Enchantment, Magic and Meaning: My 2024 Reading Portal: Part 2
Welcome to Part 2 of my 2024 Reading Portal and the 30 works of non-fiction and poetry I devoured this year. May you find some books to add to your 2025 reading list.
Hello friends! Welcome to Part 2 of My 2024 Reading Portal, the Non-Fiction and Poetry edition. This year I read (or listened to) 56 books. Just as I did last year in “A Year of Reading as Retreat and Renewal” series (50 books), this essay is a look at the books I’ve read, each of which transformed me in some indelible way. Read Part 1 here.
And now without further ado, let’s browse my shelves, shall we? And stay tuned for a movie recommendation that is a must-see for book lovers everywhere.
NON-FICTION
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit: Purchased at an indie book store in Beacon, New York, I knew I was meant to find this book of essays and Solnit’s incredible mind and storyteller gifts. She excavates issues that also preoccupy me: uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. Solnit is interested in the stories we use to navigate our way through the world, and the places we traverse, from wilderness to cities, in finding ourselves, or losing ourselves. It’s a blend of personal memoir, philosophical speculation, natural lore, cultural history, and art criticism, as The Los Angeles Times aptly described it.
A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux: This was my coveted purchase at the Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal this summer, just before my walk on the Camino. I wanted a book from “the world’s most beautiful bookstore,” yet one slim enough to fit in my backpack for a 186-mile hike. Ernaux, the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature, did not disappoint. In A Girl’s Story, she returns to the season 50 years earlier when she found herself overpowered by a powerful and magnetic man’s will and desire when she was just 18. At last, she is ready to consider this young woman that she wanted to forget completely. She finds shame, humiliation, and betrayal, but also self-discovery and self-reliance and the origin of her writing life.
Comfort: A Journey Through Grief by Ann Hood: I reached for this memoir at a time of loss in my own life (my mother’s death in April at 87). Comfort is Hood’s elegant, spare, heart-breaking account of the sudden death of her 5-year-old daughter to a virulent form of strep throat. The loss of life at such a young age, and a mother’s devastation, is something I shudder to think about. Yet Hood finds her way to comfort and hope in a journey that leads to a joyous, healing adoption.
Consolations II by
: Readers of Living in 3D will know that Whyte is among my favorite poets. I looked forward eagerly to this sequel to my well-thumbed copy of Consolations, his first volume exploring the underlying meaning of everyday words. With his beautiful, lyrical and wise prose, Whyte offers 52 new essays reflecting on words such as “death,” “reverie,” “shame,” “anxiety,” “sex,” and “unordinary.” Maria Popova of The Marginalian called this book “a compass for a lifetime,” one of her “Favorite Books of the Year” which she writes about beautifully in “The Wound Is the Gift: David Whyte on the Relationship Between Anxiety and Intimacy.”Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport: When
recommended this book to students of the in October and attributed it to helping her with her focus and productivity, I downloaded it as an audiobook. Newport argues that at a time when deep work is increasingly valuable, it is also becoming increasingly rare. His four rules—work deeply; embrace the boredom; quit social media, and drain the shallows—are beginning to have an impact on my work flow. As he writes, “Few come home energized after an afternoon of frenetic e-mail replies, but the same time spent tackling a hard problem in a quiet location can be immensely satisfying.”Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by
: One of two books by May I read this year, I was enchanted by her exploration of enchantment framed by the elements of earth, water, fire, and air. Her reflections reawakened my own desire to reclaim my innate sense of wonder and awe and to once again be nourished through quiet reconnection with our immediate environment.Just Kids by Patti Smith: It does not surprise me when
says writer/poet is her essential identity because she is a gorgeous writer and storyteller. This is the signed copy I purchased in 2022 when I heard her sing, still a beguiling performer at 75, at Sarasota, Florida’s Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Winner of the National Book Award, this memoir recounts her time living in New York City with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, a relationship tender, aching and life-changing.
Like A Normal Person: A Memoir about Not Drinking by
: Julie, one of our own here on Substack, author of , has an original voice and a natural flair for storytelling that makes us laugh with her through the tears. She writes with unflinching honesty about her struggles to find her way through alcohol dependency, dysfunctional relationships, single motherhood and financial struggle while holding fast to her dream to become a writer and published author.Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman: A gift from my soul bestie Louisa Wah, author of
, each day from mid-December to mid-January we are following his map for a more meaningful life: a journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we’d like to be. With “imperfectionism” as a guiding philosophy, I highly recommend this month-long “retreat of the mind.”Morningstar: Growing Up With Books by Ann Hood: Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk was my mother’s favorite book growing up, one she handed down to me, so we were both captivated by Hood’s memoir about the magic and inspiration of books: “I believe that, magically, the book we are supposed to read somehow appears in our hands at just the right time,” she writes. I totally agree.
Pilgrim by
: My daughter and I took this volume with us on our Camino trek this past September, knowing that his lyrical musings about life as a spiritual pilgrim would guide us with “the road still stretching on.”On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and The Price Women Pay To Be Good by
: A devoted listener to , I was mesmerized by her important book about how ancient ideas of morality still control and distort women's lives today. She shows us how to begin to trust again our natural instincts to return to a balanced, peaceful and spiritually complete life.Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson: After my mother died, my cousin Deborah sent me this book by Jackson, a renowned psychic medium, on how to recognize and interpret life-changing messages from loved ones and spirit guides. A bit skeptical at first, I now see Jackson’s gifts. I believe my connection with my mother lives on in mysterious but still knowable ways.
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford: Deserving of its wide praise when published in 2021, Ford’s coming-of-age memoir of growing up as a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration is beautifully written. As the memoir opens, Ford learns the father she's barely known is finally coming home, after 25 years in prison, a father she longed for during her fraught adolescent years with her mother. By the end of this honest, moving and often witty memoir, Ford emerges triumphant and unapologetically herself.
Still Life At Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing by
: Called “the Emily Dickinson of memoirists” by Stephen King, I loved Thomas’ wry memoir-in-vignettes. She takes an irreverent look at aging and the writing life. She convinced me that if I’m lucky and wise enough, my eighth decade will also deliver “the next interesting thing” as I join her in “living in the ever-shifting constancy of now.”
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How To Think Again: by Johann Hari: Yet another book that examines our fleeting focus in the modern age (yep, definitely a theme emerging in my reading this year!). Hari is a captivating writer who powerfully analyzes the forces breaking down humankind’s ability to pay attention. Yet he leaves us hopeful that we can win the war on distraction.
The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks: This book inspired my essay in April, “Knowing You’re Ready for the Next Leap,” an invitation to live in our Zone of Genius rather than a Zone of Excellence, Zone of Competence (or worse Zone of Incompetence). I am still mid-leap but coming closer to the place where I “tap into my innate abilities,” where “your talents coincide perfectly with your passion. It is a place of joy and ease.”
The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo: My short daily spiritual reading since November 2022, this beautiful, wise book is an indispensable start to my day.
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay: This exuberant author challenged himself to spend a year writing a daily essay about delights, small joys we might otherwise miss. The result is of course a delight: the rewards of a life closely observed.
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy: When I was early on in my divorce process, several people recommended this book to me. Once I began reading, I knew why. It is a stunning memoir about life in the aftermath of Levy’s divorce at age 50. It is also about other forms of grief and loss, as her mother dies of cancer within a year of the breakdown of the marriage. I experienced both upheavals at the same time, too. As Levy writes: “Freedom is never free. Anyone who has struggled to be free knows how much it costs.”
The Light Between Us by Laura Lynne Jackson: In this memoir, Jackson chronicles her journey from childhood to the realization of her gifts as a psychic medium.
The Mindful Writer by Dinty Moore: Small but mighty, these brief essays are inspiring not just for writers but for all artists and for the practice of mindfulness.
The Part That Burns by
: I’ve read twice and studied this fierce, beautiful memoir by my teacher and mentor, who inspires us all to be as brave and true as she is through . This is a story about the tenacity of family roots, the formidable undertow of trauma, and the rebellious and persistent yearning of human beings for love from each other.This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life by
, author of , is a manifesto on the gender politics of marriage (not good for women, she argues) and divorce (actually, pretty good for women). Well-researched, it is also an intimate account of her own marriage and the liberating power of divorce. Whether you agree or not, this book had everyone talking this year.Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, Kate Manne: For moral philosopher and Cornell University professor Manne, this is both the personal story of living in a larger body and a deep exploration of the biases fat women face in our society, as I wrote about in “Our bodies are no one's business but our own” this month.
Walking with Sam by Andrew McCarthy: I thoroughly enjoyed the actor’s account of walking the Camino Frances with his son Sam, 19, both funny and poignant and perfect pre-reading for my own Camino, which I walked with my daughter.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May:
May writes about both the physical and the emotional season of winter, the latter which can occur at any time of the year or in the course of a life, and there is no one who writes more beautifully about the healing powers of the natural world.
POETRY
Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift, edited by Kristie Frederick Daugherty: This volume aims to bring joy to poetry lovers and Swifties alike. While I am the former and not the latter, I found myself drawn into this creative project featuring some of our most well-known contemporary poets.
Devotions by Mary Oliver: An essential collection of poems I turn to every morning to get my bearings right before I begin my day.
Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss: A finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry, this collection, her latest, makes my acquaintance with one of the most original voices in contemporary poetry. From the poem, “My Education:”
If you are like me, to learn of the gods you must
beg, borrow, or steal. Eavesdrop, as gossip
is sagacity, a word I learned from Emily
Dickinson. Don’t underestimate direct
experience. Ants know earth. Dragonflies
know air. A cobbled mind is not fatal.
You have to be willing to self-educate
at a moment’s notice, and to be caught
in your ignorance by people who will
use it against you. You will mispronounce
words in front of a crowd. It cannot be
avoided. But your poems, with all of their
deficiencies, products of lifelong observation
and asymmetric knowledge, will be your own.
And here is a treat, “The Booksellers”: “For anyone who can still look at a book and see a dream, a magic teleportation device, an object that contains the world,” be sure to watch this homage to the esoteric world of the antiquarian book trade, set in New York City. The documentary ends with a wistful tribute to the book, a poem read by Henry Wessells, from his short book of poems titled The Private Life of Books. It begins this way and I can think of no better way to exit this Reading Portal. Happy reading, everyone!
In silence between writer and reader a memory of words and hands takes form.
We learn substance and worth through others’ eyes.
LET’S CHAT! What non-fiction books did you read this year and what impact did they have on you? Help me curate my 2025 reading list.
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Amy, I loved reading about the variety of books you read this year! I've only read a couple of the ones here and look forward to checking more of them out. I wrote about how Jeannine's book influenced me in one of my last posts, and I feel so grateful to have discovered the work of Abigail Thomas this year. I haven't read Still Life at Eighty, but read Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life and my favourite book of the year is What Comes Next and How to Like It. The way she made me feel everything she wrote, even if I've never experienced what she has, was remarkable. I'd like to study her work more to understand how she does that with such straightforward writing! Here's to another year of lots of great books to read!
Oh, and thanks for sharing the trailer for The Booksellers – definitely a film I'd like to watch.
I work at a library and LOVE to book talk and book recommend. One of my fave things to do. I am working on my own post about the 70 booksI read this year-though most were light romantic fiction, so not a lot of "meat" to them.
Thank you for reminding me of some of my favorite non-fiction works: Mark Nepo's Awakening has sat on my bedside table or desk for nearly 4 years now providing daily contemplations and inspiration; I somehow have two copies of Katherine May's Wintering (such a comfort, right?); Mary Oliver is a go to as well-not sure if I have Devotions-I return to "Why I Wake Early" regularly; and Julie Fontes' Like a Normal Person was my fave memoir I have read this year and one that feels near and dear to my sober woman heart.
Thank you also for sharing some new to me books -or reminders to me books-that I am adding to my TBR list: Jeannine Oullette's The Part That Burns, The Cost of Living (so much grief I am still processing) and Signs (I firmly believe my parents both communicate with me regularly. I often wonder what they are trying to tell me, though, so I am intrigued by this).
Best wishes to you, Amy, for a New Year filled with so much joy, travel, love and connection.