Sometimes, I wonder if I love memoirs so much because I'm naturally introspective and a fan of the genre...or if I'm just a nosy yenta.
Either way, I love memoir. In the latter half of 2024, I read three memoirs written by women that I'm still thinking about. In my opinion, one (or all!) of these three memoirs would evoke the best vibes for welcoming the new year, depending on what you're looking for in 2025.
For the pleasure-seekers
As I wrote in my Instagram review, I think everyone (and everyone's mom) should read this book. For years, Glynnis (a 40-something, single & child-free writer) has spent one month every summer subletting a flat in Paris and living her best life. Obviously, the pandemic put a wrench in these plans, but as lockdown restrictions start to lift, she returns to the City of Lights in pursuit of absolute pleasure.
Glynnis' descriptions of cycling through a shuttered city, indulging in freshly baked bread and creamy cheese alongside her tribe of fellow fabulous forty-somethings, and the steamy encounters she has with Parisian men have the decadence and staying power of a high quality chocolate truffle; the flavor of her words coats the tongue and stays even after you walk away from the book.
This is not merely ("merely") a hedonists delight, though. Glynnis is a thoughtful, well-read author who deftly directs our attention outwards, capturing larger ideas and trends, and inwards, to expose potentially high-risk elements of herself. She always has skin in the game, a must for a writer attempting to provide Social Commentary as they also self reflect. The section when she carefully illuminates the absurd particularities of Gen-Z/Gen-Alpha through her interactions with a younger writer is a particular favorite of mine in a book full of favorites.
7/5 -- one of my favorite books of the year
For the commune dreamers
I'm not sure if it's a particular facet of this generation (or perhaps just the echo chamber I've encased myself within), but I'd say the majority of my friends and I have seriously contemplated some variation of group living as one indication of having a joyful and successful adulthood, which is pretty subversive in a society that has overly isolated ourselves in the name of independence for generations.
Lola is the rare example of someone who is living that dream for herself! This memoir/cookbook offers a glimpse of what group living can and does look like in several different ways, from her own place sharing a house with roommates and family to intentionally planned shared communities—the 21st century take on the (mostly failed) communes of the 60s and 70s. Lola digs into the history of group living a tad, too, which is a refreshing add!
4.5/5 -- moments that drag, but they're brief
For the grief-stricken
2024 brought a lot of unexpected grieving to my life and I delayed picking Joan's novel up for months because I wanted so desperately to escape the intensity of my feelings and I figured such a quintessential novel about grief would only remind me of the sludge I was already trudging through.
I was wrong. Joan's novel is a portrait of immense grieving that made me feel less alone and adrift on my own emotional flotsam. Joan's husband of 40 years died at their dining room table one night in December, in the midst of their daughter's own multi-month health crisis. Joan describes leaving Quintana in her room in the ICU to return home with John, only to accompany him back to the hospital hours later in the ambulance.
In her classic Didion style (I am a fan, to say the least), Joan probes the gnawing beast that is all-consuming grief and explores the eponymous "magical thinking" of the title. In doing so, she manages to remind her readers that grief is, primarily, love interrupted. It made me feel better about the new superstitions and rituals that have come to structure my life in the wake.
5/5
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