That’s A Wrap 2019!

Congratulations on making it to the holidays! We hope you’re having a restful time in a work email-free zone, or that you will be soon. We are well aware (our inboxes can attest) that you’ve all been inundated since Thanksgiving with “Best of” lists, and since we’re wrapping a decade, the flurry of year-wrap-up content has reached blitz status. That said, this is one of our favorite times to actually catch up on all of the articles, books and open tabs we have accrued over the course of the months, years and in this case, decade. So, in lieu of an interview this week, we present some of our personal faves (though surely there are some we forgot, ten years is a long time). We’d love to hear what your list would be. Let us know and we’ll share it with the group.

See you in 2020 with a new slate of awesome women <3

The Honeybee Team
Beth, Clare and Danielle

Beth’s Picks

The days between the 25th and 31st of December are among my favorite days to read. The hustle of the holiday season is over and it’s like one giant exhale. This is when The Lives They Lived, the incomparable portraits of notable people lost that year by the NYT Mag, comes out. It’s my ritual to sit by the fire at my mom’s house in Utah and read them all. 

BOOKS

TRICK MIRROR
by Jia Tolentino

I did a bad job of reading books this year. My attention span was clinging on, but was better suited for essays. This, a book of essays, is so well-written I found myself dog-earing nearly every page for some incredible prose, original thinking and just funny AF observations about being alive today. It also helped me feel less alone in my dialectic with the era. See this review, or this one, to help explain why I loved this book so much. Read this book if you want to know why I hate Sweetgreen but still go, among other insanely acute insights. Also read “Instagram Face.”

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE
by Dolly Alderton

This is the only other book I finished this year. I started reading Dolly after a friend in London recommended her podcast The High Low that she co-hosts with the also brilliant Pandora Sykes (who also has a book out that’s on my list). See what Clare wrote about it below, and know that I agree that this book it 100% worth your time, as funny as it is poignant.

ARTICLES

There are way too many great pieces of writing for me to choose from.
But here’s a few directional suggestions.

THE 1619 PROJECT
The New York Times

If you managed to miss this, or to not finish it, or to not listen to the audio versions, I can’t stress enough how critical this project is to understanding the consequences of slavery in the modern era, on its 400 year anniversary. 

ANYTHING
by Helen Rosner | The New Yorker

2019 will go down as the year that I fell in love with the writing of Helen Rosner. I’m picking Helen because I cannot read enough of her writing on food and culture, and I cannot get enough of her philosophy-nerd memes on Instagram. Her gift guide is an amazing rant against whiskey stones, the cookbook guide is my go-to, her feminist POV on food and culture is on-point and who could forget the Popeyes chicken sandwich hysteria? It’s all golden. 

Best of the Decade

BOOKS

These are the books I read in the last few years that made me a better reader and probably a better writer. Two are biographies, the one on Joan Didion (<3) was unauthorized and therefore the author took it upon himself to emulate her prose and OMG. The one on Joni Mitchell was indeed authorized and was lyrically mesmerizing. Patti is Patti, and Zadie is well… Zadie.

THE LAST LOVE SONG
By Tracy Daughtry

JUST KIDS
By Patti Smith

RECKLESS DAUGHTER
By David Yaffe

FEEL FREE
By Zadie Smith

Best of the Decade

ARTICLES

I’m sharing this one article as the article of the decade not because it’s better than anything else, but it’s the article I shared continue to share with basically any woman I know right now who finds herself in a weird place, trapped between conditioned ambition and fantasies of other lives she could live. 

THE AMBITION COLLISION
By Lisa Miller for The Cut
 

*BONUS*
Revisited Books that are still the best and need no explanation.
 
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
By Joan Didion

PILGRAM AT TINKER CREEK
By Annie Dillard 

Clare’s Picks

2019 was a big year for me  – for starters, I picked up my life in Los Angeles (the place where I spent the ENTIRETY of my 20’s) and moved across the ocean to Amsterdam. While I’m still very homesick for LA, moving to Amsterdam has meant the return of winter hibernation and reading a book per week (… but also puzzles, lots of puzzles) This past year I’ve read 19 (!!) books* and all but 1 of them were written by female authors (!!!) so I wanted to share a few of my favorites from the past year … and a few that I’m planning on reading in 2020. 

* If you want to peek at my full 2019 reading list, I obsessively log it all on my GoodReads profile.

BOOKS

THE GREAT BELIEVERS
By Rebecca Makkai

I cried multiple times during the course of this book (which TBH, isn’t an uncommon occurrence) Despite the tears, I loved The Great Believes. I’m a real sucker for historical fiction (I grew up on Dear America books and American Girl Dolls. I had Molly, HBU?) and this book was right up my alley. Taking place in Chicago during the AIDS crisis during the 80’s, this novel explores the lives and communities of those affected.

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE
by Dolly Alderton

As a girl who grew up in a Minnesota suburb, I have no reason to relate to Dolly’s life in London. But that’s what makes ‘Everything I know About Love’ such a great memoir, it’s relatable no matter where you grew up. I’m about to turn 30 in 2020 and much like Dolly, I spent a good part of my 20’s staying out way too late, drinking a little too much and making mistakes – all with friends who became like family. No matter what your age, I can’t recommend this book enough.

PANCHINKO
By Min Jin Lee

This book isn’t new per say (it came out in 2017) but it was the first book I read this year and dare I say … my favourite? This was another book that made me cry when I finished it (you can sense a theme here). Panchinko is a sweeping, multi-generational epic takes place in what is now North Korea as well as multiple cities in Japan and explores the lives of a Korean family during and after the Second World War. Again, I’m a sucker for historical fiction and love when a book prompts me to learn and research a part of history that I (regrettably) had previously know very little about. If you haven’t read this book, please do. You won’t regret it.

NEWSLETTERS

I’m a newsletter gal – in fact, when I move to a new city, the first thing I do is sign up for every possible art gallery, boutique shop and museums newsletter I can find (you can imagine what my inbox looks like every morning.) So in the spirit of giving, I wanted to share a few of my all time (and new) favourites.

GIRLS' NIGHT IN

As a girl who spends a lot of her nights in these days, it’s no wonder I like this newsletter. Covering everything from tips on personal wellness, exploring the complexities of female friendships as well as pop culture and book recommendations, I look forward to this arriving in my inbox every Friday. Sign up for Girls’ Night In here.

THE GOOD TRADE

As a gal who’s day job is the opposite of slow living (I work at an advertising agency), The Good Trade is #goals. This newsletter is new to my inbox and is a short, daily infusion of slow and sustainable living inspiration. Sign up to receive The Good Trade here.

READ LIKE THE WIND
From Molly Young at Vulture/NY Magazine

2019 was my year of non-stop reading marathons. As quick as I finished one stack of books the sooner I needed more – that’s where this newsletter came in handy. Besides asking girlfriends for reccos and reading NYTimes Review of Books, Molly recco’s are always on point. I enjoy that she isn’t just recommending the latest ‘it’ read but her list is an array of different novels from a variety of authors and time periods. If your an obsessive reader or have a book goal for 2020, be sure to subscribe to this list! Sign up to receive Read Like The Wind here.

FUTURE READS

(AKA what's currently cluttering my nightstand)

I have a stack of about 11 books currently waiting to be read on my nightstand – I’m excited for all of them but these are on the top of my list for next year*.

THE YELLOW HOUSE
By Sarah M. Broom

IN THE DREAM HOUSE
By Carmen Maria Machado

NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS
By Ocean Vuong

*All three of these are memoirs. Maybe the end of the decade is making me feel nostalgic? 

Danielle’s Picks

2019 is the year I returned to fiction, and in doing so, reconnected with some deeper truths about myself, humanity, and this wild world we’re all living in. With so much at stake - I understand the temptation to focus on nonfiction works. But if this year has taught me anything, it’s that fiction has the power to reveal hidden truths, inspire empathy, and cut through the noise. In the words of Dorris Lessing, “There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.” So in that spirit, here are some works of fiction that got me through the year.

BOOKS

SUPPER CLUB
By Lara Williams 

Lara Williams delights and provokes in this uber-intelligent book featuring a secret supper society for young women. As an artistic and political statement, they gather to reclaim their appetites and physical space in society. This book has some high quality ingredients: complicated female friendships, food, feminist theory, and (high brow and low brow) debauchery. Cannot recommend this highly enough - if only for writing like this: “Spaghetti alla puttanesca is typically made with tomatoes, olives, anchovies, capers, and garlic. It means, literally, “spaghetti in the style of a prostitute.”

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS
By Sally Rooney

If by some force of cosmic intervention you are not already reading Sally Rooney, consider this your wakeup call. All I want to know is - are you a Frances or a Bobbi?

THE GREAT ALONE
By Kristin Hannah

Other than the fact that I bought this at the airport, all you need to know is that I ugly cried so hard finishing this book on a flight from New York to San Francisco that my seat mates were legitimately concerned. Hannah splits open the brutal realities of domestic violence, grit, survival, and chosen family. To say that Alaska is the backdrop is ingenuine - the wildness of the place is a key character in the chaos the Allbright women endure. 

PAGES FOR HER
By Sylvia Brownrigg

Do we love anything more than an epic queer love story full of literary criticism, a nodd to Flannery O’Connor, and a love story that spans decades? In the sequel to Pages for You, Brownrigg picks up the story of Anne and Flannery, former lovers, decades later, each at a turning point in their own lives. I won’t spoil the rest, but do yourself a favor and pick up Pages for You and Pages for Her.  

NEWSLETTERS

While I subscribe to undoubtedly too many newsletters, and many remain permanently unopened - Ann Friedman’s ‘The Ann Friedman Weekly’ never ceases to stop me in my tracks. They are full of delight, rabbit holes, and my personal favorite, GIFspiration. If you make one change in 2019 - sign up for this brilliant weekly roundup of what Ann is reading. 

WHAT'S ON THE DOCKET FOR 2020

SONTAG: HER LIFE AND WORK
By Benjamin Moser

IN THE DREAM HOUSE: A MEMOIR
By Carmen Maria Machado

GIRL, WOMEN, OTHER
By Bernadine Evaristo

BURN IT DOWN: WOMEN WRITING ABOUT ANGER
Edited By Lilly Dancyger

NINTH STREET WOMEN
Edited By Lilly Dancyger