Good morning everyone,

It's the last Friday before Christmas, and that means one thing – it's time for the Fem Fri books of the year! This year I was pretty focussed on reading books by/about/relevant to Scott Fitzgerald (NB not a woman) so this list is correspondingly very heavy on nonfiction. I think you are going to like it.

Further notes:

1. I'm going to assume you don't need me to recommend you The Mirror and the Light
2. Ditto Normal People
3. A list of my books of the year specifically about Scott Fitzgerald is available on application.

The Ghost: A Cultural History – Susan Owens

You don't have to be into ghosts and the supernatural to enjoy this book, which is also secretly a history of art and printing. It's a look at how our view of what ghosts are and what they can do has changed, in part as the means we have to depict ghosts has changed. For example in the medieval age ghosts were basically "heavies" who would hit you with a chunk of wood because you owed them money when they were alive. Obviously if you are into ghosts and the supernatural this is a wall to wall treat.

Pale Rider – Laura Spinney

This superb book about the Spanish Flu of 1918 was my pandemic reading for the year, and it was also modernist/early 20th century reading. Pale Rider really helped me to think about how people have responded to the pandemic – Spinney makes the point that they tend to be forgotten, that their narrative structure is not pleasing and so we don't think about them in the way we do about wars. The Spanish Flu killed more people than the First World War but the number of words devoted to it is much, much smaller! Lots in here that feels familiar, really well written, definitely add it to your list.

My Àntonia – Willa Cather

Since about 2003 I've been saying things like, aaaah yeah I should definitely read some Willa Cather!!! What I learned this year is that if you think you should read an author you probably should. My Àntonia is the single showing from fiction on this list and it's a beautiful and medium-sad (the best kind of sad) story of childhood and friendship and love. There's also a lovely description of a Christmas so this could be a really good one to curl up with in ACANYNY*.

Intimate Matters – J. D'Emilio and E. B. Freedman

The subtitle of this book is "A History of Sexuality in America" and the small, dense print, as well as the fact that it's really an academic book made me a bit wary of it. There was no need for this wariness. It's so engagingly written, and there's some fairly startling stuff that's handled with a delightful deadpan. If you're interested in the historical antecedents   of people behaving dreadfully, saying "sorry" and then getting away with it, I'm not going to say this book explains it all, but the chapter on the early Puritans is pretty illuminating.

Rites of Spring – Modris Eksteins

This is the only hardcore modernist book on my list and YOU GUYS IT IS SO GOOD. It was a really great companion piece to Pale Rider, as it's about the influence of the First World War on modernism and, I suppose, of modernism on the First World War. There are lots of primary sources in the letters of soldiers at the front; it's about modernism as a lived experience more than about modernism as an intellectual movement. I read it at the start of the year and I'm still thinking about it. If you are interested in any aspect of the history of the 20th Century, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Hey, the next time I see you it will be Christmas Day! So happy Christmas everyone, I hope it's restorative and wonderful.

Love,

Alex xxx.

*After Christmas And Not Yet New Year