My most anticipated reads of 2024
Can't wait to overthink with you this year.
A very 2024 writing prompt:
The New Year can bring fresh energy, a chance to start over, but also some pressure to kick off the new year “right” or somehow to do life “perfectly” this trip around the sun.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter frequently, you probably know how obsessed I am with Lizzy McAlpine’s cover of the song A Little Bit of Everything by Dawes. My favorite line in the song describes the futile pursuit of “figuring life out” or doing it flawlessly. It goes, “It’s like trying to make out every word when you should simply hum along.” This line gives me chills, even just typing it.
In the style of that line, write a simile (or a few) that answers the same question: How would you describe the futile pursuit of trying to do life perfectly right?
I’ll go first: It’s like trying to pop a bubble with an ax, when all you need to do is touch it.
Here are my most anticipated reads of 2024 :)
Hot damn, there is some good shit coming out this year. So far, I am most excited about All Fours by Miranda July, Worry by Alexandra Tanner, Come & Get It by Kiley Reid, Blue Sisters by my pal Coco Mellors, Sociopath by Patric Gagne, and Like Love by Maggie Nelson.
I’m recording my new audiobook at the end of this month.
Gosh, I cannot wait. How grateful I am that I get to record The Age of Magical Overthinking myself! Reading aloud is a big part of my writing process, so getting to record the book for you all will feel like such a full circle moment. I get to do it at a charming little studio just a couple neighborhoods over from where I live in LA. I’ll document the process here on the newsletter! Let me know if you have any specific questions about the audiobook process, and I’ll make sure to address those :)
There was an issue last week with UK/Aus audiobook preorders for The Age of Magical Overthinking, but it’s being fixed!
Several of you ANGELS who preordered The Age of Magical Overthinking on audio in the UK and Australia/NZ got a weird message saying the audiobook was delayed indefinitely. It wasn’t!! The UK audiobook preorders unfortunately got messed up because of a boring thing involving foreign publishing rights, but my publisher is working to correct this. Sit tight, and thank you so much for messaging me about this! The audiobook will be available for preorder again in the UK very soon <3
Wanna come to Italy with me this October?
I’m hosting another “write and travel with me” trip to the Amalfi Coast this fall! There are still a couple spots left. If you like the idea of eating pizza and pasta galore, making bookish friends, and taking writing workshops from yours truly in freakin ITALY, click below for more info on how to join my cult, ahem I mean, trip <3
And in some personal news…
I proposed to the love of my life :) It’s been nearly 20 years in the making. Casey and I met doing community theater as middle schoolers in 2005, made out for a summer in 2009, then went our separate ways, lived our separate lives, and reconnected 10 years later, when we discovered that we’d lived two blocks from each other in LA for two years (3,000 miles from where we grew up!) and somehow never crossed paths. Five years after that, here we are, betrothed. Casey is the kindest, silliest, most creative, open-hearted, and lovable person I’ve ever met. He’s a composer (he actually wrote the Sounds Like A Cult theme song!), and our life together is full of music. Our friends have been waiting for us to engaged for about a century, but until recently, I could never envision a version of the whole wedding rigamarole that didn’t feel, well, like a cult lol. Sharing moments from my personal life like this feels like a bit of a departure, but let me know if any of y’all are interested in hearing how I proposed. It was extremely nerdy. Casey was SHOCKED and WEPT!!
A weekly roundup of books, podcasts, TV shows, tchotchkes, and anything else I’m currently “cult following.” This week, some excellent media recs to kick off your 2024!
BOOK: YOURS FOR THE TAKING BY GABRIELLE KORN
My friend Gabrielle’s debut novel launched last month, and I’m terribly proud of her. It’s lesbian “cli-fi” (publishing’s new term for “climate fiction,” a subgenre of scifi, which conveniently sounds gay even though it’s not meant to lol). I had the honor of blurbing the book! Here’s what I said: “Gabrielle Korn had me at feminist dystopia, but her layered, intriguing storytelling made the end of the world entirely her own. I stowed myself in a bunker and read Yours for the Taking in less than a day.”
PODCAST: DEAD EYES
I requested pod recommendations in my Instagram stories last month, and my goodness, did people come throuuuuugh. I started with Dead Eyes, one comedian’s tongue-in-cheek investigation into the true story of why he got fired 10 years ago from an acting job that could’ve been his big break, after torturing himself for a decade over the information that he’d lost the job because producer Tom Hanks claimed he had “dead eyes.” I love podcasts like this—whimsical, darkly funny little series that investigate some niche subculture or quandary. If you can think of others in that category, let me know in the comments!
MUSIC: ALEXANDER PANOS
My partner Casey turned me onto this freakishly talented producer, whose music sounds like it was composed by gorgeous, gorgeous aliens. I don’t have the vocabulary to describe how textural and synesthetic it is. Not the kind of thing you put on for a casual road trip or anything lol, but if you’re into otherworldly sounds, consider giving him a listen.
TV SHOW: LUCKY HANK
At the end of last year, Casey and I slurped down all six seasons of Better Call Saul in like two weeks (an intense choice to say the least!!!). The only thing that could soothe our emotional hangover was Bob Odenkirk’s next project, a dramedy about an underfunded liberal arts English department’s inside baseball hijinx. The premise sounds niche and kind of boring, but the dialogue is disarmingly clever. It was canceled after one season, but honestly for some shows that’s a blessing in disguise!! Anyway, if you have any interest in an open-hearted parody of the “cult” of academia, this show is definitely worth an AMC free trial.
Of course we wanna hear how you proposed!!!!!💕💕
Tell us everything!!!!!