Mid-year reading check-in
Books I've DNFed, loved and been surprised by in 2024
After seeing posts online about mid-year freak out tags and favourite reads, I was reminded that we have in fact crossed the line that marks the passing of six months. How on earth can we have already experienced half of 2024? Wasn't it only recently that the snow was making its presence felt and the Christmas songs were playing on loop every time you walked into a store? How is it possible that six months have passed? When you think of six months, it feels like an eternity. 182 days of endless possibilities and experiences.
Enough ruminating. Allow me to present you my mid-year bookish musings. As a true gatherer, I’ve picked my favourite questions from different sources. Some questions are from @/glitterpricked’s mid-year wrap-up template on X, others are from
post “mid year reading check-in” and ’s post “mid-year freak out !!”.First read
I started the year off strong with The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free (2021) by Paulina Bren. I went into it not knowing anything else than what the title reveals and liked it a lot. If you are also a person who seek out and/or find yourself drawn to media portraying women being themselves alone and together in safe spaces, this is a book for you.
Biggest disappointment
Permafrost (2018) by Eva Baltasar. I had heard so many good things about this book and was drawn to it partly because it was written by a Catalan poet and partly because the main character is a lesbian. However, I never connected with the main character and found it repetitive with all the descriptions of reading, eating and having sex. This, the repetitiveness and somewhat aimlessness (read: no plot, just vibes), is a feature I dislike in contemporary literary fiction.
Biggest surprise
Medea (2024) by Eilish Quin. As I explained in this post, I was nervous to read this book because of previous experiences with Greek mythological retellings, but to my surprise, I really liked this one. In fact, it was so close to being a five star book, which is unusual for me (I very rarely give books five stars). The first half of the novel follows Medea and her upbringing on Colchis (the 5 star experience) while the second half follows her escape from Colchis with Jason – the story most people know from Euripides' play. To avoid dragging this out too long, I'll say that this retelling is very close to being like Circe by Madeline Miller. Read it if you like tragedies featuring feminism and witchcraft.
Favourite reads so far
Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature (2010) by Emma Donoghue, The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (2003) by Sappho, and The Muse of the Violets: Poems (1982) by Renée Vivien. The common factor between these books? All sapphic.
Inseparable is nonfiction and very informative if you’re looking for what was typical (e.g. motifs and terms) for texts depicting same-sex desire between women in literature throughout the centuries. Highly recommend!
The Color Purple is a classic for a reason. A must read in my opinion! Make sure to check out the trigger warnings beforehand though. The newest adaptation, the musical, is also really good.
If Not, Winter and The Muse of the Violets are both poetry collections by historical lesbians. I think that out of all these four reads The Muse of the Violets is my number one favourite read of 2024. Renée Vivien’s language is spellbinding, cannot even fathom how magical her writing must be in her native language (French)! Here are some of my favourite lines:
I love sunset, the day dying bit by bit.
The fire, the monastic intimacy of a room
Where the lamps with veiled amber transparence
Redden the old bronze and blue the stoneware.
in its velvet keep
Earth holds you; on your forehead violets weep.
You attract and repel me like the unseen abyss
Hidden by the churning waves.
[…]
Your vague smile
Flickers like the glint of sun on a foam-washed pile.
You should also check out her novel A Woman Appeared to Me (1979), which depicts her relationship with the iconic Natalie Clifford Barney.
2024 releases you haven’t read yet
The Tower by Flora Carr, Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira, When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips, These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere, The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden, and Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.
The Tower is a feminist reimagination of the months Mary, Queen of Scot was held hostage at the Lochleven Castle. I am a sucker for historical fiction and reimaginations, especially when it features a woman. This novel being about a historical lesbian makes it even better.
Dayspring, like The Tower, is a reimagination of sorts. Dayspring is a retelling of biblical tales combined with a coming-of-age story. To my understanding this novel will be queer, and I’m excited to see which biblical tales are featured and in what way they are retold. The writing, combining fiction, memoir and verse has been compared to Madeline Miller’s and Anne Carson’s writing – two authors I like!
When We Were Silent is the perfect novel for fall, I think. It’s a mystery thriller set at a private school in Dublin. The novel follows Louise as she attends the school and her 30 years later as she is called to testify in a lawsuit against the school. I guess this will be your typical “revisiting an old place and thus having to confront your past”-novel.
These Letters End in Tears is a contemporary novel following two girls, Fatima and Bessem, who fall in love in Cameroon, a country where same-sex relationships are punishable by law. Fatima disappears and they have no contact for 13 years, but Bessem has never forgotten Fatima and when she sees a mutual friend from her past, she sets out to find Fatima.
The Safekeep is a debut novel following two women during the summer of 1961. Isabel is staying in her late mother’s Dutch country home when her brother brings his new girlfriend, Eva, to the house. Things start disappearing and both the house and Eva are not what they seem.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie is Àbíké-Íyímídé’s second YA mystery set at a boarding school. The first book, Ace of Spades, was a read that reminded me of why I love reading: you open a book and suddenly you find yourself in a new world, in the minds of characters whose lives are so different from your own. You become totally immersed in this fictional world that acts as a sanctuary, the only place in today's fast-paced society where you are offered rest. So, safe to say, I’m excited to read this new book by Àbíké-Íyímídé.
An underrated book I’ve read
Some of you may be familiar with the painting Judith Slaying Holofernes, painted by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), the protagonist of Anna Banti’s Artemisia (1947). This would be my favourite book of 2024 if it wasn’t for the fact that I found it hard to follow at times, the topic would switch mid-sentence. However, I found it so admirable that the author managed to (1) re-imagine Artemisia's life out of a few scraps and turn it into this book and (2) that she managed to rewrite this entire story out of her memory because the manuscript was destroyed due to WW2. Banti's love to Artemisia is clear from page one. She even narrates the book at times, and thus their voices kind of fleet together at times, whereas it at other times is a dialogue between these two women. As a reader you're able to feel the love and the impact a painter born 3 centuries before had had on Banti.
A book I’ve DNF:ed
Mona (2019) by Pola Olixarac. This novel sounds like a book I’d love: a novelist who has been nominated for a prestigious award in Sweden travels there and meets the other nominees. This was marketed as a satire of the global literary world, but it was not funny at all. The “jokes” where appalling.
Most anticipated release for the second half of the year
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, Gentlest of Wild Things by Sarah Underwood, Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid, Gold Rush by Olivia Petter, and Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio.
In Rooney’s newest book, Intermezzo, we follow two grieving brothers as they navigate love, life and themselves. Maybe this will be the little brother to Coco Mellors’ Blue Sisters (will talk about it in the next question)? One of the brothers is a competitive chess player, and I have to say that ever since The Queen's Gambit, chess has had me in its chokehold.
Gentlest of Wild Things is inspired by the myth of Eros and Psyche but with a sapphic and vampiric twist. As I've noted so far, sapphic retellings/reimaginations are the way to my heart (bonus if it's based on mythology).
Lady Macbeth has been painted as a villain by Shakespeare, stripped from her power. In Lady Macbeth, however, Reid gives her her voice and power back. I’m intrigued to see what route Reid chose and how Lady Macbeth is portrayed.
I recently stumbled upon Gold Rush and immediately got drawn by its theme: celebrities and celebrity culture analysed from a critical lens. The plot centres around the main character, PR assistant Rose, who wakes up naked and bleeding after a night spent with pop heartthrob Milo. Expected publication: September 24.
M.L. Rio is one of my friend’s favourite authors, so naturally I’ll be checking out Graveyard Shift (I did like If We Were Villains myself). This novella follows five people who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.
Currently reading
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors. I’ve seen it everywhere online and decided to give it a go. I’m maybe 40% in and like it so far. It follows four sisters: Avery, the lawyer in London; Bonnie, former boxer; Lucky, the model in Paris; and Nicky, the fourth sister whose unexpected death uprooted the sisters. As the story unfolds we get to follow the sisters navigating their individual lives, grief and a reality without the person who glued them all together.
If you haven’t done a mid-year reading check-in yourself, feel free to comment your favourite reads and overall feelings below. I’m also curious to know if any of you have read any of the books mentioned here and what you thought about them!
These are some great books. Loved the post 💌✨