Dog-Eared and Premiered: January 2025
Four books and three films I loved this month.
I’ve shared my favorite reads and watches for years on my Instagram page, where I keep archived stories of my picks at the top of my profile, but I recently asked my audience if they’d like me to create longer monthly (or so) curated lists here on Substack, and the response was a resounding affirmative.
Yes, everything currently feels on the fast track to disaster, but I truly believe that platforming creatives and supporting (and partaking in!) the artistic process is a pivotal part of our resistance, so it’s my hope that these tiny missives light a spark of inspiration.
As some of you are aware, I’m a part-time bookseller at an independent bookshop (so I’m swimming in advanced reader copies, known as “arcs” in the biz), and I’m also a former (always open to being resurrected) entertainment writer—you can find a bunch of my articles here. All that’s to say: inhaling the latest print and screen releases is second nature for me, and I’ll jump on any chance to wax enthusiastic about work and creators I love.
I’ll keep up with these lists as often as I have enough picks to populate them—here’s the crème de la crème of January’s eye candy…
BOOKS
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
This is a wicked, nasty little novel (complimentary). A murderous governess descends on an English country house, and chaos ensues for all beneath its roof. Utterly delighted by its sordid, pitch-black humorous observations and administering its brutal violence with an air of banality, it reads like the best kind of mashup between Yorgos Lanthimos and Ottessa Moshfegh. I devoured it in one sitting with a huge grin on my face—it’s a tight, perfectly-plotted gothic tale with a heaping dose of weird, and it’ll be a hard read to top for me this year. Releases February 4.
The Garden by Nick Newman
This hooked me immediately with its premise—think: We Have Always Lived in the Castle meets Grey Gardens, set adrift in a desert-like dystopian world—and reeled me in with its gorgeously spare, meticulous prose (in the best, most Shirley Jackson kind of way). Two elderly sisters live in the kitchen of their crumbling family estate, and spend their days tending to their large garden, bees, and chickens. Their routine is steeped in mystery—why do they not enter the rest of their home? Why is the garden walled off? Why do they need sunglasses to look beyond its perimeter? What starts in cozy, cottagecore-esque idyll takes a more sinister turn when a strange boy breaches their stronghold and upsets their delicate dynamic. Snippets of the sisters’ earlier life with their parents in the before times are interspersed as the story unfolds, concurrently shedding light and imparting dread. I’m completely in awe of this writing and plotting—it feels, in every way, like a new classic. Releases February 18.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
I can’t remember the last time I devoured a book this compulsively readable, this chock-full of drama and intrigue, this confidently and deftly written. A loose retelling of Wuthering Heights set against the backdrop of competitive pairs ice dancing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it delves deep into the obsessive, meticulous, cutthroat world of elite skating and the two passionate, erratic partners at its center. Short and sweet first person chapters are interspersed with interviews from key players involved via a documentary made a decade after a mysterious scandal. A narrative as performance that picks up speed, intensity, and complexity as it goes. And yes, it nails the landing. This is an utterly delicious way to kickstart a new year of reading…you will not be able to turn the pages fast enough. Released January 14.
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V.
If you, too, are trashing all your Gaimans, this is an excellent way to fill the Sandman Death of the Endless spinoff void. Death is fired upon the birth of a baby who'll invent immortality, and she's sent to earth in corporeal form, where she follows the child into adulthood and learns about grief, humanity, and the irrevocable connection between life and death. It's a philosophical, moving, gorgeously illustrated read. This was recommended by a savvy staff member at NYC’s Forbidden Planet when I visited this past Christmas Eve—it was released in February 2022, but I’m grouping it with the more recent reads because a graphic novel should be featured this month, too.
Sidebar shout-outs: I started several promising novels that didn’t quite hook me (I generally try to get to the halfway point of a book before I move on), so I’m mentioning them here in case they fare better with you. They are: The Lamb by Lucy Rose (releases February 4), Blob: A Love Story (released January 28) by Maggie Su, and Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey (releases February 4).
FILMS
Well, this one hit disconcertingly close to home… A character study centered on what happens when you devote decades of your life to something that disappears overnight, and find yourself aged out of a career you thought would define you forever (oh hi, fellow magazine publishing vets). The script is a mere formality—it holds itself together with dreamy camerawork and well-placed gut-punch scenes, and it's clear that director Gia Coppola is heavily influenced by her aunt Sofia. An excellent cast all around; Jamie Lee Curtis and Dave Bautista really dig deep (an arresting scene of JLC dancing on a table will steal your breath), but it's a truly career-resurrecting and redefining performance for Pamela Anderson, who I want all the best for (I can really see her oft-professed love for Gena Rowlands in the way she approached this role). One of my favorite things about this film’s press tour has been discovering what an incredible cinephile Pam is. Exhibit A: her Criterion Closet visit; Exhibit B: her Letterboxd Four Favorites. Released January 10.
An elegant, empathetic film directed, written by, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, featuring costar Kieran Culkin in a real showcase role. Two cousins with conflicting personalities sojourn to Poland in memory of their grandmother, and their underlying resentments bubble forth as they tour culturally and personally significant sites. There’s a standout scene in a cemetery, which you know courted extra favor from me. It has a bit of a Before Sunrise (minus the romance, sub in strained relationships) vibe, and it's a beautifully-told and acted story that centers on the struggles of loving someone with mental illness and the built in reckoning that is family. Released on digital December 31.
Sidebar shout-out: while not a recent release, I watched an excellent new-to-me film that deserves attention. Somehow, Broken English (2007) has flown under my radar, despite the fact that it’s a venn diagram of all my interests: it’s got Parker Posey, it features a single 30-something navigating life, love, and friendship in New York City, and the production and performances have a distinctly mumblecore vibe. I’ll invoke Before Sunrise again—this is the rare film that scratches the early Richard Linklater itch; it’s a perfect time capsule of a very specific aesthetic and emotional moment in the city, and a standout vulnerable dramatic performance from Posey. It hit every note for me and really made me miss the simple framework of all those late nineties and early aughts walk-through-a-city-and-talk films—though Past Lives (2023) conjured this beautifully. An additional plus: it’s directed by Zoe Cassavetes, daughter of the legendary John Cassavetes.
That’s all for this month—until late February, I’ll be reporting for duty as fast as my greedy eyeballs can take all the newness in. In the meantime, if you want some older recommendations, start with my Best of 2024 roundup.