2024 Wrap-up

Celeb goss, my top movies, and more

This year, I worked on a novel. I thought I would be done by now, and I am mostly done, but not entirely. I started it last October, and it was slow going for a while, until someone turned the lights on and then it went very fast.

My children got their ears pierced. I published a book that I wrote with my mother and we went on a book tour. I spent more time in nature, and found that it helped. I was on the Today Show three times. We rediscovered roller-skating. We loved the Liberty, our beautiful champions. We took the kids to see old friends play music. I made unexpected new friends that dove through the surface, down into the real stuff. We left the kids and went on vacation alone! I won prizes. We got lice. I got shingles! My mom turned 80 and we went on a tugboat ride. I made trophies and received trophies. I swam as much as I possibly could. I did so many things that my 10 year old self would have absolutely died to do. I meditated. I read books. I baked for no reason. I was wrecked by the election. I wore my sparkly jacket and tucked the kids in. I wrote, and re-wrote, and re-wrote.

In general, I think of being a bookseller sort of like being a doctor, meaning, there is bookseller-reader privilege, and I don’t like to tell on people. However, because it’s Christmas, I will tell you what some famous shoppers bought this year. Not the famous people that shop all the time, because those are our people, but the people who happened, somehow, to walk in this year and blow our little minds because they felt like people from some other universe. Joe Jonas bought Mac Barnett’s Santa book. Olivia Rodrigo bought The Secret History. Jenna Ortega was looking for a Tracey Emin art book and we didn’t have it.

Thing I loved this year that aren’t books:

Inside Out 2. A goddamn gift for those of us with anxiety.

Matcha lattes. I drink a thousand cups of tea every day and sometimes I need something else.

Thelma. A joy.

Starting Five. Like I said, we got into basketball this year, and this series helped. When you know the characters, the narrative (sports!) is much easier to care about.

Sending voice memos and Marco Polos and texts.

The Jennifer Lopez movies, watched one after the other. I don’t think they showed what she wanted them to show, but an extremely rich duo of texts on fame and desire nonetheless.

The Greatest Night in Pop. Jah bless Lionel Richie.

The Gilded Age. I can’t wait for these biddies to come back. The alarm clock plot has been weighing on me for months. I know that boy can do it.

The Warriors album. For a NYC girl born in 1980, not sure there could be anything better? Ever? A feminist re-telling of a classic NYC movie? Written by the good homie LMM? I love love love love it.

Hope you’re all surviving the holidays. Thanks as ever for reading my earnest little missives. Want more of anything in particular in 2025? Let me know.