Editor's Picks: Conversational's 2019 book recommendations
We’re writers, but we’re also readers. In fact, the only way to become a writer is to begin your life as a reader. We’ve curated our list of favorite reads of the year. These are the books on our shelves that we just couldn’t stop talking about.
Erin’s Picks
Title & Author: How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell
As a former and current magazine editor, I was fascinated by the memoir of a woman not coping at all well with her addiction while juggling beauty jobs at Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Lucky. Hers is a story of struggle, failure, and getting back up again — a lot — as she basically destroys her seemingly perfect editor life. It’s dark, honest, funny, and filled with cringe-worthy moments where you want to beg the heroine to get her life together even as you can’t stop reading about the chaos of her illness’s making.
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a beauty editor. To me, a beauty editor was better than being president of the United States! Yes, I lifted those lines directly from the opening of the movie Goodfellas and replaced “gangster” with “beauty editor.” But they work here, in my story, too.
Title & Author: Vanity Fair's Women on Women by Radhika Jones & David Friend
If you’re a regular reader of Conde Nast’s century-old magazine, Vanity Fair, you know all too well that they make their bread and butter on the profiles of famous and infamous people. This book pulls together nearly 30 of them written by and about women: Julia Child, Frida Kahlo, Queen Elizabeth II, Lena Waithe, Tina Turner, and Tina Fey — just to name a few. It’s excellent writing and reading — and perfect for quick bursts of reading when a long narrative just isn’t your thing.
“It was an amazing book,” says Nora Ephron, who still cooks Julia’s lamb stew in the spring, still makes the boeuf bourguignon and the chicken breast with cream and mushrooms (deliciously filmed in Julie & Julia). “You understand cooking from having taken that book seriously.”
Title & Author: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
I am a sucker for gorgeous writing. And startling prose that makes you shift up in your seat to better lean into reading a book. Such is the debut novel by Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. Written as a letter to his illiterate mother, it is filled with graceful, poetic, stunning language that makes you read and re-read passages.
“[This] will be described — rightly — as luminous, shattering, urgent, necessary. But the word I keep circling back to is raw: that’s how powerful the emotions here are, and how you’ll feel after reading it. Ocean Vuong examines whether putting words to one’s experience can bridge wounds that span generations and whether it’s ever possible to be truly heard by those we love most.”
— Celeste Ng, another of Everything I Never Told You
Title & Author: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
A recent release, this novel may seem a little odd at its premise: a woman is hired by a powerful Senator to help keep his two children from bursting into flames when they are upset or angry. And we’re talking five-alarm fires. You think your kids are a handful. It’s a funny, sweet, and sideways parenting book. Wilson, a Tennesseean and professor at The University of the South, speaks with a delightful Southern drawl, and I admit to buying the book just because I loved his interview with Terry Gross
“It sounds a little bit sci-fi but I don’t think any book has touched me about parenthood as much as Nothing to See Here.”
— Jenna Bush Hager
Title & Author: The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
The Moment of Lift is a powerful call for gender equality from one of the globe’s most famous philanthropists and the sixth most powerful woman in the world, Melinda Gates. She’s been a vocal advocate about “women’s issues” noting that advancing women lifts up communities, nations, and the world. She’s also vulnerable in this book sharing her own personal stories along with those of impoverished women. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t love every element of this book, but it definitely gave me a full meal of food for thought.
“It’s the mark of a backward society—or a society moving backward—when decisions are made for women by men. That’s what’s happening right now in the US.”
Title & Author: Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
I’ve been a fan of Marie Forleo and her delightful videos on MarieTV for years. She’s honest, fun, upbeat, and smart — things I love in a self-help author. In her new book, Marie lays out a plan for how to solve any and all problems that come your way since, after all, everything is figureoutable — a phrase often used by her mother and one that genuinely makes you feel better as you move through the book. Because if the thing you’re dealing with isn’t figureoutable, it’s probably a law of nature or fact of life like death or gravity. And even then, you’ll know not to bang your head against a law of nature that simply cannot be changed.
“Let me make one thing clear. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. Nor does this book. But in these pages, you’ll get a simple framework and set of tools to help you find or create your own. If you’re a person who thrives on playing devil’s advocate, you might already be thinking, No, Marie. Everything is NOT figureoutable. What about X, Y, or Z…”
Jena’s Picks
Title & Author: All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
A longtime favorite, I reread this book and remembered why I love it so much. Southern. Appalachia. Written by a New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner. It tells the story of a man who loved his family, but experienced everything poor and lonely and hopeless. And yet, they prevail. It’s really a love letter to his momma, and I like that.
I know I grew up in the time when a young man in a baggy suit and slicked-down hair stood spraddle-legged in the crossroads of history and talked hot and mean about the colored, giving my poor and desperate people a reason to feel superior to somebody, to anybody. I know that…the black family who lived down the dirt road from our house sent fresh-picked corn to the poor white lady and her three sons, because they knew their daddy had run off, because hungry does not have a color.
Title & Author: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
Bombshell. All the big players are up to bat here, starting with Harvey Weinstein and charging into Matt Lauer with a dose of Roger Aisles for kicks. The author won his Pulitzer for a reason: he’s a damn fine writer, and I believe the reporting accurate and thoughtful. It’s all a sensational, juicy, voyeuristic peek inside the sinister world of the Network elites, and the subsequent downfall they experienced in light of the #MeToo movement.
We've been reading about sex scandals beginning with Harvey Weinstein, but only Ronan Farrow, who reported them, tells us how women's voices were discredited and suppressed for so long. Catch and Kill reads like a great detective novel, and could lead to a safer and more just future. - Gloria Steinem
Title & Author: Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl
You can read my full review of this book coming out later this month, but this was a personal favorite this year. I loved the food, the humor, the Manhattan of it all. I loved seeing inside the traditional magazine world of Conde Nast, and hearing all the best stories of the rise and fall. It’s delicious (complete with recipes!), luxuriously New-Yorky, heartwarming, and offers great advice to anyone who manages others at work.
Still, if I’m being honest, I have to admit that working women everywhere accepted casual misogyny. We were so accustomed to taking what men dished out that we thought it was up to us to find ways to deflect the advances of bosses and co-workers without hurting their feelings.
Title & Author: One of Us by Åsne Seierstad
The darkest, most haunting piece of journalism I’ve ever read. This book recalls the most prolific mass shooting (to date) in history. It’s the true making of a murderer - the childhood, the adulthood, the life that lead up to the slaughter of so many youth on the small island off Norway. And worse, it’s the story of the aftermath. The book sheds gentle light on the society that formed this person. This article introduced me to the book - for the squeamish, start here.
Then some of the kids are ducking and juking, peeking over the rise. "Is he coming?" They bob their heads, trying to see through the trees and bushes. "Is he? Oh God, I think he is." The kids are frantic, fear rising in their voices. "He's coming, yes, fuck, he's coming for us." And then the man with the guns is there.
Title & Author: J’adore New York by Isabelle Lafleche
This one is just for fun. It’s the beach read, or as close as I’ll ever get, anyone can enjoy. A fashionable, Parisian lawyer is transferred to the New York office of her firm. There’s a love story, excellent notes of high fashion, and just enough lawyer plot to keep things moving. She’s an associate, on track for partnership - will she succeed in her Louboutins? Like I said, just a fun little book that’s actually part of a short series. As one reviewer wrote, think Devil Wears Prada in a law firm.
Time flies when all you do is work. The real problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.
Title & Author: Riding Shotgun by Nathan Bennett & Stephen Miles
This one may not be as applicable to everyone, but I recently became second in command at my company, and this book helped me navigate those waters. My biggest take away from this book is that you won’t always agree with the Number One or always understand their motivations. If you’re lucky enough to have a leader who will listen, offer your opinion and advice candidly. Then it’s up to them.
It has been argued that the number two position is the toughest job in a company. COOs are typically the key individuals responsible for the delivery of results on a day-to-day, quarter-to-quarter basis. They play a critical leadership role in executing the strategies developed by the top management team... Despite all this, the COO role has not received much attention.
What’d you read this year? Any standouts? We’re looking to add to our already growing piles. #booknerds