thank you netgalley and fsg!!!! 🔮 you wanna give me more arcs sooooo bad 🔮

i adored this. consider me a heti head from now on. i cannot believe i have gone this long without reading something by such a gifted writer who so perfectly describes feelings i did not even know i had. the experience of reading this book has genuinely altered my brain.

this is going to sound insane, but the letter f changed my life. i cannot offer you any explanation, but just trust that i am different now.

the form of this is obviously brilliant. (if you disagree, we are enemies now <3) to take disconnected journal entries and arrange them alphabetically and still end up with a product that is so moving and profound and utterly life-changing speaks to how talented sheila heti is. even her scraps are worthy of praise and attention.

but the writing itself is equally brilliant. i've read books that rely on an unconventional form to do the heavy lifting of making otherwise uninspired writing more interesting, but that is not the case here. heti makes even the mundanity of daily life into art. her takes on friendships, writing, reading, romantic relationships, grief -- all of it is so incredibly valuable.

if you, like me, have yet to experience the brilliance of heti's writing, i think this is a great place to start. i'm so excited to read everything else this woman has ever put out.

my life is better now because i read this!!

What a bizarre concept for a book! Easy to dip in and out of. Incredibly plotless obviously but full of one off lines that pierce your heart.

my first heti! what an interesting form for a book. the alphabetization of the diary entries juxtaposes the big and small things in heti’s life over the course of 10 years. a sentence about a life changing event might be right next to a sentence about eating scrambled eggs. i think the non-linear structure really allows you to focus in on the sentence level and sit with the meaning of each individual sentence. it almost feels like a highlight reel of all of the things you would underline in a book. really enjoyable to make your own connections between unrelated sentences that could have been written 6 years apart, and to see the reoccurring themes that make themselves clear throughout the course of a letter/chapter.

funny, sometimes sad, always relatable! 4.25 stars!

I requested this one based on the description and the rave reviews. Oh boy. A novel idea, to be sure, but one that did not work at all for me.

I think the idea behind this collection was interesting, but it didn't quite nail the landing for me. This author has been hit or miss for me in the past and I just htink this one was a miss, unfortunately.

“Thinking about lovers is a form of vanity, another form of thinking about oneself.”

Heti uploaded ten years worth of online diaries into an Excel document and alphabetized the sentences to make this book. I’ve been following/reading Heti for a while, and I am always impressed with how she experiments with form. I’m often nervous that her experiments with form could end up reading as gimmicky, but I think she always successfully produces something that is unlike and fresh.

Alphabetical Diaries creates a sort of Rorschach test, or even better, acts like one of those crossword puzzle memes that say “The first three words you see describe you.” She gives us these personal, confessional, and intimate sentences, and we pick up patterns, recurring topics, and insights among them. These sentences are personal to her, but they’re also often mirrors. I found many that deeply resonated with me.

So, what does the structure/form contribute? This book is a diary that is convoluted, entwined, and compressed to become an object that is a philosophical exploration/reflection of life lived, thoughts/thinking, individualism, identity, and time passing.

I’ve been continuously impressed by Heti and am always looking forward to anything she publishes.

Sheila Heti has curated sentences from her diaries in alphabetical order (and, I imagine, played with them a bit, probably changed a lot of names). The book reminds me of Jesse Ball's "Autoportrait," and it reads almost like poetry or aphorisms. The movement "between" subjects and the blur that can happen where two sentences magically line up is very beautiful, and also sometimes funny, like a punchline. There's a peculiar kind of rhythm to it, too, where after reading it for a long time you almost want to write sentences that all start with the same word.

I would suggest this for audiobook listening over print format, as that’s how I appreciated it most although it is full of lovely passages to revisit on your shelf and I may purchase it in hard copy for that purpose.

I chose to request this as both but recommend the audio primarily because I am a huge Kate Berlant fan and I was thrilled to see her stepping into the world of narration. She did an excellent job with this material and I would put this in the category of a performance art piece, more so even than an audiobook. For me it landed somewhere between a poetry reading and a one woman show, and I think listeners (and readers) should approach this as an experience versus a novel or a book to be simply read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the eARC!

I've been a fan of Sheila Heti's writing, and I couldn't wait to get a hold of this. The project seemed interesting: Over a ten-year period of diary entries, alphabetizing sentences from those entries and creating this book. I was amazed how coherent the book was and more than fascinated with the choice of form/format. I love experimental writing and loved reading this. I can't wait for more from Sheila!

This one was a gem. It is a magical gem that makes me wish there were more letters in the alphabet so this beautiful collection of essays and prose could continue. I am beyond thankful to FSG, Sheila Heti, and Netgalley for audio and physical access to this beauty before it hits shelves on February 6, 2024.

Each essay is told alphabetically, so the first word of every sentence starts with the correct alphabetical letter in order. Throughout each passage, readers are transported into the life of our narrator, struggling to know themselves better while settling scores with romantic partners. Our FMC is also chronically befuzzled with anything related to writing and publishing her next book, for that's mentioned quite frequently in the text.

Statistically, the "I" chapter was longer than the "Z" chapter, but that's just because of how many sentences one could formulate starting with Z, or lack thereof.

Sheila Heti took ten years of diary entries and alphabetized them, creating a book that is both intimate in emotion and detached from time.

The concept of this book is fascinating. It's not clear when each sentence was written in relation to the others, but it doesn't seem to matter in the end. It felt overwhelming to read at times, like a barrage of thoughts from a dozen different people at once. Yet somehow the simple structure of the book -- each sentence alphabetized, each chapter assigned a letter -- made it still feel cohesive.

I give Heti so much credit for being incredibly open and raw and vulnerable with this book. It felt bizarrely, deeply intimate to read someone's journal all jumbled up like this -- like you know parts of them, but have yet to grasp the full picture of their life. And even if the contents of this book are not "true" in the sense that we generally think about truth -- the people mentioned may be amalgamations of multiple people, the experiences referenced all blended together into isolated moments that may not have actually happened in sequence, etc. -- the sensations and ideas are there, and those feel true enough.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book since finishing it a few weeks ago. Really hoping that Heti writes more nonfiction/memoir in the future.

Am I the type of person who might gaze upon a mostly-blank canvas with a simple speck of paint and mull it over, classifying it as a commentary on the emptiness of modern life? Honestly, maybe. So take this review with a pretentious grain of salt.

This isn’t meant to be read cover to cover and yet that’s how I read it. There are elements that make that experience interesting. By collecting a decade of thoughts in alphabetical order, we can see patterns – how the author talks about specific friends, how her attitude changes on certain topics, or the frequency with which she uses the imperative on herself. For example, I found that pages beginning with “Don’t” to be an amusing, thoughtful list of commands someone might give themselves under various circumstances.

There are small pieces of insight that can stand alone as one-liners. “I saw that what a relationship was maybe most about for me was my desire to subjugate myself under somebody” gave me empathetic chills. We also get comedic juxtapositions like this: "Finally he said thank you; he was sorry he hadn't been more gracious about it. Finally he took off his underwear and I held his balls as he went to sleep." It’s also worthwhile to note that as a collection of diaries, there are numerous mentions of sexual acts. So not for the prudish at heart, I suppose.

Mostly what I liked about Alphabetical Diaries is the way the reader is forced to use their imagination. Our brains look for patterns. In reading unrelated sentences, we still try to grasp at some sort of plot even though there isn’t one. The fragmented thoughts themselves can serve as writing prompts – I found myself imagining these isolated sentences as the opening lines to various stories as I tried to flesh out the characters, contexts, and emotional landscape.

This is certainly a coffee table book more than something you should read cover to cover, but I liked it much more than I anticipated. This book stimulated a creative energy I haven’t felt for a while. You should absolutely get this for your writer friends.

Ultimately, this is still a glorified word cloud hence four stars feels sufficient. Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the e-arc.

In less capable hands, this stylistic choice could have felt uncomfortable or imposing to read. Instead, I zipped along, captivated by the inadvertent sorting of alphabetical insights and an almost counterintuitively brisk forward-moving pace, which seemed almost antithetical given the framework, which had me braced for something less coherent. Reminds me of Joe Brainard's "I Remember" in the best ways that involve intimacy more than structure decisions. This is the first thing I've read from Sheila Heti and in a way this feels lucky, coming to this without bringing along my impressions of her novels with me. I appreciate the chance to read a copy of this now, thanks FSG/netgalley.

This incredible piece by Heti slowly unravels the last 10 years in small snippets, each sentence nearly unrelated to the next as it’s reordered from A-Z. Yet I found buried in disorder the brilliance of an author’s daily life, moments in time that change a person, goodbyes and hellos, and nuggets of pure wisdom for the reader. As an aspiring author myself I feel this was such a wonderful work to dive into and feel understood in the struggle and pleasures of writing - not needing the stories told linearly for the messages to shine through.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for allowing me to receive and review this book!

unfortunately i didn’t like this :( experimental and a really creative writing format but just not enjoyable to read for 140 pages.

Pure colour was one of my favourite books of last year and so when I heard Sheila Heti was coming out with a new book I was more than excited. However, this book just didn't quite work for me. Her prose was amazing as always and while the idea of having entries be based on letters of the alphabet is really interesting it made the writing feel forced at times, which made for a tougher reading experience.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sending me an advanced copy

I was so excited to read this ARC-- especially as I loved Heti's "Pure Colour."
This book is exactly what it says it is, an alphabetized compilation of sentences from Heti's years of journals. And while that may mean that this is not the type of book (at least for me) to sit and read in one go, as there is no traditional 'plot' or narrative here, there were endless moments when I would be reading a chapter (organized by letter) and encounter a sentence that hit me exactly right. It's part confessional, part memoir, part comedy, part inspiration, and I found it a powerful read to digest slowly to round out my year of reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC ebook! I will definitely be recommending this.

Tender, gorgeous, inventive, beautiful. I was unsure about the format at first but it works so well. Sheila Heti does it again.

Absolutely fascinating autobiography in the form of an abcedarium. honest, funny and creative as all hell.

I admire Sheila Heti enormously—her books are always more like projects or experiments, wider in philosophical and formal scope than most literary fiction. I loved the Alphabetical Diaries, ever since excerpts ran in the Opinion section of the New York Times. It seems like such a smart response to both AI/algorithmic text mining, live tweeting/streaming one's life, those AP Essays "Continuity & Change Over Time"—to subjectify, but obscure the causation or context, to see how your own opinions and ideas accrete, mutate, and contradict, and what weird concordances only reveal themselves over time. Even within the sentences, the classic Heti combo of deeply anthropological and pure to the point of being naive, like an alien talking. I would have read her diaries in order, but this is the kind of twist that elevates writing about yourself into art. Hard five stars.

That said, no book could possibly be more difficult to read as an eBook, because there's no connection from sentence to sentence.