Holiday Reading List

This list is special in many ways

Welcome to At The End Of the Day! I’m Hannah Sung and I write this newsletter for perspective in a world of firehose daily news.

Today’s newsletter is about pure pleasure. There are many types of pleasure in life but the act of getting lost in a book is singular. 

In my adult years, I began to only read non-fiction. But the book club I joined during the pandemic has changed everything. This group of friends is resolutely committed to the joys of fiction and it has 100% improved my life. I’ve included a few books in today’s list that completely made me lose track of time (the true gift).

The biggest reason why my Holiday Reading List is super-special to me is because it includes books you were writing.

I’ve been writing At The End Of the Day for a few years and through getting to know you (yes, I love it when you hit reply), I’ve learned that many of you are writers yourselves. Putting this list together, I have been completely wowed by what you write, and totally humbled that you’re a reader of mine. I love this exchange and I want everyone to know about these powerful reads—get them for yourself, for a friend and for your book club.

Books YOU were writing

Wired for Music: A Search for Health and Joy Through The Science of Sound, Adriana Barton

I previously worked at The Globe and Mail, so I knew Adriana Barton’s name as a reporter there. What I didn’t know is that prior to becoming a journalist, Adriana spent her childhood training to become a world-class cellist. Her relationship with music (like many relationships, it wasn’t easy) and her background as a health reporter come together in this deeply fascinating book. It’s filled with musicology research and is also a deliciously readable memoir. 

Send Me Into The Woods Alone: Essays on Motherhood, Erin Pepler

I mean, this title alone, am I right? In one essay, Erin describes her imagined retreat in the woods. Hands up if you’ve also got an elaborately imagined place you go to in your mind. I definitely did during those very difficult early years of early childhood parenting, when my hands, my time and my mind no longer seemed to belong solely to me anymore. My place was a replica of my own home, but clean. And silent. And slightly more chic. So yes, if you feel like you just need someone who understands, Erin gets it.

Your Place Or Mine, Charlotte Schwartz

If you need an empathetic and whip smart handbook on handling a break-up when you have kids, you’ve found it here (but also, I’m sorry to hear it). As Charlotte writes, separation is a time of grief. She knows because she’s gone through it. But as a senior family law clerk, Charlotte has also seen it all, through the litigation and mediation of many, many families, with a wide range of outcomes (even a few couples who got back together). If you need a force in your life that is equal parts professional, BFF and a no-nonsense, golden-rules life coach on breaking up, this is your book.

Books for kids in your life

Hello Hair, Anita Grant

This book came to me from an ATEOD reader, Simone. I instantly gravitated toward the author’s mission and entrepreneurialism. Creating what you want to see out in the world? Yessss. On the surface, this book is an adorably illustrated guide of 100 styles for Black hair. But of course there’s a deeper mission, one of love, self-acceptance and connection with the culture and history of Black hair. Truly, this is essential for any child who needs to see themselves, and their hair, and understand there’s an entire world of possibility.

A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food, Michelle Li, illustrated by Sunnu Rebecca Choi

I first met news broadcaster Michelle Li at a journalism conference many years ago. She is vivacious, hilarious, a natural storyteller and the kind of person with whom you absolutely want to go on a food tour. Earlier this year, I watched as she made a social media post with a racist voicemail from a viewer. Yes, it went viral but it didn’t stop there. Michelle reclaimed the viewer’s distaste for how “very Asian” she was and went on to create (and I love this), the Very Asian Foundation. I love this book for how joyful and sweet it is. If a book could be an appetizer, this would be it.

Can You Believe It? How To Spot Fake News and Find the Facts, Joyce Grant

One of my biggest worries in life is about how huge chunks of our society are going down a path of total misinformation. This year, my eldest kid got his first phone. So yes, this cultural problem is top of mind for me, on the daily. I don’t believe that misinformation is an issue of intellect. People turning away from evidence, science and news isn’t going to be fixed by saying, “Why is that person so dumb?” Misinformation is an issue of trust, authority and relationships. The way I’m trying to safeguard losing my kids to conspiracy theories (just one of many parental nightmares) is by doing everything I can to give them a sense of safety, love and personal power. A sense of their own power is something they need to learn they have, even as kids, in order to apply it judiciously as grown-ups. 

The second thing I’m doing is making sure they read this book. This is a book every media-literate kid needs.

In the kitchen

The Food Substitutions Bible, 3rd Edition, David Joachim

I’m in a group chat in which I get particularly roasted for how I bake. This is a chat of foodie high achievers where several members have blow torches for the kitchen. I am definitely on my own in this chat as someone who sees recipes as suggestions. I’m also pretty sure I am the target market for this book. I don’t even blink before substituting an improvised ingredient in a recipe. But the last thing I want to do is get trapped in a Google hole, trying to search up a substitution. With 8,000 items and their substitutions (what are pippali, piquin chile and piri-piri?), this book is a definitive reference and a dream to flip through during quiet moments, my fave way to read a cookbook.

Books that made me lose track of time (the true gift)

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh

I dare you to find another writer so virtuosic that they can write a page-turner about a woman who mostly sleeps. This is a book that is all voice and while you don’t have to love the implausible main character, there is no way that you won’t laugh and recoil in equal measure. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

This is a book about a trio of brilliant video game designers and the life events, borne of their creative collaboration, that bond them. Everyone in this book felt so real that I flipped to the back a few times to look at the author’s photo on the jacket. Is she Sam? Or Sadie or Marx? One of the most satisfying threads in this book was how identity—being Asian, mixed-race, a woman, a young adult trying to hide a disability—gets explored in a way that it is so completely inhabited. Nothing feels more real than exquisite fiction.

Bonus: A book for your ears

The Comeback, Lily Chu

You know I have a soft spot for BTS and have therefore learned a lot about K-pop. Well, here is a romance novel with a classic enemies-to-lovers trope where opposites attract—including a main character who comes from Korea (but what is his mystery past? Wink, wink). I’ve known author Lily Chu for years, first in a work context and more recently in a BTS context (yes, she is in my BTS Book Club!). What I love most about her writing is how her dry, pithy humour gets personified in the voices of strong Asian women main characters. Plus, with a romance, you always get a happy ending.

Giveaway winners! Sending books to these friends

In a previous newsletter, I asked: Do you have a friend you’d like to gift with a steady stream of books? 

Thank you so much for writing in with beautiful odes to your friends! We have two winners who will be receiving books from the list above.

For Ann, Written by Joyce

My friend Ann and I have been close friends since grade 1, when we were five. When we both turned 50, she called me with the news that she had found a lump in her breast. She just had her sixth surgery; this time, an 8.5-hour surgery to help fix her breathing and eliminate a nasty infection. I visited her in the hospital yesterday. We chatted and laughed for three hours until she was too tired to hold her head up. 

Ann has two children and two (sometimes three) jobs. She does everything for everyone. She loves reading. I can't think of anyone who would love the gift of good books more, or who would be more deserving.

For Kate, Written by Michelle

I would like to send a surprise package of books to my friend Kate. She is a poet, social worker and mother of a five-year-old. The last couple of years have been challenging for most of us, and Kate has handled the demands of caregiving, caretaking and surviving with fearlessness, tenderness and grace. Along with raising her child and working full-time, she has also been helping her parents with their health issues as well as her spouse’s health. She has been dealing with her own health challenges as well, so the fact that she has been handling it all so well has left me in awe and admiration.

Congrats to the winners! Honestly, I think you’ve already won because you’ve got great friends.

Wishing you peace and coziness (and a good book) as the year winds down. Happy holidays.

Hannah

Further Links

This is where I usually drop a bunch of links to what I’m reading. Today, I’m dropping links to where I’m giving. If there’s room in your wallet, here are some ideas. This is a Toronto-centric list but you can find organizations like this in your own area.

Anduhyaun strives to support Indigenous women and children in their efforts to maintain their cultural identity, self-esteem, economic, physical and spiritual well-being.

First Nations Child & Family Caring Society The Caring Society stands with First Nations children, youth and families so they have equitable opportunities to grow up safely at home, be healthy, get a good education and be proud of who they are.

Youthline Confidential LGBTTQQS2I Peer Support

Sistering A multi-service agency for at-risk, socially isolated women and trans people in Toronto who are homeless or precariously housed

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