Tiny Corner Office (art & book) Gift Guide
One more to add to the list of lists but it's a good one: books! art! poetry! paintings!
I said I was not going to do a gift guide and here I am, doing a gift guide. I needed something simple and cheerful this week as my mind is in overdrive and it is only early December. Anyone else?
I recently ran into a friend I haven’t seen in a while. We spent a lot of time together on maternity leave with our first babies but as the boys have grown, more babies have arrived, and well, because of time our relationship naturally changed. But when I saw her last week, she mentioned a book we gave her son for his second or third birthday and how much she still adores it and loves looking through it seven or eight years later. I don’t think she would have mentioned it if it wasn’t true so I am taking it as a gift win. I love when someone remembers something you’ve gifted them years later.
I was also inspired by
and her one-minute sweep for gifts at her beautiful Brooklyn store, Books are Magic. I don’t have a shop but I have a tiny office corner where, on a shelf, I keep some of my favourite things, mostly the books I am currently reading or using for research, or, ones I reach for again and again, and art. So here are a few of my recent and forever favourite things in no particular order I keep close when I need a good dose of comfort and happiness. Many of these works have everything to do with language, motherhood, womanhood and are expressions of so many emotions many of us are feeling often these days whether it is around raising multilingual children, having multiple linguistic and cultural identities, or simply existing in a complicated world.Of course as I started compiling this list, I kept thinking of more and more items I wanted to both gift and get but I will stop at 12. Art and books are balms to me especially in hard times and although universal, they can be so personal depending on the artist and the person receiving the gift. Some of these items are by people I now know personally which really is the best as it should always be about women supporting and empowering other women. Did I include my own book? Yes of course I did because as author and podcast host Josh Smith recently shared with me, in times of doubt, fear or insecurity, ask yourself: would a white, straight man do it? And yes, a white, straight man would definitely share his own book. Plus, if you are not your own advocate, who will be and anyway, I’ve noticed all other writers doing the same! Scroll down for links and descriptions.
So I don’t actually have this item in my little corner office but I ordered it for one of my children because clearly, we all need reminders 24/7 of what it could be… if only. I also love the zip pockets. Available at Tate Modern
This image by Eriko Koga is from the beautiful Eye Mama: Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood available here. I never tire of flipping through this beautiful collection of photographs and always notice something new every single time.
I have a framed “Life is Fantastic” by David Shrigley tea towel hanging in our hallway I picked up years ago. It is an excellent way to have more art in your home if the cost of a print is out of reach. More recently, I got this Freedom Woman Now tea towel by Faith Ringgold from Third Drawer Down. I might frame it one day but for now, I have my gold Bans Off Our Bodies pin adorning it. I also love these Women Writers tea towels
shared in her ultimate literary gift guide this week.I have never received so many likes and shares on Instagram before as when I posted images of Marion Fayolle’s work, recently discovered on a trip to the Centre Pompidou. I have already purchased a few prints of hers and might add this one, The Snail, to my collection. Plus, I adore the word for shell in French: coquille.
As always, I have half a dozen books in my TBR pile that give me reading anxiety as I want to consume them all as fast as possible and then end up being so overwhelmed about where to start that I only manage a few pages of one. Case in point: Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, this year’s Booker Prize winner. I end up staring at it more than reading it but because the cover is so beautiful, that is OK too. The cover art artist is Aino-Maija Metsola and I recently discovered she created six covers for a series of Vintage Classics Virginia Woolf books. I think To The Lighthouse is my favourite of the series.
I love the work of Liana Finck and would love to receive this “Mine” print. For me, her illustrations of overworked mothers and how we think we should be in today’s world are spot on with language and raising multilingual children in so many ways. It is emotional and physical labour and takes everything in our power to sustain something as personal and powerful as language.
I know giving books can sometimes be too personal but at the same time, I think it is one of the most amazing gifts when you get it just right. When I discovered the art of Marion Fayolle recently, I also discovered her writing. I have both her novel and this book of poetry. Both are in French so they take me ages to grasp as French is by far my weakest language but the poems are so beautiful even when I have to use Google translate for certain words, ex. “pince à cheveux” (banana clip):
Leurs mains
s’accrochent entres elles
comme les dents
d’une pince à cheveux.I have gifted Kate Baer’s And Yet so many times I have lost count. That is it. And I am so excited for her 2025 release!
They had me at Mother Tongue, obviously but it is always an honour to be on the masthead as a contributing editor for this beautiful magazine. I just finished Issue 07 cover to cover and there is so much good stuff including the incredible
, whose newsletter I look forward to every week, who you already know I adore, and so much more. I may have cried multiple times reading the features, especially the one about time by Rachel Yoder. If you are in the U.S. they also have so much great merch.It wasn’t my favourite Deborah Levy but I still loved it because I would love anything Levy writes . One of my favourite things about Levy’s work is when she writes about her own mother. FromThe Position of Spoons: and other intimacies:
“I always sit on my mother’s bed rather than on the bulky visitor’s chair which is arranged at some distance from the bed with a table between us. No matter how unwell she is, I always say to her, ‘Move up,’ and though it is physically tricky (tubes attached to her body), she does, she makes a space for me. It is the most subtle of movements. The human endeavour it has taken to make that space is immense. Sometimes it’s just two centimetres, but to me, it is as vast as a night sky crowded with stars.”
As
called this type of gift (a.k.a. your own book) a vanity gift idea. But here it is and if you’d like it signed, let me know and I will do my best to get something to you asap. You can also gift a subscription of this newsletter, or simply share it with friends - I would love that, and I am so thankful for each and every one of you and appreciate all the support.And last but certainly never least, I mention the work of Camille Henrot in MTT and have been a big fan of hers for some time. This book of art and essays is no exception. It had me at the cover art title, as a lot of her work does. The work on the cover is called, “where does the words come from?” You can get it here or wherever you purchase your books.
There are so many things I want to add to this list as I finish writing this newsletter but will end here. I would love to hear what you are giving or hope to receive this year, especially books or art but really, anything. Let me know.
Thank you for reading.
