Happy New Year dear readers! This holiday season was a glacier up close, I could see specks of dust frozen inside, but hard as I blew on the ice, they melted and released at their own rate. I stopped trying to scratch on ice, to drag out what wasn’t ready. I let everything hang heavy, and that’s when I noticed - wow can that glacier sparkle! I put on and took off my honey-tinted glasses so many times, sometimes just to wipe away tears. I think the pandemic finally set its weight on me, reared its ugly eye and asked what I was worth. I didn’t have an answer.
I have been thinking about resolutions, and I am not sure I am ready to start my New Year with them. I am still thinking about the ghost of the Holiday Season. I loved getting happy holiday texts, asking my friends about their presents, and the coziness on every windowsill in the city. I liked to think of families together, and children waiting for Santa to come while their parents ate his cookies. It was all part of the same dogma.
I loved imagining a tree with one huge box underneath, wrapped in white and red striped paper, that had a time limit to open because there was a puppy waiting to join a family in there. I loved the holidays on my doorstep, even if it is not my world. I don’t have generations of holiday traditions to turn to, yet I am human, I have a pulse, and the same warm bubble grows in me when I see images of snowmen-shaped marshmallows in hot chocolate and Christmas trees pregnant with presents.
So, how long do you all wait to tear down the tinsel, and tuck away ornaments until next year? If they are still up, mentally, I am right there with you.
I want to hand you my resolutions when I am ready to imagine who I will be next year (this YEAR??). I ended my last job on Dec 31 and starting a new one on Jan 10th, so I have a few days in limbo before I have decide who I want to be, at least in my mind. It looks like I am not alone in this feeling. In the meantime, I would love to hear your resolutions. I am looking for inspiration while my full humanity is still downloading :)
But First, Books - my 2022 Most Anticipated
Shop there here: The Employees, Yinka Where is Your Husband, Portrait of an Unknown Lady, Thrust
Not going to lie, 2022 is throwing out some book BANGERS. The line-up is fierce, and I’m arm-wrestling my wallet not to buy everything on first sight. I narrowed it down, and here are four I pre-ordered for the first quarter of 2022:
The Employees by Olga Ravn - this one, translated from the Danish, was shortlisted for the 2021 booker prize yet one of the only from the entire Longlist that was unavailable for American mass market. I am glad I decided to wait on it (rather than ship it internationally) because this cover from New Directions is lust-worthy. So technically, it’s not a 2022 pub, but if you live stateside, congrats it is newly available to you.
Yinka, Where is Your Husband by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn - So I learned in 2021 that I actually like every genre, as long as I am reading the literary version of it. This one falls under “literary rom com”, I believe. in Nigeria, Yinka is 30 years old and struggling to stay true to herself as pressures to date and marry are mounting. It comes with high praise from the likes of Emily Henry and I can’t wait to laugh and cry with this unconventional heroine. (I am imagining it will be for fans of: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine)
Portrait of an Unknown Lady by Maria Gainza - NGL, I was initially drawn to this because the cover is my favorite of all time. I mean, this is the third time it has been in my newsletter and it’s not remotely close to out yet (March please hurry!). But…it is a work of translation, and follows the story on an art forger in Buenos Aires. And Catapult is the publisher? Consider me seduced.
Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch - A story about objects that are hallows of the past, and finding your way home. And of course, this one has another ultra-seductive cover. I trust Riverhead with my life, so I know this has got to be good.
Soft Spots
Consider this an aspirational sort of playlist, ideas on my mind that I hope to carry into the new year. If you see anything you’d like to consider as you shape yourself, click in:
When Reparations Grow From the Grassroots - an article about why our charitable dollars are best spent at grassroots organizations
Mari Andrew on the cyclical nature of routines
From The Atlantic - moving past aspirational weather and learning to love the weather we have
“If moving somewhere warm produces such marginal and temporary gains, why is it so tempting? It turns out that people tend to think that weather matters more for their happiness than it actually does”
Free virtual coworking spaces? Who wants to be accountability buddies with me and get out stuff done?
Some articles on friendships that have me feeling tender, grateful, and ready to lean harder on the ones who hold my chin up: The true love of Insecure was Issa and Molly’s friendship and reimagining worlds where friendships are at the center of life.