Happy Friday Links and Happy New Year!

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Hello friends,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that you spent New Year’s Eve in a way that made you happy. For me, and this should be no surprise to anyone, I spent my evening at home reading and loving every minute. The last NYE I spent out in the world partying was many, many years ago at a honky tonk. There was standing room only; you couldn’t get to the dance floor, and by 12:15 a.m., most of the people had cleared out, and the rest of us had the dance floor to ourselves with a decent country-western band for an hour or so. Live and learn.

As always, I’ve done a lot of reading and collecting links to stories that I found interesting, and maybe you will, too. Here are some fun links to start your weekend reading, and hopefully, you’ll find a few you can relax with.

• Libby recaps 2024 with a look at a few of the new features from last year.

• I don’t follow any celebrity book clubs to determine what I’ll read, but I occasionally like to check out the recommended books. This Esquire article tells how celebrity book clubs work. As someone who likes to “see how the sausage is made,” I found it really interesting.

• Have you ever heard of an architectural style called “Googie?” Well, I hadn’t either, but seeing the picture of the original style “McDonalds,” I had to keep reading. What a fascinating article about things from the past that many people remember from their childhood.

• LitHub is out with its list of the 50 biggest literary stories of 2024. I read many of them as they were published during the year, but there were several that I hadn’t heard anything about. Do you keep up with the literary happenings?

• I don’t do a lot of “from scratch” cooking, so cookbooks aren’t much use to me. I love to look at the “old” cookbooks—my mom had several that I became the new owner of when she passed. This NY Times article (gift link) looks at the 25 most influential cookbooks of the last century. Eight industry professionals weigh in on their process of choosing the books and provide a wonderful narrative on why each one made the top 25 list.

• Shelby Van Pelt
  , the author of one of my favorite books from 2024 (Remarkably Bright Creatures), has a Substack newsletter,
  Shelby’s Substack
  . She doesn’t write often, but since they are making a movie/series of her bestselling book, maybe she will publish more in her newsletter.

• If you like reading young adult books as I do,

  Kellie- The YA Library
  writes a newish newsletter,
  The Young Adult Library
  where she looks at new releases and book news, reviews books, and writes about other bookish adjacent topics. She’s an “enthusiastic” high school librarian who is “thrilled to extend the joy of reading young adult lit beyond the school walls and showcase the vibrant and diverse world of young adult books, both for teenagers and adults.”

• Since I retired, I’ve been traveling and staying at AirBnb’s when possible. I spend lots of time searching, reading the reviews, etc., and then arriving to find that it’s not as great as the reviews made it sound. I don’t understand why people don’t tell the truth when reviewing, but this Fodor’s article might explain a little of the reasons why.

• Electric Literature is out with their list of the “most popular articles in 2024 on their website.” Their list offers a great mix of reading lists, essays, interviews, guides, and a category they call “misfits”—articles that don’t fit into any category. There’s some interesting reading here.

• For Tournament of Books fans, the shortlist and brackets have been released for the 2025 tournament, which begins on March 6th. The TOB started as a joke—if you are new to it, you can read about its history here.

• She Reads is a bookish gem of a website focused on “recommending books to women based on genre, habits, jobs, pop culture, and lifestyle preferences.” A monthly digital magazine is available where you can find interviews with authors, bookish creators, book lists, gift guides, and so much more.

• Who knew?

There’s lots of reading above if you want a break from your current read. Did you click on any links? Did you learn anything? You can tell me in the comments below.

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With the beginning of the new year, do you have any tasks or things you do to plan for the new year? Do you set reading goals or any other goals? Do you like to participate in reading challenges? Do you choose a “word” for your year? Do you do any journaling? If you do any journaling, do you have favorite supplies you like to use? I’ve been thinking about possible answers to all of these questions, and I’m working on a couple of newsletters in the coming weeks with my thoughts and suggestions for readers and journalers. More sausage making—I love it.

Have a wonderful weekend full of fun, friends, family, rest, and lots of reading. Happy reading!