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My year of books, writing, and ephemeral all-stars
As a top 0.05% listener of Lana, I have a lot to recap from the past year in reading, writing, and pop culture highlights (though, this year-end recap was written by a human and not AI).
2024 was a fucking year—I should have known it would be when I was bitten by a poodle in New Zealand on January 2nd and the dog’s owner blamed my gay tote bag (everyone was okay, except my tote, RIP).
Before getting into it, though, I do have one important thank you to share—thank YOU! I started this newsletter with a lot of trepidation. Why would anybody want to read this? Isn’t everybody already overloaded with newsletters and content? While the answers to these questions may very well be the same as the negative thoughts that would have stopped me from starting this project earlier this year, I’ve also learned, in large part from these conversations, if you want to make something happen, most often you’re the one who needs to do it. So, thank you for following along, sharing your thoughts, and joining me (as we hold space!)
Finally, if you’ve enjoyed reading Referential, please consider sharing or pledging your support. I’ve got some big ideas for 2025, and I can’t wait to share them with you.
My Favorite Books
This year I read over 80 books. These are some of my favorites:
State of Paradise, Laura van den Berg
Ways and Means, Daniel Lefferts
Rejection, Tony Tulathimutte
The Mythmakers, Keziah Weir
Ecstasy, Alex Dimitrov
Housemates, Emma Copley Eisenberg
The Most, Jessica Anthony
Providence, Craig Willse
Grief is for People, Sloane Crosley
Perfume and Pain, Anna Dorn
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
Dead in Long Beach, California, Venita Blackburn
Mystery Lights, Lena Valencia
Mouth, Puloma Ghosh
Writing Updates
I bore my soul in this essay for Hazlitt about The Talented Mr. Ripley.
For the Cleveland Review of Books, I wrote about Gauraa Shekhar’s posthumous debut, Notes, and literary community. I also contributed my final Cinemacabre column to No Contact’s last issue.
I interviewed a bunch of writers for different publications. I loved these books and highly recommend you check them out: Venita Blackburn, Garrard Conley, Laura van den Berg, Marissa Higgins, Rebecca Spiegel, Craig Willse, Puloma Ghosh, Jenny Slate, Ella Baxter, Jessica Nirvana Ram, S.J. Naude, Lena Valencia, Emma Copley Eisenberg, and Daniel Lefferts.
I started getting into more travel writing and wrote about Iceland’s Ion Adventure Hotel for Dwell and The Kennebunks for Decor Maine.
For Decor Maine I wrote about a bunch of houses, as well as Dominique Ostuni’s pottery and Anastasia Inciardi’s prints.
Finally, I think publishing can be incredibly opaque and it’s important to be honest about what things look like behind the scenes. As much as this year presented some major highs—I signed with my agent and interviewed Jenny Slate for Vanity Fair— I spent a lot of time working on fiction and a couple of essays and did not have a single short story accepted or published. With some other writers, I committed to seeking 100 literary magazine rejections this year. As of this writing, I’m at 77.
Ephemeral All-Stars
I went into a deep hole with the infamous Wicked interview.
I’m a longtime listener of the podcast, Too Niche, and this year got into Sexy Unique Podcast as well. I’m currently obsessed with their new series, Sexy Unique Bible Study. It’s irreverent and wildly funny and fun.
Pop culture favorites: The Sopranos (I finally finished—send help), Fellow Travelers (I’m a simp!)
Favorite movies: Queer, All of Us Strangers (the dance montage!), Babygirl (the George Michael dance!), Aftersun (it was a Paul Mescal year), Civil War, Marie Antoinette, Body Heat.
I finally saw Lana in concert at Fenway, even if it was only 40 minutes thanks to the lightning.
That’s all for this year. See you in 2025!
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