Books of the year

Part two of two

Well here we are on the second day of a new year and I’m still basking in the light and the goodness of the books that helped me navigate the year that we have just bid farewell to.

This is is a fairly rubbish picture of a moment last year that brought me deep joy: mine and Claire Kilroy’s books together at Dublin Airport!

I want to start this post with this ridiculously wonderful (and for me life changing) book. SOLDIER SAILOR shifted something huge in me about what it light look like to write motherhood, what it might mean to infuse a telling of the everyday with magic realism, with folklore, with the beauty of the natural world (all things I try to work with in non fiction but that somehow have more impact on me with fiction.)

WHAT A BOOK. I really implore you to read it, no matter what your relationship with motherhood looks like.

It’s always interesting for me to see the overall themes of a given year’s books once I look at them all together.

This year I read a lot about the creative process, in many instances, how it is to be a creative mother.

THE BABY ON THE FIRE ESCAPE is quite simply wonderful. It’s appeared on the best of lists of loads of writers I admire and I’m not shocked. It’s so well researched and rendered, the balance between personal input and the wider context so finely held. I will return to it over and over, I’m certain.

And Joanna Biggs’ A LIFE OF ONE’S OWN is pretty excellent too. On a seeking a creative life that might not look exactly how we are told it is supposed to, and it sparked a deep desire in me to record some of the books I read in a slightly different way (more on that in a different post…)

I was very moved by the honesty and openness in this book, particularly when it came to motherhood generally and not being a mother in particular.

My dear friend Lucy Jones published perhaps one of the most important books in existence last year and I got to be an early reader. I’m not exaggerating when I say reading this honest, transformative book on matrescence— the process of becoming a mother—and on how caregiving might look in our society, changed my life. Another book that I firmly believe we all need to read.

What can I possibly say about this glistening diamond? It is beautiful and inspiring and so full of the pure pleasure that art and women and the big, wide world holds. Higgie writes of the women she covers with such passion and fresh eyes, and I loved every second of this book.

This gorgeous, glistening book by

Laura Pashby

ia a treat beyond words (but about them, and images too; about the whole act of falling in love with life, of recording it, of sharing that love with the world. It’s the perfect handbook for those trying to find their way with their own creative practice, which I know lots of people are feeling drawn to right now ( I certainly am.)

Claire Keegan really is the bee’s knees, though,right? This slim novella is sharp, to the point and quietly heartbreaking. So so so good. I’m already ready for the next book from Keegan.

Oh my heart this book. Another one that I read three times in 2023, and will read again this year for sure. The narrative voices, the imagery, the colours and the darkness and the mushrooms and the mothers and the act of being a living being on a living earth. I adore every single thing about it.

I will begin here by apologising for this one, it feels desperately cruel to share a book not on shelves yet but I simply could not leave this exquisite, haunting novel debut from Sinéad Gleeson off this list. Do your future self a favour and preorder. A wildly seductive, feminine tale of the sea, art, folklore, the past, women, power and more. I am bereft now I’ve finished it (I read in 24 hours from the eve of my birthday through my birthday!)

I’m closing with what I am confident will remain in my favourite books list for life (right now it is the only book I can imagine having a section read from at my wedding, my funeral, if I am ever lucky enough to give birth again.)

I cannot find the words for this book. The simplicity and tenderness, the beauty and terror and joy and hope.

My heart, I needed this book to exist more than I could ever say…

This post is free for all subscribers but the first of this two part post about the small press books I loved is for paid subscribers.

I feel strongly that it is up to each of us as writers to define what it is that we want to and are capable of doing for free (we all do so so much under capitalism that does not pay us no matter the shape it takes) and I believe that our own individual needs should guide our choices.

I will be doing lots more posts without a Paywall this year, and lots more with a paywall. The truth is that I spend the same amount of time and energy on each, it is completely arbitrary which is free and which is not. It just matters to me that I get to do this, be read by people I value and write stuff I want to write.

It means the world to me that right now this substack means I’ve been able to, for the first time since a fortnight after giving birth to my child, take time off where I knew I would not have to worry about paying rent.

That feels utterly beautiful and such an honour and I am so grateful. To be in that position feels beyond words good , and as well as mentoring, this part of the work I do to support my family is the part that least feels like work and most delivers joy.

All this is to say I hope you enjoyed this wee post, if you did and would like to read every post, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

If that doesn’t work, please know that my aim this year is to be providing more, not less, free and paid content alike. What a joy.

I think I am going to do that post I mentioned half in jest—about the books I started last year and have only a chapter maximum to finish.

I’ve never done that before 2023. I’ve only ever read a book start to finish but I fell very deeply in love with art books last year and something about books of this particular kind—autotheory I guess— has changed my reading style in ways I am quite taken by.

Here’s to a year ahead of reading, of words, of a safe place to keep the books, a safe space to place the words. X