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I was going to begin this blog post with a few words about how I read less books this year than I have in previous years, but when I double checked on Goodreads it turns out that’s not true. I actually read more books than I did in 2018.
I think the fact that so many of them were read during insomnia fuelled nights meant I wasn’t paying close attention to numbers. Which is no bad thing! The numbers thing, that is. I could do without the insomnia.
In keeping with previous years, this list is a mix of books published this year and backlist titles that have been on my to-read list for a while.
The Art Of Misdiagnosis:Surviving My Mother’s Suicide by Gayle Brandeis
This book hit me hard, in the best possible way. It’s a reading experience I won’t forget.
When Gayle Brandeis’s mother dies by suicide, she naturally wants to understand why. Weaving together the details of the weeks surrounding her mother’s death, transcripts from the documentary about rare illnesses her mother was working on, and Brandeis’s own experience with illness and misdiagnosis, The Art of Misdiagnosis is a compelling look at the devastating effects of a complicated family history.
How To Write An Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
Y’know that feeling you get when you read the first few pages of something and immediately know it’s a book you’ll hold close to your heart and reread multiple times? That’s how I feel about How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.
The essays in this collection explore Chee’s experiences of being Korean American, a gay man, an activist and a writer. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is poignant, nuanced and full of empathy.
It’s OK That You’re Not OK by Megan Devine
Following the sudden death of her partner, Matt, Megan Devine, who is a trained psychotherapist, realised that how we talk about grief isn’t always in the best interest of people who are grieving. Rather than seeing grief as a problem to be solved, It’s OK That You’re Not OK views grief as an emotion people learn to live with not move on from.
A friend recommended It’s OK That You’re Not OK because they thought Megan Devine’s approach to grief would resonate with me. They were right.
The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
In December 2003, Joan Didion’s husband John Gregory Dunne died suddenly. A few days previously their daughter Quintana was admitted to hospital and placed in an induced coma due to septic shock. In the weeks following Dunne’s death, Quintana made a recovery only to fall seriously ill again a few months later.
The Year of Magical Thinking is Didion’s experience of this heartbreaking period of her life. Didion writes about early grief with honesty and clarity many do not have when processing their grief.
All The Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
All The Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle is a beautifully written magical realism novel - full of witches, ghosts and banshees - about familial bonds, queerness, rage, generational trauma and the impact of the shame, stigma and silence surrounding it.
Deena's older sister Mandy is missing, presumed dead. Mandy's life has always been complicated, to put it mildly, so many view her death as the natural conclusion to her troubled ways. But Deena knows Mandy isn't dead.
Then letters from Mandy start arriving, explaining that their family is cursed and has been for generations. Deena sets off in search of Mandy and to put an end to the curse.
Is she prepared for the revelations that await her?
Constellations by Sinéad Gleeson*
Constellations* is the latest in a long line of books by Irish women writers that I struggle to review because I can’t get past screaming “you need to read this immediately” at people. Seriously, go read it. NOW!
Dealing with themes of illness, pain, motherhood, and bodies, Gleeson’s essays are personal, political and cultural. Gleeson writes about her own experiences in the wider context of a changing society, with an eye both on the past and the future.
Other Words For Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin
When their house burns down, Rita Frost and her teenage ward, Bevan, are never seen again. The only people who know what happened are Mae and her twin brother Rossa.
Having spent two summers at their aunt’s house, Mae and Rossa learn that nothing is ever quite what it seems. For starters, Rita and Bevan are witches and there appears to be something or someone living in the walls.
Other Words for Smoke is a gloriously odd story about love (particularly queer love), obsession, fear, the occult, and power.
Make It Scream, Make It Burn by Leslie Jamison
Make It Scream, Make It Burn by Leslie Jamison is not only one of my favourite books of the year, but also one of the best essay collections I have read in a while.
Jamison's subjects include a whale deemed "the loneliest whale in the world", children who claim to remember their past lives, people who use the online community Second Life and the impact it has on their real life, and a museum dedicated to relationship breakups.
These essays are about connection, longing and obsession. Jamison writes with a caring yet critical eye and explores her motivations for covering the stories she does and how she chooses to shape the narrative of people's lives.
Anseo by Úna-Minh Kavanagh
I read Anseo in one sitting. That's how compelling it is.
From Úna-Minh's adoption in Vietnam and her childhood in Kerry to her experience of racism in Ireland—particularly an incident in Dublin where she was not only verbally abused, but spat on—and her desire to make the Irish language accessible to as many people as possible; Anseo packs a lot into less than 200 pages.
Yet it doesn't feel rushed. Its conversational tone makes it feel like you're having a long chat over coffee—or something stronger—with Úna-Minh Kavanagh. Úna-Minh's love of her mother, Noreen and grandfather, Paddy leaps off the page.
Minor Monuments by Ian Maleney
I read Minor Monuments after I saw Ian Maleney speak at an event during Listowel Writers’ Week. This collection of essays, stemming from Maleney’s grandfather having Alzheimer’s disease, explores memory, family and what we mean when we talk about home.
These essays are so devastatingly beautiful I took a break between reading each one. I wanted time to sit with them before moving on to the next. I didn’t want them to end and I'm already planning a reread.
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
Ghost Wall* by Sarah Moss is a beautifully written strange and twisted tale of Silvie who is spending the summer with her parents in the Northumberland countryside. Thanks to her father’s obsession with the Iron Age, they are taking part in an experimental archaeology exercise to see what life was like then. Just how far will he go in pursuit of an authentic experience?
Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford
I read Follow Me To Ground without knowing much about the plot beforehand. I gathered there were some supernatural or magical realism elements, but that was about it. I won’t give too much away here because I think the not knowing enhances the reading experience.
Ada and her father aren’t like everyone else. People generally avoid them, unless they are in need of healing when necessity outways fear. Soon Ada finds yourself forced to make a decision that will not only change her life, but drastically alter the world around her.
Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan
Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan is an engrossing witchy tale about connection, familial bonds, secrets, queerness, and what it’s like to be a teenage girl in a small town dealing (or not dealing) with the shadow of bodies found in the nearby mountains.
When 15 year-old Madeline and Catlin move to Ballyfran, with their mother and step-father, they are unsure what to expect. It soon becomes apparent that the town is full of secrets. As Catlin quickly falls in love with a local boy, Madeline has more than a few misgivings.
Can their sisterly bond withstand the strange forces at play in Ballyfran?
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino*
I’ve been a fan of Jia Tolentino’s work for a while, so I was excited to get my hands on an advance copy of her debut essay collection Trick Mirror* earlier in the year. The nine essays did not disappoint.
Trick Mirror*is a perfect blend of personal, cultural and political writing, which looks at everything from the rise of the internet, social media and Tolentino’s experience as a reality TV contest to what makes a successful American scammer and sexual harassment.
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang
The Collected Schizophrenias is a collection of essays about Esmé Weijun Wang’s experience of living with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type and a commentary on the continued stigmatisation of the “collected schizophrenias”.
Wang writes about her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder (bipolar type), involuntary hospitalisation, differing opinions among the medical community as to whether schizophrenia is a single diagnosis or a collection of similar mental illnesses, how schizophrenia is portrayed in pop culture, and dealing with PTSD and Lyme disease honestly and sensitively.
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