My Year In Books: 2025

 The Night After Christmas - Kes Gray
*Night Side Of The River - Jeanette Winterson
The Blue-Footed Booby - Rob Biddulph
Hotel World - Ali Smith
The Penguin Lessons - Tom Michell
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pageboy - Elliot Page 
The Dead - James Joyce

This happy find,

 

Winter Stack.

February —
The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald 

A happy revisit to one of my old favourites, prompted by R4's re-imagining by Roy Williams; also brilliantly conceived. 

I was curious as to how much still stemmed from the original & how much had been adapted to suit the Harlem renaissance. 
Returning to it some twenty years later, I was struck by Jay's blind faith & naïve optimism; 'you can't repeat the past'.
Aye, agreed. 

January —
Pageboy | Elliot Page

Insightful.
Vulnerable.
Compelling. 

I was glad to have encountered Page's book; to better educate myself as a trans ally & to pass it along to someone else seeking to do similar. 

'At this point in my life, it didn’t really feel like a choice, there was no other option. I had to choose to engage as my authentic self, or die not trying.' [199]

'There was a spark, a seed, something getting stirred up. My body leaned in, knowing not to stop there, sensing it before my mind did. This flesh vessel, always vastly smarter than me, if only I’d managed to listen.' [237]

Page, Elliot. Pageboy. Doubleday | imprint of Transworld Publishers | Penguin Random House: London, 2023.