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The 2019 book and music mashup extravaganza

December 15, 2019

Remember those cologne machines in truck stop bathrooms where you could buy cheap imitations of the real thing? “If you like Obsession, you’ll love Desperate Measures.” “If you love Chanel No. 5, might as well try Channel 42.” “Love Polo Sport? Welp, here’s Fantasy Football.”

This post is like that, but in a good way. And when it’s over, you won’t smell like a quarter’s worth of sadness.

Here’s how it works: I’ve mashed together my favorite books that I read in 2019 (though not necessarily published this year) and my favorite 2019 songs. Each tune has some kind of tenuous connection with the book I paired it with, so if you like a book on this list, you’ll probably like the song too. And vice versa. So if you like Carmen Maria Machado, you’ll love Mallrat! Maybe.

Let’s get this party started!

Good Talk • Mira Jacob

A graphic novel-style memoir about American identity, race, sex, relationships, and raising a brown child in the Trump era, all told in conversations. Jacob goes to uncomfortable places and tackles the things we should be talking about but aren’t.

Mashed with: Truth Hurts • Lizzo

My Sister the Serial Killer • Oyinkan Braithwaite

A darkly funny novel about a young, beautiful Nigerian woman who can’t stop murdering her boyfriends and the exasperated but reliable sister who bails her out of trouble. Until the serial killer falls for the sister’s crush …

Mashed with: Glad He’s Gone • Tove Lo

Lost Children Archive • Valeria Luiselli

A fractured family on a road trip out west, set against the backdrop of an immigration crisis as children crossing the southern U.S. border are detained or dying in the desert. This novel was so stunning and gutting, I think I highlighted something on every page.

Mashed with: Texas Sun • Khruangbin & Leon Bridges

Red, White & Royal Blue • Casey McQuiston

A romance in which America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales. I was clawing my way through a particularly low point when a friend recommended this book. Turned out a fun, flirty, escapist read was exactly what I needed.

Mashed with: boyfriend • Ariana Grande

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls • T Kira Madden

A queer coming-of-age memoir in essays that instantly became one of my all-time favorite books. As soon as I finished, I went right back to the beginning and read it a second time to figure out how she did it.

Mashed with: Sister Sister • Palm Springsteen

Heavy • Kiese Laymon

I listened to Heavy, which is read by the author, and then I bought a print copy to hold in my hands and see the words on the page. This memoir is about the emotional and physical burden of growing up black in America, examining the secrets Laymon spent a lifetime avoiding.

Mashed with: Water Me Down • Vagabon

Once More We Saw Stars • Jayson Greene

Greene’s two-year-old daughter was sitting on a park bench in Manhattan when a brick fell from a nearby windowsill and killed her. This memoir opens with that incident and follows Greene and his wife through their journey of grief. I don’t know how he managed to craft such a wonder out of true horror, but I’m grateful he did.

Mashed with: Thank You • Quincy Mumford

In the Dream House • Carmen Maria Machado

In this memoir, Machado explores an abusive same-sex relationship through dozens of different lenses, like horror tropes, fairytales, and a devastating Choose-Your-Own-Adventure sequence. This book blew my figurative house down.

Mashed with: Groceries • Mallrat

Daisy Jones & the Six • Taylor Jenkins Reid

A romance written as an oral history of a Fleetwood Mac-ish band in the late seventies? God, just take my money already.

I devoured this book, and then I ripped through a bunch of other TJR books for good measure.

Mashed with: Van Horn • Saint Motel (which includes my favorite lyric of 2019: “Hold it steady, drill it in like you’re J. Paul Getty.”)

Kindred • Octavia Butler

Hi. I’m the one person who never read Octavia Butler before this year, and I don’t know what took me so long. This historical fiction/fantasy novel about an African-American woman in 1976 California who travels through time to antebellum Maryland is considered to be the first science fiction written by a black woman, and it’s a true classic.

Mashed with: Turn the Light • Karen O & Danger Mouse

Convenience Store Woman • Sayaka Murata

A slim novel about a woman who has no friends, no boyfriend, and no real life outside of the soothing structure of the convenience store where she has spent her entire career.

Mashed with: Class Historian • BRONCHO

The Book of Delights • Ross Gay

Ross Gay has written micro-essays about moments of delight. Some of them are guilty pleasures, some are natural joys, but most show how we are always just a few inches away from sorrow – and it can be a radical act to feel joy and gratitude in a sad world.

Speaking of guilty pleasures, I think I like Harry Styles now? And I definitely find joy in watermelon, my favorite food. So this song here is my Tune of Delights.

Mashed with: Watermelon Sugar • Harry Styles

Dreyer’s English • Benjamin Dreyer

This is a funny, clever grammar book that I tore through like a juicy novel.

I’ve paired it here with Goth Babe, which has been my favorite writing music lately.

Mashed with: Weekend Friend • Goth Babe

How to Stay Human in a Fucked-Up World • Tim Desmond

Finally a mindfulness book that doesn’t feel like it was written by a blissful, solitary monk on a mountaintop. This is real talk and real meditation exercises for the real (fucked-up) world.

I Feel Emotion • Operators

Of course I have more favorites that didn’t make it into this smashup. For the books I read this year, peep my Goodreads and to see other 2019 songs I loved, here’s my playlist.

Wanna see lists from previous years? Here’s 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.

NOTE: There are affiliate links in this post. So if you click through and buy something, it doesn’t change anything on your end; it just means Amazon gives me a few pennies, which I use to help pay for this site because I am happy to take their money.

The year in music: More best songs of 2018

January 12, 2019

Whoa, time really slipped away from me at the end of the year.

After I wrote my mashup of favorite books/fave music, I intended to whip up a quick post with some of my other favorite songs from 2018. (Basically everything that couldn’t fit in the original post). And I just didn’t do it.

Anyway, I’m here now. I have a mug of matcha, the dog is snoring at my feet, and my precious child who should be napping is hosting a demolition derby in his room. Or maybe that’s just what it sounds like. The point is, this is as peaceful as it gets around here. Let’s do this.

Cayucas • Jessica WJ

I love anything that sounds even vaguely reminiscent of the Beach Boys (see: The Drums), which is why I love Cayucas. Their sound is beachy, summery, and nostalgic, like I should be sunning myself on a beach and fondly remembering a furtive kiss at my high school reunion.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise • Fever Pitch

I can’t get enough of Rainbow Kitten Surprise, mostly because I can’t wrap my mind around their sound. It’s soulful and folksy, like Appalachian hip hop. Is that a thing? Please let it be a thing. Listen for yourself and you’ll see why.

Miley Cyrus • Nothing Breaks Like a Heart

I think I only like this because it sounds Dolly-esque.

Robyn • Honey

I have been desperate for a new Robyn album, and Honey was everything I wanted. The title song is particularly complex and hypnotic, sex and heartbreak wrapped in an infectious pop package. It’s like dancing while crying.

Toro y Moi • Freelance

Even though I’m a longtime Toro y Moi fan, this shouldn’t be a song I like, since it features almost everything I actively dislike: AutoTune, an overdone retro beat, restrained, monotone vocals. But it works. Plus it speaks to me as a freelancer (“Nothing’s ever worse than work unnoticed …”) and has a good chance of becoming my anthem for the next few months.

Little Dragon • Lover Chanting

There’s not much substance here, but I’m such a sucker for giddy, saccharine electro-pop. Also the video couldn’t be more fun.

Father John Misty • Mr. Tillman

Is it even possible for me to make a best-of list without Father John Misty? Thankfully we’ll never have to find out.

What I especially like about this song is that it falls into one of my favorite micro-genres: The jaded songwriter who is burned out on the industry.

What were some of your favorites last year? What did I miss?

If you’re curious, here are my lists for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.

The Great Best Books + Best Songs Mashup of 2018

December 1, 2018

This might be my favorite thing I do all year long: It’s a great, big mashup of the best books I enjoyed reading in 2018 (though not necessarily published this year), along with my favorite songs released this year. So if you like a song, you’ll probably like the book I’ve paired it with — and vice versa.

I always like making annual lists of my top books and favorite music as a way to reflect on what I’ve consumed and enjoyed during the year. But last year I smooshed the two lists together, and it changed the whole game. (You can see that here.)

I liked it enough to do it again. So here we go! You’re welcome.

There There • Tommy Orange + Arrows • Haux

A harrowing novel told through intersecting stories of urban Native Americans in Oakland, There There delves into the kind of trauma that endures through generations. I paired it with Arrows, a song of grief and many facets of heartache.

Circe • Madeline Miller + Baby • Bishop Briggs

Circe is a lesser god-turned-island witch who sleeps with inappropriate men, tames wild beasts, and makes questionable decisions for love — similar to the narrator in this Bishop Briggs song, who sings, “My baby’s got a fucked up head, doesn’t matter ’cause he’s so damn good in bed … yeah, he’s fucking crazy, but he’s still my baby.”

Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine • Alan Lightman + New Birth in New England • Phosphorescent

Alan Lightman wrote some of my all-time favorite fiction, so I was already predisposed to enjoy this work of nonfiction, a lyrical meditation that explores the tension between our yearning for permanence and certainty. I’ve paired it with a song about getting older, significant life changes, and a literal birth.

Becoming • Michelle Obama + Better With You • Michl

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why Michelle Obama’s bestselling autobiography is worth reading. Here I’ve paired it with this Michl song for the line, “This house feels better with you.”

As in White House. I want her back in the White House. That house feels better with her.

Michelle, please come home.

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us • Hanif Abdurraqib + I Like It • Cardi B

I’ve raved about They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us to just about everyone, and I don’t think I ever do this book justice. Abdurraqib is a poet, so the prose is lyrical and precise, and his insightful essays blend pop culture and social justice, covering everything from a Carly Rae Jepsen concert to the shooting of Michael Brown, and everything in between. Each piece was a genuine surprise, and I never knew if I would end up crying or laughing.

I paired Abdurraqib’s collection with this pop confection, because it seems like the kind of thing he might write about someday. Also I’ve liked Cardi B ever since I read about her illegal butt filler injections, back when she was a stripper, because that’s the kind of dedication to craft that I admire.

Less • Andrew Sean Greer + Tieduprightnow • Parcels

Less, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year, is the story of an aging, failed novelist who receives an invitation to the wedding of his ex-boyfriend. Rather than confront his feelings, the novelist travels around the world and occupies his time in other ways, occasionally with other men.

Tieduprightnow is a perfect match, especially the chorus: “The one I need is tied up right now/So let’s just wait a while/The one I need is tied up right now/So let’s not draw the line …”

Call Me By Your Name • André Aciman + Back to You • Selena Gomez

A summer romance blossoms between a 17-year-old boy and an older scholar staying at his house. It’s a powerful story about intimacy, undeniable attraction, and what happens when passion is indulged. Plus a peach.

This pairs nicely with Back to You, a song of desire from the perspective of someone willing to make the same choices all over again: “I want to hold you when I’m not supposed to/when I’m lying close to someone else/You’re stuck in my head and I can’t get you out of it/If I could do it all again, I know I’d go back to you.”

How to Get Into Our House and Where We Keep the Money • Panio Gianopoulos + The Heart is a Muscle • Gang of Youths

I’m Panio’s biggest fan, so I’ll read anything he writes. Truly. I once read an article he wrote about paying off student loans, even though my personal longterm repayment plan involves faking my own death, so that should tell you something. OF COURSE his achingly beautiful little package of stories ranks at the top of my list.

I paired it with Gang of Youth’s The Heart is a Muscle, because strengthening the heart feels like a good compliment to a book that examines many forms of love: relationships that exist within family, domestic chaos, fumbling for connection, a ridiculous Pomeranian.

But I just read through the lyrics again and realized this might be a Jesus song. Damn it.

Exit West • Mohsin Hamid + Holding On • Nightly

This is an exquisite story about migrants and immigration in which people travel to new countries via literal doors that act as portals, but at the heart of it is the love story of refugees Nadia and Saeed.

I’ve paired it with a sweet pop song about memory and the things we cling to as reminders of love.

Touch • Courtney Maum • Everybody Wants to Be Famous • Superorganism

Touch is a sharp, insightful novel that skewers high-tech, modern consumer culture, and it was one of my best reading experiences of the year. Not only did it make me laugh, but I thought about the characters for a long time after I finished the book. I’m pairing it with Everybody Wants to Be Famous, because that’s an obvious match for a satire about a culture based on likes.

Citizen: An American Lyric • Claudia Rankine + This is America • Childish Gambino

Citizen contains some of the most urgent, important writing I’ve ever read, and it dovetails so perfectly with this Childish Gambino song (and video) that looks at what it means to be a person of color in America.

Silence: In the Age of Noise • Erling Kagge • Nevermind • Dennis Lloyd

It might seem weird to pair a song with a book about finding space for silence in a busy an chaotic world. And it is weird, which is exactly why I placed it with a quiet, slow burn of a song called Nevermind.

Woman World • Aminder Dhaliwal + Make Me Feel • Janelle Monáe

Woman World is about a world without men, and I read it just after the Kavanaugh hearings, which made this charming comic even more of a delight. In Woman World, women rebuild society but better (the new flag is simply a picture of Beyoncé’s thighs) and study relics of the former world, like “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”

Woman World started as an Instagram comic, so the graphic novel version doesn’t have a strong storyline to pull the reader through the book. But the panels are so cute and funny, it makes for a quick, entertaining read anyway. I paired it with the great bisexual anthem of 2018, although any Janelle Monáe song would work.

Ohio • Stephen Markley + Wait By the River • Lord Huron

My experience of reading Ohio involved a lot of googling. First because the fictional town in this novel felt so real, I swore I had been there. And the characters — I knew them all.

Then I googled because I developed a deep, profound writer crush on author Stephen Markley. Every time I read a passage that I swore was the best thing I’ve ever read, it was followed by another greatest thing I’ve ever read.

Ohio is the story of four former classmates who converge one night in their hometown, a small rust belt town that has been gutted by the recession, opioids, and the loss of industry. It’s melancholy and perceptive, examining the Midwest through the compassionate lens of someone who’s been there.

I paired the book with this Lord Huron song about mistakes and second chances, which would resonate with any of the imperfect, disillusioned characters at the heart of this story. Also because “If I can’t change the weather, maybe I can change your mind” destroys me. Just like Markley’s writing.

Wonder Valley • Ivy Pochoda + One Trick Ponies • Kurt Vile

I actually just started this book, so I can’t say yet that it’s one of my favorite reads of the year — mostly I just wanted an excuse to post this Kurt Vile song, which sounds like the desert to me.

“Some are weird as hell, but we love ’em/ Some are one trick ponies but we embrace ’em.”

I’ll have another post soon with a few more favorite tunes from 2018; I just couldn’t make them work with any books. In the meantime, what did I miss? Tell me about the books and songs you loved this year.

2017 Best books + best songs mashup

December 9, 2017

To mark the end of 2017, I mashed up my favorite songs of the year with the best books I read this year – kind of like a “Like that tune? Then you’ll love this book!” (This is not my idea, by the way. I saw @keyairruh do this on Twitter with pairings of albums and books, and I loved it.)

Some of the books and songs are paired because they are thematically similar or share the same sensibility. A few of the songs had lyrics that reminded me of the text. And some are mashed together just because they evoked similar feelings in me.

Keep in mind, I’ve been sick for one-going-on-two weeks and I’m delirious right now. So if these pairings don’t make sense, blame it on Flupocalypse 2017. But if the results are totally awesome, then it was me, all me.

Enjoy.

Split Stones • Maggie Rogers + Goodbye, Vitamin • Rachel Khong

Thirty-year-old Ruth, fresh from a breakup, quits her job and returns home to help her father, who is slipping into dementia. This is a beautiful story about devotion and what it means to be a family, and I found it almost painfully relatable.

Dreams • Beck + The Humans • Matt Haig

I won’t try to describe this novel because then you won’t read it. I’ll just say that it made me feel better about being a human, which is exactly what I needed this year.

Blow Your Mind (Mwah) • Dua Lipa + We Are Never Meeting in Real Life • Samantha Irby

An essay collection that made me laugh until I wheezed. I bought this for my flight home from Spain, and I have zero regrets.

Bike Dream • Rostam + A Separation • Katie Kitamura

A meditative and suspenseful novel about the end of a marriage and the things people never reveal to each other.

Havana • Camila Cabello (ft. Young Thug) + Best Women’s Travel Writing, Vol. 11* • Edited by Lavinia Spalding

*Full disclosure: This anthology contains one of my essays, so you can trust me when I say it was the best book of the year.

Also I had a hard time deciding between “Havana” and this song to illustrate it. I’m kind of obsessed with both of them.

In Undertow • Alvvays + Little Fires Everywhere • Celeste Ng

The book starts with a literal fire and works backward to explore the conflicts that set the community ablaze.

Green Light • Lorde + Catalina • Liska Jacobs

The dark, deeply resonant story of a woman’s downward spiral.

The Underside of Power • Algiers + Born a Crime • Trevor Noah

The harrowing life of a comic coming of age during the end of apartheid in South Africa.

Quiet • MILCK + The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage • Jared Yates Sexton

An honest and often disturbing look at the 2016 election.

Happy Wasteland Day • Open Mike Eagle + The Hate U Give • Angie Thomas

A riveting YA book about a girl who witnesses the shooting death of her friend at the hands of a police officer.

Over Everything • Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile + The One-Eyed Man • Ron Currie

A grieving man devotes himself to radical honesty, which turns out to be equal parts hilarious and infuriating.

Supermodel • SZA + One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter • Scaachi Koul

An essay collection from one of my favorite fresh voices.

Shh Shh Shh • Boss Hog + What You Don’t Know • JoAnn Chaney

A thriller that kept me up all night long.

The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness • The National + The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir • Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

One of the most exquisite books I’ve ever read. It’s a masterful memoir about obsession and how scars can last for generations.

Feel It Still • Portugal, the Man + The Power • Naomi Alderman

I’m still high on this book, in which women suddenly gain the power to shock people with their hands, an exhilarating antidote to the news cycle.

What were your top books and songs this year? Do you have any good pairings for me?

Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase a book through my links, it’s no additional cost to you and Amazon will throw a few cents my way. It’s helps to keep the lights on around here, and I appreciate it. Thank you!

The year in music: Best songs of 2016

December 29, 2016

Ugh, my heart just isn’t in this post this year. But I’ve made a tradition of listing my favorite songs of the year, and I don’t want to skip posting now only to regret it later. (For previous installments, see 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.)

Almost every musician I’ve ever loved died this year, so I spent the bulk of 2016 listening to musical tributes for those artists. But there were a few bright spots in new music.

“Alaska” • Maggie Rogers

I don’t remember which one of my friends introduced me to this song, but I was instantly hooked. (I’m in good company.) Maggie Rogers is dazzling with a sound that’s part-folk, part-electronic, totally captivating. Plus the song’s message is fitting on the brink of a new year: Leave that old shit behind.

“Go!” • M83 (featuring Mai Lan)

This one didn’t quite hit me the same way as “Midnight City,” but I’ll always love the sweeping, epic sounds of M83.

“In Heaven” • Japanese Breakfast

A syrupy sweet song, but I swear it’s about my mom’s death.

“Somebody Else” • The 1975

Ignore the fact that the song doesn’t begin until 3 minutes into the video. It’s worth it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the kind of isolation and heartbreak Matt Healy sings about, but I still feel like I’ve lived this song 1,000 times.

“River” • Bishop Briggs

Explosive song and powerful pipes. What’s not to love?

“Best to You” (feat. Empress Of) • Blood Orange

Here’s how things work: Blood Orange releases an album. That album becomes one of my favorites of the year.

This year’s Freetown Sound album is equal parts soothing and searing, but always dreamy. This song is a particular favorite for writing, sipping coffee, and staring into space.

“Lazarus” • David Bowie

Not my favorite Bowie song, because it forces me to reckon with all the things about life and death I don’t yet want to confront, but a masterpiece all the same. When the rubble of 2016 settles, this is the song that will endure.

“Hold Up” • Beyoncé

Someday, entire libraries will be written about Beyoncé’s Lemonade, and nothing I say could ever compare. So I’m just gonna leave this song here without comment. Let it wash over you.

“Higher” • Carly Rae Jepsen

You know her as the “Call Me Maybe” chick, but to me she’s the queen of the new New Wave movement. All hail pop royalty.

“Boyfriend” • Tegan and Sara

I don’t listen to cassettes anymore, but if I did, this song would’ve worn out my tape.

“Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales” • Car Seat Headrest

Singer/songwriter Will Toledo reminds me of one of my exes, but talented. It makes me vaguely uncomfortable, but thankfully his music is fine enough to transcend that. This is confessional songwriting at its very best.

What were your favorites from 2016?

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