Books I Loved This Year

NOTE: This newsletter might be cut short by your email program. View it in full.   If a friend forwarded it to you and you'd like your very own newsletter, subscribe here — it's free.   Need to modify your subscription? You can change your email address or unsubscribe. Hello Blog! This is a special annual edition of The Marginalian by Maria Popova. The weekly newsletter remains on its regular pulse-beat and will be with you at the usual time. If my labor of love enriched your life in any way this year — its 18th year — please consider supporting its endurance with a donation; if you already donate, I appreciate you more than you know. Favorite Books of the Year: Art, Science, Poetry, Psychology, Children's, and More Because I read for the same reason I write — to fathom my life and deepen my living — looking back on a year of life has always been looking back on a year of reading. This year was different — a time of such profound pain and profound transformation that it fused reading and writing into a single, surprising act of the unconscious: I began making bird divinations to clarify the confusion of living and refill my reservoir of trust in the cohesion of the world. This daily practice left a great deal less time for other reading, especially anything new: The written word today seems more and more resigned to commodified virtue signaling and hollow self-help, so I found myself returning more and more to trusted treasures that have stood the test of time and changing moral fashions. Of the few new books I did read, these are the ones I will keep returning to for substance and succor in the years ahead. MARIE HOWE: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS Here is my favorite poem from it (which is also one of my favorite poems of all time), and here is another. SOMETHING IN THE WOODS LOVES YOU Here is a taste. THANK YOU, EVERYTHING Here is a taste. OLIVER SACKS: LETTERS Here is a taste. WEATHERING Here is a taste. JUNG VS. BORG Here is a taste. THE OTHER SIGNIFICANT OTHERS Here is a taste. CONSOLATIONS II Here is a taste. THE WORK OF ART Here is a taste. WE ARE FREE TO CHANGE THE WORLD Here is a taste. SOMETHING ABOUT THE SKY Here is a taste. FLOWERS FOR THINGS I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAY Here is a taste. ON GIVING UP Here is a taste. THE LIGHT EATERS Here is a taste. KAMAU & ZUZU FIND A WAY Here is a taste. LIFE AS NO ONE KNOWS IT Here is a taste. THERE'S A GHOST IN THE GARDEN Here is a taste. CLOUDSPOTTING FOR BEGINNERS Here is a taste. WE GO TO THE PARK Here is a taste. THE MIRACULOUS FROM THE MATERIAL Here is a taste. THE MESSAGE THE ART OF CRYING Here is a taste. THE DICTIONARY STORY Here is a taste. (AND ONE I MADE) Peek inside here. (AND ONE COMING NEXT YEAR) Peek inside here. SHARE THIS WITH SOMEONE YOU LOVE/Read Online/ donating=loving Every month, I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For eighteen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor makes your own life more livable in any way, please consider aiding its endurance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference. monthly donation You can become a Sustaining Patron with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a Brooklyn lunch.   one-time donation Or you can become a Spontaneous Supporter with a one-time donation in any amount. Partial to Bitcoin? You can beam some bit-love my way: 197usDS6AsL9wDKxtGM6xaWjmR5ejgqem7 Need to cancel an existing donation? (It's okay — life changes course. I treasure your kindness and appreciate your support for as long as it lasted.) You can do so on this page. You're receiving this email because you subscribed on TheMarginalian.org (formerly BrainPickings.org). This weekly newsletter comes out on Sunday mornings and synthesizes what I publish on the site throughout the week. The Marginalian NOT RECEIVING MAIL 47 Bergen Street, 3rd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list   update subscription preferences