Great list! Thank you for sharing it. I apologize if I missed this (or maybe you read it in an earlier year) but I think Suzanne O'Sullivan's The Sleeping Beauties would be perfect for your research. It describes almost every single angle of ROGD and the trans social contagion without ever talking about gender. It's fascinating
Yesss I’ve been waiting for an Eliza booklist to drop! I always like to see what people read- it’s such an unfiltered glimpse into people’s psyches.
My top 5 from 2023 in no particular order:
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf- Why have I never read this before? Probably the most empowering thing I’ve ever read as a woman in a creative field, period. An essay answering the question: what does a woman need to be capable of feats of creative greatness? Answer: 1. Her own money and 2. A room of her own. Woolf’s assessment of gender dynamics is shrewd and unflinching, yet compassionate. I doubt she could have imagined where we would be today. It was shocking to experience how much more feminist and empowering writing from the 1920’s is on this issue than so-called “feminist texts” from the 2020’s. Also, unexpectedly hilarious- what a delightful sense of humor she had! A great read, frankly, for ANYONE who seeks to create ‘good’ art.)
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip- ignore the dated, cheesy fantasy book covers from the 60’s, this book was a moving story about, among other things, a young woman choosing to value both freedom, and the ability to love others (specifically, she comes to love both a man and a child) and to handle the way our love for other people affects our experience of freedom. This is the kind of story that should be a Disney movie for today’s little girls.
Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro- short stories about music and dark nights of the soul or else aging and death. Melancholic and moving. The story “Cellists” hit extremely close to home for me, as a musician. I now ‘get’ the worship for Ishiguro’s writing: his sentences don’t feel like sentences. You read them and the story is just ‘happening.’ It’s hard to explain but it’s awe inspiring, and also made me realize what so many authors who try to wield a stark, spare writing style are trying to achieve.
Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones by Hettie Judah- Possibly a top 3 favorite book of the year. Each short chapter has beautiful color illustrations snd some general information about each stone, but the chapter would meander into some unexpected path, so it would be like: Malachite: and suddenly I’m learning about Russian history; Rubies: Spanish imperialism; Globigerina limestone: ancient Malta; Cinnabar: Indian alchemy. Reading it was like opening a knowledge jewel box. It’ll be a definite reread, and there are good sized endnotes with books and articles to add to my reading list, mostly on the subjects of art, history, economics, fashion, and craft.
Visions of Beauty- an art collection of work by Kinuko Y. Craft. She illustrated the covers of some of the fantasy novels I loved as a girl, and so I was excited to find her on Instagram and see that there would be a book published of her work. Her art usually depicts fantastical and extremely detailed paintings of beautiful and powerful-looking women. I would make a cup of tea before bed and immerse myself in her art like a seeing eye book. I appreciated her comments in the book about her obsession with beauty, and how good art isn’t possible without obsession.
Not quite a top five, but a bonus for gender relevance:
The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting by Evanna Lynch- a memoir about Evanna’s experience with anorexia, general body dysmorphia, self loathing, and her acting career. Similar to Hadley Freeman’s book about anorexia. I listened to the audiobook which is read by Evanna and enjoyed her brutally dark humor and sharp wit. This memoir has the problem that all memoirs written by young adults have, which is that it gets up to the present, and just sort of peters out because everyone in their 30’s is way too close to what just happened over the past few decades and doesn’t know how to wrap things up satisfyingly without more distance in the form of more age. Still, it was a moving read, and a useful look into what approaches best help heal mental illnesses like body dysmorphia. Incidentally, Evanna is also the only young Harry Potter actor to backtrack on initial comments about Rowling and gender, come to Jo’s defense, and be willing to wade into the complexity of the trans debate- and I can see why. She’s a deep soul, and very brave. She has more similarities to her character Luna Lovegood than she seems to realize.
I felt so cheated to realize that the shortened version of A Room of One's Own I'd read in high school was not the whole thing, which I finally read only in 2018 or 2019! It's marvelous.
Will definitely check out Forgotten Beasts. I'm also very curious about the gemstone book... and have to ask: is labradorite in there?
I've started this and would love to discuss it: WHEN PROPHECY FAILS A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World
I read and enjoyed Fatherland thanks to your recommendation of it a few months ago. Thank you for that! I'm very impressed by the amount of reading you manage to do, in addition to your research and writing and hope to eventually join you in a book club selection.
Vision of the Anointed is awesome. I'd highly recommend The Origins of Woke by Richard Hanania. I had no idea that disparate impact hiring standards have been used to some extent since the early 1970's. Cobalt Red, about rare earth mineral mining in the Congo is near the top of my stack. Hope to get to that soon.
I really enjoyed The Genesis of Gender, as well as Louise Perry’s book on the sexual revolution.
Very recently, I read Creating Hysteria. While reading that one I had to double check the publishing date to make sure it wasn’t indeed about the trans craze. Two books on the satanic panic (McMartin trial and one from Italy; I can’t immediately recall the names of the books.) had uncanny parallels with our current ability to concoct problems from nothing.
"The New Puritans" by Andrew Doyle was my favorite non-fiction. I spent some time reading "banned books" for K- 12. Most don't deserve to be in school libraries. I asked our librarian at a community discussion of these books, why the library didn't promote the best writing for LGB? The librarian replied that it was good for lots of young people to read the same "banned" books. "The Color of Earth" - Kim Dong Hwa is a graphic Korean coming of age book that I enjoyed from the "banned" list. I also enjoyed "Gender Queer", another "banned" graphic novel, but I'm a 75 year old lesbian. I learned a lot from reading "Marriage Be Hard" by Kevin and Melissa Fredericks. I liked "Tomboy" by Lisa Selin Davis written in 2020. I've seen that her thinking has evolved via her discussions at the Genspect conference in Denver.
thanks for the reading list. i wanted to purchase Kara Dansky
The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls for Christmas for myself. but my wife didnt think it was a good book to have around our young kids. tho she agrees with me on the subject, shes sick of the topic. but thats not saying much. shes sick of a lot of things.
i also want to read Eric Hoffer
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements and Against Empire by Michael Parenti
Great list! Much I shall mine from it this year [rubs hands]
I loved Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, Louise Perry’s The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, Chris Rufo’s The American Cultural Revolution and John Wyndham’s Trouble With Lichen.
I wonder for if you could go through the list (slowly) and say some words about the books. Especially if a book offers new insights. You are an inspiration and in a few years when I retire I would like to read so deeply
As always, you are an inspiration to so many of us.
I've just ordered "The Crofter and the Laird" and "Fatherland", which both sound marvellous (and just up my street).
Of the books I read this year, the worst, without a shadow of a doubt, was the Gill Petersen.
It was so awful, there was a kind of masochistic delight in uncovering ever more convoluted and unintelligible sentences. That aside, I have never felt so relieved to finish the last page.
My favourite? Perhaps a book of poetry I came upon by chance in my parents' house: "Sentenced to Life" by Clive James .
I only really knew Clive James from his TV shows, and witty journalism and memoirs.
But his poetry is an absolute revelation. Warm, witty, and very moving.
A great list with lots I haven't heard of, thank you! Interesting to see people's recommendations in the comments, as well.
My favourite non-fiction read of the year was Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century by John Higgs. For such an expansive reflection on that era, I found all the ideas coalesced into a coherent narrative in a very compelling way. I particularly enjoyed it's fair-handed perspective on postmodernism which made me reassess some of my preconceptions of it.
Other books I enjoyed reading were: Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom; The Century of Deception: The Birth of the Hoax in Eighteenth-Century England; On the Unexplained, a collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's writings on the supernatural.
Books I read because of the title, but were pretty much the opposite of what I was hoping for: You Are Not a Before Picture: How to Finally Make Peace with Your Body For Good by Alex Light; Authentic: How to be Yourself and Why it Matters by Professor Stephen Joseph. Although there were some good bits in both books, it felt like their solution to identitarian malaise is for people just to buy into more hyper-individualism. It was interesting to get an insight into the direction the self-help industry is taking though, if nothing else.
Great list! Thank you for sharing it. I apologize if I missed this (or maybe you read it in an earlier year) but I think Suzanne O'Sullivan's The Sleeping Beauties would be perfect for your research. It describes almost every single angle of ROGD and the trans social contagion without ever talking about gender. It's fascinating
I read it a couple years ago! It's great. It's also our next book-club read!
Very much hope you'll consider joining the conversation on that one... ok to use a pen name.
Yesss I’ve been waiting for an Eliza booklist to drop! I always like to see what people read- it’s such an unfiltered glimpse into people’s psyches.
My top 5 from 2023 in no particular order:
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf- Why have I never read this before? Probably the most empowering thing I’ve ever read as a woman in a creative field, period. An essay answering the question: what does a woman need to be capable of feats of creative greatness? Answer: 1. Her own money and 2. A room of her own. Woolf’s assessment of gender dynamics is shrewd and unflinching, yet compassionate. I doubt she could have imagined where we would be today. It was shocking to experience how much more feminist and empowering writing from the 1920’s is on this issue than so-called “feminist texts” from the 2020’s. Also, unexpectedly hilarious- what a delightful sense of humor she had! A great read, frankly, for ANYONE who seeks to create ‘good’ art.)
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip- ignore the dated, cheesy fantasy book covers from the 60’s, this book was a moving story about, among other things, a young woman choosing to value both freedom, and the ability to love others (specifically, she comes to love both a man and a child) and to handle the way our love for other people affects our experience of freedom. This is the kind of story that should be a Disney movie for today’s little girls.
Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro- short stories about music and dark nights of the soul or else aging and death. Melancholic and moving. The story “Cellists” hit extremely close to home for me, as a musician. I now ‘get’ the worship for Ishiguro’s writing: his sentences don’t feel like sentences. You read them and the story is just ‘happening.’ It’s hard to explain but it’s awe inspiring, and also made me realize what so many authors who try to wield a stark, spare writing style are trying to achieve.
Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones by Hettie Judah- Possibly a top 3 favorite book of the year. Each short chapter has beautiful color illustrations snd some general information about each stone, but the chapter would meander into some unexpected path, so it would be like: Malachite: and suddenly I’m learning about Russian history; Rubies: Spanish imperialism; Globigerina limestone: ancient Malta; Cinnabar: Indian alchemy. Reading it was like opening a knowledge jewel box. It’ll be a definite reread, and there are good sized endnotes with books and articles to add to my reading list, mostly on the subjects of art, history, economics, fashion, and craft.
Visions of Beauty- an art collection of work by Kinuko Y. Craft. She illustrated the covers of some of the fantasy novels I loved as a girl, and so I was excited to find her on Instagram and see that there would be a book published of her work. Her art usually depicts fantastical and extremely detailed paintings of beautiful and powerful-looking women. I would make a cup of tea before bed and immerse myself in her art like a seeing eye book. I appreciated her comments in the book about her obsession with beauty, and how good art isn’t possible without obsession.
Not quite a top five, but a bonus for gender relevance:
The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting by Evanna Lynch- a memoir about Evanna’s experience with anorexia, general body dysmorphia, self loathing, and her acting career. Similar to Hadley Freeman’s book about anorexia. I listened to the audiobook which is read by Evanna and enjoyed her brutally dark humor and sharp wit. This memoir has the problem that all memoirs written by young adults have, which is that it gets up to the present, and just sort of peters out because everyone in their 30’s is way too close to what just happened over the past few decades and doesn’t know how to wrap things up satisfyingly without more distance in the form of more age. Still, it was a moving read, and a useful look into what approaches best help heal mental illnesses like body dysmorphia. Incidentally, Evanna is also the only young Harry Potter actor to backtrack on initial comments about Rowling and gender, come to Jo’s defense, and be willing to wade into the complexity of the trans debate- and I can see why. She’s a deep soul, and very brave. She has more similarities to her character Luna Lovegood than she seems to realize.
I felt so cheated to realize that the shortened version of A Room of One's Own I'd read in high school was not the whole thing, which I finally read only in 2018 or 2019! It's marvelous.
Will definitely check out Forgotten Beasts. I'm also very curious about the gemstone book... and have to ask: is labradorite in there?
Sadly, labradorite is not included! :( But it’s still worth it!
I've started this and would love to discuss it: WHEN PROPHECY FAILS A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World
This was just our book-club read back in October!
Great list.
Great list. I see I have been spending too much time on X. Could you name the top 5 please?
Top five... The Crofter and the Laird. Chasing the Intact Mind. Reshaping the Female Body. The Woman Beneath the Skin. Fatherland.
I read and enjoyed Fatherland thanks to your recommendation of it a few months ago. Thank you for that! I'm very impressed by the amount of reading you manage to do, in addition to your research and writing and hope to eventually join you in a book club selection.
Ummm I read lots of Stubstack and news articles but then binged ACOTAR, TOG, Iron Flame and Fourth Wing this Nov/Dec 😂.
I enjoy following your Substack Eliza 😊
Thank you...
Vision of the Anointed is awesome. I'd highly recommend The Origins of Woke by Richard Hanania. I had no idea that disparate impact hiring standards have been used to some extent since the early 1970's. Cobalt Red, about rare earth mineral mining in the Congo is near the top of my stack. Hope to get to that soon.
I really enjoyed The Genesis of Gender, as well as Louise Perry’s book on the sexual revolution.
Very recently, I read Creating Hysteria. While reading that one I had to double check the publishing date to make sure it wasn’t indeed about the trans craze. Two books on the satanic panic (McMartin trial and one from Italy; I can’t immediately recall the names of the books.) had uncanny parallels with our current ability to concoct problems from nothing.
"The New Puritans" by Andrew Doyle was my favorite non-fiction. I spent some time reading "banned books" for K- 12. Most don't deserve to be in school libraries. I asked our librarian at a community discussion of these books, why the library didn't promote the best writing for LGB? The librarian replied that it was good for lots of young people to read the same "banned" books. "The Color of Earth" - Kim Dong Hwa is a graphic Korean coming of age book that I enjoyed from the "banned" list. I also enjoyed "Gender Queer", another "banned" graphic novel, but I'm a 75 year old lesbian. I learned a lot from reading "Marriage Be Hard" by Kevin and Melissa Fredericks. I liked "Tomboy" by Lisa Selin Davis written in 2020. I've seen that her thinking has evolved via her discussions at the Genspect conference in Denver.
thanks for the reading list. i wanted to purchase Kara Dansky
The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls for Christmas for myself. but my wife didnt think it was a good book to have around our young kids. tho she agrees with me on the subject, shes sick of the topic. but thats not saying much. shes sick of a lot of things.
i also want to read Eric Hoffer
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements and Against Empire by Michael Parenti
Great list! Much I shall mine from it this year [rubs hands]
I loved Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, Louise Perry’s The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, Chris Rufo’s The American Cultural Revolution and John Wyndham’s Trouble With Lichen.
I wonder for if you could go through the list (slowly) and say some words about the books. Especially if a book offers new insights. You are an inspiration and in a few years when I retire I would like to read so deeply
As always, you are an inspiration to so many of us.
I've just ordered "The Crofter and the Laird" and "Fatherland", which both sound marvellous (and just up my street).
Of the books I read this year, the worst, without a shadow of a doubt, was the Gill Petersen.
It was so awful, there was a kind of masochistic delight in uncovering ever more convoluted and unintelligible sentences. That aside, I have never felt so relieved to finish the last page.
My favourite? Perhaps a book of poetry I came upon by chance in my parents' house: "Sentenced to Life" by Clive James .
I only really knew Clive James from his TV shows, and witty journalism and memoirs.
But his poetry is an absolute revelation. Warm, witty, and very moving.
You are an inspiration. I can't believe how many books you read. I'm going to try to get through "The Sleeping Beauties" in time for book club!
A great list with lots I haven't heard of, thank you! Interesting to see people's recommendations in the comments, as well.
My favourite non-fiction read of the year was Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century by John Higgs. For such an expansive reflection on that era, I found all the ideas coalesced into a coherent narrative in a very compelling way. I particularly enjoyed it's fair-handed perspective on postmodernism which made me reassess some of my preconceptions of it.
Other books I enjoyed reading were: Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom; The Century of Deception: The Birth of the Hoax in Eighteenth-Century England; On the Unexplained, a collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's writings on the supernatural.
Books I read because of the title, but were pretty much the opposite of what I was hoping for: You Are Not a Before Picture: How to Finally Make Peace with Your Body For Good by Alex Light; Authentic: How to be Yourself and Why it Matters by Professor Stephen Joseph. Although there were some good bits in both books, it felt like their solution to identitarian malaise is for people just to buy into more hyper-individualism. It was interesting to get an insight into the direction the self-help industry is taking though, if nothing else.
Happy New Year!