Happy New Year
From me <3
Happy New Year!
(Yes, that is a rough snippet from Project V)
As I write this, it isn’t yet 2024, but I imagine it will be when it’s sent. I haven’t yet had the luxury of slipping into the New Year like a sweater straight from the store, but it’s fascinating to think about. Another trip around the sun, dotted with events to be remembered with fondness and a few here and there to be mourned.
So it is at the end of each year, I find, but 2023 was an especially good one. I found so much to love. A great deal of this inaugural newsletter will recap those things, which is what happens when you decide to start a newsletter a day before the new year. I intended to start this newsletter looking forward, instead of back, but I do hope you’ll forgive me for saying Auld Lang Syne.
With all that being said, let’s get to it.
BOOKS I LOVED IN 2023
I didn’t read many books—only forty-seven—but I did read a lot of good ones. I’ll try and make a succinct list of my top reads since the incoming music section is so long. (Reviews, if applicable, are linked! I can’t keep up a consistent review format to save my life, but they’re there if you want to read them.)
Vicious by V.E. Schwab - Anyone who has been on my Instagram for a while knows how I feel about this book. It is now my favorite book of all time, and you should all read it immediately.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - A close second, and the movie was gorgeous.
Lessons in Chemistry - Wildly original, and so needed. ( I got to meet the author back at Emirates LitFest in February, and she’s honestly so amazing. I also got to interview her! Read that here)
The Bell Jar - It’s Sylvia Plath. Enough said.
Beware The Woman by Megan Abbot - Terrifying in all the best ways.
The Secret History - I was a different person before I read this, but I don’t miss that version of me. Donna I quoted you in my homework; please notice me one day.
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley is my best friend. I read this for my high school book club, and it was just me, my academic rival, another student, and a teacher. It was very much an experience.
The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali - This book committed violence against my tear ducts, and it is worth every star in existence. One of my favourite birthday gifts <3
Ambition by Kia Ayesha Sinan - I think about this book all the time.
Hamlet - My favourite prince.
Five Survive by Holly Jackson - My first read of 2023, and one of the best. (I reviewed it and tried to do so seriously, but I kept on making murder puns as a coping mechanism. As such, the review is rather unhinged, but I think that tells you everything).
Adam by Ted Dekker - Uniquely horrifying.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - Pure Magic.
Yellowface by RF Kuang -Undoubtedly one of the most well-executed books of 2023, and also one of the most riveting. RF Kuang is a technical author, sure, but she’s also an interesting one.
FILMS I LOVED IN 2023
I didn’t see many films this year, but I did go to the movie theatre more times than I ever have. I saw Barbie in Orlando with my brother and cousins, Spiderman: Across The Spider-Verse in Dallas with my brother and my best friend, Gran Turismo (also in Orlando) with family, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes back home in Dubai with another friend of mine. All of them were delightful, and while I didn’t see Oppenheimer, I enjoyed the Barbenheimer memes.
FT. My Weather App just after Barbenheimer day above and my TBOSAS screening outfit below
Side note: Dressing up to see Barbie and TBOSAS was fun, but I was very outdone by a lady in the theater that literally showed up as Barbie in her blonde ponytail. It was so bizarre*, we thought she was a prop.
*In the best of ways. She looked amazing.
MUSIC I LOVED IN 2023
Music-wise, I spent a lot of time adventuring this year.
Right now, my writing is being accompanied by Epic The Musical’s “Warrior of The Mind,” which contributed 70 of the 243 listens I gave to Epic this year. 2023—due to a combination of Percy Jackson, Epic, and the Greek Mythology College Class I did—was the year Greek mythology made a comeback in my life. Therefore, Epic felt appropriate.
I adore what Jay Herrans has been doing with that project, and I’ve been following it eagerly since its inception. In no particular order, here are my top five songs from Epic’s released chapters.
Warrior of The Mind - The first of the songs I heard from the musical. Thank you Cait Jacobs for making the video that introduced me to it and all the others! I remain obsessed with the way Jay sings Athena in the song’s second part.
Just a Man - So, so stirring.
Full Speed Ahead - I am guaranteed to be annoying my family with a fully dramatised rendition of this song at almost any given moment.
My Survive - I really adore any song that deals with Odysseus and Athena, so this one was amazing for me. I love how charged it gets, and it’s on repeat so very often
Keep your Friends Close - It’s surprising that this one made the list seeing as the Ocean Chapter only just came out, but it’s become my favourite so quickly. The melody is amazing, and “Time for me to be the father I never was” has no business being that brutal.
There’s also Hamilton, which has a soundtrack I’ve adored since my early teen years. BUT. I finally saw Hamifilm earlier this year and it brought it to life for me. Hamilton’s coming near me this month so I’m going to do my best to see it.
And finally, Les Mis! I’ve adored the soundtrack since I was a kid and I’m yet to see it on stage. However, this year, I finally watched the movie with a very dear friend of mine. Javert jokes aside, it was excellent.
Moving on from musicals, I found myself deeply entrenched in Eurovision this year. I’m not exactly sure how that happened, and I do enjoy the memes, but I did really enjoy a lot of the music this year. My favourite Euro-discovered acts will always be Abba, Go_A, Alexander Rybak, and Måneskin, but I also enjoyed these three acts from EuroVision 2023.
Luke Black’s Samo Mi Se Spava: I can’t speak a lick of Serbian, but I can sing every word of this song without a break, interruption, or mistake.
Alessandra’s Queen of Kings: A win for Norway and for women, in my opinion. Alessandra has such a unique voice and the song has a lot of crossover appeal.
Teya & Salena’s Who The Hell is Edgar?”: It’s just so much fun. If you pick one Euro-Vision 2023 music video to watch, please let it be this one. My girls are capable of pretty harmonies, Kubrick Stares, and cheeky irreverent jokes, and I will love them forever. (Also, their Schönbrunn Palace performance is a must-watch so you might as well catch that too). Combine literary references with a solid beat and you’ve got me nodding along. Of all the contestants, they were perhaps my favourite.
NOTE: Eurovision fans will likely be aghast I didn’t mention Cha Cha Cha, so consider this note an appreciation one for Käärijä, who we all think should’ve won. No offense to Loreen!
I’d rather not spend too long on music, so I’ll list a few more artists/songs I enjoyed in Bullet Points.
Eliza Rickman - I will inevitably write something inspired by Pretty Little Head. Mark my words.
Mitski - Anything this woman has ever written resonates with my heart, but I found myself listening to Francis Forever + First Love / Late Spring a great deal while working on Project V
Roberta Sá - I especially like Nossos Planos and her cover of Falsa Baiana, but anything she sings is aural gold.
Chico Buarque - Bye Bye Brasil / Cantando no Toró / Grande Hotel, as well as Pelas Tabelas, are firm favorites
Chris Garneau - Dirty Night Clowns was my top streamed song of the year. It never gets old.
Hozier, my folklorist bard. Enough said.
(A good friend of mine got me into samba and bossa-nova, so that explains Chico and Roberta)
WRITING IN REVIEW
2023 saw me finish and start a lot of things. I finished high school, then I started college. Then I finished the first draft of my first young adult novel. It currently stands at 113,327 words, which is longer than anything I’ve ever written before. I keep comparing it to the length of books I know and love and marvelling that I had that much to say.
Ironically, I’m currently wordless, so I won’t spend too long on that subject. But I am very grateful. My novel is now undergoing revision, but I do hope you’ll all get to see it soon. If and when I open for ARCs, this newsletter will be the first place to announce it, so stay tuned!
Astericus isn’t the only project I’ve worked on this year, though.
2023 saw me begin MM (contemporary magical realism), TBOWB (Epic/Low sci-fantasy), and my current main project, Project V. Project V was my NaNoWrimo project, and I managed to win (!), so it currently stands at around 54k words. I’ll talk more about it in the future, maybe, but for now I’m content to say that it’s a gremlin of a book and I love it.
And then there were books I didn’t start. The art I dreamed but didn’t draw. The ones that are sitting in my head, just under the surface, like skeletons waiting for skin. I’m personally very excited about them, and I’ll get to a few of them soon. I can't wait to share them with you in more detail, but they include:
A dark academia retelling of one of my favourite books
An alternate-history that deals with an Empire
A take on an unusual feminine trope
MISCELLANEOUS MOMENTS I ADORED
I visited ten cities this year and did a lot of traipsing, so here’s some things I loved seeing and doing.
Swinging by NYC and seeing 75 ½ Bedford Street, which is New York’s narrowest house (once owned by Edna St. Vincent Millay). Shoutout to the Union Square B&N, where I bought Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations and picked up a vintage looking notebook. An additional shoutout goes to Wayla, which is in Chinatown. The entrance is rough looking, but I promise it’s worth every bit of hype it gets. If you go, get the branzino. (*Photodump Ensues*)
Moving on…
The little Italian restaurant we visited in Harrison called Ah ’Pizz. Shoutout to Miss Tabby and the virgin Sangria she made my dad! The pasta here is excellent.
The bench dedicated to college sweethearts at SAGU in Waxahachie.
Meeting Bonnie Garmus, Greg Mosse, and Sir Jeffery Archer a Emirates LitFest. (I gave Jeffery Archer my book! EEK!)
Meeting a lovely Irish couple in Orlando that invited me to their home in Scotland
Getting Boba and Pho at Twenty Pho Hour Cafe (you should see it. It’s gorgeous)
Visiting my extended family in Houston and going to Dallas for my graduation (where I met up with my best friend!)
Having dinner in Doha’s airport lounge.
Driving from Houston to Orlando and stopping over in Pensacola for Fourth of July fireworks and those Blue Angels air shows they have.
Seeing a (modern) Macbeth here in Dubai with a friend.
Visiting The Louvre Abu Dhabi
Wrapping up a newsletter isn’t easy, but wrapping up a year is harder. Even now, I write this newsletter with one eye on the clock, missing what I’m leaving behind in 2023 and wondering what the new year has in store.
Starting the year off on a Monday feels auspicious. It means we are being given the chance to begin in three separate but intertwined places. We begin a new year, a new week, new day—We’ve been giving fresh concrete to step in.
A Monday start is a chance to cement new precedents and patterns. Here’s to them being the right ones 🥂
I don’t have a list of resolutions, but I do have an ins-and-out list I might share on my Instagram in a bit. For now, I must dash. The fireworks are soon. 2024 is eight minutes away.
So whether you’re ringing in the New Year alone or with loved ones, and whether it starts with Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” whimper or begins with a roaring bang, I pray 2024 is all we wish it to be. Here’s to starting anew!
Lots of love,
Anisa