The end of the year always feels like standing at the edge of a pool diving board or half-jogging toward a marathon finish line. You’ve prepared for this moment, you’ve learned the lessons, you’re ready for the next chapter…

I’m a big believer in looking back at the past year and planning ahead for the next. This was a big one for me: I left my job end of June and embraced fully-fledged author life. It was terrifying and liberating. It still is. I’ve never not worked a proper, paying job and been part of a team. It’s a process, but I simply couldn’t have done it without the beautiful support of the community, including you, reading this little newsletter right this very minute.

It’s hard to swallow the fact that people are still senselessly dying in Palestine and her neighbors, too. I look at my children and wonder about the world they are inheriting from us – the values and the humanity. How can we leave it a little better somehow?

I hope that whatever life threw at you this year, that you are proud of how far you’ve come and what you learned. We made it. I wanted to take a moment to share my gratitude: for letting me offer you book reviews, writing tips and travel inspo every other week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I can’t wait to see what 2025 will bring… starting with my debuuuuut! What Will People Think? out May 20, 2025!

Merry Christmas and happy new year! 🎄

Read: Best Books of 2024

I fell into a big reading slump the last month or so – I would start promising books and give up a few chapters in. Last great one I read was Cecilia Ahern’s moving novel Into The Storm. The world’s a mess, my kids are fighting, my mind just wouldn’t focus! Until… I came across these incredible reads. Simply unputdownable.

Fiction: Bunny by Mona Awad

One of the most bizarre books I’ve read in a long time, this is about a clique of women at an elite university who… don’t seem alright. With hints of magic realism and horror, I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but two things made me pick it up: 1) The cover quote by Margaret Atwood and 2) Mean Girls meets, uh, creepy thriller written by an Arab American woman? Weird, winning formula.

Non-fiction: The Overstory by Richard Powers

If you know one thing about me, it’s that I have a mild obsession with trees. Yes, trees. I grew up in a leafy mountainous village in Greece and always feel nourished by them - this award-winning book has the most beautiful prose about the fabulousness of these sentient beings that predate humans and dinosaurs. Trees are interconnected, they speak to one another, they take care of their young, their trunks are hard as life. Each chapter tells the story of a family in a different part of the world and their ties to trees. It sounds nerdy, but it’s a stunning read that will change your view of our world. Try it.

Write: Audit Your Life

Great creative work is fueled by true emotion. Explore yours. Use this end-of-year time to audit what worked for you this year - and what didn’t. I like to take a hard look at my spiritual, career, physical and relationship progress and decide what to carry into the next year. Here’s a free audit template you can use for inspiration.

Browse: These Links

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Random stuff from the WWW to peruse while you’re rewatching The Holiday for the hundredth time (just me?)…

• Best hotel openings in 2025

• CNT’s Women Who Travel podcast features a Palestinian American chef

• mindbodygreen’s wellbeing forecast for 2025

• Ten best TV episodes of 2024

• Best films of 2024

• Drone coffee deliveries launch in Dubai

Countdown to My Novel’s Publication Day:

Thanks for reading! See you next year!

With kindness,

Sara