This one is a lasagna: 2024 reading notes
A few notes on some books I read in 2024—
Fudge by Andrew Weatherhead — one downside to being a Weatherheadhead is that I’d already read a healthy chunk of this! Nevertheless, it’s nice to have it bound up all purdy in hardback for posterity. Andrew’s easily one of my favorite poets. I first read POEM WHILE ON HOLD WITH NBA LEAGUE PASS CUSTOMER SUPPORT in Brad Listi/Joey Grantham’s now-defunct Nervous Breakdown, but now you can and should read it in Muumuu House. I also have a habit of buying any book I see Andrew post about, which is reflected below.
If I Close My Eyes by Ben Fama — Not what I’d expected from a person I considered, by reputation, to be a poet, in that it had a relatively straightforward LA actor/influencer addict plot about a guy who gets shot at a Kim Kardashian book signing. Enjoyable story, well-written. In texts to friends I called it “shiny,” “aspirationally conventional,” and said it “moves pretty quick.” I also told them that “it’s trying to be Broom of the System but straighter.” There’s bedside dialog from Kanye and it’s believable.
what a heaven could feel like by md wheatley — I like md a lot, his stuff has a real pleasant energy to it. Relaxed and alive. He sent me a pdf of this, I think maybe because he’d hoped I’d review it or something, so now I’m feeling guilty thinking back on this sweet chap I read two years ago. So let this be my review. At the time, I told him “I enjoyed recognizing in the book a kind of quiet, weary, melancholic contentedness that I felt in the early times of my own fatherhood.” I support md.
Septology by Jon Fosse — What even is there to say. I got completely lost in the Fosse sauce. I want to go back there.
Every Book Is About The Same Thing and I Love Information by Courtney Bush — I am now a proud lifetime subscriber to the work Courtney Bush. Two more in the mail on the way, including, excitingly, her forthcoming Joyland novella.
Witch Hunt & Black Cloud by Juliet Escoria — I was excited to buy and read this double feature, having read and liked Juliet the Maniac the year prior. Funny that Scott McClanahan (her husband, right?) wrote the intro. I’ll always have a heightened sensitivity to at-least-quasi-repentant addiction-adjacent stories, and this one got to me. In a good way. Not cheap or trite or cliché. And the poems hit, too!
Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti — Actually read this in parallel with Septology, and they felt like opposites. This one is a lasagna. Thousands of stories happening at once. I loved it.
Be Holding by Ross Gay — Having become somewhat fanatical all of a sudden, I think I asked Twitter for basketball books and this was one of them. I remember what felt like him describing a photo of Dr. J doing a cool layup for like thirty of the hundred pages.
Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other by Danielle Dutton — lovely.
The Stranger by Albert Camus — I liked lines like “I nodded, as if to say ‘Yes.'” and “I remembered that it was Sunday, and that bothered me: I don’t like Sundays.”
Today I Wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms — took a few years to get through this one. Some genius, some duds! Plenty of pieces in here that people are still (possibly accidentally) continually copying.
All Fours by Miranda July — Here’s what I said about it to brother Lamb: “was giddy about the mundane domestic stuff in the beginning. felt massively let down by the open relationship turn. not sure how to critique it on the level of artistry though. it just started to feel like a new york times modern love podcast or something.”
03 by Jean-Christophe Valtat — Think I saw Brian Alan Carr recommend this alongside Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, which is one of my favorite books, actually probably the book that made me want to and believe I could write. I think Brian actually even said that he taught them together? Anyway, 03 was vaguely offensive in a way I couldn’t quite get over. Like un-PC, or whatever. I can usually stomach some of that, but I must just have been feeling especially snowflakey at that moment. I guess having a kid can do that to you.
Cheap Therapist Says You’re Insane by Parker Young — Somehow forgot that I’d bought and read (and loved) this and so later I bought another copy directly from Parker, this one “signed by Elvis” or something. I can’t find it. I can’t find either copy. This is maddening.
And the rest! As with last time, omission is not necessarily (thought might be) a reflection of their worthiness. Comment or DM if you want me to summon a thought on any of the following (your own book being fair game!): Fast Machine by Elizabeth Ellen, Stricture by Isabelle Nicou, NOON 2024, Outlive by Peter Attia, Maafa by Harmony Holiday, Who Killed Mabel Frost? by Miss Unity, Pregaming Grief by Danielle Chelosky, Cheap Seats by Kayla Jean, Leasing by D.T. Robbins, Every Word in the Dictionary Except Myself by Chelsea Martin, The Burden of Joy by Lexi Kent-Monning, Tennis Leg by Mike Andrelczyk, Committed by Suzanne Scanlon, The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq, I Don’t Want to Talk About It by Terrence Real, My First Book by Honor Levy, Cult of Loretta by Kevin Maloney, The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq, My Lesbian Novel by Renee Gladman, Relief of My Symptoms by Kevin Chesser, Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata, The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, The Pink Trance Notebooks by Wayne Koestenbaum, Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, Saint Lizard by Jon Berger, The Gospel Singer by Harry Crews, Sex Goblin by Lauren Cook, Endure by Alex Hutchinson, Love Hotel by Jane Unrue, Overstaying by Ariane Koch, Further Reports by Brian Evenson, Waiting for the Miracle by Jason DeYoung, What I Remember of My Love Affair with the Bird and Other Stories by Thomas Israel Hopkins, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Why So Serious by Mike Singer, Karate Chop by Dorthe Nors, Girl on Girl by Emily Costa, How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti