The Millions

Dec 12, 2024 | themillions.com | Emily Witt

2024 was a year when I could never write quickly enough and there was always something overdue. For the first half of the year I was revising Health and Safety. For the second half I was doing presidential campaign coverage for The New Yorker and promoting the new book after it came out in September.

Dec 11, 2024 | themillions.com | Daniel Paris

A Year in Reading: Daniel Saldaña París My father died on January 10, 2024. In the first couple of weeks after that, I couldn’t read at all. I couldn’t write, watch movies, or think much. Then, I reached out to my poet friends and asked them to send me their favorite poems about grief. I have always turned to poetry when nothing else helps—in moments of despair, anguish, or loss. And I have always turned to my friends, too, so this seemed like the right approach.

Dec 11, 2024 | themillions.com | Lili Anolik

A Year in Reading: Lili Anolik For obvious reasons, I spent a lot of time this past year reading and rereading and rereading some more Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. (Hang on, maybe it’s not obvious: I have a new book out called Didion & Babitz.) Reading, as well, writers in the Didion-Babitz orbit. Key husbands: John Gregory Dunne. Key brothers-in-law: Dominick Dunne. Key nephews and/or barely-legal sex partners: Griffin Dunne (Didion’s nephew; Babitz’s barely-legal sex partner).

Dec 10, 2024 | themillions.com | Lidia Yuknavitch

I read books is small clusters. Sometimes I pretend I’m reading and naming new constellations, new myths to live and die by. After all, isn’t that what humans have always done? The year 2024 brought with it brutalities and calamities we haven’t the language for—privately and globally. I’ve noticed lately that we are in dire need of letting go of some stories, so that others might rise, like ocean waves remaking continents, like rivers cutting through canyons. Forgive me for thinking this way.

Dec 9, 2024 | themillions.com | Tony Tulathimutte

A Year in Reading: Tony Tulathimutte This year I wanted to read the last six Philip Roth novels I hadn’t read yet. While I wouldn’t call it a mistake, I will say it was like eating a six-pack of paper towels, and I say this as a longtime Roth head (Rothster? Rothario?), though he doesn’t really make admiration easy, the more you learn about him.