10 Books I've Loved This Year
Plus, I wrote a sequel to an iconic 90s romcom that's not getting made
Okay, WOW. I just checked my Substack subscriber list, and there are 2,000 of you! Thank you for joining; thrilled to see you here.
Quick intro for the newbies: I am the author of I Want to Thank You, about the year I sent 365 gratitude notes. I called it my Thank You Year, and every month I thanked a different group of people. I’ve organized this newsletter year the same way. Each month I turn to a different topic (teachers, friends, travel), and talk about it through the lens of gratitude (but not in a cheesy way). Paid subscribers also get a little primer with a handy printout and letter-writing pointers.
October’s theme is BOOKS. And if you’re here for the book reviews, I get it, I see you, you are me–scroll down.
First, I’m going to share a thank you note I wrote in 2014 to a group of writers. I should back up: I am seven weeks into my new job building up content at Caviar, and lately I’ve been reaching out to writers, starting with the ones I used to work with at Food & Wine and Rachael Ray magazines. While searching my inbox for their emails, I came across the farewell letter/thank you note I sent to 141 writers eight years ago, telling them I’ve just left Food & Wine. Here it is:
Hello, lovely writers, some of whom I've worked with closely, all of whom I admire,
I wanted to share my news: I left Food & Wine last week, as the travel editor position was eliminated. It was a great job. Working with so many smart, wonderful people was the best part (with the possible exception of free wine). But there's some glory in being Food & Wine's last travel editor. Drop the mike.
I'm now busy working on a cookbook with a chef. I'm also doing editorial consulting for brands, and writing for various publications, including Food & Wine. I'm one of you! If I tortured you, know that I am about to be on the receiving end of that editing process.
If we've worked together over the course of my three years at Food & Wine, I thank you. I do apologize if I tortured you. Please let's keep in touch.
Fondly,
Gina Hamadey
Reading this is time travel. It puts me right back in my 2014 body, feeling that unmoored, melancholy feeling of being laid off from my literal dream job. When I was 23, I met Salma Abdelbnour, then the Travel Editor of Food & Wine. As she talked about discovering the food scene in Spain, I felt a visceral pang of jealousy: I want her job, I thought. And a decade later, it was mine! Until three years later, when I was laid off. (Side story: I wrote an almost painfully honest, vulnerable gratitude letter to Dana Cowin, the Food & Wine Editor-in-Chief who hired me and laid me off. That and her absolutely heartwarming reply are in the career mentors chapter of my book.)
It’s funny, thinking about all the things I’ve done since leaving magazines. It was eight years of running my own schedule, conjuring up projects and clients and learning SO MUCH. One might even say, too much! (Good morning, Gina, today we will figure out paid social! OK, get ready: It’s time to market your book! Quick, google AOV before anyone notices!) Here is a partial list of things I’ve done in eight years of working for myself, not in chronological or any other order.
Wrote a nacho cookbook
Edited a quirky guide to Brooklyn
Wrote a proposal for a dog food cookbook as a favor; was relieved when it didn’t go anywhere
Launched an S corp; got myself a business banking account and credit card; all that sexy stuff
Worked on brand messaging for a pregnancy skincare company, a colorful face mask company, a jewelry company, a soon-to-launch sun protection company, and so many more
Wrote site copy for hotels in Hawaii, Costa Rica, the Finger Lakes and beyond
Wrote emails and social captions and blog posts and taglines about super-soft sheets and coconut oil skincare for kids
Tried to figure out paid social media; hired a subcontractor instead
Mostly figured out SEO
Wrote upwards of 100 branded articles for the company formerly known as Time which was then Meredith and honestly I can’t be bothered to look up what it is now. Is it dotdash? Can that be right? Please don’t tell me, it feels like a luxury not to know
Wrote a screenplay for the sequel to My Best Friend’s Wedding titled My Friend’s Best Wedding, about the Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney characters finally getting together in their 50s during the Rupert Everett’s character’s wedding weekend while giving the Cameron Diaz character the badass ending she deserves. Absolutely serious about this, and while it won’t be getting made, if you are curious I will send this script to you right now. I am proud of it! In some future newsletter I might tell this full story—what led to the idea, why I decided to actually dedicate time to it, which books taught me how to write a screenplay, how I was connected to the studio head, why she said it was impossible (though she called my script “delightful”), what I got out of the whole thing.
Came up with this weird idea where I would write 365 gratitude notes in one year; named it my Thank You Year; wisely took a picture of every note I sent; had an incredible year in a million ways; wrote a book proposal about the whole thing; received a series of rejections from agents; spent a month rewriting the proposal and sample chapter; got a (wonderful) agent who sold it in a bidding war to TarcherPerigee; spent eight fulfilling months writing it; launched a book in COVID times; logged more hours hustling for press and marketing opportunities than writing the book itself!; got myself on the Today Show and the Rachael Ray Show and wrote about gratitude for The New York Times and Elle magazine; launched this gratitude-focused Substack!
Made a second child.
I am tired! Actually, I’m not. I’m fine. I didn’t do all of the above at the same time. What writing this list has got me thinking about is how tempting it to believe that our current reality is our “ending” when really, we are in a constant state of flux. The time in which you find yourself is only a snapshot. The ending of My Best Friend’s Wedding is not their ending—or at least it shouldn’t be. (See #11 above, and also see my future newsletter in which I give you all my thoughts about why that original movie is equal parts wonderful and frustrating and why it demands a sequel.)
I thought maybe this gratitude thing was going to be my fulltime gig—I certainly have enough to say about it. Instead, my gratitude speaking and writing has turned into a fulfilling side project. As for my new fulltime job, I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve loved being part of a team and doing this work again: assigning and editing food articles. It feels really good.
Let’s get into the book recs, shall we? It’s going to sound like I’m bragging but I’ve read 72 books so far this year. Listen, I’m a fast reader and not all of them are capital L literature. I always have a book going in my phone that I read in dribs and drabs throughout the day, and another audiobook that I listen to while walking around town, and another on my nightstand. When I finish a book I log it in a notebook by my bed, with a heart if I’ve truly loved it.
Here are some of the hearted books from the last few months.
❤️Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
It’s the best book I’ve read in years, full stop. After my friend Katinka read it, she messaged me, “So meaningful to read a story that centers friendship and collaborations for healing.”
❤️This Time Tomorrow
Emma!! She is my friend and the owner of my local bookstore and also an absolutely soulful and hilarious writer. (Get on her Substack!) I love all of her books, but this one’s my favorite. Get ready to be sold: On the main character’s 40th birthday she travels back in time to high school, in the 90s in NYC. She gets to have sex with the guy she had a crush on; she gets to see her sick dad young and healthy; she eats Gray’s Papaya hot dogs. I bought signed copies for high school friends.
❤️Writers and Lovers
Why did it take me so long to read this? SO GOOD. About the urge to keep writing amid heartbreak and money problems and grief. I loved this main character; it really captured that late 20s, what the hell am I doing feeling.
❤️Vladimir
I kept hearing how sexy this book is, and the cover certainly promises sex! It’s less filthy romcom sexy and more middle aged thwarted desire sexy. It’s weird and moody and great.
❤️I’m Glad My Mom Died
Wow, this former Nickelodeon star can really write. I listened to this on audiobook and was absolutely enthralled. She really has a way of putting you exactly where she was at the time—while her mom was teaching her calorie restriction or while the TV creator snuck her sips of booze.
❤️The Ink Black Heart
Oh, JK Rowling, why have you made it hard for me to recommend a book of yours? Transphobia aside, I do quite enjoy her Cormoran Strike private eye books.
❤️The Inspector Gamache series
Speaking of murder mysteries, none are cozier than Louise Penny’s. Truly, these books are 80% descriptions of Quebec countryside and antique furnishings and cafe au lait and croissants. She manages to solve the mystery neatly and efficiently in that remaining 20%.
❤️Think Like a Breadwinner
Great business read for reframing your thinking around earning money as a woman.
Considering…
Less is Lost. I ADORED Less. I’m scared I won’t love this followup as much! Would love to hear if you’ve read this/have opinions.
Excited for…
Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things. Catherine is the MOST BEAUTIFUL and poignant and hilarious writer, and I know this novel about saying goodbye to your best childhood friend is going to bring all the 😭.
Before I go: We’re all voting right? And maybe writing some postcards and/or phone banking? We realize the stakes, right? Great, just checking.
xoxo
G