Books
#1 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin *
#2 The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
#3 We Have Always Been Who We Are by Sofia T. Romero
#4 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
#5 Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
#6 Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
#7 Exes and O’s by Amy Lea
#8 How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
*I want to acknowledge that Gabrielle Zevin has been accused of not crediting the idea for the game “Solutions” that features heavily in the novel. You can read more about this here. Zevin names this other game explicitly in interviews–though not in the on page acknowledgments. I was not aware of these details at the time of reading the novel. Academic integrity and plagiarism is a murky business; I personally always err on the side of citation, though I understand how this situation came to be. At this time I’m still ruminating on how to consider this book moving forward, but it would feel inauthentic to not list it but also not contextualize it.
Songs
#1 “Maroon” by Taylor Swift
#2 “this is me trying” by Taylor Swift
#3 “doomsday” by Lizzy McAlpine
#4 “mirrorball” by Taylor Swift
#5 “Feels Like” by Gracie Abrams
#6 “Golf on TV” by Lennon Stella
#7 “Apple Pie” by Lizzy McAlpine
#8 “Glue Myself Shut” by Noah Kahan
#9 “a boy named pluto” by Hailey Knox
#10 “Labyrinth” by Taylor Swift
#11 “Keep Dat N****” by Icandy
#12 “Call Your Mom” by Noah Kahan
#13 “Lost the Breakup” by Maisie Peters
#14 “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift
#15 “Tim McGraw” recorded by Maggie Rogers
#16 “complex (demo)” by Katie Gregson-Macleod
#17 “I Can’t Go On (Without You)” by Paul Vinson
#18 “Midnight Rain” by Taylor Swift
#19 “You’ll Be In My Heart” by Phil Collins
#20 “Moon Song” by Phoebe Bridgers
#21 “Six Years Wiser” by Harrison Boe
#22 “tolerate it” by Taylor Swift
#23 “Jaded” by Miley Cyrus”
#24 “Funeral” by Phoebe Bridgers
#25 “Planet Song” by Margo Liotta
See my full top songs of 2023 on Spotify.
Artists
#1 Taylor Swift
#2 Lizzy McAlpine
#3 Gracie Abrams
#4 Noah Kahan
#5 Phoebe Bridgers
+ bonus!! concert highlights: Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Nashville, Tennessee + Joseph in Washington D.C.
The Rest
- Morning Pages a lá The Artists’s Way
- collecting coffeeshop rewards cards
- writing snail mail
- Bookstore crawls (in NYC, London, Dublin)
- graduating undergrad. summa cum laude. trying to be casual but I am proud of myself.
- nannying/babysitting this spring + summer. so many babies. so much Disney music.
- Tower Grove Farmers Market in St. Louis (the best weekly routine with my dad)
- summer trips to Nashville, Tennessee + Washington, D.C. + Manhattan, Kansas + Chicago, Illinois
- exploring natural wine while working at Clover Wine Bar
- author events GALORE working for The Novel Neighbor (R.F. Kuang ! Christina Lauren ! Abby Jimenez ! Chloe Gong ! Ali Hazelwood ! Julie Soto !
- I moved to Scotland…?! to start my masters?! I had never been to the UK before I moved but now here I am.
This is an absolutely belated reflection on 2023 but a well worth one. I’m itching to post about this on Insta but I’m taking a 40 day break from socials so…I’ll see you after Easter!
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