What I read in December
Plus some 2024 reading stats
Hello!
Books
McGlue, by Ottessa Moshfegh
I spotted this on a daily deal and snapped it up. In the 1850s, deckhand McGlue is in the hold of his ship with a hole in his head, a gap in his memory, and a desperate need for someone to bring him a drink. Supposedly, he’s killed his best friend and saviour, Johnson, but he’s not sure he believes it — McGlue doesn’t remember what happened and can’t find any reason for it, and Johnson hasn’t visited him in the hold to tell him.
McGlue’s varying degrees of inebriety and concussion influence his memory; the story gradually unfolds towards the night of the murder, interspersed with McGlue;’s memories of his rotten childhood, his friendship with Johnson, the two young men escaping the weight of expectation and running away to sea.
This was Moshfegh’s debut, and it’s genuinely an incredible novella — I actually didn’t realise it was so short, and I wish some of it hadn’t been quite so swift.
James, by Percival Everett
When I say I waited months for this to come in to the library, I’m not exaggerating. In the time I was waiting, it won the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction and the Kirkus Prize, as well as being on the shortlist for the Booker.
Based on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Everett focuses on Jim, an escaped slave and Huckleberry’s friend. The early part of the novel is quite close to the story of Huckleberry, but veers off when Jim goes off on his own, and leans in far more to the darker aspects of being an escaped slave in Missouri and along the Mississippi River.
I had high hopes, and I did enjoy this, but… I didn’t love it. As retellings go, I think it’s a good one, but I think maybe I’ve read two degrees-worth of Deep South/antebellum novels, and so things like the reveal of an enslaved man having been lynched for the theft of a pencil (sorry, spoiler, but a minor one!) weren’t as shocking as I think they were supposed to be.
Braised Pork, by An Yu
I picked this up at Bent Books because the title sounded vaguely familiar — I think someone recommended it to me a while ago, but I can’t remember who.
When Jia Jia’s husband dies, he leaves her with an unsellable apartment, a rapidly diminishing bank account, and a strange drawing of a fish-man. Her in-laws cut her off, believing her to be a curse, and so Jia Jia is left to herself. Inspired by a vision, she sets off in search of the fish-man her husband drew before his death, and the novel swerves into magical realism, moving from Beijing to Tibet, as Jia Jia looks for clues.
Lapvona, by Ottessa Moshfegh
It was a Moshfegh month here, apparently.
Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales
For finishing touches to the fairy tales course. Are you coming?
Reading & Writing Fairy Tales
Join me in February for fairy tales of all shapes and sizes, from Cupid & Psyche to Grimm to contemporary retellings. We’ll have some writing prompts sprinkled in to spark your own fairytale-inspired writing, and all the usual extras - movie clips, podcasts, playlists - to add some colour to the discussions.
Online reads
A quiet month for Being Online because I’ve really had too many jobs this month.
Sofia Coppola’s publishing imprint, Important Flowers, is launching in April 2025
Elif Batuman on James Baldwin and the milestones of 1924
2024’s books
This year - and I’m writing this with a week to go - I’ve read 56 books (according to my own, colour-coded, spreadsheet, rather than my Goodreads account, though idk why they’re different). Not all of those books have made it to these posts — some have been for other work things, story collections I’ve read a long time before they’re out so that I can review them for my Mslexia column, or proofs that have been embargoed, or things I just haven’t loved — but I think most of them have. Mostly, my spreadsheet is so that I can have *data* about how many men vs women I read (spoiler: not many), how many translated novels, what types of reading I’m doing, how much I use the library vs my kindle vs going book shopping. Anyway, in case that’s interesting, here are some stats:
I read nine library books:
And these five got a little star emoji (they’re alphabetised, and I don’t ever do ratings on Goodreads, so this is the closest thing to a “top five” though there being five is coincidental):
I can’t believe it’s the end of the year already; the end of my first year in Australia already. It seems wild that it’s sped by so quickly. I hope that your Christmas break was a good one, I hope that the new year brings you everything you’re hoping it does, and I want to say thank you - again, always - for reading along with me this year. It’s been a good one, and I’m very grateful. See you next year!
Terri-Jane x
Ha, you read the only two Moshfegh books I haven’t, I’ve read all her others.