Starting the Year with a BANG! - 10 books I read in January (one will surprise you)
Before we start with January's book reviews: I won't write this newsletter without acknowledging just how horrific the state of play in the United States is right now, and even since my last circular.
This is no protracted rant, but I can't say nothing. I can't pretend this is not happening and just yap at you about books.
So bear with me for a moment before I get to the book reviews, which are below in the next section (or skip to those, I suppose).
You can only watch so many lawful protestors get executed in the street; or see photos of small children that look like your own children get arrested and then become sick in jail; or view the parade of documentation demonstrating the worst people on Earth were/are ritualistically r*ping and k!ll!ng children while world leaders looked the other way--you can only see so much of this and still go on with your regular life like nothing is happening.
So I'm using what tiny amount of space I have in this world to ask for your help. How?
If you have time, give your time; if you don't have time, and you have money, give your money, even if it's just a little bit. Even if it's literally $1. Here is a list of vetted resources that provide the most vulnerable with adequate legal representation:
Regardless of what you can do or give, please use your voice to call your Senators and your Congressional rep, as well as your state reps. Here is a current PDF of U.S. Senator's Office phone numbers, but you can also call the switchboard at the capitol ((202) 224-3121) if their voicemails are full (sadly, many of them are):
https://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf
Quick note: only call your own reps. They don't log your calls otherwise, and it just fills up the switchboard. Focus on what you can control here! (Which is already so very little).
Importantly, you can also call the Department of Justice regarding its failures to adequately comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act (202-514-2000) and to bring those perpetrators to justice. Or you can call the Department of Homeland Security comment line (202-282-8495) for its failures to comply with the United States Constitution in its detention of people who are here pursuant to proper legal processes.
Last, consider calling to inquire about the physical health of the many children in ICE concentration camps like Dilley in Texas (830-378-6500). Conditions are truly horrific, as there aren't sufficient toilet and washing facilities, enough space to distance sick people, or even clean food and water. Dilley is currently affected by a measles outbreak.
Christopher Hoffman
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
A quick note of apology
While I teased a fun topic for you in my last edition, I'm much too tired and my heart is too heavy to put the time and care into researching it and providing you with primary sources. It's a good topic too 😭 (why you need to be REALLY careful about posting your creative work on social media platforms if you want to traditionally publish it, in lit mags or with nearly all publishing houses, trad and indie).
But much of this discussion is a legal one, and it requires a level of attention and effort I'm not able to provide at this time.
Nonetheless, I do want to talk about my January reads because they ROCKED. And art is always a worthwhile endeavor--even more so in times of collective stress and fear. I believe this because Toni Morrison says so, and I will tell you right now; if there is an argument between you and Toni Morrison, you will not win.
BOOK REVIEWS!
Discontent, by Beatriz Serrano
Rating: 3.75/5
Genre: Literary Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: A woman living in Madrid can barely get herself to work each morning, and is on a lot of drugs and alcohol to support the effort. Her workplace is a Kafkian nightmare. She goes on an insane work retreat. She longs to be hit by a bus.
Review: Discontent is a great piece of modern workplace fiction (set in Madrid, Spain) because the voice is really dynamic and strong. As a reader, it's impossible not to connect with our FMC. She's a dynam-o and when she explains why she feels the way she does, you can't help but feel sympathy. This one didn't blow the bloody doors off or anything, but it was a solid, quick read that I enjoyed for my first book in the New Year.
Writing Creativity and Soul, by Sue Monk Kidd
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Writing Memoir
Super Short Synopsis: The woman who wrote The Secret Life of Bees tells you about her writing process and how much she owes to Virginia Woolfe.
Review: A solid writing memoir/craft book that really resonated with me--and to which I owe finally reading A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolfe at last, and that one did blow the bloody doors off.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Literary Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: A gaggle of young women earn the massive reward of being taught by an incredible woman named Miss Jean Brodie, who is in her prime (so says she). They don't all absorb the lessons, however. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: In my effort to diversify my fiction across time periods, I picked up The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie because of its splendid reviews. This was my first Muriel Spark, though I'm a convert and will be ordering her other books henceforth. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is much fun; a time-bending braided narrative way, before anybody was doing those, that made me belly laugh out loud many times. I absolutely adore Miss Jean Brodie, flaws and all. It's very short, I highly recommend this book to ANYONE who loves a trusty novel.
Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enriquez
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Literary Fiction (Short Story Collection)
Squick: 3/5
Super Short Synopsis: The stories in Things We Lost in the Fire range from straight realistic horror to something like fantasy, to literary fiction where bored people talk about how bored they are. Put another way: there is something for everyone in this incredible collection.
Review: In 2026, I'm trying to read a short story collection each month. A friend suggested this one to me based on how I write my own short fiction (a little bleak, a little speculative, a little bit of body horror here and there). And so, I'll tell you this: Things We Lost in the Fire isn't for the faint of heart, but if you decide to read, just know that you're in good hands. No squick is gratuitous, and all of the shock and awe is absolutely earned. It'll knock your socks off, fr.
Lapvona, by Otessa Moshfegh
Rating: 4.25/5
Genre: Literary Historical Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: A fictionalized village set in the Middle Ages is beset by drought after the local Lord's son dies. A sheep herder takes out his rage on his disabled son. There is a weird witch in the town. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: As many of you know, I am in love with Otessa Moshegh's novel Eileen, and while Lapvona sucked me in, it didn't quite take me to new heights of consciousness like her debut did. And that's OK, if you have a favorite book, that means another book is not the favorite. While Eileen is disconcerting to the max, Lapvona is just literally f**king crazy, lol, I don't know what else to say. You need to like Otessa Moshfegh's brand of worldview and humor to be able to read this Lapvona. This book is extremely strange, and it's a bit depressing--full of terrible people who do terrible things to one another, with very few exceptions. But: as with all of Moshfegh's work, it's imminently readable and damnit if you don't just keep reading because you have to know what happens.
Hole in the Sky, by Daniel H. Wilson
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Science Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: A scientist trapped in a CIA hidey hole can communicate with a machine that appears to predict the future. Another scientist receives a message from beyond the reaches of space. A Native man is reunited with his daughter after a long absence in the heart of Oklahoma. Now something is hurtling toward Earth, while the Native man sees ghosts of his ancestors' past. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: As a loud fan of the genre, I was shocked to realize I didn't read any science fiction last year! So we remedied this goofy problem quickly, starting with this excellent Indigenous First Contact novel. There is an incredible Interstellar-meets Contacts-meets 2001-for-a-third-act, and truthfully I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. If you like sci-fi in any capacity, you will inhale this like I did (read in two days while under the covers at night).
The Rose Field (Book of Dust # 3), by Phillip Pullman
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Fantasy
Super Short Synopsis: This is the end of Lyra Silvertongue's known story (so we are told). The sixth book of the series could be more better (yes: I meant to write "more better"), but it's also really just good as it is. If you don't know His Dark Materials, here is an earlier ref from me that goes into more detail. You get bonus points for reading this series because it's been banned in many instances across the United States. 😈
Review: First I'd like to say that I really did appreciate the ultimate philosophical tie-ins to the original story--regarding the ineffable and conscious qualities of the soul and of imagination. I will tell you that as the philosopher in me goes, I 100% believe what Pullman espouses through his characters is God's-honest real.
Many reviews struggled with Pullman's choice for an ending in The Rose Field, which I will give zero hints about. I will just say that, as a writer, I am OK with endings like this and while it's not the choice I would have made I don't think (not for a character so beloved as Lyra), I do believe that it works.
For me, the bigger issue can be found in how various narrative threads just stopped and remained ignored. When The Rose Field was sewed up, Pullman left those threads frayed. I heard an interview between Pullman and Michael Sheen--who reads the fantastic audiobook, I cannot recommend an audiobook more than this one--and Pullman states that he actually ended the book differently, but his editors hated it, so he changed it. This is glaringly obvious to me, and that's the only reason The Rose Field gets a 4.5 from me instead of a 5. Otherwise, I loved it, I loved the series; these books were formative to the creation of Me, so it would be hard not to.
Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Speculative/Science Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: Written in the past, it's now 2025 (!) and material conditions have worsened to the point where people can really only safely live in gated communities, bearing their own arms. The environment is f*cked. A teenage girl, afflicted with the Hyper-Empathy Disorder (she can feel the pain of others directly), has a tough row to hoe.
Review: When Octavia E. Butler wrote this 'near-future science fiction' in the 1990s, it caused a stir. As it should have. The writing is excellent, the story is thrilling.
If you read it in 2025, though? Well. I find very little by way of science fiction here. Much of what Butler predicted has come to pass, or is currently coming to pass. It was eerie to have our Badass FMC read her journal with dates like February 22, 2026. Ill put it this way: I have no doubt the author hoped she'd be wrong, that there would be nothing prescient about Parable of the Sower after all, but unfortunately that is not the case.
This book is just good, strip all future-telling and the warnings away. Butler is a wonderful, accessible writer. I cannot recommend Parable of the Sower more (or one of my other favorites, Kindred), and it should, frankly, be required reading in all high schools in the United States.
Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Literary Thriller
Super Short Synopsis: A woman washes up onshore an island in the Antarctic, where only a man (the island's caretaker) and his three children live. They are working to close up the world's largest seed vault before the rising seas swallow the island. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: McConaghy is a master of scene-setting; it's so widely varied and interesting, she manages to create a sense of synesthesia. Her novel Once There Were Wolves is absolutely stunning too, and Wild Dark Shore is no different. The characters are all multi-layered and deep, the mystery is straight up chilling, bendy, twisty. My only complaint is about the ending, which I normally don't have. I just think it was unnecessary, though I suppose it was earned. Anyway, that's all I'll say on that matter as per tradition!
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Super Short Synopsis: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Review: For some reason, the universe did not throw this book in my face until now. This is a nonfiction essay written by Virginia Woolf that became one of the early 20th century's much-needed feminist manifestos. It's compelling, I daresay most people on Earth would agree with her upon finishing (good luck getting them to read it though).
This essay crystallized, finally, very similar thoughts swirling around in my head with no clear through-line. Why were there so few female writers before the 19th century, and then even until the mid-20th? Who knows how many great minds the human race was denied! A Room of One's Own focuses on the recipe for women writing fiction, yes, but really--it's about how only financial independence can protect a woman from being forced to make decisions she would not otherwise make.
Buy it now, it's only $11! I will be handing this book out on street corners. Just for the record: this is my entire personality now.
Thank you, thank you for reading. It means so much. I hope to update on What The Body Wants soon (I think I'm nearing the end of drafting, holy cow).
I will leave you with one of my favorite bits to share with other writers, and in celebration of Black History Month. These were the kinds of affirmations Octavia E. Butler, the Black woman science fiction writer active from the early 1970s to the early 2000s, wrote all over her notebooks. I pin them up in the Room of My Own and gaze at them fondly. Maybe they'll inspire you!
Have a great week and read banned books (and call your representatives!!!!),
ILSYM,