#3. My brain on books

What I read and thought about last year.

Feb 12, 2025

This is not the piece I set out to write. I’m a voracious reader, and set out to share my favorite reads of the previous year in somewhat of a glorified listicle to be dashed out at the beginning of January. Yet as 2025 kicked off with more of a maelstrom of anxiety and upheaval than even my chronically anxious brain had prepared for, a simple list would not do. I kept thinking and avoiding thinking about the moment of chaos we were in. I also thought about what I read last year and why, and kept on reading trying to channel my anxiety into something productive for the daunting year ahead. (If you crave more of a listicle,skip ahead..there’s lots of photos & links.)

This is a kind of mental self-portrait in books from last year, and it is primarily one of women. I sought to hear their voices, learn their stories, histories, and attempt to fill in their gaping holes in our shared cultural consciousness.. By doing so, hopefully slowly working to reform the patriarchal neural pathways of my brain that have been shaped by problematic pedagogies since before I was even born. What happens when half our population is left out, and heaven forbid you fall into any smaller group within this, whether it be your sexuality, race, or disability, or anything other than a heterosexual cis able-bodied caucasian male. Every unaccounted for difference leads to further isolation within our world of the homogenously accepted narratives.

As a misogynist narcissistic strongman has taken the highest office again in my country, repressive, repulsive and problematic ideologies have a bigger and more immersive platform than ever before. Correcting histories, mythologies, and silence helps me to hear the truth amongst the chaos, repression and erasure.

Some books I listen to like music, a favorite album on repeat, reveling in themes, feelings, familiar characters and sentences: a pleasant escape or a repeated schooling. Other books I read like quests, searching for understanding book after book. Reading is also a method to let my brain wander when the chronic pain in my body demands I physically stop or listening to a book can push me forward to keep going on a particular project or path. It also can subdue an anxious brain. In 2024 I was anxious a lot, and so I read a lot. 115 books to be exact.

Here are my favorites.

NONFICTION

Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn

This is one of those books where you’ll probably need multiple breaks from reading to process your outrage, I know I did. However it’s the type of outrage that also makes you feel more sane by having greater clarity of what women are up against medicine, and how this has been viewed historically and hysterically. As someone who has suffered from chronic pain since my early 20’s and last year I needed to mentally prepare for the exhausting process of more specialists, doctors and diagnosisis. This book reminded me to bold and not accept shame or disbelief from the medical establishment.

As a companion for this book, I also highly recommend Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez. This is the type of book that I regularly lend out to long distance friends, only to end up buying a new copy because I re-read this to remind myself that I’m not crazy. Nearly our entire world is not designed for female bodies and the consequences can be devastating.

A History of Women in 101 Objects by Annabelle Hersch

As Hersch writes in the introduction, this is “a collection chosen by a woman who has a penchant for the unimportant and anecdotal, and who enjoys taking imaginary walks through the distant past.” I bought a physical copy of this book and fell in love with nearly every single item and story featured in this book…and then I discovered the audiobook. Each item has a different famous female narrator. This time around I find myself instead looking up the incredible women narrating that I’m unfamiliar with instead of the items themselves. I oscillate between this and being comforted by the voices of familiar famous women I admire like Gillian Anderson, Katy Hessel, or Rebecca Solnit. For a book that opens with bringing to the forefront the complex relationship with using objects to tell us about women and women being regarded as objects. The audiobook gives another layer of humanity to the lost and recorded voices of women.

Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History by Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory is primarily known as a historical fiction writer, with her most famous novel being The Other Boleyn Girl. Her novels are incredibly well researched and this is her deep dive into the history of British women, not the famous ones we may know but everyone else. Medieval women tend to only enter the records when men complain about them and there are more dicks than women in the entire 250 feet of the Bayeux Tapestry, this book is an investigation into the lives of ordinary women that are nearly entirely forgotten because a man never wrote down their names.

Wonderful dives into studying women during these formative years in western culture.

“While seemingly engaging with the medieval period, Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian artists created sensual representations of the few medieval women they could access, once again filtering them through Victorian sensibilities. They are cast as virgin, victim, mother, whore or hag, with the image of an unobtainable maiden trapped in a tower repeated ad nauseum….
… the truth is that foundations of Victorian-era medievalism lay on shaky ground. The texts preserved and copied down the centuries had already suffered from multiple stages of editing and erasure. The versions read in the nineteenth century had been repeatedly revisited, with women cast in socially acceptable ways for ever-changing audiences.”
Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It - Janina Ramirez

“The main parallels between the sixteenth century and today, both eras categorized by rapid shifts in visual culture and technology. Renaissance innovations saw a new emphasis on women’s beauty in popular entertainment of all kinds- from fashionable stories containing long, lingering descriptions of naked young women (often in deadly peril, waiting to be rescued by a hero), to endless images of newly realistic naked goddesses being churned out in sculptures, paintings, and prints.”
How to be a Renaissance Woman : The Untold History of Beauty & Female Creativity - Jill Burke

“In many ways, settling on Helen as an ideal woman made perfect sense. First, a large amount of classical literature praised her beauty but did not detail it, which gave medieval authors a chance to prove their own ability by expanding upon the classics. Second, in establishing the supreme qualities of womanhood, it is difficult to argue with a woman that was so gorgeous that she started a war. Third, linking concepts of beauty gave them the classical cachet that medieval people believed conferred authority, despite the lack of ancient literary portraits to work with.”
The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society - Eleanor Janega

FICTION

MYTHOLOGY

While I have spent this past year examining women’s history, I’ve also been examining the stories we tell about them. With Greek mythology forming such a pillar of western culture, as well as my own Greek heritage, I’ve mostly been spending time amongst the ancient gods. My current cannon of female-centric retellings in this field are Natalie Haynes, Pat Barker, and of course Madeline Miller. Most recently, Hannah M. Lynn has also been added to the list.

The Children of Jocasta - Natalie Haynes

I purchased this book automatically because of my love of Haynes’s work and went into this retelling somewhat blind but generally familiar with the stories of Oedipus and with faith in Natalie’s work. I think this is the way to go. I went into this with some hesitation because the family suicide centricity of the Oedipal tales is triggering subject for me, but Haynes nuance and new lens makes this read a fascinating journey.

Divine Might: The Goddesses in the Greek Myths - Natalie Haynes which follows Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths.

Hera - Jennifer Saint

I never felt warmly toward, or felt any identification with the much maligned Hera, which is what makes this novel such a worthwhile read.

Athena’s Child , A Spartan’s Sorrow, Queens of Themyscira

And because I’m writing this more than halfway through February of 2025, I now have a few more to add to this list which I was pleasantly surprised by Hannah M. Lynn’s Grecian Women Trilogy.

I read a few mythology compilations & examinations as well.

Gods and Mortals - Sarah Illes Johnson

Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths 1-3

While Fry’s retellings are overall good (some name-dropping aside), it’s still a white male and I still yearn for other voices. However, the various mythology inspired artworks included makes the physical editions worth a glance alone.

Venus & Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire - Bettany Hughes

The Madonna Secret - Sophie Strand

Despite already knowing Strand as a prolific and powerful writer, I was still knocked over by this reimagining of Mary Magdalene. A thread throughout my readings this past year has been that when women tell the story, the story changes…and how. What a different world it would be if we viewed religion and mythology through a female lens.This is a book that stays with you like a spirit.

I also highly recommend the Flowering Wand for some Dionysian wandering and pondering which I am 100% going to re-read this year.

HISTORICAL FICTION

Philippa Gregory - The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels 1-15.

Having been introduced to Gregory’s work through her nonfiction volume Normal Women, I was delighted to dive into her historical fiction. While several of her books from this series have been made for film or television, the book that took me most my surprise and stayed with me long after was “The Queen’s Fool” (#12 in the series.)

The Fraud - Zadie Smith

What a great find from my local free tiny library.

The Familiar- Leigh Bardugo

I am obsessed with this cover and this book. It also shares a thread with the “Queen’s Fool” with historic Jewish mysticism and prejudice.

The Briar Club - Kate Quinn

Kate Quinn is one of my favorite historical fiction writers and never disappoints

The Shadow of the Wind (Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1) - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Dark and gorgeous.

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

Pompeii and its women come to life.

ROMANTASY

I did not expect to get into Romantasy this past year, but I’m so glad I did. What a balm for the soul and wonderful escapism. In particular, I fell hard for the works of Sarah J. Maas. While the Court of Thorns and Roses series is the best entry point, my favorite series are Throne of Glass followed by Crescent City. I love how Maas handles trauma with nuance and care. Romance novels being read by the traumatized victims of sexual violence as they physically train adds a wonderful layer of emotional training and healing in ACOTAR book 4. I love female POV for sexuality and that the males in all of these books take on birth control responsibilities evenly, often taking a preventative tonic. Perhap female perspectives and shared sexual responsibility is the ultimate fantasy.

Sarah J Maas

Throne of Glass Books 1-8 (Start here)

A Court of Thorns and Roses 1-4 (ACOTAR) (or start here)

Crescent City Books 1-3 (read after)

also:

From Blood and Ash - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros

I still have a Goodreads account, but as I try to untangle myself from various corporate overlords, I’m also migrating to Storygraph. You can find me on both platforms for my full reading lists.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for being here.

The Secret Toilet

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