Happy New Year to you, my bookish beloveds.
I took a little time off at the end of 2024 to rest and reflect on what was surely one of the most rewarding, memorable, and exhausting years in my professional life.
After taking time away from churning out content I realized I am doing way too much. I think I already knew this, but when I took the time to write out everything I create (thanks for this idea
) I realized instead of sharing eight newsletter posts a month, I was actually doing anywhere between 10 and 13 a month. That is too much.I did some auditing and mapped out what I want this space to be in 2025. One of the changes you’ll see is instead of giving you a post for my monthly reads ranked and a post for the books on deck and a post of the past month’s episodes of The Stacks, I am going to put that all together, here.
Less emails in your inbox. Less work for me. Same book recs and hot takes. This feels like an obvious win win win1.
The books on deck and podcast recap portions will remain free to all and the reads ranked will remain exclusive to paid subscribers.
That’s where we’re at. This is all also subject to change based on how it goes and your feedback. Let’s dive in, shall we?
The Stacks December Recap
- talking about grief and the books that shaped her.
Mosab Abu Toha powefully shared his poetry collection, Forest of Noise, that viscerally calls forth life in Gaza, past and present.
- , MJ Franklin, and I crowned our 10 books of 2024. It was more fun than any three people should have talking about books.
Nora came back for The Stacks Book Club discussion of Tacky by Rax King.
January Books On Deck
New year. New books. Same me, spewing tons of book recs. Below are a list of the January titles I am most excited about. There are plenty of lists around with the buzziest books and while I am excited for some of those books2, I want this list to be a manageable list with the things that actually have me hyped. Anything I’ve already read (or at least started) will appear here in bold.
In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space by Irvin Weathersby Jr. (January 7)
A reckoning with art, public monuments, and white supremacy.Playworld by Adam Ross (January 7)
A coming of age novel about a child actor in 1980s Manhattan who starts a relationship with his parents’ friend.Vantage Point by Sara Sligar (January 14)
A rich white guy, from a Kennedy-esque family, decides to run for senate, his family secrets start spilling out.The Sun Won't Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood by Kristen Martin (January 21)
The history of orphandom in America and how that bumps up against the myths and legends.Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry (January 28)
A history of Black people and the color blue.
What January books are you most looking forward to? Tell me in the comments.
As you’re about to hear, my December reading was pretty all over the place. I take the last few weeks of the year off3 which means I mostly get to read without expectations. I finished up 2024 with some “best books” of 2024, check out a few titles coming in 2024, and even read some backlist. It has been really nice reading for fun4. In true Traci fashion, these are my rankings at this very moment, but they’re always subject to change5.
