December Drawings

And all the books I read in 2024!

Dearest Friend,

Happy New Year!

This is a short note, to check in with you. How are you doing? How was your festive season? I’d love to know!

We had a lovely break, and the time off has given me greater resolve to work diligently on my goals. I’m not one to make sweeping resolutions — life is too complex for that — but I always try to be consistent and diligent in all that I do.

I’ve included the list of books I read in 2024, with no interpretation. You can make of it what you will. I read voraciously, and not usually with any goal in mind. I pick up what interests me in the moment.

Or ignore it, and skip right to the sketchbook pages. I don’t mind.

Tell me, what should I read in 2025? I’d love some recommendations!

May your stacks of books always be balanced,

Jane

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Books read in 2024

(in chronological order)

1. Number the stars. Lois Lowry | category: middle grade fiction

2. Alison. Lizzy Stewart | category: graphic novel

3. Almost everything. Notes on hope. Anne Lamott | category: spirituality

4. Novelist as vocation. Haruki Murakami. | category: creativity

5. How to be Parisian. Wherever you are. Sophie Mas, Caroline de Maigret, Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan | category: lifestyle

6. An extra pair of hands. Kate Mosse | category: lifestyle (beautiful meditations on living with older parents)

7. Sea of tranquility. Emily St John Mandel | category: science fiction

8. Days at the morisaki bookshop. Satoshi Yagisawa | category: fiction

9. The silva mind control method. José Silva. | category: lifestyle

10. Rooftoppers. Katherine Rundell | category: middle grade fiction

11. Station 11. Emily St John Mandel. | category: science fiction

12. Chasing slow. Erin Loechner | category: lifestyle

13. The girl who drank the moon. Kelly Barnhill. | category: middle grade fiction

14. The fellowship of the ring. J. R. R. Tolkien | category: fantasy

15. The two towers. J. R. R. Tolkien | category: fantasy

16. The return of the king. J. R. R. Tolkien | category: fantasy

17. Super-infinite: the transformations of John Donne. Katherine Rundell. | category: non-fiction

18. Amulet. Book 9. Waverider. Kazu Kibuishi. | category: middle grade graphic novel

19. A simplified life. Emily Ley | category: lifestyle

20. When less becomes more. Emily Ley | category: lifestyle

21. Kokoro. Beth Kempton | category: lifestyle

22. The end we start from. Megan Hunter | category: science fiction

23. The Creative Act: A way of being. Rick Rubin. | category: creativity

24. Dark is Rising Series. Susan Cooper. | category: middle grade fiction

25. Dune. Frank Herbert | category: science fiction

26. The anxious generation. Jonathan Haidt | category: lifestyle

27. Growing boldly. Emily Ley. | category: lifestyle

28. Old babes in the wood. Margaret Atwood. | category: short stories

29. Ultra processed people. Chris van Tulleken | category: non fiction

30. Burning questions. Margaret Atwood. | category: collected essays

31. The temple at the end of the universe. Josiah Neufeld. | category: non fiction

32. Opt out family. Erin Loechner | category: lifestyle

33. A Memory Called Empire. Arkady Martine. | category: science fiction

34. Slow productivity. Cal Newport | category: lifestyle

35. Faint of heart. Kerrilynn Wilson | category: graphic novel

36. Somehow. Anne Lamott. | category: spirituality

37. Missing may. Cynthia Rylant | category: middle grade fiction

38. Moving on. Sarah ban Breathnach | category: lifestyle

39. Runners high. Jenni Falconer | category: lifestyle

40. Tennyson. Selected poems. Dover thrift edition | category: poetry

41. Poems to fall in love by. Chris Riddell. | category: poetry

42. The dragon with the chocolate heart. Stephanie Burgis | category: middle grade fiction

43. The diary of a bookseller. Shaun Bythell | category: non fiction

44. Feel good productivity. Ali Abdaal | category: lifestyle

45. At home in the world. Tsh Oxenreider. | category: non-fiction memoir

46. The girl with the dragon heart. Stephanie Burgis | category: middle grade fiction

47. The princess who flew with dragons. Stephanie Burgis | category: middle grade fiction

48. The myth of normal. Gabor Maté | category: non fiction

49. Dune Messiah. Frank Herbert. | category: science fiction

50. Emily of New Moon. L M Montgomery | category: fiction

51. Paper boat, paper bird. David Almond | category: middle grade fiction

52. Lessons in stoicism. John Sellars | category: non fiction

53. The ancient paths. Discovering the lost map of Celtic Europe. Graham Robb. | category: non fiction (excellent book!)

54. Walt Whitman. Selected poems. | category: poetry

55. Stepping stones. Lucy Knisley | category: middle grade graphic novel

56. In Ascension. Martin MacInnes | category: science fiction (excellent! )

57. Live green. Jen Chillingsworth | category: lifestyle

58. Moon of the crusted snow. Waubgeshig Rice. | category: science fiction

59. Living the artists way. Julia Cameron | category: creativity

60. In praise of idleness. Bertrand Russell. | category: non fiction, essays

61. Breaking bread with the dead. Alan Jacobs | category: non fiction

62. The naked Neanderthal. Ludovic Slimak | category: non fiction

63. The Hobbit. J R R Tolkien | category: fantasy

64. Emily of New Moon. L. M. Montgomery. | category: fiction

65. The artists way. Julia Cameron | category: creativity

66. The bullet journal method. Ryder Carroll | category: lifestyle

67. Devil in the stack. Andrew Smith | category: non fiction (a fascinating look at how different computer coding languages may subtly be influencing how we think)

68. Notes from a blue bike. Tsh Oxenreider | category: memoir

69. Daemon voices. Phillip Pullman | category: non fiction essays

70. Wide sargasso sea. Jean Rhys | category: fiction

71. Marvels. Brian Selznick | category: middle grade graphic novel

72. Wonder struck. Brian Selznick | category: middle grade graphic novel

73. Secret voices. A year of women’s diaries. Sarah Gristwood | category: non fiction

74. Big tree. Brian Selznick. | category: middle grade graphic novel

75. Manifest. Roxie Nafousi. | category: lifestyle

76. The lost tools of learning. Dorothy Sayers. | category: non fiction

77. Little Women. Louisa May Alcott. | category: fiction

78. Mind of the maker. Dorothy Sayers | category: non fiction

79. The divine conspiracy. Dallas Willard | category: non fiction, spirituality

80. The notebook: A history of thinking in paper. Roland Allen. | category: non fiction (excellent)

81. Reconnected. Carlos Whittaker | category: lifestyle

82. Shadow and light: a journey into advent. Tsh Oxenreider | category: spirituality

83. The facts and fictions of Minna Pratt. Patricia Maclachlan | category: middle grade fiction

84. The unplugged hours. Hannah Brencher. | category: lifestyle

85. Make art make money. Elizabeth Hyde Stevens. | category: creativity

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    December Drawings!

Adding 24k gold leaf for fun!

Rewriting Christmas carols: a parakeet in a plum tree!

The last of the full moons of the year. You can see the rest HERE!

A cup of tea: and gold leaf!