2024 Recommendations
Gift Guide or Year End Wrap-Up. You Decide
Last year, in the spirit of New Year’s lists, I did a year-end newsletter chocked full of recommendations. But it occurs to me that this might be more useful before the holidays are over, when you could use the list for gift ideas. Some pointers: Don’t buy this stuff from Amazon. The Amazon Union is asking people to boycott Amazon between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but it’s fine with me if you want to boycott indefinitely. Second, except for the books, these aren’t affiliate links. I just like this stuff.
Taos shoes: I’ve bought two pair of Taos canvas sneakers for travel and I can unequivocally say that these are the best walking shoe I’ve ever worn. They have high quality insoles that would cost $50 if you bought them separately. They aren’t corny or ugly or anything else you fear in a walking shoe. These might be just for women, though. Sorry dudes.
New Bands for Old Heads. An enduring indignity for aging rockers is that we don’t know what’s cool anymore. We claim that music never improved after we stopped learning about new bands, but we secretly fear/know that there’s good stuff coming out and we are too lame to find it. With that in mind, Gabbie creates setlists of new bands that would sound perfectly at home at the left end of the dial in 1993. This is her newsletter, and she links each week to her Spotify/Apple playlists so you can feel cool, too.
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. I wrote about this book in my May grab bag, where I noted that the story asks:
What if the widow of one of the world’s most provocative artists were to write a biography of her late wife, learning in the process about X’s birth in, and escape from, an American South that most closely resembled an evangelical Christian North Korea?
We the Animals by Justin Torres. This short novel about a family with three boys from the perspective of the youngest as he tries to make sense of his parents’ marriage, his mother’s mental health struggles, and his own sexuality. Poetic and fluid, this book has stayed with me because of its fantastic writing.
The Years by Annie Ernaux. A memoir about 20th century French history and culture through the telescoping lens of Ernaux’s life. Ernaux uses photographs, family photos, news headlines, and personal vignettes to move quickly through her life and the sweeping changes of the eras she’s lived through.
City of Glass by Paul Auster. I only read this first novella from Auster’s New York Trilogy, but, whew, was it good. It was really noir and literary and it sufficiently freaked me out that I haven’t brought myself to read the other two stories. Like Edgar Allen Poe set in the upper East Side.
The Freaks Come Out to Write by Tricia Romano. This is an oral history of The Village Voice and it is as gossipy and scandalous as anything you could wish for. A real page turner, mostly because you are like, “Oh no, she didn’t!” every other paragraph.
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbach. This woman is probably going to win the Nobel Prize for literature at some point so you might as well read this so you can say, I read her when . . . The story concerns the love affair between a 19 year old young woman and a 54 year old man in East Germany around the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it’s also an allegory of the end of the East Germany. There were a lot of references I didn’t get, so just be prepared to gloss over the minutia and enjoy the writing.
I want to make a general plug for popular SciFi and Fantasy series. People who don’t read these genres may be a little dismissive, but if you haven’t read a fat page-turner in a while, I recommend looking at a best seller list, grabbing volume 1 of some series, and tearing into it. This year, I read A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah Maass) and The Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros) both of which are chock full of magic and delayed lust and sequel opportunities. Very fun.
Flash Count Diary by Darcy Steinke. The subtitle of this book is Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life. I’m just sharing that so you know what you’re getting into. Steinke is really interested in other mammal species that have menopause, which is really just apes and whales, but she recounts her own journey along with the science, and it’s fascinating. I don’t know if I agree with everything - sometimes it seems like she’s arguing that women should endure shit that is treatable - but it’s provocative and interesting.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Okay, this is a random one. Published in 1865, it’s the first “sensation novel” - essentially a crazy soap opera - and it reads like it was written today for a wild Jane Austin lookalike contest. It’s very readable; I consumed all 700+ pages on the flight to Japan.
Fair Play by Tove Jansson. This is allegedly a novel but it’s more memoir about two women who live and love one another on an island in Sweden, encouraging one another’s artistic endeavors with sharp nudges and warm appreciations. It’s a very sweet book, just like Jansson’s The Summer Book.
I’m off books for a moment. On my trip, I was served Japanese mountain yams, aka Nagaimo. They were served in a variety of ways - all delicious - so when I got home, I tracked one down and fried it up. I thought it was tasty but I’m looking for other ways to prepare it. My recommendation is specifically for nagaimo but generally, I recommend buying a new ingredient and trying it.
Draw Together with Wendy McNaughton. Wendy is an artist and art educator who has created a lot of really fun, community building art practices. In January, she does an art lesson every day; the rest of the year, she does one every week. They are fun and easy and thought provoking, and you should get a subscription to her newsletter, a sketch book, and a pen, STAT.
Dickies pants. Back in February, I went to see Amy Poehler and Tina Fay, which was hella fun, and Amy Poehler remarked that her fashion sense was “house painter chic” and I immediately recognized that is actually my personal style. I’ve since revamped it by calling it “Female Abstract Expressionist” but I appreciate that term is a little vague. Hunt down photos of Lee Krasner and Joan Mitchell and you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, the way to achieve this look is to buy Dickies pants, which are super comfortable and durable.
Speaking of Tina and Amy, remember how I went to see Gary Gulman last week? Well, here’s a recommendation: Go see live comedy. It’s funny, it’s awkward. It’s not happening at your house and you will need to decide if you share the exuberance of your fellow audience members. It’s very fun and a good way to judge other people’s taste!
Japan has a department store dedicated to stationary and office supplies and I found the Platonic ideal of a pen in Itoya. I love my Uni Jetstream 0.5 in Abyss Green and I am very worried about the day that pen runs out of ink. I can’t link to it because I can’t find it on any English language website. I fear for the day when my new loves fades away off the page. Anyhow, getting and giving nice pens is a good gift idea.
Shupatto bag by Marna. I’m really in love with this bag. The first one I got from a friend as a gift. I found more at Itoya - see above - and bought a bunch that I promptly gave away in the spirit of proselytizing for this bag. It folds up SO nicely. I think it’s hard to find in the US except on Amazon so at least do me a favor and wait until the boycott is over before buying it there.
For thirty years, I have been hauling mix tapes from place to place, wishing I had a way to stroll down those memory lanes. This year I bought a cassette player and it’s really fun. I got the cheapest one I could find at Best Buy, and I love it. Naturally Wirecutter has a few higher quality, more expensive options but that’s not the point of cassette players. Mine also had a CD player which is helpful because I’ve also been hauling around CDs for just as long.
Okay, this is a weird recommendation. It’s time to talk your parents into moving to Rossmoor. Rossmoor is a 55+ community in Walnut Creek, California, that is the best real estate deal in the Bay Area. There are approximately 6500 homes in Rossmoor, most of them townhouses, either condo or co-op, and they are much lower priced than you would imagine. We looked at places that were as low as $350,000 (listings are here). Naturally at that end of scale, the condos need remodeling, but the grounds and buildings are maintained by the homeowners’ associations, so it’s almost all cosmetic. My mom and stepdad are moving there in January and we are very excited to have them close. A lot of people are reluctant to move into adult communities because they don’t like old people. I can’t say much about that other than get over it. At Rossmoor it’s pretty easy to “get over it” because there are three pools, a fitness center, two community centers, 300 clubs, 9 tennis courts, a golf course, movie theater, woodworking shop, sewing studio, art studio, library, and event/public spaces. It’s basically summer camp for people over 55. There are HOA fees, but they are lower (about half) of the rent on a 1 bedroom apartment in the Bay Area. If you want more information or to visit, hit me up and I will give you a good real estate agent or my mom will have you over or something once she lives there.
Another Japan recommendation: bidets. I’ll be honest, I was skeptical. The only other time I’d encountered a bidet was in Europe, where they are basically cold water fountains that may or may not hit your butt where you want it to. Plus they are COLD. Did I mention that. Not in Japan. Heated seats, multi-positional sprays depending on your body parts. Even sound effects so that others in the vicinity can’t hear your business. Here are the recommended ones. The best ones require a power outlet nearby.
Jones Road Beauty. My gorgeous aunt recommended this new “no-makeup” makeup line from Bobbi Brown and if you have a person in your life who is looking for some new products, these are really nice. I wear the Miracle Balm as blush and sometimes lipstick and have plans to buy more products when they junk I wear runs out or goes bad, whichever comes first.
Do you want to buy some nice art but don’t know where to start? Do you also like gambling or auctions or thrifting? Then I recommend Invaluable, an art and collectibles auction website. You can follow certain artists and if a piece of their work goes up for auction, you can bid on it. I won a Joan Brown drawing at auction for $200. No one else even bid on it! Her paintings sell for thousands of dollars. Check it out.
Buy everyone in your family new chargers made by the manufacturer of the devices that need charging. I keep buying crappy off-brand stuff and it rarely works so I will be getting everyone new chargers. (Only my husband reads this newsletter, so I’m not exactly spoiling the surprise; he actually asked for them).
In the same vein as the Draw Together recommendation above, if you or someone you love wants to jump start a creative practice, check out these cool DIY watercolor sets, especially the DIY 30 Day Project. Or if you feel confident enough to start painting without guidance, how about these custom watercolors from Case for Making. I especially love this Lands End Art Toolkit Palette. I might get it for my favorite artist.
If you want to make a really special gift, I recommend drawing a picture or cartoon of someone, and uploading it to VistaPrint for custom mugs, T-shirts, stickers, or whatever else might thrill them.
I had this mug made for my friend’s birthday. The drawing is from a comic she drew illustrating a heist she and I may or may not have participated in back in college. I also had stickers made. She really liked it, and now I want to make more of these. It did not take very long but if you want to do it for Christmas, you’ll need to get to work, as it does require a small lead time.
Okay, I’m exhausted! I will be back next week with maybe more recommendations, a new pet peeve, a new Too Good To Be True, and maybe some advice, because one of my readers thinks I should dispense more of that. We’ll see. If you have questions for which you want advice,
