Nourishing Reads
books that gave me lifeblood this year
Hi y’all,
I thought perhaps it would be of use to share the books which truly nourished me this year. My first disclosure, which I do not feel any guilt about at all: I mostly listen to audiobooks these days. I’m a single parent caring for a chronically ill teen, and it’s rare to have time to sit with a book. If I do, it’s with a book of poems, or occasionally a book I really really want to read but which is not available as an audiobook. Second disclosure: I re-read books regularly. Some of this year’s reads are ones I’m re-reading (listening to) for the fifth time or maybe more. It’s been a year when I have needed the comfort of a book I know the ending to, but have forgotten all the juicy details of, and am ready to laugh at the jokes afresh.
This is not a post about what to buy for the holidays. Get these books at your library, borrow them on Libby.
Before I get into the book recs, I want to tell you about an online generative writing group I’m co-leading in January with my fabulous poet friend Priscilla Washington: The Front Burner.
What if 2025 was the year you decided to take your writing practice off of the back burner? As parents ourselves, we know what it is like to scrap together a writing life at bus stops and white zones, from half-slept dreams and in the stumps of a day between meals and appointments. Our goal is to meet you just exactly where you are at, and to invite you into a nourishing space where you can prioritize your practice for a little portion of every day. During this 4 week experience, you will have access to daily prompts to help you generate new poems, and the option of engaging with fellow caregivers and parents and work-sharing/community building in our private discord server. We will also offer two casual "come-as-you-are" zoom sessions, where we will get to know each other, answer questions and write together.
This class is open to all whose identities or life experiences connect to/overlap with being a "parent" or "caregiver." We hold these terms as broadly as possible, welcoming those who are parents of adult children, who have parented siblings, who are on reproductive journeys or have experienced losses, and who are or have been paid or unpaid caretakers, in any capacity. Sign-ups are here.
First book rec is the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. If you know me IRL, chances are you’ve heard me talk about Murderbot. Not only does this series have a fantastic writer and narrator (shout out to Kevin R. Free), the main character is coded autistic (just wants to watch media and chill, but has to keep talking to humans [ugh] and occasionally having emotions [double ugh]), and the Preservation Alliance is a glimpse into the future we want. Can’t recommend these too much.
One that I read in paper with my own two hands was Arboreality by Canadian Rebecca Campbell, which won the Ursula K Le Guin prize last year. This novella is a gorgeous view into the not-too-distant future. What I appreciate most about it is that it’s neither dystopia nor utopia, but actually just a glimpse at how a community of people attempt to live as best they can in a world transformed by climate collapse.
Keeping in the sci-fi/fantasy realm, I discovered Becky Chambers this year and listened to all of the Wayfarer series, which starts with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Chambers is an admirer of Le Guin and I think that lineage shows in her work. (Also fun side note: Chambers self-published this book at first with a kickstarter, and it went on to sell so many copies that it led to a deal with a major publishing house.)
Ok so how about the poetry already? Favorite poetry books from this year have included GIRL WORK by Zefyr Lisowski, which tangles its sharp fingernails in many ideas of work, and so much more—body horror, the jumbles and fragments of traumatic memory, sex work, transness, and the ways a person can be haunted and exploited by all of these.
The Empty Form Goes All the Way to Heaven by Brian Teare (disclosure: he was one of my advisors at grad school) is a clear and lingering meditation on illness, the art and writings of Agnes Martin, disability, precarity in the modern medical system, and the creative life.
Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco by K. Iver examines and re-examines the love and loss of a trans beloved, with beauty and an unflinching desire to get at truth.
Winter by Sarah Vap - also a re-read, I spent my spring semester focused on this collection and writing a 50 page essay about it. Winter is the most perfect depiction I have ever seen of the dissolution of self in parenting, the ecstatic love and despair of parenting, all engaged with the climate collapse and military violence all around us. Somewhere between poetry, prose poetry, and hybrid, this collection continues to teach me so much.
And for non-fiction, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s Care Work has been a regular, nourishing companion for me this year. Full of humor, anger, honesty, and most of all, care, this is a must-read for all humans, imho. One of the great gifts of this book is getting to hear about projects and movements and groups that try some things, learn some things, disband, transform, change, and try again.
Last but never least, some cat pics. May you find nourishment and moments of deep rest in the days ahead. Info coming soon about the chronically ill/disabled writers group I’ll be co-leading in February with Dare Williams. And if you haven’t already registered, join myself and Priscilla for The Front Burner in January, and tell a friend!
With love and rage,
Adrie
