Good morning everyone,

It's the last Friday before Christmas, which means only one thing; it's time for the Fem Fri books of the year!

First, though, an admin note. I am switching the provider I use to send this newsletter, and the email address I send from will change as well, to feministfriday@buttondown.email. If you think you didn't get a Fem Fri last week, check your spam folders for that email and, if you want to follow Fem Fri to the end (episode 520), retrieve it from your spam.

Okay, now it is time for books of the year. Starting with a big one in every sense.

Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellman

There is little in this life that is more exciting than reading a book that could only have been written by one person. Ducks, Newburyport is, in my edition, 1,050 pages (a lot of pages). By around page 400, I knew I was going to re-read it. On page 750 I started feeling sad because I'd been used to having several normal sized books of reading left, but at that point I only had one normal sized book of reading. For a while, I thought there wasn't a plot, then the plot just absolutely blazed through and it was exciting and scary and some of the finest writing I have read. It's been a while since a book I was reading for the first time hit my top five of all time, but Ducks, Newburyport is absolutely in my top five of all time.

My Phantoms - Gwendoline Riley

HNNNNNGGGGG. Look, are you interested in conflicted relationships with parents? Do you absolutely revel in awkward situations pushed to their limit? Do you want to do a horrified shrieklol every five minutes or so? HOOO BOY do I have a book for you, and it's My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. Really superb and also quite stressful, so I'm going to advise you to save this one to Jan if you're currently spending time with your parents.

Unquiet - E. Saxey

The debut novel from friend of Fem Fri E. Saxey! I hope you enjoyed their short stories from last year, and their novel is a whole new level of creeping dread, English weirdness, odd people becoming odder. It's also funny and prickly and charming. The days are going to be short for quite some time still, and this is just an ideal book to read in ACANYNY*, as the freezing fog swirls and night drops at three thirty pm.

Sound Within Sound - Kate Molleson

This book has introduced me to some of the most interesting stories and some of the most challenging music of the twentieth century. The only non-fiction book on this list, it runs through ten composers you might not have heard of, their lives and influences and their music. I would read this on the train while listening to the musician the chapter was about. All of their music is about pushing limits in one way or another; it is rarely easy to listen to. One night I got home and took off my headphones and felt honestly glad not to be listening to difficult angular janglings based on found sound, and I poured pasta into a pan and thought - it's still there - heard the music in the difficult angular jangling I had just created. This book made me experience the world differently, and I don't know that there's much more I could ask from a book.

Circe - Madeline Miller

Feel like this is the equivalent of recommending Taylor Swift at this point, but also, despite the hype I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. The thing about woman centered novels based on history is that sometimes men are actually doing interesting stuff, so what you get is this weird soft focus effect where the thing you are looking at is not at all where the action is. Not so Circe. It's beautifully written, it feels real, and it's actually quite horny which other reviewers have really soft pedalled. JUST THE FACTS FROM FEM FRI!

Love,

Alex.

*After Christmas And Not Yet New Year