book’s book. It is clear that Aciman is a professor of literary theory - CMBYN explores a rich world of desire, with long summer days spent thinking about philosophy and the Classics, delicious food and wine, sports and swimming and glances across the dinner table. It is a book of luxuries.