New Year, Old Books

An "art romp" + 2025 favourite.

It’s been a minute but please forgive the silence as I gave myself permission to take some time off from writing in January—I never want this to feel like chore or daunting. And the time off felt good.

Naturally, I’ve been reading a lot and while I’m very fast and loose with ‘reading goals’, the only real commitment I’m making this year is to try and move through the books I’ve been letting collect dust on my shelves—there’s a lot of them—and not get too distracted by new releases.

I mostly failed in January, but I did move through two that have been languishing for a while.

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Find me on Instagram at @lilithruby, and writing about career-ish stuff on The Foreword.

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Earlier

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

I wrote about this last year, and I’m so glad I wasn’t disappointed. This is such a clever, funny, and sharp examination of motherhood and the online/offline self. It’s the kind of book I wish I had written, and I have no doubt that it will remain one of my favourites of the year. I feel like OnlyFans is ripe and fertile ground for fiction, and I, for one, can’t wait to read more stories that centre around the platform.

Now

Putney by Sofka Zinovieff

When I say this book had been on my shelves for years, I’m talking at least five. I actually picked it up in London and shipped it back to Sydney I was so committed to cracking it open. I finally did, although I’m not sure it was worth holding onto for half and decade. I first heard about it via The High Low (RIP) and while I knew what to expect (probably one of the reasons I avoided it for so long), it was still difficult to digest at times. Pegged as a ‘modern re-telling of Lolita’, Putney explores consent and the not-so-halcyon-days of the ‘60s and ‘70s, when sexual freedom and ‘free-range’ child rearing were synonymous with London life. I’ve never bothered with Lolita, but I feel like this has something to offer people interested in the story but wanting more nuance.

Later

The Work by Bri Lee

I saw this described by The Guardian as an ‘art romp’ and while I’ve heard good things about the smuttiness of this story, I’m actually more intrigued by the inner workings of the art world, and the people who make up its landscape. (Of course the smut is still a big drawcard.)

Enjoy!

Find me on Instagram at @lilithruby, and writing about career-ish stuff on

The Foreword

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