A January ritual

(Surprise! It involves books...)

Every January, I give myself a present. This present doesn’t cost me anything (not yet, anyway). And I get a disproportionate amount of pleasure from the selection process.

I try to be realistic. And honest with myself about what I will truly enjoy and appreciate in the year ahead – as the person I actually am, rather than who I think I should be.

What I do is: I go to my local bookshop and pre-order a few things I’m really looking forward to reading. I try to spread them out across the year. I don’t actually have to pay until the book comes in (a plus after Christmas) and, very often, by the time the publication day comes around, I’ve semi-forgotten about it, so the text from the bookshop to say it’s arrived feels like I’ve given myself this gift all over again.

I usually go for a mix of things by writers I know I love and want to support, plus debuts that sound too delicious to miss. I absolutely do not pick anything that feels even vaguely like homework (I have a problem with setting myself homework, as I’ve written before).

Last year’s pre-order presents-to-self included Holly Bourne’s So Thrilled For You, Charlotte Runcie’s Bring The House Down, and Jean Hannah Edelstein’s memoir Breasts. (All excellent).

The year before it was Piglet, by Lottie Hazell, and Hagstone, by Sinéad Gleeson.

Here’s what I ordered for myself this year.

Female, Nude, by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

This sounds intense, sexy and – perhaps most crucially when facing February in Britain – sunny. Sophie, a painter, goes to Greece on a final single-girls trip before her best friend gets married. Back home, her partner is keen to start trying for a baby. In the course of the holiday, Sophie paints a nude portrait of another friend, and becomes involved with Ky, who lives and works on the island. Both the painting, and the affair, will challenge everything Sophie thinks she knows, about art, about motherhood, about sex.

(Out February 12^th)

Fundamentally, by Nussaibah Younis

Technically, this is out already – but I’ve pre-ordered the paperback. An unlikely comedy about Nadia, who accepts a job at a UN camp rehabilitating ISIS brides, and the friendship she forms with Sara, a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just 15.

(Out in paperback February 12^th)

Witch Trial, by Harriet Tyce

Yes, Harriet, as in Harriet-from-The-Traitors. (Apparently her book sales are up 95 per cent since the show started). Funnily enough, her new one, Witch Trial, had just been recommended to me as an incredibly smart thriller – about the murder trial of two teenage girls, accused of killing their friend – a few days before the new series started. No spoilers here, but her performance on the show bodes well for clever plotting and explosive twists.

(Out February 26^th)

Yesteryear, by Caro Claire Burke

Bring on the tradwife dystopia…This is billed as Ballerina Farm meets The Handmaid’s Tale. Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – which she shares with her 8 million followers. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. (So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes?) Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805. Is this a hoax? A reality show? Or has she really travelled back in time?

(Out April 9^th)

People Pleaser, by Bryony Gordon

I love the premise of this, which is basically the 1990s Jim Carrey film Liar, Liar[1]…but with people pleasing. After years of trying to keep everybody around her happy, Olivia Greenwood wakes up one day and finds herself unable to please anyone but herself. Delightful.

(Out April 23^rd)

All Grown Up, by Daisy Buchanan

After 30 long years, Louisa’s daughters can finally look after themselves … or so she thinks. Because suddenly, they’re back – apparently for good. Meg’s second-guessing her marriage. Jo’s career hangs in the balance. Amy has inexplicably quit university. None of them empty the dishwasher. A modern spin on Little Women, told from Marmee’s POV and transposed to Chesire? Yes please!

(Out June 4^th)

Land, by Maggie O’Farrell

I first read Maggie O’Farrell’s debut novel, After You’d Gone, when I was at sixth form (I can still remember the feel of the laminated, hardback copy I’d borrowed, at random, from Cambridge Central Library) and it changed both my brain and my idea of what a novel could do to you. It just sort of…took up residence inside me. I’ve read everything she’s written since, and will read everything she writes next. Her new novel is about a father and son tasked with mapping the whole of Ireland for the Ordnance Survey in 1865 – not long after The Great Hunger has ravaged the country and its people.

(Out June 2^nd)

What about you? Any pre-order presents-to-self in your future? What about other January rituals that aren’t depressing? Do tell.

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[1] An absolute classic example of divorce-panic in family films of the 90s… see also: Mrs Doubtfire…but I digress.