Orbital by Samantha Harvey
“Up here, nice feels like such an alien word. It’s brutal, inhuman, overwhelming, lonely, extraordinary and magnificent.” Winner of the 2024 Booker prize, Harvey’s novel follows the journey of several astronauts on a journey, data researching as they continuously orbit earth. The novel follows their internal observations as the astronauts meditate on every facet of their lives, from childhood to loss to what it means to be separated from the earth. Orbital is a short but beautiful exploration on human experience and the fragility of being alive.
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
“Does it get easier?” “Much.” Dolly Alderton’s most recent novel follows the breakup of a long-term relationship and the male protagonist’s inability to understand the motivations of his ex-partner. Typical of Alderton’s writing on growing up and the complexity of adult relationships, it is funny and heartbreaking and profoundly relatable. Good Material stands true in her unique ability to present authenticity in written relationships.
All Things Are Too Small; Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothwell
“I dream of a house stuffed floor to ceiling with stuff; rooms so overfull they prevent entry.” In Becca Rothfeld’s 2024 book and debut essay collection, she explores the ever-growing cultural obsession with minimalism, and instead makes what The New York Times calls “a plea for maximalism.” In each essay, she subversively counters the cultural understanding of obsession and meditates on the value of leaning into personal chaos.
Monsters by Claire Dederer
“It’s not a philosophical enquiry, it’s an emotional one.” Following the continually heated debate of what we are, Claire Dederer takes the modern day concept of “cancel culture” in a “surprisingly forgiving” account of how we collectively cope with the art we love having been made by the people we hate. In each chapter, she dissects the relationship between several prominent artists (from J.K Rowling to Roman Polanski to Michael Jackson) and explores the fraught relationship between the consumer and the artist, the idolisation of celebrities, and the gendered relationship between our treatment of female and male artists that is a source of complication in all of our everyday lives.
Committed: On Meaning and Madwoman by Suzanne Scanlon
“I am trying to say something about that sacred relationship between a young woman and a book.” In a brutally honest memoir, Suzanne Scanlon details her experience in and out of a mental institution. She links her experience to the culture surrounding mental illness, womanhood, and prominent women writers whose work have been defined positively and negatively by their respective illnesses. Deeply sad, but also full of hope and introspection, she focuses on her experience as a young woman with motherhood, grief, female friendship, and the literature that has helped her through life.
Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash